Methodological ToolsStuff you know, but don’t always know you know while inside a classroom.

A. Power

*What is Power? Who has it? Who Does Not?

These are the fundamental questions of History.

BUT . . . . .

Power is Absolute

*Never, Ever in human history does one group have all the power and another group have none of the power. NO ALL OR NOTHING POWER!

*Groups of people Negotiate power. One group can have more and another less, but they all have SOME power.

*Resistance– People with less power resist people with More power. Always.

*To Resist is to Claim Power.

B. Difference

Difference = Bad

Difference =Bad

Difference + Value Judgement = Bad

Difference = Bad

Difference + Value Judgement = Bad

Difference + Value Judgement + _____X_______

= Bad

Solve for X!

Negative BEHAVIOR

(bad thoughts are NOT enough)

The word we’re looking for here is . . . .

OPPRESSION!

C. Race

Race is NOT:

1. Skin Color

2. Ethnicity

3. Biological

Race us a culturally constructed category of difference that changes through time as culture changes.

It is changeable, which is the good news.

It is Hard to define more clearly, which is the bad news.

D. Gender

What it is NOT:

1. Sex– sex is biology

2. A code word for “Woman” or “Chicks.”

Like Race, gender is a culturally constructed set of ideas, but it is the ideas about womanhood and manhood.

*These ideas are dependent upon culture, just like race ideas are. Thus, these ideas also change through time.

*Note MANHOOD. Men have gender/gender roles as much as women. Also, non-human things are gendered (by humans).