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Y2M Road To Black Excellence Essay Living Museum eFlyer v2

Deadline for Submission (Essay):
June 2nd emailed to
y2m@acog-chicago.net by 5pm

Living Museum Presentation:
June 17th Saturday 10am-1pm

Notification of Essay Winners:
June 25th  at Celebration of Graduates

Essay Competition Registration

Essay Competition Award package

(High School Junior – Undergrad)
1st Place: $3000
2nd Place: $2000
3rd Place: $1000

(7th Grade- High School Sophomore)
1st Place: Surface Tablet
2nd Place: Surface Tablet
3rd Place: Surface Tablet

AN EXPLORATION OF SYSTEMIC RACISM AND BIBLICAL ACTIVISM A Framework for Understanding Critical Race Theory By Evangelist Granada Cartwright

  • The following framework is provided to inform the understanding of Critical Race Theory and possible biblical solutions for the building up of the young people of the Apostolic Church of God. While Critical Race Theory is taught at the graduate level as part of law schools, the times demand a greater understanding of how those theories have identified the systemic challenges African-Americans and other minorities have faced. While not offered as part of educational programs today, its place in informing how our system works is undeniable. Critical Race Theory attempts to address how implicit bias inaccurately connects characteristics of people and then penalizes them for the misapplication of those connections. An understanding of how common implicit bias exist is crucial to successfully traversing the world in which they live. It will help them contend with the unconscious attitudes they often encounter that has been passed down through generations.
    Critical Race Theory was born out of a deep-seated belief that issues of race are woven into the fabric of our judicial system. It began to argue that structural racism is not only present but informing how laws are written, weighted, and enforced. It presumes that just as critical legal theory challenged judicial neutrality, rationale, and truth so does critical race theory challenge the intersection of bias, dominant cultural ascension, and minority suppression. Critical race theory was introduced in the 1970s by legal theorists including lawyers, legal scholars, and activists who struggled with what they perceived to be the unfulfilled work of the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights bill of 1964, the Voting Rights bill of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 were passed but not institutionally enforced by the United States government. With little enforcement of these new laws, more indirect and elusive forms of racism surfaced.

    The belief was that there needed to be new strategies developed to address the emergence of subtler forms of racism that were creeping into the blatant ones that were present in previous generations. The early thought leaders of Critical Race Theory hereafter referred to as CRT, were Derrick Bell, Richard Delgado, and Alan Freeman. They were soon joined by others and not only lent thought to issues around race and its impact and effect on various people groups but gender and class. As CRT expanded and its scope broadened, it addressed laws that continued to separate and limit the equitable treatment of all people. CRT purports that legal determinacy has to view things in more than one way because of the inherent discrimination that exists in the legal system.

    While theorized as radical by some, CRT addresses the complicity of the legal system in discrimination and thereby continues to subjugate minorities to unfair practices that are built into our national structure. As a nation, we have built a social construct of racism that established white over-color supremacy. That supremacy has allowed for the ascendency of the dominant group’s interest and psychological health and benefit. That supremacy assumes white equal normative. CRT provides a lens to how these things are structured. It concedes that although racism has been woven into our American system, it is difficult to address because it is not acknowledged by the vast majority of society. Things that are not addressed are hard to correct or rectify. CRT rightly points out that race and racism are social constructs producing fallible thoughts and relationships that are not objective, inherent, or fixed. The idea is invented by society and has no corresponding genetic or biological reality. Furthermore, the dominant society racializes others to maintain dominance as well as exclusion. It is an established practice that has been used to oppress and further subjugate others for centuries and continues in our modern day. It is seen in every aspect of our society from education to employment, from housing to homelessness, from access to healthcare to denial of services, and from justice to mass incarceration. Racialization has not only been a part of America’s founding but has been perpetuated in decoloring where denying color bias gives cover for continued racism, segregating where people are isolated from the actual realities that exist and can therefore deny racism, incarcerating which puts people away and reduces their citizenship and thereby promoting racism and alienating by regarding those outside of the majority as aliens and preserving racism.

Criteria for Essay Content High school Junior-College Undergrad

Subject

Select a question and Identify where the laws may not be fairly executed and provide a remedy for it.

Identify Issue/Problem

Identify whether the issue is political, religious, social or otherwise.

Biblical Response

Are there biblical examples of advocacy, courage or protest found in scripture regarding the issue? How do you respond when confronted with the erroneous ideologies of others that impose bias on you or others?

Word Count

Minimum of 1500 words double space

7th Grade Middle School- High School Sophomore

Subject

Select provide a solution to the suggested issue.

Identify Issue/Problem

Identify whether the issue is political, religious, social or otherwise.

