Update on Paper 3 on Bayoumi Text

On October 22, we responded to the following In-Class Writing prompt:

 

        If you're Muslim or Arab American, you are in the news every day. Since 9/11, these two groups appear daily represented as Al Qaeda, Taliban, terrorists or sometimes in derogatory terms such as "towelhead" and "immigrant."

       Much like those of Japanese descent in the 1940s faced discrimination and slurs, now America has undertaken a new kind of conditioning of our national attitudes. This is a powerful and convincing political fiction that drives all activities and the related attitudes.

       How are Americans being conditioned to think, fundamentally, about FELLOW Americans and how does this impact the experience of Arab and Muslim Americans?
       Draw on your reading of Moustafa Bayoumi's How Does It Feel To Be A Problem? to identify examples of this new American conditioning, explain how this conditioning is happening and a specific experience from one or more of those interviewed in the book.

 

Your next draft for Paper 3 will include the writing you completed in class and developed further:

• Identify and develop reasons (all carefully explained in the text) why any of the seven portrait subjects faces a negative experience as fellow Americans (this is the conditioning from the larger American society)
• Idenitfy THREE of the portraits and their experiences to illustrate your ideas about the impact of conditioning
• Be sure to explain how this conditioning is happening:  the sources, the purveyors, the supporters, the actions and attitudes that get spread outward into American society

For advanced students (you know who you are):  Frame the entire paper in terms of how the treatment of Muslims and Arab Americans in America today is itself a "political fiction" (with real consequences). 

 

Reminders:
No class on October 29.
DUE ON NOVEMBER 5:  Final draft of Paper 2 (Angels) and TWO COPIES of draft of Paper 3.

 

Thank you to those students who come prepared for class.  When a student attends class having read the assigned pages, is ready to hand in TWO copies of the draft of the paper, and makes the effort to be really engaged in our discussion, it makes it a more menaingful class for everyone.

Paper 2 Update

Paper 2 on Tony Kushner's Angels in America


In-Class Writing:


America was founded as a haven, not only a land of opportunity, but also a land of compassion whose citizens, regardless of personal political beliefs, have a historic right to the pursuit of happiness and a moral responsibility to care for each other despite cultural and political differences.

For Kushner, the ability to feel compassion and love for others is a required element in living up to the ideal of American justice (liberty for all, all men are created equal, life, liberty and...).  Without compassion there is no social justice.

Will loved ones abandon us in our hour of need?  Has God, who religious faiths suggest loves all of humanity, abandoned his creations?  At one point Louis says, "There are no angels in America, no spiritual past, no racial past, there's only the political."

Assignment:  Identify a PAIR of characters and describe how their relationship shows a conflict due to a lack of compassion.  How does this lack of compassion cause injustice on a personal level?

BRING TWO COPIES OF THE DRAFT, STAPLED


DRAFT DUE THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2009 to include the following additional development:

Develop your first response with details from the text of the play.


Show the relationship between the characters - say more than "they are husband and wife" or "mother and son" or "gay lovers."  What is the nature of their relationship?  How do they relate?  If were asked to describe this "couple" to someone else who doesn't know them, what would you say?


Comment on the compassion.  How does the couple show compassion toward one another?  Is is loving and supportive?  Combative and resentful?

Explain how an injustice - lack of justice - is created from the lack of compassion, lack of connection, disrespect and refusal to "see the light" or to accept the truth of their circumstances.

Share you own connection or disconnection with this couple.  What do they have to teach you, if anything, about being more compassionate toward someone you love or to other people in general?  If you have no connection - then it is a disconnection - what aspects of the couple, their conflict or their relationship are un-relatable to you?

Draft a paper using the ideas and "prompts" above - you may want to keep it organized and logical by addressing each one in order.  Paper length is not nearly as important as INTELLIGENT THINGS TO SAY, SUPPORTED WITH TEXT  FROM THE PLAY and GENUINE INTEREST IN WRITING A SMART PAPER (it will show in your writing!).

Agenda for Class 3 (October 8, 2009)

We will begin class with a review of the warm/cool feedback protocol for peer editing.

Bring TWO stapled copies of the draft of Paper 1.

In-Class Writing (ICW) on Angels in America for Paper 2.

You will have read/watched AT LEAST Part One of Kushner's Angels in America.

We will watch a portion of the film version of Angels for discussion.

Go ahead and read Roy Cohn's obituary (link on right side).