Teaching Race, Ethnicity, and Politics: Identity, Discrimination, & Inequality
Victoria Wilson, California State University Northridge
Television
- Insecure (2016-2021)
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5024912/
- Season 2, Episode 2, “Hella Questions”; theme(s): African American and Latinx relations
- The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990-1996)
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098800/
- Season 1, Episode 6, “Mistaken Identity”; theme(s): racial profiling
- YouTube: Top 10 racist moments in cartoons
Film and Documentary
Native American identity/Politics
- Akicita: The Battle at Standing Rock (dir. Cody Lucich, 2016); theme(s): territorial sovereignty
- Geronimo: An American Legend (dir. Walter Hill, 1993); theme(s): Native American resistance to the U.S. during the Manifest Destiny era.
- Little Big Man (dir. Arthur Penn, 1970); theme(s):
- The Searchers (dir. John Ford, 1956); theme(s): identity
Black/African American Identity/Politics
- 12 Years a Slave (dir. Steve McQueen, 2013); theme(s): slavery
- 4 Little Girls (dir. Spike Lee, 1997); theme(s): the Civil Rights era
- Blackkklansman (dir. Spike Lee, 2016); theme(s): the Civil Rights era
- Do the Right Thing (dir. Spike Lee, 1989); theme(s): Black/Asian American conflict, urban racial uprising
- Fruitvale Station (dir. Ryan Coogler, 2013); theme(s): police brutality
- Get on the Bus (dir. Spike Lee, 1996); theme(s): Black LGBTQ identity
- Gandhi (dir. Richard Attenborough. 1982); theme(s): organizing strategies, non-violent direct action
- Lincoln (dir. Steven Spielberg, 2012); theme(s): the Civil War
- Loving (dir. Jeff Nichols, 2016); theme(s): anti-miscegenation
- Malcolm X (dir. Spike Lee, 1992); theme(s): Black separatism
- Suburbicon (dir. George Clooney, 2017): Racial exclusion in suburban America
Latinx/Chicano Identity/Politics
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- Cesar Chavez (dir. Diego Luna, 2014); theme(s): labor organizing
- Salt of the Earth (dir. Herbert J. Biberman, 1954); theme(s): labor organizing
- Walkout (dir. Edward James Olmos, 2005); theme(s): the Chicano Blowouts, The East Los Angeles Walkouts
Asian American Pacific Islander Identity/Politics
- American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs (dir. Grace Lee, 2013); theme(s): Asian American movement activism
- Blue Bayou (dir. Justin Chon, 2021); theme(s): immigration and citizenship
- Gook (dir. Justin Chon, 2017); theme(s): Black/Asian American conflict, urban racial uprising
White Identity/Politics
- Imperium (dir. Daniel Ragussis, 2016); theme(s): White nationalism
- Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People (2006)
- White People (dir. Jose Antonio Vargas, 2015); theme(s): White racial identity
- The Birth of a Nation (dir. D.W. Griffith, 1915); theme(s): white redemption in the post-Reconstruction era
Music
Civil Rights Movement-themed songs:
- “Mississippi Goddamn” by Nina Simone
- “Strange Fruit” by Nina Simone
- “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye
Art
Portrayals of Native Americans in art:
- “American Progress” by John Gast (1856)
- “Landing of the Pilgrims”; sandstone carving in the Capitol Rotunda (1825)
- “Progress of Civilization”; marble sculpture atop the Senate entrance to the Capitol (1863)
- “Landing of Columbus”; part of a frieze in display in the Capitol Rotunda (1855-63)
- “Death Whoop”’ hung on the wall in a hearing room for the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs until 1987
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