American Voices: Listening to Fiction, Poetry, and Prose

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 08.02.05

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Introduction/Rationale
  2. Objectives
  3. African American Identity
  4. Langston Speaks (excerpt)
  5. Stop the Violence/Teaching Tolerance
  6. Technology Integration/Media clips: According to ABCnews7Chicago.com
  7. Hip Hop Artist Speaks: Hurricane Katrina
  8. Point of View: Using the N-WORD!!!
  9. My Student's Respond
  10. Lessons in Voice
  11. Dr. King
  12. Dreams Deep-Fried
  13. Appendix A: Assessment Rubric "Lift Every Voice"
  14. Appendix B :Goals/Illinois Standards
  15. Bibliography
  16. Notes

Lift Every Voice and Sing An Analysis of Social Change "Hope" through Voices of Hip-Hop

Sharon Monique Ponder

Published September 2008

Tools for this Unit:

My Student's Respond

" I think the N-word shouldn't be used because during slavery, slave owners called us "niggas" instead of using our birth names." A response received from one of my students regarding the use of the N-word. This student goes on to ask his classmates during a passionate discussion "if whites respected us wouldn't they have given us our fair share of earnings for the cotton we picked?" since they didn't respect us they called us "niggers" just like Richard Wright explains in this text, so I do not respect this term.

"I think the "N" word is bad because that's what whites called blacks when they were slaves and years after. The first time I was called the N-word is when I was around some other guys in my neighborhood and I said something funny, they all laughed and said that little "Nigga" is crazy. When I heard the big guys say it, I thought that it was a cool word to say but now that I know a little more about history I don't!" DH

I think that the "N" word is "nigger" or "nigga". I think its used in a bad way because that's what whites used to refer to us when they thought we didn't deserve the same rights as them. It was their way of saying that we weren't good enough. AA

My parents told me that the N-word stands for ignorance so I really don't think it's good to use even though some of us use it as slang when talking to one another. MF

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