Introduction
Racism is defined by google dictionary "
the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races."
It is well known that Racism has been present for the majority of American History.
For example, The Civil War between the North and the South which racisim is well present in that era with the whites aganist the blacks.
With Racism especially with the Blacks, comes the attiudes clear regarding slaves and slavery.
A gang that is well known in the USA even till this day is the KKK, otherwise known as the Ku Klux Clan.
A fact that should be stated is that "Of all the types of right-wing hate groups that exist in the United States, the Klan remains the one with the greatest number of national and local organizations around the country. " (http://archive.adl.org/learn/ext_us/kkk/default.html)
The Ku Klux Klan focused its anger and violence on African-Americans, on white Americans who stood up for them, and against the federal government which supported their rights.
The Ku Klux Klan later added more categories to its enemies list, including Jews, Catholics (less so after the 1970s), homosexuals, and different groups of immigrants.
There are also several other well known events of racism that didnt occur in America but is well known in America, such as the Holocaust in Germany.
Adolf Hitler caused the established history of Nazi Germany's extermination of six million Jews during the Holocaust.
Even till this day, there is Racism still towards blacks (even whites now), Jews, and now Hispanics.
Task
Your goal is to create name signs one saying "slave" and one saying "owner". The first part of this activity will be the students acting as one is a slave and one is the owner. The way a student will be named as a slave or owner will be determined by the drawing of names (luck) for this activity. The student who recieves the slave name tag will be a slave for the duration of the school period. The student who recieves the owner name tag will be the owner for the duration of the school period. This means that the owner can ask the slave student to take their lunch trays to the trash, carry their books, and sharpen their pencils. This activity will be done within limitations and the things the student asks another student should be within limits without being beyond reasonable. This activity will be repeated the next class period with the roles reversed.
After this activty, the students will be asked to create a poster board in a group with each one of them having a drawing as well as a thought on the poster showing how they personally felt during this activity. The goal of this activity is for the students to see how it feels for the students to be both in the slave name tag as well as the master name tag. All students will have the chance to particpate as both and will do the poster activity twice.
Process
With the poster board activity as mentioned in the task tab, the students in the group will be asked to share with the classroom how they felt and would feel in that postion and take into mind set of how people who are subject to slavery till this day.
After this assignment, the students would than be asked to create a homework assignment (one page paper) on how they felt during both sides (owner/slave) and how they feel that American Racism should be approached. Should the roles be switched (kind of like, how do you like being on the wrong side now?) or should something more be done?
Evaluation
Group Work -- Each student is graded by the group.
1 point -- Student did not participate.
2 points -- Student participated to a small degree.
3 points -- Student participated in the group work activity, group work poster, and presenting it to the classroom.
4 points -- Student participated in all the activities and shared a lesson learned experience from the activites.
Essay (to be graded by teacher and student together)
1 point -- Student shared their experience in less than one page paper.
2 points -- Student shared their experience in one page paper.
3 points --Student shared their experience in a one page paper as well as giving ideas on how American Racism should be approached.
4 points -- Student went out of their way to create a excellent one page paper, including all the tasks that the teacher asked for.
Conclusion
In conclusion,
The slave/owner activity I participated in when I was in the 7th grade (middle school) in social studies. This activity should give the students the opportunity to see how it feels to be in each others shoes and how they both feel in reverse roles.
I would ask a couple of volunteers from the students to explain how they felt this activity contributed to seeing how that Racism in unnaceptable and how they feel as it should be prevented in the future.