Period 2: Turmoil in the Middle East, Day 5 - Class Recap

The reverse side of a dollar bill, with "In God We Trust" on it.
Take two of these, and you have the daily income (or less) of 53% of the world!
Good morning class,

I really liked how today went! I definitely think that it was the best class that we have had together so far, in terms of overall participation and focus on what was going on. I am guessing that the new seating chart had something to do with it, but really, you guys were all around excellent today. Let's continue the dialogue we had today, and get on with the class recap!

Essential Questions: In what ways are cultures and countries interconnected? What is the impact of religion on policy in the Middle East? - Religion is such a HUGE part of why the Middle East is a region of turmoil. We will be looking at the impact of it for the next few days.

Soundtrack: "B.O.B. (Bombs over Baghdad)" by Outkast. Chosen mainly because of the song title - Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, which, as we hopefully all know, is in the Middle East. Look up the lyrics if you want - we talked a little bit in class about the derogatory nature of the term "ragtop" to describe an Arab person.

AGENDA 4/13/09:
Rearranging the Deck Chairs
News Brief
Ryan Moats
Otherizing Obama
$2 a Day

Homework: Finish $2 a Day assignment. Read blog recap!

The $2 a Day assignment, for those that we not in class, or need further clarification: I want you to neatly write or type a page long plan, or itinerary, for what you would do for one complete day if you had to live on $2 (or the equivalent) for the entire day. Remember that 53% of the world lives on the equivalent of two dollars a day. So, what would a day be like? Think about life in a developing country (not the United States). You have no car. You do not have a nice house. Everything you own, you got because you have lived on $2 a day for your entire life, working incredibly hard just for that money. You can construct this like a diary, use drawings to illustrate, anything you want. I just want it to be apparent that you put some serious consideration into what it might be like to live on two dollars for an entire day. Please e-mail me or comment below if you have any concerns at all about what to do.

Finally, check the blog, which, if you are reading this right now, you have done. Woo hoo!

Rearranging the Deck Chairs: At the very beginning of class, before doing anything, I gave you three minutes to arrange yourselves alphabetically. This was sort of a class icebreaker activity, but it also served to create a new seating chart. I am not entirely certain that this new one will work, because we seem to have some similar problems as before, but we will try it out for a bit. Thanks for the participation in this! By my cell phone timer, you used 2 minutes and 58 seconds. Well done! Again, the only way that this will not be "rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic" is if everyone participates and guides the big ship that is our class

News Brief: After a good conversation about what is going on in the world (I loved Stephen's Nike World Hoops Summit recap, as well as our talking about the resolution to the hostage crisis with the Somali pirates and the American captain), Dylan shared an article about a recent shooting at a Binghamton, New York employment center. This probably was not the exact article Dylan found, but it is a really good one to think about some of the kinds of struggles immigrants go through when they get to the United States: NYTimes.com - Binghamton Killer Kept His Fury Private. This was an interesting news story, but next time, let's try to be focused on things that are going on around the world, outside the United States. Aldo, you are up for next class. A current event article about anything going on outside the United States.

Ryan Moats: This started off with a cool little mini-lesson that my friend Jessica from Lewis and Clark gave me to do. The entire thing can be recapped here: Tolerance.org - Holiday Stereotyping Activity. VERY interesting to see how our perceptions change with the drop of a hat (wow, I am very proud of myself for that intended pun). We had a great class discussion about why we saw the two figures differently and what society tells us - even though the beard was the same but the hat was different. I especially liked what we had to say about the media as having an influence on the ways that we view people. That was a great transition to watching the following video:



I asked the class to write about how stereotypes start and then we had a little discussion about it. We related the video to stereotypes about Arab people and what impact that has on our society here in America. Lots of really good input here, thanks!

I asked about why stereotypes begin at a young age and had some interesting perspective from the class. We then watched the following recap of the Ryan Moats incident:



Here's an excellent recap of what happened in the aftermath of the situation: ESPN.com - Houston Texans running back Ryan Moats accepts officer's apology. I asked the class to write how how stereotypes MAY have had an impact on this situation. I didn't say it in class, but what if Ryan Moats happened to be Tony Romo, the star QB from the Dallas Cowboys? Would the situation have happened any differently? This happened about a month ago. Recently, the officer in question resigned from the police force.

Sante, Moats' mother-in-law died from breast cancer, to give you the definitive answer.

Also, I said that I would post something about the term "Driving While Black" - there you go. Is it possible that we saw elements of that in the Ryan Moats incident?

Otherizing Obama: This section of class was built on reading this opinion piece by Nicolas Kristof: NYTimes.com - The Push to 'Otherize' Obama. We talked about how making someone "foreign" or "non-American" or "Muslim" was a strategy to make people seem not like "real" Americans. I showed the McCain campaign commercial that Kristof wrote a little about, which you can find here.

Great discussion on this too! Why is it that many people don't just believe President Obama when he says he is a Christian? Why is it even an issue in the first place? Why do some people really believe that Obama is the Antichrist? All of these questions and more were just excellent, and I am glad that we had the time to go through them. If you have the time, do a little research online on this - you would not believe how many people seriously think that Obama is the Antichrist, or can somehow prove that he is Muslim. I equated this to the people that seriously think that President Bush was behind the 9/11 attacks (again, do some research and you will be amazed). Some people have a lot of trouble with random events, so they have to find some way to make sense of them. Conspiracy theories are one of those ways.

I said I would look up statistics about how Americans identify religiously, so here they are: ReligiousTolerance.org - Religious Identification in the U.S. That is an extremely interesting website! Basically, about 77% of Americans can be classified as Christian and about 81% of American adults identify with a specific religion, though it seems like the trend is one of declining identification in all areas. Still, by almost all accounts, we are a very religious nation. How does that impact the way that we see other nations and peoples?

$2 a Day: A side effect of the quality discussion was that we did not have a ton of time to set up this, but I am confident that you got the general idea of what I was asking. I want your thoughts on what it would be like to live on $2 a Day or less. Remember, no stealing or somehow getting more money than two dollars! Bring these in for our next class on Wednesday - we will be discussing your thoughts! It should be a fun class, as always!
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The Blazers play tonight vs. Oklahoma City at 7:00 PM on CSN. A huge game for playoff seeding. We also REALLY have to be fans of the Sacramento Kings tonight (the worst team in the league), playing Denver in Denver. If the Kings win and we win, we will play Denver for the Pacific Division title on Wednesday (and I will be there)! Also, check out 24 tonight, if you have the time, from 9:00-10:00 on FOX. They have a really interesting subplot about stopping genocide in Africa going on.

That should just about do it! Thanks again for the wonderful day! Let's continue to get better together! :-)