1.6: Ethnic Studies and Protest (DISCUSSION)
In 3 paragraphs, discuss how this weeks lesson and lecture expanded your understanding on ethnic studies (as an academic discipline), protests and criminalization, and resistance to these ideas. If it did not expand to your understanding or you did not find it useful, please write why. Remember, this is a classroom space where your thoughts on the lessons will not negatively impact your grade as long as you prove you viewed the material. Please be respectful. I am specifically looking for how the lecture ties together with the Gilmore reading titled "The Good Protest", the criminalization of Ethnic Studies, and the sociological definition of criminalization vs. tradition.
You can use your own personal experience on questioning authority, seeing injustice, or wanting societal change. Think of this exercise as a free write, where you are jotting your thoughts down after absorbing the material. If you feel the need, you can respond to other classmates, and will earn 5 extra credit points if you do. Please be respectful and type using proper grammar and spelling. Please remember to bring up the different videos, readings, and the lecture you listened to earlier and tie them together for full credit.
1.1: Module Overview (READ)This module will focus on the sociological definition of criminalization versus what we know as traditional criminality. Within that realm, an introduction to Ethnic Studies as an academic discipline, its history, purpose, and the controversy around its teachings. A reading by Dr. Glenda Gilmore titled "The Good Protest" is also required. A presentation by Raymundo Quezada will discuss t what it means to protest, how Americans have protested in the past, and how the status quo and state have tried to suppress protests will be heard and assessed.
Note: Under Creating a Criminal, you will find the "What to Look for" for the reading 'The Good Protest'.
1.2: 50th Anniversary of the SF State Student Strike (VIEW)Watch the clip below. It is from the Bay Area (SFSU) student strikes in the late 1960's. Students demanded that Ethnic Studies be offered as an academic discipline with it's own faculty, major, and minor. This would be similar to other humanities academic subjects such as History, Sociology, etc.
What to look for: The chants students and others are saying. The show and use of force. It that much necessary for a student strike? What is the purpose of having a militarized presence at a protest regarding education? What does then governor Ronald Reagan have to say about these protests?
1.3: An Ethnic Studies Program Sued The Lawmakers That Banned It (HBO) (VIEW)View the clip below. In 2010, the state of law-makers passed a law banning a high school Mexican-American Studies in Tucson, Arizona. As will be argued in this course, historically, the act of educating oneself is an act of protest in itself.
What to look for: How did the students say their classes benefitted them? What did lawmakers say was the problem with these classes. How did students protest and react to their classes being banned?
Fun Fact: One of the teachers from this program, Curtis Acosta is coming to speak at Grossmont this semester. He spoke here last semester as well!
1.4: Ethnic Studies Ban Racist? (VIEW)Watch this CNN debate between Tom Horn and Georgetown Professor Michael Eric Dyson. Does Horn make the better argument that Ethnic Studies should be banned, or does Professor Dyson make a better argument that it is beneficial for all students?
1.5: Creating a Criminal Lecture (View/Listen) -2Please listen and view the following lecture. It is about an hour long. I was asked to give a public lecture (via Zoom due to COVID) to a law firm based on the West Coast. The topic was a historical analysis in making sense to the unrest we were seeing around the country after the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and other by the state and white supremacists. I try to discuss how we got to where we are socially, and how the unrest we have seen is more than just one, two, or even three people, and how the following protests and unrest were criminalized by the state, media, and other American citizens.
What to look for: The deaths of the three individuals mentioned above. How their deaths are similar to the death of Emmitt Till, which sparked the Civil Rights movement. What kinds of protests there are, public assembly, boycotts, etc. the intersection of one or more of those protests. And lastly, how all of them have been criminalized historically.
The Good Protest Reading:
Please use this for the "What to look for" portion of the next module reading titled "The Good Protest"-
*The American Constitution and Protesting (Amendments)
*What Gilmore says CRM stands for, and how she argues it is remembered?
I would suggest taking some notes.