Juvenile Justice

On Thursday guests from Chicago's WBEZ radio came to interview our B period Urban Studies class about a series they were running on juvenile justice.

Each of our classes will be checking out the stories and then replying to one of the "Share Your Thoughts" links on the WBEZ website. The link is HERE.

Its time to sign up and vote!

In the first half of chapter 3 Venkatesh describes the fascinating and bizarre relationships between gangs and politics. What do you think about this relationship? Do you believe it still exists today? When responding be sure to use at least one quote/reference from the reading and respond to at least one other post.

"I'm not black"

Hey all:

Welcome to the first post of the New Year. AFTER reading the Preface and Chapter One in Gang Leader for a Day I'd like you to respond to at least one of the following questions. Your responses must use at least one piece of evidence from the text, and must respond directly to at least one other blogger (with the exception of the first person to post).

Here are the questions:
1. "And then you got a whole lot of black folk who realize it ain't no use. Like us. We just spend our time trying to get by..." (p7). Consider our discussion on to what extent people are responsible for their own economic conditions. Why do Old Time & Charlie feel this way? Why do they send Venkatesh to seek out the young men for answers?

2. Why does J.T. claim he's not black, nor African-American--but a "nigger?"

3. Why would J.T. want Venkatesh to follow his gang around--after all, they are dealing in illegal activities?

Much ado about Israel

In Chapter Four, Prof. Salaita asks the question "is zionism racism?" To answer that question he analyzes the views of prominent zionists--some of whom are Jewish and some who aren't. During his discussion, he considers the location of the state of Israel--and I'm curous to hear from you: Does Israel have a right to exist? If so, under what conditions? If not, what happens to modern-day Israel?

As always, I look forward to your responses. When responding, please reply to a previous student's post and please provide evidence for your point of view!

Steve's Space (Again)!

Hi All,

This will be a space where Professor Salaita can respond to our questions. Feel free to post a question simply by replying to this thread.

Do-gooders and Evil-doers

In chapter one Salaita describes America's view of the world as good vs. evil, with Arabs always being portrayed as "evil" and Americans always portrayed as "good." What do you think about this? Has the shift from the Bush administration to the Obama administration reconciled any of Salaita's concerns? Be sure to use evidence from the book and outside sources to support your responses. Feel free to locate web links for outside sources (such as online newspapers, journals, news stations) to support your argument. One such article for discussion can be found at:http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/09/16/gen.bush.terrorism/. Please note the date--five days after September 11th.

We've also looked at numerous political cartoons like this one below:


and this one:


Although, all of these were published before the Obama Presidency. I'm curious to hear your views on this!

There's no such thing as (racist) Santa Claus

This week Newsweek released an excerpt of a very interesting study (with an albeit tabloid title: Is your baby racist?) about racism in children.

For next class, I'd like you to read the article here and then do the following in your journals:

1. bring 3 questions you have about the article--or questions that peeked your curiosity
2. list 3 passages or quotes that really grabbed you and briefly explain why you chose them.
3. And finally--I'd like you to share the article with your parents/guardians and have a discussion with them about the article. Some guiding questions: Did they talk to you about race when you were young? Why or why not? Is it appropriate to discuss race with young children? If so, what's the best way to do so? How do we cope with teaching children about race when we have competing black and white images of what fictional Santa looks like (sorry kids, he's not real!)?

Feel free to use the questions above or use your own and then:

4. write a reflection about the discussion you had with your parents. This should be about 1/2-1 page in your journals.

Hope you have fun with this!

Newsweek Article