Do Now:
Semantic Map about White Superiority On a semantic map, list everything you know about white superiority today. Draw bubbles off of the main circle. An example response bubble is provided to the right. Think about the following questions as you brainstorm: What kind of advantages - social, economic, political, educational, etc - do white Americans have today? How do white Americans have more opportunities than their African-American peers? |
Tim Wise's "The Pathology of White Privilege" Lecture
"According to the Department of Justice, in a study released in 2004, Black and Latino males are 3 times more likely than White males to have their cars stopped and searched for drugs even though White males are 4.5 times more likely to actually have drugs on us on the occasion on which we are stopped" (7:46-8:00).
"[It was] 2006 which witnessed the highest number of race-based housing discrimination complaints in recorded history.
The Fair-Housing Act was passed in 1968...and yet it was not 1968 that witnessed the highest level of discrimination complaints based on race, it was 38 years later" (4:50-5:22).
The Fair-Housing Act was passed in 1968...and yet it was not 1968 that witnessed the highest level of discrimination complaints based on race, it was 38 years later" (4:50-5:22).
"I ask law enforcement officers what's the first thing you think when you see a young Black or Latino male driving a nice car in your neighborhood, and they all - without fail and without exception - will say 'drug dealer.' I then ask them what's the first thing you think when you see a young White male, same age, driving the same kind of car in that same community, and they will say - without exception, without hesitation, without fail - 'spoiled little rich kid, daddy probably bought him a car'...and they have just outed themselves as racist because they are making snap judgments on the basis of only color that work to the detriment of people of color, the benefit of white people" (9:19-10:05). |
"A few years back, White Americans were asked whether we believed if racial discrimination was still a significant national problem for people of color...and only 6% said it is. Just to give you an idea of how bad that is, I would have you pair it to a survey taken a few years earlier where approximately 12% of White Americans said we believed there was a fairly decent chance that Elvis Presley might still be alive...that's a ratio I can calculate, what that means is that White Americans are twice as likely to believe that Elvis might still be alive than we are to believe what people of color tell us they experience on a fairly regular basis" (13:32-14:53). |
Political Cartoon Extension
After watching the first fifteen minutes of Tim Wise's lecture and taking notes (i.e. Split Page Note-taking), read the last quote on the right from Tim Wise's lecture (red bold type). Then look at Andy Wahl's political cartoon below. Think about how the cartoon reflects the quote. Examine the three White individuals in the cartoon. Using context clues, hypothesize the part of the population that they each represent. Who do they symbolize? How does that add to the meaning of the cartoon? Should any other subgroups of the American population be represented? How would you draw them?
Four Square Vocab Cards: White Privilege Tim Wise talks about "white privilege" in his lecture, but never lays out a formal definition. Make a vocabulary card for the political jargon in which you explore word through sentence context and visualization. Follow the guidelines below to create your own Four-Square Vocabulary Cards: |
INFOGRAPHIC:
"The Unfinished Business of the 1963 March on Washington"
"The Unfinished Business of the 1963 March on Washington"
Below is an infographic - when data is compiled in a visually pleasing way - about the inequalities that still exist between African-American and White American communities in the United States. Four of the demands presented at the 1963 March on Washington - which is the rally where Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech - are listed here because they are still unfilled. Click on the infographic to be linked to its original webpage for larger viewing. Write a paragraph about whether your think the statistics presented for two demands prove that the inequalities still exist? Are the percentages high enough?