Students will:

• explain how different texts, including increasingly complex or difficult texts, are created to suit particular purposes and audiences and may prompt different responses from different audiences
• explain, with increasing insight, how their own beliefs, values, and experiences are revealed in their conversations writing
• analyse texts in terms of the information, ideas, issues, or themes they explore
• make and explain inferences of increasing subtlety about texts, including increasingly complex or difficult texts, supporting their explanations with with well-chosen stated and implied ideas from the texts
• identify and analyse the perspectives and/or biases evident in texts, including increasingly complex or difficult texts, commenting with growing understanding on any questions they may raise about beliefs, values, identity, and power
• identify a variety of elements of style in texts and explain how they help communicate meaning
• locate and select information to effectively support ideas for writing, using a variety of strategies and print, electronic, and other resources, as appropriate

• How is our understanding of society and social identities constructed through and by language and the media? How do different texts, including media texts, influence our world views?
• How do they impact the way we think about The Other, and the way we act towards The Other?
• What are some concerns that members of the Black community have had to grapple with traditionally? To what extent do they grapple with these concerns today?
• To what can we attribute the lingering nature of these concerns? What is the idealized version of the “American Dream”?
• To what extent can members of minoritized communities access this dream?
• How do systemic and societal barriers create a struggle in the pursuit of happiness and success for Black folks?
• What dangers are in place that threaten the Black body? How is the Black body endangered? How is the Black body valued and devalued in society?

Americans believe in the reality of ‘race’ as a defined, indubitable feature of the natural world. Racism—the need to ascribe bone-deep features to people and then humiliate, reduce, and destroy them—inevitably follows from this inalterable condition. In this way, racism is rendered as the innocent daughter of Mother Nature, and one is left to deplore the Middle Passage or Trail of Tears the way one deplores an earthquake, a tornado, or any other phenomenon that can be cast as beyond the handiwork of men.

But race is the child of racism, not the father. (7)

The entire narrative of this country argues against the truth of who you are. (99)

I am speaking to you as I always have—as the sober and serious man I have always wanted you to be, who does not apologize for his human feelings, who does not make excuses for his height, his long arms, his beautiful smile. You are growing into consciousness, and my wish for you is that you feel no need to constrict yourself to make other people comfortable. None of that can change the math anyway. I never wanted you to be twice as good as them, so much as I have always wanted you to attack every day of your brief bright life in struggle. I would not have you descend into your own dream. I would have you be a conscious citizen of this terrible and beautiful world. (107/108)

Van Gelderen, Oscar. Ta-Nehisi Coates' "Between The World and Me" in 10 Quotations. Tell don't show: Race is the child of Racism. 14 Aug 2015. http://lithub.com/ta-nehisi-coatess-between-the-world-and-me-in-10-quotations/.

Before reading the text, review the historical context of race in North America. Examine the differential socio-political, economic, and cultural outcomes produced by race and racism on racialized peoples. Scan the media for references to race and racism; discuss the way members of different races engage with each other and the impact of society’s failure to grapple with issues of race or other differences in social identities.

In Between the World and Me, Coates describes the unrelenting threat of violence and its impact on black bodies. In the text he names several unarmed black men that have been killed by the police; this includes his friend, Prince Jones. Select one or more of the men mentioned in the book, or select another person killed since and conduct research about his or her death; draw on a variety of print and/or multimedia sources to ensure multiple viewpoints. Review the extent to which the sources stick to a description of the death or the extent to which the victim’s life becomes a part of the story. Compare/contrast accompanying images. Examine how different sources treat the death. Considering the audience and purpose of the research, select a suitable method to present the findings. Finally, based on your own research, discuss how it either supports or refutes Coates’s central argument.

Many Black writers have written about race, racism, oppression and the need for equality in the form of letters. Some of these include Martin Luther King’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, James Baldwin’s “Letter to [his] Nephew” and more recently Desmond Coles open letter of resignation from the Toronto Star, “I Choose Activism for Black Liberation”. Students will do a search of social and other forms of media, choose a topical issue and reflect on the way this is presented on different platforms and then, in the form of a letter to a loved one, write about their fears about this issue. The letter may also be about the student’s fear for the student’s loved one - given the way this issue is developing or has developed.