I
use a rubric when grading your papers -- looking at the rubric BEFORE writing your essay will help you to understand how
your paper will be evaluated and, accordingly, help you write
a better paper (and get a better grade). See here. (ms-word document delivered
to your desktop) |
Essay:
Racism a Short History
George
Fredrickson argues in the excerpt from his book Racism: A Short History that you read for
last class that, "Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spain
is critical to the history of Western racism because its attitudes
and practices served as a kind of segue between the religious intolerance of the Middle Ages and the naturalistic
racism of the modern era." Fredrickson demonstrates that the antipathy towards Jews transformed from one based on their beliefs to one
based on their inherent "Jewishness" that was thought
to be passed on by blood. Accordingly, this later vision represents
the first emergence -- if in prototypical form -- of modern racism among Europeans.
In
this paper of 400 - 600 words, answer the following question:
"How can the evidence contained in these two
laws (document 1, document
2) be interpreted to illustrate the transformation Frederickson describes."
That is,
since these documents likely reflect the thinking of their writers,
explain to your reader how by looking closely at the documents we
can see that although there was antipathy towards Jews in
both periods, that antipathy became a racist antipathy (rather than merely a xenophobic one) in the later period.
Some
helpful pointers about your essay:
1)
your essay will need to employ Fredrickson's distinction between
racism and xenophobia and explain how the first
document reveals a xenophobicvision rather than a racist one, while
the second document clearly demonstrate
a shift to racism.
2)
You will have to organize your paper around a thesis -- don't simply repeat the essay question, however. Your thesis
needs to answer specifically the "how" and "why"
questions.
Need help identifying and organizing your evidence? |
see here for the evidence chart handed
out in class
Very Useful! |
3)
Your essay will have to use textual evidence from the documents (document
1, document 2) in
the form of direct quotations to support your various claims. See the two sample outlines below.
4)
You will have to identify your claim/evidence/warrant structures. Write (cl) before your claims, (ev) before your evidence,
and (wa) before your warrants. Remember, only paragraphs that present
evidence will use claim/evidence/warrant structures. Others -- such as your introduction -- will not.
Note:
if you don't identify your claim/evidence/warrant, you risk
losing points on this paper. |
5)
Note that the essay does NOT ask you
to use the documents to map out the changing restrictions upon Jews
or the violence directed at them. Rather, you should take as your
central task explaining how and why the documents reveal the changing
nature of (and basis for) the antipathy towards Jews -- and why this change occurred.
6) When crafting your paper, be sure to ask yourself, "How
does the perception or definition of the difference between Jews
and Christians assumed by the writers of this document correspond
(or not correspond) to Fredrickson's definition
of racism?"
7) Your
quotations from the documents should be no more than 10 words and
preferably MUCH shorter -- if you are unsure how to omit unnecessary
information from a quotation, see here. (very useful)
8) Remember,
merely because an aspect of a law restricted Jews in some way doesn't
reveal whether that restriction was motivated by racism rather than
xenophobia (or xenophobia rather than racism). So, for example,
if the law had read "Jews can't eat ice cream," that wouldn't
tell us whether or not Christians thought of the differences between
them and Jews was merely one of beliefs (which would indicate xenophobia)
or of blood (which would reveal racism). Either racism or xenophobia
could encourage a law against Jews. You will need to find evidence
from the documents that reveals one motivation rather than
the other. It's there, I promise.
8)
Some smaller things to pay attention to: (a) the documents represent
two different time periods, (b) not everything in a document will
be relevant to your paper; stay focused on proving your thesis rather
than writing a summary of -- or a book report on -- the laws, (c)
the assignment assumes the laws reflect the thinking of the people
who wrote them.
9) Be sure to contact Prof. Umbach if you have questions; better
to get answer to your questions before your write the paper
rather than after it has been graded. Fritz likes to answer
questions and often has useful answers. That's why they pay him
the big bucks.
10) Finally, no outside research is necessary, desirable, or even permitted for this paper. DO NOT USE OUTSIDE SOURCES
IN WRITING THIS PAPER. Papers that use outside sources as the basis
for either a direct or an indirect quotation (that
is, paraphrasing) will receive an "F".
In short, Google will not be useful -- your own brain will be, however.
Need help identifying and organizing your evidence? |
see here for the evidence chart handed
out in class
Very Useful! |
Here
are two proposed ways you might organize your paper (although you
can organize your paper in any way that makes sense)
OUTLINE
I (for a paper organized around the documents,
see below for a paper organized around themes)
I.
Introduction
a: historical background (why look at Iberia at all when discussing racism? Spend no more than 3 sentences
on this topic -- just enough to set up your reader to make sense
of your argument)
b:
Fredrickson's argument and his definition of racism (keep any quotation in this paragraph to 3 words or less)
c:
your thesis (document
1 does not reflect racism for reasons X and Y; but document
2 does reflect racism for reasons W and Z)
II. document 1 reflects xenophobia rather
than racism for reasons X and Y
a.
reason x
claim
evidence
warrant
b. reason y
claim
evidence
warrant
III. Changes
A and B in Spain lead to racism against Jews, as reflected
in document
2 racism for reasons W and Z
a. changes in Spain that lead
to racism against Jews (briefly)
b.
reason w
claim
evidence
warrant
b.
reason Z
claim
evidence
warrant
IV Conclusion
OUTLINE
II (for a paper organized around the themes;
see above for a paper organized around the documents)
I.
Introduction
a: historical background (why look at Iberia at all when discussing racism? Spend no more than 3 sentences
on this topic -- just enough to set up your reader to make sense
of your argument)
b:
(Frederick's argument and his definition of racism; keep any quotation in this paragraph to 3 words or less)
C:
your thesis (documents encapsulate the transformation
for reasons x, y, and z)
II.
Reason X
claim
evidence
warrant
III.
Reason Y
claim
evidence
warrant
Need help identifying and organizing your evidence? |
see here for the evidence chart handed
out in class
Very Useful! |
IV.
Reason Z
claim
evidence
warrant
V.
Conclusion