How Will I Apply What I Learned in this Post-1492 World?

Purpose: This essay is an opportunity for you to reveal your ability to read a text and think critically. Doing so requires careful use of close reading and critical analysis. You will reveal your knowledge of the subject before presenting your own viewpoint of this topic.

Texts:

• Select as many works from this semester’s multi-modal texts as you wish

Topic: As we have discussed this semester, the creation of races was an intentional project that resulted from the European Enlightenment and its philosophical, artistic, and scientific communities. The various forms of violence perpetrated against the oppressed by whiteness expose the horrors of living in a world of white supremacy domination, especially for indigenous, Black, and brown communities. Our thinkers this semester, use various forms of resistance to combat and deal with the violence of whiteness. Using the texts of your choice, what insights or ideas and observations impacted you the most? This doesn’t mean you agree or disagree with the authors and filmmakers we analyzed this semester, but more so, what are some takeaways from the texts for you?  

Writing Task

In a well-developed, thesis-driven essay of 2-3 pages (500-750 words) using our final texts in this unit as well as our class discussions and lectures, respond to the following prompt:

Using the texts of your choice, what insights or ideas and observations impacted you the most? What are some of the ways YOU can use the ideas and theories you learned in this class in this post-1492 world? You may use first-person narration (“I” statements) and please try to be as specific as possible. For example, “I will use the idea that I must always consider Black liberation in my own struggle for liberation…..”

Paper Requirements

Your essay should convince the reader that the claim you make (your thesis) is an arguable one, not simply a statement of fact.

• Be sure to support your claim with quotes (textual evidence) from the text.
• Papers must be 2-3 pages and follow MLA format: typed, double-spaced, 12 pt., Times New Roman font with 1” margins and left-alignment.