With this essay you will be responding to the provocations made in the James Bal

With this essay you will be responding to the provocations made in the James Baldwin essay through reflecting on the oral history interview to consider how individuals negotiate their experience within a settler colonial society. James Baldwin argues that it is self-destructive to meet the injustice, violence, and the indignity of hatred with equal violence, hate, and anger, but at one point in his life he finds himself reacting with an uncontrollable rage. The example of righteous anger through non-violent protest is often thwarted, and in the moment destruction erupts. Stereotypes that legislate place in a racial hierarchy provide infinite opportunities to test the limits of our ability to withstand the workings of normative violence, the kind of violence that is obscured by the functions of society; everyday violence, the violence of unquestioned beliefs, and even unfair laws. To live with integrity in response to the injustice, violence and indignity of everyday hatred found in the experience of being received into sociality that is structured by settler colonialism is an often unnamed struggle. To tie together the context of settler colonialism to the themes of stereotype, privilege and identity, we can consider: being judged for skin color and our ethnic heritage, being subjected to stereotypes, language exclusion, perceptions based on a structure of margin and center, vulnerability and power that shapes how we see ourselves and how we see others. Societal values and structures are formed by the backdrop of history; modern cultures, and norms are informed by this history; unlike Baldwin many have adopted a tradition of silence, which hides the ugly, bloody truths of our today. So how do people understand their role and experience scripted within a social context of settler colonialism? What beliefs do they cultivate? As Baldwin puts it in Notes of a Native Son, “…hold[ing] in the mind forever two ideas which seemed to be in opposition.” (Baldwin 603) seems one way to exist within these confounding restrictions. The Interview What oppositions do you notice your interviewee holding on to to make sense of their experience? The two ideas some of the artists, writers and musicians we have studied this semester hold in constant tension are acceptance and fight–the acceptance is on display in the meticulous story telling–they recreate painful, confusing, frustrating, humiliating, and even dehumanizing moments of their lives–these anecdotes are analysis that cannot be achieved without acceptance, as representing reality so clearly requires intimately accepting its ugly details; resistance is reflected in their commitment to the word, and they use their words to destroy languishing ignorance, willful, insistent ignorance. The readings on identity that we read narrate the process of becoming aware of how their identities were shaped in the context of a settler colonialist society. Settler colonialist societies set up the dynamics of power and privilege that make it so that each of these writers finds themselves constructing identity in the margins. And miraculously these writers all in some way find themselves, using their words to challenge the conditions that have disinherited them, and so many others, from existing in peace, in life ways that hold the promise of justice. Give details and include direct quotes from your interview, so that your reader can experience the “identity story” of your interviewee; overlay a critical perspective by relating that story to the topics we have been exploring: identity, privilege, power and stereotypes to shape how you present your interviewee’s story as just one of the ways people negotiate being defined within a settler colonialist context. You might not directly relate all of the concepts we have reviewed to the interview, but see what does help your analysis. You want the interview to be one part of your analysis; use the interview to shape how you are now thinking about these themes. In some ways this essay can be your own way of assimilating the content of this class, showing how breaking apart the theme of borders until it is clearly a symbolic assertion, not merely a physical separation, helps to explain the ways we are situated within these complex social networks. Oral History Essay Prompt Innocence is interrupted by awareness; and in order to survive with integrity, knowledge of the norms of settler colonialism requires growing awareness. Through this essay situate your interviewee against the backdrop of settler colonialism; one approach is to tell their privilege story, another is to show how they negotiate the American Dream and the violence of stereotypes. With your knowledge of the realities of living within settler colonialism, explain how you understand the highlights of your interview. By making a relationship between the quotes you choose from the interview and the assertions that James Baldwin makes about negotiating living in America as a settler colonialist society, your work in this essay is to sketch the unique contours of survival in this context that give shape to the individual you interview. Oral History Essay Instructions Write 750-1000 words. Include a quote from the Baldwin reading Avoid general observations, really lean on your interviewee’s reflections Show your use of the other class readings from Module 9-11 on the theme of living in the context of settler colonialism; use these reading in 2 footnotes. Include at least 4 resources for your bibliography: use a mix of resources from the class and independent research Reading Response Essay Criteria Responds to the prompt. A clear use of quotes—quotes have frames and are not awkwardly placed in the essay—and quotes are drawn from at least two of the core readings on identity. Flow of essay makes sense and a common thread is obvious, showing clear transitions between paragraphs. Introduction situates the reader to your perspective; no quoting in the intro paragraph. Conclusion leaves you considering a deeper aspect of the theme; no quoting in the concluding paragraph. MLA formatted essay and bibliography. Please use these sources from the class and quote from Notes of Native Son by James Baldwin (use at least 2 sources below and you can choose 2 sources outside) https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/the-united-states-is-not-a-nation-of-immigrants/ https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09502386.2019.1584908 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/19/opinion/israel-netanyahu-palestinians.html Colonialism, Apartheid and the Native Question: The Case of Israel/Palestine