Toward a More Perfect Union

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Toward a More Perfect Union We the People: A Film Series to Promote Conversation About Race & Diversity Join others interested in cultivating relationships across racial & societal divides to build an inclusive community 7 PM, Once a month at Seekers Church 276 Carroll Street NW Washington, DC 20017 (you are welcome to bring a brown bag dinner) Friday, February 18th – My Name is Khan Rizwan Khan (Shahrukh Khan), a Muslim man with Asperger syndrome, lives happily with his wife, Mandira (Kajol), in San Francisco until a tragedy drives her away after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Now he is on a quest to recapture the heart of the woman he loves. Traveling across America, Rizwan faces prejudice because of his religion and unusual behavior, but he also inspires the people he meets with his unique outlook on life. Saturday, March 19th - Skin Both her father (Sam Neill) and mother (Alice Krige) are white, but Sandra Laing (Sophie Okonedo) is born with dark skin -- a complex problem in the era of South African apartheid that soon drives a wedge into the family in this poignant drama based on a true story. Though her parents fight to have the government classify her as white, Sandra grows up in a divided world, and experiences her parents can't understand make her question her identity. Friday, April 15th - Stand Broadcast journalist Tavis Smiley hits the road in 2008 with friends Cornel West, BeBe Winans and other prominent African Americans to explore the contemporary experiences of black men and to ask them: "What do you stand for?" Set against Barack Obama's rise to presidential power, Smiley and his fellow travelers offer diverse perspectives on African Americans' soul music, historic struggle for equality, current race relations and more. We the People is sponsored by The Sacred Conversation on Race and Diversity Planning Committee, an interfaith project of Seekers Church and Covenant Christian Community. ALL ARE WELCOME! For more information please visit www.seekerschurch.org and use the “contact us” link. .
Recommended publications
  • SKIN and Human Rights
    SKIN and Human Rights Consider the following statements that were true of life under Apartheid for Sandra Laing. While some of them to not refer to an injustice that Sandra suffered directly, they may underline what the general black population had to put up with. It is your job to decide which you feel describes the worst abuse of human rights and which the least. Rearrange the list in order of seriousness. Your choices will be subjective and so there is no absolute correct answer: 1. Sandra was born into a country where her race was classified at her birth. To be ‘white’ meant she would enjoy special privileges denied people of other skin colours – especially black South Africans. 2. Sandra grew up enjoying all the privileges of someone born to white parents – she enjoyed better accommodation (a room to herself), toys (her doll) and sanitation than her black playmates who went home each evening to their make-shift homes in the nearby township which probably lacked space and running water. 3. Education for blacks and whites was vastly different. Sandra could expect to be taught in smaller classes by more effective and better paid teachers than her black friends. The amount the state would spend on her schooling would be about three times as much as that spent on a black child of the same age. Schools were segregated and Sandra’s white education would prepare her for jobs that her black friends could only dream about. Typically, black children would receive a ‘Bantu’ education preparing them for unskilled manual jobs and domestic service.
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  • Skin Questions
    Skin questions SKIN is one of the most moving stories to emerge from apartheid South Africa: Sandra Laing is a black child born in the 1950s to white Afrikaners, unaware of their black ancestry. Her parents are rural shopkeepers serving the local black community, who lovingly bring her up as their ‘white’ little girl. But at the age of ten, Sandra is driven out of white society. The film follows Sandra’s thirty-year journey from rejection to acceptance, betrayal to reconciliation, as she struggles to define her place in a changing world. Please answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper and in complete sentences. 1) How do the students at Sandra’s school treat her because of her skin color? Give specific examples. 2) Sandra’s father says to his wife about Sandra, “I’m going to get her reclassified as white.” Sannie, Sandra’s mom, responds, “How will that change the color of her skin?” What does this imply about skin color and South Africa’s system of racial classification? 3) When Sandra is shopping for dresses with her mom, why does she have to look at the dresses outside the store through the window while her mom is inside? 4) What are two ways in the film that Sandra or her parents try to make her appear more white? Explain why this is done. 5) Why do Sandra’s parents want her to be with a white boy so much and not Petrus? 6) Sandra’s mother says to her, “You can’t help what you are born with but you can help what you become.” What does she mean by this? 7) Why does her father burn all pictures of Sandra and her clothes? 8) Why does Sandra want to be reclassified as “Coloured” after her parents had fought for her to be classified as “white”? 9) What is the difference between where Sandra’s parents live and where Petrus lives? 10) Why is the township where Petrus and Sandra live destroyed by bulldozers and the police? 11) Explain the following political cartoon, which depicts South African prime minister B.J.
