Units November 8, 2021
Race, Power, and Health: Past and Present
State:
Grades:
This unit was created by Humanities at Life Academy of Health and Bioscience, part of the 2021 cohort of The 1619 Project Education Network. It is designed for facilitation across approximately five weeks, or twenty-two 105-minute class periods.
Objectives
Students will be able to...
- Determine the main idea of texts through close reading.
- Craft precise, knowledgeable claims in writing.
- Compare and contrast the past with the present.
Big Ideas for this Unit
- Power (and protection of it) is at the root of racism/casteism.
- Race has formed science just as science has formed race—science has been both a victim and perpetrator of racist beliefs, and scientific honesty is essential.
- The health care system is a set of institutions that historically and presently perpetuates our racist caste system.
- Communities of color and individuals of color have resisted (and continue to resist) scientific and medical racism.
Unit Overview
In this unit, students engage in three document-based inquiry cycles comparing how people of color, specifically African Americans, have been treated in the American medical system in the past and present. After these three inquiries, students write a summative DBQ essay answering the unit question: Considering the history of racism in healthcare, to what extent should people of color have trust and faith in the U.S. healthcare system?
This unit serves as the first unit of the year and as such the first week is both an introduction to the class and to the unit—please tailor to your own needs. In the first week, students are introduced to the relationship between power and race, specifically how race is used as a “tool” to protect and justify systems of power. Using Nikole Hannah-Jones’s essay “The Idea of America” as a framing text, students investigate the dominant “1776” narrative of American history and the “1619” counter-narrative. They conclude the first week with a free write answering the prompt: What does America mean to you? Week 2 begins the first document-based inquiry which is themed around medical crises. Students compare the treatment (and scapegoating) of people of color in the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793 and in the modern COVID-19 pandemic. In Week 3, students explore an inquiry focused on healthcare in which they compare the successes and failures of the Reconstruction-era Freedmen’s Bureau to the Affordable Care Act. In the final inquiry cycle in Week 4, students learn about theories of scientific racism in the American past and draw connections to scientific racism in the present day. In Week 5, students synthesize their learning and craft a five-paragraph DBQ essay that draws on evidence from the three inquiries.
Performance Task
Students synthesize their learning and craft a five-paragraph DBQ essay that draws on evidence from the three inquiries. In the DBQ, they answer the question: Considering the history of racism in healthcare, to what extent should people of color have trust and faith in the U.S. healthcare system?
For more detailed instructions on the DBQ, explore the student-facing DBQ Instructions:
Five-week unit plan for teachers, including pacing, texts and multimedia resources, graphic organizers for student projects, and performance tasks for the unit. Download below, or scroll down to read the complete unit plan.
Unit Resources
Common Core Standards
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.2: Determine main ideas and how they develop
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.1.A: Introduce precise, knowledgeable claims
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.4: Determine the meaning of words in a text, analyze how an author uses words
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.6: Determine author’s POV and analyze style and content
Performance Task
Students synthesize their learning and craft a five-paragraph DBQ essay that draws on evidence from the three inquiries. In the DBQ, they answer the question: Considering the history of racism in healthcare, to what extent should people of color have trust and faith in the U.S. healthcare system?
The essays below were written by students at Life Academy of Health and Bioscience in fall 2021.
Given the history of racism that has been analyzed so far, people of color should have some trust and faith in the U.S. healthcare system because while POC were and are being mistreated during disease outbreaks, and there have been false accusations and oppressive actions that negatively impacted their lives, there were also organizations established to give people of color better healthcare access. Many could say that most of the dangers and oppressive beliefs were in the past, but research has found pseudoscience still engraved in doctors’ medical decisions. There have been instances where people of color got the assistance that they need, but reasons to be afraid and hesitant towards the medical community still exist.
Student at Life Academy of Health and Bioscience
Based on the Freedmen’s Bureau Act from 1865 and the Affordable Care Act from 2010, people of color shouldn’t trust the U.S. healthcare system because the Freedmen's Bureau and the Affordable Care Act both didn’t furnish enough economic support, causing people of color to face onerous consequences. Slavery was brutal and instead of Andrew Johnson supporting the Bureau, he insisted it should end because it was unfair to the South and expensive. This was about equity and about being fair. White people were already settled down and black people had nothing...To make this situation worse, people are still uninsured because U.S. healthcare still costs money. So if someone doesn’t pay for their treatment, they would be denied or put in debt. This adds to the list of why people of color shouldn't trust the U.S. healthcare system because the government would much rather benefit from revenue than save a life.
Student at Life Academy of Health and Bioscience