Relationship between Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence (unedited) and Douglass, Independent Day Speech.

Explain the relationship between Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence (unedited) and Douglass, Independent Day Speech. How do the texts speak to each other and how do they define Blackness (as opposed to whiteness) as part of the creation of the United States? 

2. Blay’s One-Drop Rule provides a historical and legal information about the cultural and legal norms that solidified “African-American” and “Black” as racial categories in the U.S. Does the article defend or argue against the One-drop Rule? Does the article agree with the statement that “the Color Line” is a problem (DuBois)? Why? What’s the article argument and purpose?

3. Is “Hispanic” or “Latino/a/x” a homogeneous racial category? If not, why? What are the historical and cultural origins of the people considered Hispanic or Latinos and Latinas in the US? What 3 major cultural backgrounds do they share and how can they be considered “Black,” “White” and “Indigenous” at the same time? Provide examples and address the question directly and thoroughly. 

4. Langston Hughes’ poem “What happens to a dream deferred?” can be connected to the “Declaration of Independence” and the unconditional and without exceptions statement, “Black Lives Matter.” How so? Point out to specific words, lines, passages in the texts to support your argument. 

5. In the article we read in class titled “Latinx,” Hitz states that mestizaje (mixedness) is “not a halfway state of being, but a complete state of being unto itself. I can think of no better extension of that sentiment than “Latinx,” a word that concedes to malleability, the “x” willing to become whatever it needs to be for the person who wears it.” Explain the quote above and relate its meaning to any of the texts that you have read in section III: African American and/or in section IV: Hispanic, Latino/a. Write the title of the article, poem, historical text you have chosen to connect the quote to and explain clearly how the use of the “X” connect with your selection.