Democracy and Inequality: Challenges and Possible Solutions

Content Objectives

My proposed curriculum unit will focus on the inequitable treatment of Asian immigrants and Asian Americans throughout US history to address the requirements of Civics Anchor Standard Two: Students will understand the principles and ideals underlying the American political system [Politics]. Furthermore, this is concurrent with the grades 6-8 Civics standard a: Students will understand that the concept of majority rule does not mean that the rights of minorities may be disregarded and will examine and apply the protections accorded those minorities in the American political system.¹¹

More concisely, further description will be provided in this thematic unit on how to address the topics of (1) the definition of majority and minority rule, (2)  The development minority rights in American democracy, (3) The history of Asian Americans and Asian immigrants as a minority group, (4) Legislation and policies that have impacted the rights of Asian Americans throughout history , (5) Contributions by Asian Americans to US society, (6) COVID-19 as a catalyst for reemergence of anti-Asian discrimination, and (7) Vilification of certain races and ethnicities as a strategy for building political coalitions.

Part I: Bias and Minority Groups

The first part of this unit will begin with a general overview of how racism and prejudice impact our rationale and decision-making skills.  Replicating a method used by sociologists, students will take a version of Harvard’s Implicit Association Test¹² adapted for their language level. The test presents two groups, i.e., “male” and “female”, and asks participants to place different words with the group they feel most strongly associated with that word. For example, “kitchen”, “bold”, “experienced”, “organized”, etc. We will then discuss the results as a class and consider whether responses that indicated unconscious bias were surprising, especially to those who understood bias to mean only overt racism or prejudice as is often depicted in movies, on TV, and social media.

Having established some understanding of unconscious bias, the unit will shift to a brief set of case studies of how these concepts have impacted various minority groups throughout history, including the Latin American, Native American, and African American demographics. These case studies will be taken from a webpage created by Brigham Young University’s School of Education.¹³ The site includes some introductory information on the experiences, culture, and history of the aforementioned demographics. Time will be spent examining the characteristics of a minority group in the United States vs those of the majority, as well as the importance of minority rights in maintaining a truly representative democracy.

Students will then break into small groups. Each group will select a minority and create a Google Slide¹⁴ detailing the challenges they have faced throughout American history, a short explanation of laws or policies that affected them, as well as an image that they feel best depicts the struggles of this demographic. Student groups will then demonstrate what they have learned by presenting their slide to the class.

Part II: Asian Americans as a Minority

At this point in the unit, students will be introduced to vocabulary that will reappear throughout the unit. Vocabulary words will include minority, majority, majority rule, ethnicity, race, policy, coalition and bias. It is important for newcomer English learners that vocabulary instruction be very intentional. An article published in the literary journal The Reading Teacher,¹⁵ recommend based on research conducted by the authors that, “ instruction designed for ELs provide explicit instruction on these words that involves child-friendly definitions, examples of use, and attention to multiple meanings. “For this reason, students will begin this unit in much the same way that they begin almost all units in my classroom: by creating a new section of their vocabulary notebook for the words and definitions they will encounter in coming lessons. This is the first step in a multi-faceted approach to vocabulary instruction that will be further explained in the section below on teaching strategies.

Armed with a solid first exposure to the relevant context and vocabulary, students will segue into a more concentrated study of Asian Americans as minorities. Beginning with a discussion of the current COVID-19 pandemic and its influence on the perception, and ultimately racist experiences of, Asians in the United States today, students will engage in a “gallery walk” of recent headlines and quotes from various sources related to China’s role in the COVID pandemic. Sources in the gallery walk will include the “China virus” conspiracy theory, coverage of attacks on Asian Americans and the impact of COVID on Chinese-owned businesses. They will identify and discuss similarities that they see in how Asians are being characterized as a minority group by creating a word splash of adjectives (drawing on inspiration from the IAT detailed above) that represent the public perception of Asians as a result of COVID.

To provide a more humanistic perspective for students, they will attend a presentation given by the Asian and Pacific Islander Student Association (APSA)¹⁶ at the University of Delaware. Members of APSA will detail their own life experiences as part of this minority group, with a specific focus on the ways in which COVID-19 has influenced more evident bias, both conscious and unconscious, in their everyday lives.

Part III: Asian American Rights Over Time

Following this section, the students will delve further into the inequity and inequality faced by Asian Americans not only today, but throughout US history. Utilizing curriculum materials comprised of primary and secondary sources representing Asian American groups throughout differing time periods, the third part of the unit will cover three major examples of laws and policy that have impacted Asian Americans. In connection with the learning objectives of our current civics unit, students will analyze how the marginalization of Asian Americans was an intentional and systematic example of inequality over time.