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  • History P2 Addendum November 2019
    PROVINCIAL ASSESSMENT GRADE 11 ENGLISH FIRST ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE HISTORY P2 NOVEMBER 2011 ADDENDUM NOVEMBER 2019 This addendum consists of 11 pages. Copyright reserved Please turn over History/P2 2 NW/November 2019 NSC – Grade 11 – Addendum QUESTION 1: HOW DID THE AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS YOUTH LEAGUE (ANCYL) INFLUENCE THE RISE OF AFRICAN NATIONALISM IN THE 1940s? SOURCE 1A This source focuses on the influence of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) on the transformation of the ANC into a revolutionary mass movement. The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) was established on 2 April 1944, by Anton Lembede (who became the League’s first President), Nelson Mandela, Ashley Mda, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo. They were joined by, Duma Nokwe, B Masekela, Ida Mtwa, Lillian Ngoyi, James Njongweni, William Nkomo and Dan Tloome. The aim of the Youth League was to galvanise (motivate) the youth to step up the fight against segregation within the country. At the time the ANCYL was established, political circumstances in South Africa were tenuous (weak) as the ruling United Party was divided about South Africa’s participation in World War II. Four years after the establishment of the Youth League, the United Party’s rule came to an end and the country was subsequently (thereafter) governed by the National Party. The Youth League’s Manifesto was launched at the Bantu (Black African) Men’s Social Centre in Johannesburg in March 1944 ahead of its inaugural (first) meeting. It stated, amongst others, that Africanism should be promoted (i.e. Africans should struggle for development, progress and national liberation so as to occupy their rightful and honourable place among nations of the world); and that the African youth should be united, consolidated, trained and disciplined, because from their ranks, future leaders would be recruited.
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  • Louisiana Creoles of Color, South African Coloureds and the Struggle for Identity, Nationhood, and Belonging
    NEITHER BLACK NOR WHITE: LOUISIANA CREOLES OF COLOR, SOUTH AFRICAN COLOUREDS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR IDENTITY, NATIONHOOD, AND BELONGING By Griffin Lerner Senior Honors Thesis History University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 04/08/2015 Approved: _______________________ Lisa Lindsay, Thesis Advisor Kathleen Duval, Reader Lerner 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................. 3 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 5 CHAPTER 1 ................................................................................................................................ 13 CHAPTER 2 ................................................................................................................................ 34 CHAPTER 3 ................................................................................................................................ 55 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 75 WORKS CITED ......................................................................................................................... 77 Lerner 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This thesis has been by far the most ambitious undertaking of my college career, and I truly could not have done it without the loads of support I received. I would like to sincerely thank Joseph and Ilona Kusa and the Dunlevie
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  • Südafrika Die "Regenbogennation" Südafrika Hat Eine Bewegte Geschichte Mit Rassentrennung Und Befreiung Von Der Apartheid Hinter Sich
    LIPortal Das Länder-Informations-Portal Südafrika Die "Regenbogennation" Südafrika hat eine bewegte Geschichte mit Rassentrennung und Befreiung von der Apartheid hinter sich. Als politischer und wirtschaftlicher Riese in der Region des südlichen Afrika spricht Südafrika auch ein gewichtiges Wort in der Weltpolitik mit, gleichzeitig steht das Land vor immensen ökonomischen und gesellschaftlichen Aufgaben. Landesübersicht & Naturraum Geschichte & Staat Wirtschaft & Entwicklung Gesellschaft & Kultur Alltag & Praktische Informationen Das Länderinformationsportal Im Länderinformationsportal (LIPortal) geben ausgewiesene Landesexpertinnen und Landesexperten eine Einführung in eines von ca. 80 verschiedenen Ländern. Das LIPortal wird kontinuierlich betreut und gibt Orientierung zu Das Länderinformationsportal Länderinformationen im WorldWideWeb. mehr Über die Autorin Rita Schäfer, freiberufliche Wissenschaftlerin und Dozentin, Autorin der Bücher: Im Schatten der Apartheid 2008, Frauen und Kriege in Afrika 2008, Gender und ländliche Entwicklung in Afrika 2012. Seit 2015 Konzeption, Realisierung und Aktualisierung des Informationsportals Africanclimatevoices.com zum Klimawandel im südlichen Afrika. 2016 Redakteurin der Publikation: Südafrika verstehen (Co-Redakteur Hein Möllers). Landesübersicht & Naturraum (Diese Länderseite wurde zum letzten Mal im März 2019 aktualisiert.) Südafrika ist der südlichste Staat des afrikanischen Kontinents. Das Land am Kap zieht wegen seines gemäßigten Klimas, seiner zahlreichen Naturschönheiten und einer guten Infrastruktur
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  • A Multisemiotic Analysis of Race in Apartheid South Africa: the Case
