Hey everyone– good job on the midterm! Your homework for the weekend is to read and annotate “In Defense of a Loaded Word” by Ta-Nehesi Coates (which I handed out on Wednesday) and to answer the 4 questions on the back of the packet.
Don’t worry, you won’t be asked to write an essay about this article, though I do expect you to read it thoughtfully. Also, an important note: it might make the conversation slightly difficult, but I don’t want us to use the word Coates is writing about in class. He goes into pretty great detail as to why people who aren’t black shouldn’t use it, and it certainly isn’t my intention to offend anyone with this conversation. So we’ll need to tread lightly.
