Big Black Good Man

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What do you know about racism in the Europe?

Teaching Suggestion: Though Europe is a diverse continent in which each country has a different relationship with race, it is likely students have the popular conception there is no racism in Europe after the Holocaust. These sources can help students understand racism is not an issue unique to America. Though a class might not be able to explore all the layers of racist ideology in Europe, an understanding that racism exists in different forms is important in accessing the story, particularly because of the story’s limited narrative voices.

• "Your Ways Are Strange to Us Europeans": Isaiah Lopaz’s Ted Talk describing his experiences as a Black man in Germany, in which he challenges German notions of anti-racism
• "Europe's Buried History of Racism and Slavery": Politico’s comprehensive article on the history of racism in Europe and the contemporary myths of anti-racism throughout the continent

2. What do you know about the term “anti-miscegenation”?

Teaching Suggestion: Students may have learned about anti-miscegenation in their social studies classes, but for many students this term is outdated because it is rare to see it used in contemporary discourse around race.