Discussion Questions for Thursday

Hey Everyone! Here are the discussion questions we will be talking about on Thursday. See you then.


1. How does the author’s theory of disguise relate to forging the theory of the “we”?



2. What does Lawrence mean by: “You can’t change your nature and mode of consciousness like changing your shoes …years must go by and centuries must elapse before you have finished …it is a long and half-secret process”? (9)




3. What is meant by the phrase: “want their cake and eat it too”? What is Noble savagery?



4. A common day version of Playing Indian: organizations such as Boy Scouts of America. What do you think about these traditions?



5. Who is Tammany? How did Tammany represent “patriotic Americanness”?



6. Frantz Fanon quotes French Philosopher, Francis Jeanson, in his book Black Skin, White Masks: “…every citizen of a nation is responsible for the actions committed in the name of that nation” (91). Do you agree? Disagree? Why?



7. What is meant by the Racialized constructions of Asian “masculinity” and “femininity”?




8. Racial consciousness vs. movement for identity. Lowe says that student activism for Asian American studies is not an “identity movement”, but rather a voicing of racial consciousness. What is the difference? (39)




9. How does the word “identity” link the two readings together (Deloria and Lowe)?