Instructions

For this assignment, you are going to consume the relevant media texts listed below, and then answer 5 essay questions. 

Relevant Media Texts

1. Dolly Parton's America Episode 7 "Dolly Parton's America"

2. Dolly Parton's America Episode 8 "Dixie Disappearance"

3. Aisha Harris "Springtime for the Confederacy"

PDF Version

4. Quest

Available through Kanopy using your Temple login. To stream below, use Chrome as your browser. 

5. One or more media texts of your choosing that tell a story about race (about a particular racial group, about interracial relations, about bi-racial and multi-racial-identities, or about the very concept of race).

This/these can be selected from TV shows, songs, films, magazine articles, books and shorts stories, social media, etc. Be prepared to provide links, screen captures or quotes. 

Questions

(You should copy these questions, hit submit, and then paste them in to get started on the answers. Use the buttons at the top of the screen to embed media, links, etc.).

1. Explain the media text(s) you selected and provide links to them or to more information. Why did you select this? What story/stories are told about race in your selection(s)?
2. Using the Harris essay plus at least one other media text, explain the concept of re-writing history with examples. Why does it happen? Who does it benefit? Why does Harris connect it to the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville?
3. Looking across the two episodes of Dolly Parton's America, Quest, and your selected media text(s), how would you describe the types of stories that are told about race in these forms of storytelling? Try to get at some of the variations but recognize that you won't be able to capture all of them. 
4. Use the concept of intersectionality to examine the film Quest. Make an argument for why we need to understand this story through an intersectional lens. 
5. Choose one of the concepts from the unit on race not covered in the above questions and use the episodes of Dolly Parton's America, Quest, and/or your own media text to illustrate it. Explain why the illustration works. Imagine you are teaching the concept to someone younger and make sure you really explain on clear terms. 

Extra credit alternate question: Write a personal response to Quest. OR, write a course description for a course you would design around a particular celebrity, genre, or storyline in popular culture.