Chapter 3
Concealed Stories
Challenge stock stories about race and racism
Include stories told by people in marginalized communities invisible in mainstream culture
Tell of marginalized community lives, values, and struggles, and perspectives on white dominance
Expose dominance and privilege in society
Provide pride and sustenance in cultures and communities missing from the mainstream
Chapter 3: Overview
Main Objectives :
Students learn how implicit stereotypes shape perception and can inform a reading of an image or story
They understand that racial stereotypes can shape and form reading of an image or story
Students learn how to critically analyze stories to unearth concealed stories
Guiding Questions:
What are the questions about race and racism that we don’t hear?
Why don’t we hear these stories?
How are such stories lost or left out?
How do we recover these stories?
What do these stories teach us about race and racism that the stock stories leave out?
Chapter 3: Lesson 1
Race and Rights in U.S. History
Learning Outcomes:
Students learn how public and private memory of the past affects how we think about the present
Students see the way that implicit stereotypes shape perception
Lesson Outline:
Define Concealed Stories
Look at provocative visuals of people and historic events
Students discuss what they recognize, remember, and imagine are the stories related to those images
Students compare their recollections with textbook explanations and with the alternative side to those historical events
Chapter 3: Lesson 2
Media and Culture
Learning Outcomes:
Students will be able to learn about their own and each other’s experiences in regards to race and racism
Through movement and placement within a continuum students will be able to visualize the degree of impact that race has in their own and other people’s lives
Lesson Outline:
Students imagine a comedy television show
Students analyze and discuss potentially misleading imagery that evokes discussion of stereotypes
Whole group discusses the similarities and differences between the imagined tv shows, the first impressions of the images, and the reality of the images
Whole group discusses concealed stories in mainstream media and news
Chapter 3: Lesson 3
Mainstream Othering Narratives for Current Events
Learning Outcomes:
Students learn about white privilege or advantage and its historical roots
Students look at how discriminatory policies that advantage whites challenge the American ideals of meritocracy and colorblindness
Lesson Outline:
Students read two articles and compare the narratives offered, questioning what is missing from those two articles as well as from their understanding of current events
Students read a concealed story and consider why the author felt it was necessary to tell
Students look at artwork that expresses experiences of culture and identity
Students write their own concealed stories