    A MULTISEMIOTIC DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF RACE IN APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA: THE CASE OF SANDRA LAING FIONA SEVERIONA FERRIS A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor Philosophiae in the Department of Linguistics, University of the Western Cape Supervisor: Professor Felix Banda 2015 i A Multisemiotic Discourse Analysis of Race in Apartheid South Africa: The case of Sandra Laing Fiona Ferris Key Words Afrikaans Apartheid Communication Community Discourse Language Multisemioticity Race Racism Resemiotisation Semiotic chains Semiotic Remediation South Africa ii ABSTRACT A Multisemiotic Analysis of Race in Apartheid South Africa: The Case of Sandra Laing Fiona Severiona Ferris PhD, Department of Linguistics, University of the Western Cape In this thesis I investigate the reconstruction of the life history of Sandra Laing and the recreation of the apartheid context by analyzing two artefacts. These main artefact for investigation is the movie Skin, by Anthony Fabian which is based on the book “When She Was White: A Family Divided By Race” by Judith Stone, which is the second artefact for investigation. The latter artefact is based on the life of Sandra Laing. Sandra Laing was born to white parents in the apartheid era, but she did not ascribe to the physical description of a person who was classified ‘white’ in accordance with legal and social framing thereof in apartheid South Africa. This posed many legal, social and political difficulties for her family. I was particularly interested in the composition of information sources and how semiotic resources are re-enacted, reused and repurposed in the movie ‘Skin.’ The study is more theoretical than applied in that it seeks to answer the question posed by Prior and Grusin (2010: 1): “How do we understand semiotics/multimodality theoretically and investigate it methodologically?” In the study I develop Prior and Grusin’s (2010) thesis by working with notion of semiotic remediation as a focus on semioticity helps me to focus on the signs across modes, media, channels and genres.
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  • Describe the Role of Race in Skin and How It Influence Sandra's Sense Of
    Describe the role of race in Skin and how it influence Sandra’s sense of identity. How does race affect how other characters perceive her? The film Skin, directed by Anthony Fabian, underscores the overwhelming role of race in South Africa during the racially divisive era of apartheid. The film charts the journey of Sandra Laing, a black woman born into a white family who seeks to establish her own identity. While Sandra is at first oblivious to her race or skin colour, by the end of the film it is clear that she cannot find acceptance in the black or white societies because of the preconceptions and prejudices held by those around her. Initially, Sandra does not view her race as a determinant of her identity. Early on in the film, she states that she is “not black”. This statement is not intended to be a racial statement, but rather a socialized statement. At this point in time, Sandra’s identity has not been formed according to race – she is simply being who she is. This idea is accentuated by the fact that Sandra possesses a white doll, suggesting to the audience that Sandra does not see herself as being different to the white doll. Sandra identifies herself with those around her, not by the colour of her skin. The overt racism which Sandra experiences in boarding school establishes the powerlessness and confusion she regularly feels later throughout her life. It is here in which she is explicitly judged for the first time in the narrative. Sandra’s skin colour and implied race quickly turns her into a ‘kaffir’ in the eyes of the students.
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  • When She Was White: the Value of White Skin During Apartheid
    When She Was White: The Value of White Skin During Apartheid A review of the film Skin (2009) Anthony Fabian (Director) Reviewed by Kellina M. Craig-Henderson As a social psychologist with a keen interest in the psychosocial correlates of racial classification schemes and their impacts, I was intrigued from the moment I learned of the premise upon which the film Skin, released in 2009, is based. The film tells the story of Sandra Laing, a woman who, though born of White South African parents in 1955, appeared to be “colored.” Ms. Laing’s greatest misfortune would turn out to be that she was the victim of a condition known as “polygenic inheritance.” Genetics researchers studying this condition attempt to show how multiple genes in combination with a person’s environment can influence phenotype, or physical appearance. A gene that lies dormant for generations can suddenly appear and influence the appearance of other genes. In this case, two White parents who knew nothing of an ancestry other than European (i.e., White) produced a child who did not look “White.” The movie is a fictionalized account of the way that Sandra Laing’s childhood at age 11 was turned upside down. It vividly depicts the way that she would come to epitomize the absurdity and injustice of the South African apartheid system that infected the country for 46 years until its official end in 1994. Until she was 11 Sandra led a normal life as a “White” South African young girl. It was then that the South African government officially classified her as “Black.” Given that the Population Registration Act of 1950 mandated separation of the races, Sandra was no longer permitted to attend the Whites-only school she had previously attended, shop in the stores reserved for Whites, or enjoy the general way of life that she once had.
