RACISM A) Read the texts and, in groups, google a bit to collect some biodata on the authors below to present in class: ① I, Too I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong.
Tomorrow, I’ll sit at the table When company comes. Nobody’ll dare Say to me, “Eat in the kitchen,” Then.
Besides, They’ll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed I, too, am America.
Langston Hughes (1932)
②“Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation(…) But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.” (…) From the speech “I have a Dream”( 1963) by Martin Luther King
③(…) “During my tenth year, a white woman’s kitchen became my finishing school. (…) It took me a week to learn the difference between a salad plate, a bread plate and a dessert plate.(…) She [Miss Glory] explained the dishware, silverware and servants’ bells. The large round bowl in which soup was served wasn’t a soup bowl, it was a tureen. There were goblets, sherbet glasses, ice-cream glasses, wine glasses, green glass coffee cups with matching saucers, and water glasses. I had a glass to drink from, and it sat with Miss Glory’s on a separate shelf from the others.” (…) From the short story “Names” (1969) by Maya Angelou ④“Rule Number One for working for a white lady, Minnie: it is nobody’s business. You keep your nose out of your White Lady’s problems, you don’t go crying to her about yours (…) Rule Number Two: don’t you ever let that White Lady find you sitting on her toilet. Rule Number Three: when you’re cooking white people’s food, you taste it with a different spoon. Rule Number Four: You use the same cup, same fork, same plate every day. Keep it in a separate cupboard and tell that white woman that’s the one you’ll use from here on out.”(…)
From “The Help”(2009) by Kathryn Stockett
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Alexandra Duarte
B) All texts deal with racism and discrimination. Now answer the questions below: 1. Identify the main characteristics of each text. _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ 2. How do Black people feel discriminated in each of these four texts? _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ 3. What can you infer from some of these texts about Black people’s jobs? _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ 4. In what way(s) are the two first texts different from the others? _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ 5. MLK wrote his famous speech “I have a dream” about 50 years ago. Has his dream already come true? Refer to any recent events to justify your point of view. _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________
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Alexandra Duarte
C) Check this link (VIALOGUE). Here you have a movieclip from the movie THE HELP with some questions – besides saving some copies (though they can also be arranged), students can do this either at school or at home with an Internet connection.
D) From the book “THE HELP”, here are some quotes on race. Explain them: 1. “A bill that requires every white home to have a separate bathroom for the colored help. I’ve even notified the surgeon general of Mississippi to see if he’ll endorse the idea.”
(AIBILEEN, Chapter 1)
_______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ 2. “I knew he wasn’t married to Constantine’s mother, because that was against the law.” (MISS SKEETER, Chapter 5)
_______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ 3. “I want to yell so loud that Baby Girl can hear me that dirty ain’t a color, disease ain’t the negro side of town. I want to stop that moment from coming – and it come in every white child’s life …”(AIBILEEN, Chapter 7) _____________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ 4. “Just two months ago the white library started letting colored people in. I been in twice myself.” (AIBILEEN, Chapter 29)
_______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________
E. Rewrite the following sentences in plain English: 1. “You is kind. You is smart. You is important,” _________________________________________________________________________________ 2. “I ain’t never had no white person in my house before.” _________________________________________________________________________________ 3. “You ain’t got nothing left here but enemies in the Junior League. You done burned every bridge there is. And you ain’t never gonna get another man in this town, everybody know that.” _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ http://www.clubeinglesoure.blogspot.pt
Alexandra Duarte
F. Using the Reported Speech, rewrite these sentences. 1. “I always order the banned books from a black market dealer in California, figuring if
the State of Mississippi banned them, they must be good.” Skeeter explained that _____________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________ 2. “President Kennedy’s assassination, less than two weeks ago, has struck the world
dumb. It’s like no one wants to be the first to break the silence. Nothing seems important.” Skeeter remarked that _____________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ 3. “I get a glimpse of myself from way above, like in a movie. I've become one of those
people who prowl around at night in their cars. God, I am the town's Boo Radley, just like in To Kill a Mockingbird.” Skeeter added that ________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________
Text Production – Choose one of the following topics:
1. In about 150 words, comment on this statement by Margaret Meade: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has".
How true is it? Provide examples.
1. An international magazine is promoting a contest to choose an inspiring news article on the fight against discrimination whose title is “THE NEWS I WOULD LIKE TO GIVE THE WORLD”. In about 150 words, write about an event you wish were true not
forgetting to provide the reader with the answers to the 5 Ws (Who? What? When? Where? Why?)
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(adapted from GAVE, Exame 550 / 2ª fase, 2012)
Alexandra Duarte