Biblical Response

How does the Bible inform your thoughts on the matter? How do you respond when confronted with the flawed opposing mindsets of others?

Word Count

Minimum of 750 words double space

Rubric for Analyzing Essays Essay evaluation categories:

Essay Questions High school Junior-College Undergrad

  1. With Critical Race Theory (CRT) becoming a common topic in our political climate, what are the pros and cons of both sides and what does the future of both America’s look like?
  2. How was religion, specifically racism, used as a tool to stimulate racism (even during slavery)? How is it still used today? And is it theologically accurate or is racism against our religious beliefs?
  3. Reflect on both the Obama and Trump administration. How has either presidency served to improve or deteriorate the situation with racism in America?
  4. Does the racism against women differ from the racism against men within institutions and outside of them- even within social constructs? 
  5. Sociologists and other scholars have noted that “racism can still exist without racists”, how so? What does look like both now and in the future? 
  6. Is the expression of “third world” rooted in racism? Or is it rooted in classism? 
  7. As a Christian believer, how does one continue to overcome racism in everyday life using God’s Word as a tool? 
  8. Can racism be considered a mental illness in modern day society?

Essay Questions 7th Grade Middle School- High School Sophomore

  1. What should be the source of our understanding the systems in which we live – our educational system, the internet, our faith or something else and why?
  2. In what ways do the laws of the land conflict with or complement the Word of God on issues of how people are to be treated?
  3. How should we approach the inequity in our systems?
  4. Identify major inequities in our current system and ways in which those inequities can be addressed for systemic change?
  5. How does implicit bias show up in the common everyday lives of African-Americans and what can be done to address it?
  6. In what ways is America the land of the free for some and not for others?
  7. How does implicit bias show up and impact people in the everyday life?

Living Museum Registration

Award package

1st Place: Roblox Gift Card($200)
2nd Place: Roblox Gift Card($100)
3rd Place: Roblox Gift Card($50)

Roblox GiftCard2

Criteria

The Living Museum will serve as a creative experience for students in grades 2nd-8th to express their understanding of African American History through the lives of significant contributors both renowned and hidden figures. Each student will be required to create a tri-fold display board on their History Maker/Case/Organization, students will need to dress up as that History Maker or from the period and present as that History Maker through oral presentation in the Living Museum on Saturday June 17th during our Juneteenth celebration. Additionally, to everything above, grades 5th-8th will also be required write a 2-page research paper (double spaced) telling the story of the History Maker including contributions that impacted our society.

What students present should reflect their developmental stage.

Rubric for evaluating presentations will be the following categories: Written Narrative, Oral Presentation, and Physical Presentation

Microsoft Word - Criteria for Essays and Living Museum ONLINE (0

History Makers List

Althea Gibson
Ambassador Andrew Young
Aretha Franklin
August Wilson
Benjamin O. Davis Sr.
Bessie Coleman
Bishop Arthur M. Brazier
Booker T. Washington
Colin Powell
Congressman John Lewis
Chadwick Boseman
Debbie Allen
Denzel Washington
Dorothy Height
Dr. Byron T. Brazier, Sr.
Dr. Charles Drew
Dr. Daniel Hale Williams
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
Duke Ellington
Ella Baker
Fred Hampton
Frederick Douglas
Fritz Pollard
Gabrielle Douglas
Garrett Morgan
George Washington-Carver
Gordon Parks
Gwendolyn Brooks
Harriet Tubman
Henrietta Lacks
Howard Thurman
Ida B. Wells
Isabelle Brazier
Ivory J. Nuckolls
Jackie Robinson
James Baldwin
Jan E. Metzelinger

Jane Bolin
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Jesse Jackson
Jesse Owens
Johnson H. Johnson
Katherine Johnson
Kobe Bryant
Lebron James
Lerone Bennett
Madam C.J. Walker
Mae Jemison
Malcolm X
Margaret Burroughs
Mary Mcleod Bethune
Maya Angelou
Michael Jordan
Michelle Obama
Muhammad Ali
Nat Turner
Oprah Winfrey
Phillis Wheatley
President Barack Obama
Quincy Jones
Richard Allen
Robert S. Abbott
Robert Smalls
Rosa Parks
Rosalind Brewer
Ruby Bridges
Serena Williams
Shirley Chisholm
Sidney Poitier
Sojourner Truth
Solomon Northup
Stevie Wonder
Stephen Curry
Thurgood Marshall
Toni Morrison
W.E.B Du Bois
Zora Neale Hurston

Cases

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)

Organizations/ Groups

Tuskegee Airmen
Underground Railroad
Pullman Porter
SCLC
NAACP