UCSD Power and Justice Essay
Write an essay that combines the movie with the reading material.
The readings are as follows: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2927t.html and the attachment
Film: I Am Not Your Negro (2016)
Prompt: Reflect on the title of the film, in the context of our discussion of discipline and opinion. What does it mean to be your negro according to the American normative structure Baldwin describes. How does he seek to challenge those norms? What is the role of education, and how does his view of education resonate with Mill s description of education in Subjection? Describe resonances, if you see them, between Baldwin and Douglass and Davis? The Baldwin materials we are exploring were written/spoken in the 1960s? What has changed since then? How is Baldwin relevant and useful today? What is the significance of this film in our current reality?
Your essays should explore themes of power and justice depicted in the film, The goal is an interpretive essay, that links the film to the materials of our course demonstrating to us that the materials are tools in your interpretation. In your essay, be specific and give examples / scenes from the film that effectively illustrate the concepts you discuss in the essay. Your essays can also include some personal reflection on the larger meaning of the film, in the context of current events. Essays should be 12pt font, double-spaced. Citations to course material should be parenthetical for example (Douglass p. 13). You can use brief quotations, but are discouraged from using long block quotations which consume too much space. It is your voice we are most interested in hearing! The creative dimension of the essay is how you connect class materials to the themes and actions of the film.
