This is your Midterm 1 exam.  Your exam is due by 11:59 pm on Tue Sept 30.  Late submissions are allowed but will be assessed a penalty as described in Late Work on our syllabus.

The exam is based on Chapters 1 - 17 of So You Want To Talk About Race? by Ijeoma Oluo. This is referred to below as Talk About Race. You may consult this text and other resources, but please do not discuss the exam with other human beings. The only exception to this is you may consult with the UMD Writer's Workshop in preparing your exam. Your answers must be expressed in your own words so please continue to follow our policy on not using AI writing tools in any way (as described in our syllabus and reproduced below).

Please prepare your exam answers in the same way you have been preparing your personal essays - compose your answers entirely in a single Google Doc  and then submit a single URL when the exam is finished. Make sure that you have the Doc set so that anyone with the link is an editor. Your version history must show the complete evolution of all your answers from start to finish, so please do not start your answers somewhere else and then cut and paste them. Each question has a minimum word length requirement of 500 words (like our personal essays).

If you have questions about the exam, please ask those in class when we go over the exam, or thereafter post those to this thread on the discussion list on Canvas so that  everyone gets the same information about the exam. Please allow up to 12 hours for a response to questions in the discussion list.

There are four exam questions. Answer each question with a Personal Essay. Please follow our usual guidelines for Personal Essays, and remember that each essay must be at least 500 words long. Please make sure to number your responses in your Google Doc. You do not need to copy the question into your response although you can if you find that helpful. Do not of course include the questions in your word count.

Start of Midterm 1 Questions

1. [5 points] Talk About Race begins in Chapter 1 with our author writing "As a black woman, race has always been a prominent part of my life. I have never been able to escape the fact that I am a black woman in a white supremacist country." In a Personal Essay discuss three experiences that our author described in the book that she would say support her conclusion that she lives in a white supremacist country (the USA). Make sure to mention the chapter from which each experience is taken. Please describe these in your own words, and explain why these experiences might cause her to consider herself to live in a white supremacist country. Do you agree with her conclusion (that she lives in a white supremacist country)? Why or why not? 

2. [5 points] In Chapter 2 of Talk About Race our author introduces the following definition of racism : "a prejudice against someone based on race, when those prejudices are reinforced by systems of power." In a Personal Essay, explain this definition. As a part of your explanation discuss three different examples of racism backed by three different systems of power. Do not include the police or law enforcement as one of your systems of power since we have already discussed that quite a bit. Also, do not use the examples found in Talk About Race. Instead, rely upon your own experience or events from the news and social media that you are familiar with. Identify both the prejudice and the system of power in each of your examples. To conclude your essay explain why you think our author feels it necessary to include systems of power in a definition of racism. Do you agree? Why or why not? 

3.  [5 points]  In Chapter 6 of Talk About Race, entitled Is police brutality really about race?, our author describes her own experiences with police during traffic stops. There are many other traffic stop stories that can be told. One is that of Philando Castile, who was shot and killed by a police officer during a traffic stop in 2016 in Falcon Heights in the Twin Cities. The officer was charged, brought to trial, and found not guilty. Author and Macalester Professor Marlon James wrote an essay called "Smaller, and Smaller, and Smaller" in response to these events. You can find that essay here - it is fairly brief, about 1,600 words. I have also put this essay in our Canvas Files as a pdf if you have trouble with the link. After reading this please write a Personal Essay about your impressions and reaction to this essay. You should not summarize the essay but instead focus on the three most memorable points from the essay, why they stood out to you, and how those might compare to your own experiences of living in Minnesota or nearby. Marlon James was living in St. Paul at the time he wrote this essay and what he describes is based on his experiences living in the Twin Cities for about 10 years. While it is not essential to answering this question, if you are not familiar with the story of Philando Castile you may wish to review this Wikipedia page to get some additional context. I've also added some links into the essay to explain terms and allusions you may not be familiar with that you are encouraged (but not required) to explore.

4.  [5 points]  Please listen to episode one of the Code Switch podcast entitled "Can we talk about Whiteness?" (37 minutes) This is available for streaming or download here. I have also put a copy of the mp3 in our Canvas Files in case you have trouble with the link. After you listen, write a Personal Essay about what you heard. I'd like you to discuss at least three ideas that came up in the podcast that stood out to you in some way (either positive or negative) and how those connect to our class or your own personal experiences. Describe what those points are, why they stood out to you, and how those connect to our class or your experiences. Connections to our class could include Talk About Race, our in-class discussions, or even our classroom dynamics. Support the points you highlight with enough detail so it would be understandable to someone who may not have heard the podcast or attended our class. 

End of Midterm 1 Questions

No Use of AI Writing Tools (from our syllabus)

Please do not use automated writing tools like Gemini, CoPilot, ChatGPT, Grammarly, Claude, Jasper, DeepSeek, etc. at any point in developing work for this class. This includes our Personal Essays, any take home Exams, and your Podcast. Do not use them for brainstorming ideas, do not use them for writing, and do not use them for polishing or correcting your work. 

All of your written work should be composed entirely in Google Docs. You may use the spelling and grammar checking tools provided in the standard version of Google Docs but do not use or add-on anything beyond that for any of our assignments.  

Why such a strict policy? I read all of your essays and exams. I listen to your podcasts. I do not offload the grading of your work on to a teaching assistant or an automated AI tool. I read what you submit carefully, and I would like to hear your own unique voice come through in the work you do for this class. I genuinely enjoy this experience. These tools obscure your voice and restrict your imagination. They make you sound more generic and less like the unique individual that you are. 

Any work that you submit in this class must be uniquely and exclusively written by you. This means no AI Writing Tools, it also means no cutting and pasting or overly close paraphrasing from other sources (which is essentially what these AI tools do, just in a very fancy and elaborate way). If you submit work that you did not uniquely and exclusively create, you may receive a 0 on that assignment.  

Finally, I do not use AI in any aspect of this class. I do not use it to prepare for class, to create lecture content or discussion questions, nor do I use it for any part of grading.