To what extent is race befitting for classifying humanity? How does ethnicity help or hinder our notions of race? What role have race and ethnicity played in shaping our country, our laws, and our identities? How does this history impact our American experience today?

 

These are just some of the essential questions considered by juniors and seniors enrolled in Race and Ethnicity in America, an interdisciplinary elective taught by Upper School history teacher Zackaria Gaines.

 

Recently, students were asked to complete a media project, examining the origins of racism and white supremacy in various aspects of society, including art, beauty, religion, and theatre. Showcasing their analytical and technical skills, the end product took many different forms—from mini-documentary, to podcast, to video.

 

“My hope was that students could do a deep dive into a topic that interests them,” Gaines says. “I really wanted them to spend their time doing research, conducting interviews, thinking analytically, and communicating well. It’s an added bonus if they developed skills using video editing software.”

 

Other assignments include the writing of an autoethnography (“a look into students’ family history, how their family made it to America, and how they identify racially and ethnically”), which dovetails with the reading of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and a reimagining of Confederate monuments and memorials (“looking at how national memory can be honored or dishonored, addressing any tensions, controversies, and conflicts that exist in each statue’s community”). Gaines is also inviting local adults into the classroom to share their “race journey”: how they first became conscious of race, what role race has played in their life, if they use their race as part of their identity.

 

This is the first time that Gaines, who also serves as Ninth Grade Dean, has taught an interdisciplinary course at The Shipley School. He brings with him a background in sociology, applying the concept of sociological imagination, coined by the late Charles Wright Mills, sociologist and Professor of Sociology at Columbia University, as the framework and lens through which he and his students analyze and interpret historical documents and events.

 

“Mills stated that the goal of a sociologist is to take what can be seen as personal troubles and translate them into public issues. So, taking something that affects a person individually and trying to explain the social structures that might be contributing to those personal feelings,” Gaines says. “We take the small events of a single person’s life and then try to look at the historical context to bring some understanding to it.”