Kanye+&+Katrina



I use this activity after the class has finished reading //Going to Meet the Man// by James Baldwin. As part of our discussion around race in America today, the class reads a chapter from Michael Eric Dyson's book "Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster." The chapter is titled "Does George W. Bush Care About Black People" and addresses Kanye West's controversial comments regarding the President during the NBC telethon to aid victims of the disaster. The lesson is designed to help students speak openly and honestly about race while building on our emotional reactions to the tragedy to consider more academic approaches to examining what occurred.