55 pages • 1 hour read
To Be a Slave
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Essay Topics
In Chapter 4, Julius Lester includes an extended quote from Thomas Jefferson in which Jefferson argues that “the blacks […] are inferior to the whites in the endowments of both body and mind” (58). Read Jefferson’s argument critically. Which points cannot be proven? Which points are disproven by other details included in this book? In what ways is he using Western culture as the standard to judge African cultures?
In the Prologue, Lester includes a quote from an enslaved African recalling his first glimpse of white people: “I had never seen white people before and they appeared to me the ugliest creatures in the world” (10). In Chapter 4, Lester includes an extended quote from Thomas Jefferson, including Jefferson’s assertion that “the fine mixtures of red and white” in one race are “preferable to that eternal monotony […] of the other race” (57). Research racism in the beauty industry, historically and today. How have ideas of beauty around the world been influenced by Western culture? How are some people in the beauty industry dismantling these standards?
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