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  • Exploring Social Cohesion in South Africa Within the Context of Post Apartheid Racial-Disparity Peter Schneider SIT Graduate Institute - Study Abroad
    SIT Graduate Institute/SIT Study Abroad SIT Digital Collections Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection SIT Study Abroad Spring 2016 Exploring Social Cohesion in South Africa Within the Context of Post Apartheid Racial-Disparity Peter Schneider SIT Graduate Institute - Study Abroad Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection Part of the Civic and Community Engagement Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, and the Social Psychology and Interaction Commons Recommended Citation Schneider, Peter, "Exploring Social Cohesion in South Africa Within the Context of Post Apartheid Racial-Disparity" (2016). Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection. 2329. https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection/2329 This Unpublished Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the SIT Study Abroad at SIT Digital Collections. It has been accepted for inclusion in Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection by an authorized administrator of SIT Digital Collections. For more information, please contact [email protected]. EXPLORING SOCIAL COHESION IN SOUTH AFRICA WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF POST APARTHEID RACIAL-DISPARITY MY ISP MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED OR QUOTED IN ANY WAY - STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL - VIEWED BY OTHER DURBAN SIT HEALTH STUDENTS ONLY YES I HEREBY GRANT PERMISSION FOR WORLD LEARNING TO INCLUDE MY ISP IN ITS PERMANENT LIBRARY COLLECTION YES I HEREBY GRANT PERMISSION FOR WORLD LEARNING TO RELEASE MY ISP IN ANY FORMAT TO INDIVIDUALS, ORGANIZATIONS, OR LIBRARIES IN THE HOST COUNTRY FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES AS DETERMINED BY SIT YES HEREBY GRANT PERMISSION FOR WORLD LEARNING TO PUBLISH MY ISP ON ITS WEBSITES AND IN ANY OF ITS DIGITAL/ELECTRONIC COLLECTIONS, AND TO REPRODUCE AND TRANSMIT MY ISP ELECTRONICALLY.
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  • Born-A-Crime-Litchart.Pdf
    Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com Born a Crime gained independence from the UK in 1931, but the Afrikaner- INTRODUCTION led National Party won the 1948 elections, closely studied government-enforced racial segregation policies around the BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF TREVOR NOAH world, and implemented the most effective to create the Born to a Xhosa mother and a Swiss-German father in system of laws and governance known as apartheid. The Johannesburg, Trevor Noah’s very existence as a mixed-race population was divided into four groups: whites, Indians, person was technically illegal until the end of South Africa’s coloreds, and blacks. Unlike with racism in countries like the US, white supremacist apartheid regime in 1994. Born a Crime there was no illusion of anything like “separate but equal”; covers his life until the beginning of his career in the early rather, the apartheid government openly proclaimed an 2000s, following his close relationship with his beloved mother, ideology of white supremacy. Apartheid guaranteed the white his attempts to articulate his complex identity in a nation that minority most of the nation’s land, wealth, and political power; still clung tightly to racial hierarchy, and his struggle to gave coloreds and Indians limited political rights; and forced overcome the poverty and violence that surrounded him. After native black Africans to labor in what was effectively a form of he finished high school, humor transformed from a means of slavery and to live in cramped slums (townships) and depleted coping with suffering to the foundation of his career: after a rural areas (homelands or bantustans).
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  • PRESS KIT – GOOD HOPE 1 Good Hope Is a Timely and Topical, Feature
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  • University of Birmingham the Limits Of
    University of Birmingham The limits of the ‘Liberal imagination’ Schaffer, Gavin DOI: 10.1093/pastj/gty005 Document Version Peer reviewed version Citation for published version (Harvard): Schaffer, G 2018, 'The limits of the ‘Liberal imagination’: Britain, broadcasting, and apartheid South Africa, 1948- 1994', Past & Present, vol. 240, no. 1, pp. 235–266. https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gty005 Link to publication on Research at Birmingham portal Publisher Rights Statement: This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Past and Present following peer review. The version of record Gavin Schaffer, The Limits of the ‘Liberal Imagination’: Britain, Broadcasting and Apartheid South Africa, 1948–1994, Past & Present, Volume 240, Issue 1, August 2018, Pages 235–266, is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gty005article/doi/10.1093/pastj/gty005/4965957 General rights Unless a licence is specified above, all rights (including copyright and moral rights) in this document are retained by the authors and/or the copyright holders. The express permission of the copyright holder must be obtained for any use of this material other than for purposes permitted by law. •Users may freely distribute the URL that is used to identify this publication. •Users may download and/or print one copy of the publication from the University of Birmingham research portal for the purpose of private study or non-commercial research. •User may use extracts from the document in line with the concept of ‘fair dealing’ under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (?) •Users may not further distribute the material nor use it for the purposes of commercial gain.
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