Creating Questions for a Harkness Discussion (Literature Based)

Ask three questions about the text (three per level). These need to be questions that you want to discuss or hear your classmates
discuss. Do not ask questions that you know the answer to just to have something down on paper to turn in.

Level One Question: 1. Do you believe systemic racism is real?

For the seminar student, these are not mere recall questions; 2. How would one live free in a black body?
rather, they establish evidence of basic facts presented in the
author’s proof paragraph. 3. What evidence did Baldwin give in the first paragraph
to express that writing the letter was hard for him?
Examples:
● What evidence does the author use to support his
argument that it is man’s responsibility to care for the
land?
● To what does the author compare his boyhood
experience on the family farm in order to further his
argument that man is forever attached to the land?

Level Two Question: 1. What do you believe the author means when he says,
“... the danger in the minds of most white Americans,
These questions are textually implicit, requiring analysis and is the loss of their identity.”
interpretation of specific parts of the text, pointing out what a
specific part of the text actually means, or what language was 2. Do you believe race is the child of racism, not the
used to create the meaning. It’s not about what happened on father, or do you believe it’s the other way around?
page 47 of the novel; it’s more like, “How does the author’s
description of the dying horse on page 47 of the novel create a 3. How does the excerpt from Coates’ book “Between the
tone?” World and Me” relate to police brutality towards
African Americans?
Examples:
● Why do you think the author relies heavily upon visual
imagery in this passage to convey his love of the land?
● How does the heavy use of repetition contribute to the
effectiveness of the author’s argument that
___________?
● What do you think the author means when he says:
_____?

Level Three Question:
These questions are more open-ended and go beyond the text.
They are intended to provoke a discussion of an abstract idea or
issue, to connect events/themes in the anchor text to other
texts, other arguments, or to universal issues of
life/society/mankind itself.
1. Do you believe that racism is still prevalent in today’s
world? If so, give specific examples.
2. Do you believe systemic racism can be overcome in the
future, and how might we go about doing so?
3. Are you white, or do you believe you’re white?

Examples:
● How has man’s attitude toward nature changed over the
last 100 years?
● How has society’s changing perception toward nature
been advantageous? Detrimental?

In one complete sentence, write what the text is about (a Systemic racism is another medium of racism in economic and
summary of the purpose, message, plot, theme, etc.). political institutions which focuses more on employment,
criminal justice, wealth, etc.

Yes, I believe systemic racism is real. There’s so much evidence

to back it up, too. For example, the criminal justice system.
Create a textual analysis. This analysis should take into account
your previous questions and explore possible answers of your
level two and three questions. (500 words or more)
Remember: This assignment is due at the beginning of the period in which we will discuss a text —not mid-way through. These
responses will serve as the basis for our class discussion.
According to the NAACP, African Americans are five times more
likely to be incarcerated than whites. Another statistic is that if
Hispanics and African Americans were incarcerated at the same
rate as whites, the population of prisons would decrease by
40%. More evidence is specifically on employment and wages of
black women. African American women make $0.64 for every
$0.77 paid to Caucasian women. Minority women tend to live in
poverty and have little access to healthcare even after the
implementation of the Affordable Care Act. On average, the jobs
they have are low paying and don’t cover healthcare. White
households have about 6.5 times more wealth than black
households do. When Coates says, “... the danger in the minds
of white Americans, is the loss of their identity,” I believe what
she’s trying to say is that white people believe they’re white,
while in reality they have so much more to them. One can’t be
simply white. White people have more culture and background
to them instead of just being white. Their ancestors could be
Jewish, Welsch, or Catholic, but they forget about that because
society puts them into a category of simply being white or
caucasian. I believe that race is the child of racism, not the
father. Racism wouldn’t exist if race was never invented. Race is
a social institution created by humans to categorize us simply
only for that purpose. Race was created because we believed
that we needed to be seperated due to our physical appearance.
Race wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for someone’s belief that we are
all different due to the color of our skin. Coates’ book talks
about police brutality when she begins to mention the names of
black people being murdered by police officers. For example,
Eric Gardner was choked to death by the NYPD for selling
cigarettes. They killed him because they were scared of him, not
because he didn’t have a permit to sell them. At this rate, I don’t
believe that systematic racism can be overcome. Not a lot of
people are educated on the topic. Me for example, I didn’t even
know what systematic racism was until I started researching
what it was. And for people who do know about it, no one’s
doing anything about it. I don’t see politicians talking about it as
much as they should be. No one talks about the racial wealth
gap, only the wealth gap and the gender wealth gap. No one is
doing anything to eliminate it. A reason could be that the people
in charge, who are majorly white, don’t want to do anything
about it because it doesn’t affect them. They benefit from it.
And black people probably feel powerless. They believe that
they can’t do anything to stop this nationwide problem.