The Activism Project Proposal and Issues of Racism in The United States of America

Activism Project Proposal (revision)

Backround

Racism is a problem in the United States that activists, such as Martin Luther King Jr. and his daughter Yolanda King, have been working to change for centuries. For example, when Yolanda walked the same route as her father in Marquette Park, she states that it was possible to think that everything had changed in Marquette and the South because she received warmer reception than her father did, but memories of the 1966 riots linger, as well as some of the issues her father worked to change (Pickett, 1). Also, some movements that King launched, such as the Poor Peoples Movement, have seemed to work against his dream of a promised land of equality because there are more women and people of color living in poverty now then when he launched the movement ( Pickett, 1). The American Film Festival of 2002 has given the film Far From Heaven the biggest buzz because it reveals the truth about racism taking over the suburban garden, and has praised it as a quality American movie, talking about it as the new American Beauty ticket to the Oscars ( Jacobson, 1). Big business is paving the way for a transracial America and an end to the era when whiteness was assumed to be the norm because since 1991, beauty lines such as Maybelline and Revlon have been aiming their products at dark-skinned women to make the most profit, and white women liked the darker shades, while women of color responded favorably to the beauty of models of other shades (Wynter, 2).

School/ Community Impact

In an effort to impact the entire Queen of Peace Community, each group member will pass out ribbons of different colors during each of our homerooms on the day our group presents, which will symbolize people of different races around the world being united with each other. The purpose of the ribbons is to make each student more open to other races and cultures by representing a different race. By choosing to wear a ribbon, the buyer will be affected as well as anyone who comes in contact with the person who bought it. Our group feels that this is the best way to impact the community because ribbons in our price range as students to provide to the school and we think that if we sell them for about a quarter each, more students will be willing to buy them. Also, once a couple students start to wear them, we believe that people will ask about the ribbon and want to get one once they find out what its cause is. Weve seen in the past how well a ribbon idea has worked with students because when they were sold it seemed like at least half of the school was wearing them. In order to accomplish this activity we need ribbons of different color, pins, scissors, and permission from each group members homeroom teacher as well as Miss Nolans permission to distribute the ribbons. The steps needed to make the ribbons is that each group member will be assigned a race the night before presentation. Then, when the member goes home they will get the ribbon color of this race and make a sufficient number of ribbons for their homeroom and make enough ribbons for the next day. Then during the members homeroom they will explain their cause in front of the class and ask if anybody would like to purchase one.

Action Plan:

1. Each group member did their own research on the history of racism.
2. The group gathered and came up with a proposal, and Ally typed it.
3. The group gathered the next day and came up with the lesson plan, and Tai typed it.
4. Each member was assigned their own section of racism the day of the proposal gathering.
5. We will go get Miss Nolans permission to hand out the ribbons during one of our homerooms on Monday, October 28.
6. During homeroom each member will also get permission from their homeroom teacher to distribute the ribbons.
7. Now, each member will have to research this area of racism on their own. Stella was given the history of racism. Tai was given racism current events. Ally is finding movies that have racism as their theme, taking clips from about five or six different movies and making a short film about it.
8. Tai will make up the racism slurs to be passed out during the presentation.
9. Jessica M. will create a poster that coincides with Stellas history of racism.

Possible Service Opportunities Regarding Your Issue: We could go to the C.O.R. meetings and find out what events they have to offer and participate in these events, or we could possibly go to a local grammar school to provide them with a skit on racism to teach them about unity.