This week we will have some practice with lens analysis. You will watch a 10-minute YouTube video of a Lani Guinier, who is a lawyer, scholar and civil rights activist. In the video, she discusses the issue of class (Marxist lens) and race (postcolonial lens) in America. She is responding to the question, "How could we make sure that not just the upper echelon of black folk get the hookup this time around, but as it trickles down to everyday black people--so that we don’t see classism enter a black America and get worse over the next four years?"
For this assignment, please complete the following:
- Watch the YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4diifDrgME
- As you watch, take notes of any key phrases (at least 3) that Prof. Guinier says that help inform your thinking about race and/or class. Note the time that she says the phrases you have chosen from the video. You will likely have to watch the video more than once.
- Part 1 of video analysis: Write a 1-paragraph analysis of at least 3 quotes from the video. That means at least 3 paragraphs total for this part.
- Part 2 of video analysis: What do you think are the implications of what Prof. Guinier is saying in terms of students in the public education system (even consider CPAA specifically)?
Let me know if you have questions,
Ms. Paraiso
One of the panelists said earlier that there is a Black agenda and an American agenda…I think the Black agenda is the American agenda.”
ReplyDeleteHere Prof. Guinier is saying that there are no separate agendas, the country shares one big agenda. The country should pay attention to all problems instead of “prioritizing” certain problems that refer to “Americans”. Black or white, all Americans have problems that need to be taking care of right now.
“…within each race or ethnic group talent is equally distributed among all people and therefore if it turns out that disproportionate numbers of black people are spending their time in prison and not In college that means we are not looking at the talent pool in the black community to the detriment or the white community because if we were elevating talent people would be coming of age who had the innovative capacity to help fix America…”
Guinier is saying that we are all blessed with talent from birth but not all have a chance to show their talent. She is saying that the reason that blacks are more likely to be in prison than in college is because we don’t look into their talent pool. The proof is that America isn’t in its best shape because we are jus dependant on one group’s talent. If we want to fix it we need to look at more talent.
“This is not about conventional measures of merit this is about understand that the way in which we reframe, or redefine merit is that merit is something we find in groups of people particularly diverse groups of problem solvers…”
She is saying that everyone has merit, not just a select group of people. Everyone can be great and can change the world or country. “Americans” aren’t the only ones that have merit, we all do.
What do you think are the implications of what Prof. Guinier is saying in terms of students in the public education system?
I think that she is implying that that if we look deeper into all talent pools of all races we would find talent in every person. She is saying that if we give all kids a chance to succeed they can. She is also saying that we should pay attention to all students and give them the same equal support. Whatever their ethnic background is there shouldn’t be separate ways to solve problems.
---Alejandro Diaz