Human relations

TOPIC: DISNEY MOVIE( POCAHONTAS)

Upon approval, a critical review of the narrative including what is present in the story and what is excluded, who is marginalized, what are the voices present, whose voice is left out, stereotypes, and prejudice will be developed.  A rubric is posted describing the scoring; refer to rubric for specific expectations. 

Tips about the assignment:  

1)  Pick a story, find it, read it, watch it, or interact with it.  As you do, be critical of the multiple perspectives present within the narrative.  Think about everything that you have learned within this course about the people, cultures, and misconceptions of others.  Are their parts of the story that make you uncomfortable?  Are their people who would be offended or bothered by this story?  Why?  

         Example:  My children are obsessed with LEGOS.  They have a LEGO mini-figure encyclopedia that highlights characteristics about certain mini-figures found in certain sets.  While looking through the book, I realized that there were multiple mini-figures that represent the Ewoks, characters from Star Wars.  There were 5 Ewoks that were described in detail.  Four of the five had names listed, their job, and a description of why they were important to the group/movie.  The 5th Ewok was labeled as Black Ewok.  It's job was 'Worker'.  It made me question why the text would clearly name all 4 other Ewoks, (which were white and tan) but not give a name to the Black Ewok (who has a name in the movie).  I would like to reflect further on this, and determine if there are any other representations of nameless black characters within this text.  Being that this is a Scholastic LEGO book (and I have others) I would also like to examine other books like it to see if other instances of this occur.  In this case though it seems that the White perspective is dominant over the Black narrative.  

2) Once your topic is identified, begin your critical review.  This is a formal and professional paper highlighting your beliefs using support and evidence from the readings and videos as justification of your beliefs.  

           Example:  Chapter 5 of  Sensoy & DiAngelo (2017) highlight how race and ethnicity impact today's culture.  The authors explain how many students experience conflict between the values of their family and what they are exposed to in school and society.  In other words, while their families try to help them see how important they are, and that they can do anything, society, and the dominant narratives that the students are exposed to tell a different story.  The LEGO mini-figure encyclopedia is just one example of this phenomena.  In this instance, all of the dominant characters are white.  They have important sounding names, and are described with important sounding jobs.  Without these characters the story would not be the same.  On the other hand, the black ewok is not named.  It's role is just labeled as worker.  The representation seems more of an after-thought.  If black students read this story, will they believe that they can have as many roles as their white peers based on this narrative?  

3)  Use the rubric as an outline for this paper.  Make sure you are addressing in detail (with specific examples) the pieces required in the rubric.  

4) Let me know if you have any questions, remember if you don't hear back from me right away, I will do my best to respond to your e-mails as quickly as possible, but may have limited internet access at times.  

Choose a story that provides multiple perspectives on contemporary topics that we have addressed within this course.  A list of possible ideas will be added sometime today.  Remember that an e-mail including the justification of your choice is needed.  I am looking to see if the story fits with the objectives of this course, not just that it provides multiple perspectives on a story.  It can be current events, fiction, digital, or a book.  Think about all of the isms that we discussed a few weeks ago.  How would a feminist respond to Disney's version of Little Mermaid?  How could some see Skippy Jon Jones accent and use of Spanish Words as culturally bias/misconception?  Whose story is the story within 'Knots in a Counting Rope'? Once approved, write a critical evaluation that includes what is present in the story and what is excluded, who is marginalized, what are the voices present, whose voice is left out, stereotypes, and prejudice will be developed. This is a critical review.  It is an opinion essay that should clearly represent and demonstrate the pieces and themes identified and aligned within this course.