Discussion Forum 4 Questions
For Discussion Forum 4, you have the option of taking either a straightforward historical approach, or a pop culture approach to applying your understanding of the course material.
Please answer only one of the two prompts below.
1. Identity and explain a detailed historical example of the social construction of whiteness based on the course material on U.S. history.
- Your example can vary from the early 17th to 18th US colonial history, or the middle 19th Century (U.S.-Mexican War, U.S. Civil War, Reconstruction), or the late 19th Century to Early 20th Century Jim Crow Era, or the 1950s and on, focusing on a specific social policy or historical moment.
- To further illustrate your explanation of the history, you can also focus on examples of early American popular culture that suggest the idealization of whiteness, or early historical (and ironic) examples of cultural appropriation between Americans of European descent (“whites”) and African-Americans, Latinx people, or Asian-Americans.
2. Find an image from popular media (social media, memes, websites, TV, cable, streaming programs, movies, etc.) that for you suggests a particular or peculiar image and representation of whiteness in contemporary American or Latinx popular culture today.
- Upload an example (a photo or image file under 100MB) and provide a description touching upon the peculiar, ironic, or satirical aspects of your image’s whiteness.
- In describing and analyzing your contemporary media example, try to explore how it reflects the historical aspects of the privileging of whiteness (i.e. the history of English or Spanish colonialism, the creation of race & whiteness, the Spanish color-caste system, colorism, etc.) in relation to other ethnic, racial, or marginalized groups in the U.S. or in the Americas.
- Feel free to share any memes that touch upon this topic, as long as they are not offensive nor violate the course policies.