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Part I:
As your first post and start to our discussion for this week, please write a short but detailed two paragraph description of your home and neighborhood. What does it look like, smell like, sound like? What does your house or apartment look like? How big is your room? Do you have a backyard? How long have you lived there? Please use as many adjectives as possible. Please use as much detail as possible. Think creatively. Help us to “see” your home. After you have done this, please locate your neighborhood on the Seattle Civil Rights webpage: http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/segregated.htm (Links to an external site.)
Please spend some time exploring the content of the website. Write at least one paragraph on the specific legacy of your neighborhood when it comes to segregation. Specifically, what were the racial covenants (laws) of your neighborhood? I am not looking for racial demographics. You may do further research online to understand the history of racial segregation in Seattle, but please make sure to include links to all sources.
Your initial post should be at least three paragraphs (including home description and historical legacy of your neighborhood). Please post the above assignment by 10am on Thursday. When assessing your neighborhood description, I will look for detailed descriptions as well as the depth of engagement with the second part of the assignment.
Further instructions:
*To reiterate, I do not want a simple breakdown of the racial demographics of your neighborhood for this assignment. Rather I want you to try your best to understand/interpret how the legal system (and its historical policies) have shaped where you currently live.
*You DO NOT need to email me a copy of this assignment (just post it directly on the board).
*If your neighborhood is not on the website or you do not live in Seattle, YOU WILL NEED to do additional research on segregation policies in your city/county/neighborhood. I realize that many offices are closed due to current circumstances, so please do your best to contact them and/or find information online. If you live in a close suburb of Seattle, you may also consider how Seattle’s historical policies on race affected the construction of the suburb. You may also want to consider how U.S. government policies regarding indigenous land shaped where you live today. As a last resort, you may choose to write about the neighborhood closest to where you live (or a local place where you’ve lived in the past while attending school).
Part II:
For the remainder of the week and as a separate second post, I’d like you to think critically about the history of the “ghetto” traced by Asante, Jr. How does knowing this longer history of the Jewish ghettos effect your present day understanding of it as a geographical/political space? Did this article make you think differently about the segregation policies of the United States? How so? What did you think of the form of the article? Was it effective? Please state your reasoning for your answers.
