Media Analysis - Students should select (a) a film that has race as a major theme (e.g., Crash; Mississippi Burning; A Time to Kill; American History X); OR (b) a TV program or programs that deal with racial content (e.g., episode of talk show when race-related theme is considered; episode of sitcom that confronts race directly); OR (c) 2-3 OpEd pieces in a mainstream newspaper that discuss race-related issues. The paper should present quotes that illustrate all 4 frames of colorblindness and analyze them accordingly.
The movie is American History X
Students will be expected to:
apply the material covered in class (especially Bonilla-Silva's 4 frames of colorblind racism) to their everyday social world. This could be in their everyday personal relationships and conversations (e.g., journal); in public Internet postings (e.g., videos) or social media; or traditional media (film, TV, newspaper). Keep in mind that in Chapters 3-6, Bonilla-Silva outlines the typical colorblind racism patterns, while in Chapter 7 he looks at how progressive racial ideology differs from those, and in Chapter 8 how racial "minorities" tend to use colorblindness differently than the majority.
As his/her critical-thinking decision-making objective, the student should decide whether the societal evidence he/she reviews in the paper (a) demonstrates the typical colorblind pattern that Bonilla-Silva describes in the textbook; or (b) reveals a more progressive and/or minority pattern; or (c) some combination of the above; or (d) some other pattern not discussed in the textbook but worth exploring in future research. The student may find that the quotes he/she analyzes deliberately challenge one of the 4 frames of colorblindness in some way, and he/she can note this in the paper as well. Each paper should consider the implications of the analysis of colorblindness for the future of a multiracial society. In other words, how do the representations discovered in your analysis help and/or hinder a society's progress toward inclusive multiracial democracy?