The first significant historical event students will learn about is the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882).¹⁷ A brief video entitled The Chinese American Railroad Workers¹⁸ will summarize one of the earliest waves of Asian immigration to the United States spurred by the building of the transcontinental railroad between 1863-1869. Although it was clear that the infrastructure of the country was benefiting from the increased numbers of arrivals from China, this was in fact a catalyst for the politicization of Asians as a minority group. As Chinese immigrants began to settle on the west coast of the US over the coming decades, an anti-Sino sentiment also began to develop.  To better illustrate these events, students will read the book Coolies¹⁹by Yin. Coolies depicts the story of Shek and his younger brother Wong, who make the journey from their homeland in China to become railroad workers.

This text will allow students to more clearly comprehend the discrimination, low wages, and poor working conditions faced by Asian Americans during this time. This will springboard into a discussion of how bias led white Americans to form a coalition against Asian American workers. the Workingmen’s Party began to assert that Asians were stealing American jobs and causing wages to plummet, with party leader Denis Kearney even going as far as to end all of his speech with the phrase, “And whatever happens, the Chinese must go.”²⁰ Similar anti-Asian sentiments among working class political constituencies eventually lead to President Chester A. Arthur signing the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, which banned Chinese and other nationalities of Asian laborers from entering the US for the next sixty years. Students will explore this concept further by completing a Venn diagram representing the treatment of Chinese American immigrants with the treatment of immigrants today, drawing on their own background knowledge for the latter part. Students will then compare Venn diagrams with a partner and discuss any commonalities they find.

The second event students will consider is the internment of Japanese American during World War II. My students, like many others, complete a unit in ELA each fall on the novel Number the Stars²¹ by Lois Lowry, which takes place during the Holocaust. Keeping in mind that they frequently lack any background in US or European history, this novel study is the only extent to which they have had exposure to the events of World War II, or to the concept of the demonization of a racial or ethnic group by a government. The topic of Japanese-American internment will be entirely new to them. Studying the event will provide students with a contextualized example of a coalition identifying a minority group as being at fault for or a danger to their well-being, and then systematically placing them in concentration camps. Before any direct instruction on this event is provided, students will view a slideshow of pictures taken by famed Great Depression photographer Dorothea Lange.²² The photos depict various scenes in the Western US during the period of Japanese internment. After viewing the slideshow and reading any included captions, students will complete and “I Notice, I Wonder” worksheet which records their impressions of what is happening in the photos and discuss their observations as a class.

The discussion will then pivot to the graphic novel They Called Us Enemy²³ by George Takei of Star Wars fame. This short but impactful text recounts Takei’s personal experiences as a young child being taken to the “relocation” center following President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s authorization of Executive Order 9066,²⁴ which initiated the arrest and imprisonment of Japanese Americans, regardless of birth country. After reading Takei’s account, students will discuss why an anti-Japanese coalition was formed during World War II and how it affected Asian minorities.

Part IV: Minority Rights for Asian Americans

The students will also study instances in which Japanese Americans advocated for their own rights during and after the war. Two case studies will be presented as an example, beginning with Korematsu v. US (1944).²⁵ This case exposes not only the discrimination of Executive Order 9066, but also the majority rule’s complicit role in withholding their rights. In 1942, a young man named Fred Korematsu attempted to disguise himself so as to avoid deportation to a relocation camp. When he was finally arrested, he embarked on a trial represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, claiming that his detention was a discriminatory infringement of his rights as an American citizen. In December 1944, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Korematsu had violated federal law by evading his deportation and that it was a matter of “military necessity”.

The unit’s second case study will be the passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.²⁶ The passage of this bill was a direct result of efforts by the Japanese American Citizens League to obtain reparations for survivors of Japanese internment camps. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, many younger members of the community began to question the injustice that many of their parents had simply accepted after the end of the war. Specifically, Senator Daniel Inouye and Congressmen Robert Matsui campaigned for former prisoners to be compensated for the emotional and physical distress caused by their confinement. Following testimony from survivors detailing the violation of their rights, the bill was passed. This elicited not only monetary reparations but also the first formal apology issued by the federal government acknowledging their error.

The unit will culminate in a final project where students create a Instagram “post” (actually a poster) under the hashtag “stopasianhate”,²⁷ composed of a timeline that includes the various laws and policies that have impacted Asian Americans throughout US history and analyze whether the changes in these policies enable Asian Americans to enjoy equal rights and representation as a minority group in today’s society. Their post presentation will include at least 2 pieces of evidence either supporting the claim that Asian Americans either have equal representation and rights in the present time, or that they do not. The purpose of this as a closing activity is for students to demonstrate that they understand what minority rights are as well as the strategies that majority coalitions use to gain stronger political support by mischaracterizing a minority group. Simultaneously, the use of the #stopasianhate allows students to reflect on the connection between bias and the content that they consume on social media applications.

As an optional extension activity for the unit, students can choose an Asian American individual from a set of options provided by the teacher. Students will use provided resources to research that individual and their accomplishments/contributions to the United States. Students can also describe any challenges that their chosen subject experiences as an Asian American prior to their achievement. They can then make a Google Slides or Padlet presentation to share with the class as a way of celebrating Asian American heritage or observe Asian American Pacific Islander month in May.²⁸