Race and Justice in America Grades 6/7/8

To cover is to downplay aspects of our identity that make us different from mainstream society. Kenji Yoshino argues that, although we live in an age where the law prohibits many forms of discrimination, people still face pressure to hide who they are.

In this poem, the speaker explores how our culture would be lacking—in people, in music, in movements, in contributions—without contributions of African Americans.

In this poem, the speaker--who is Native American--responds to a series of unspoken discriminatory questions. The reader can deduce the missing questions based on the speaker's responses.

Hailey Woldt describes being a part of a research team that traveled to 75 cities and visited 100 mosques as part of a study on Muslims living in a post-9/11 America. In Brooklyn, a ten-year-old boy tells of being beaten, prevented from practicing his religion in peace and called a terroist.

Langston Hughes, a voice of the Harlem Renaissance, writes of a black man banished to the kitchen when company arrives. This same man looks to the future, for a day when he will sit at the table to eat with company, because he, too, is an American.