- Revisit Carol Dweck’s TED Talk and her concepts of fixed mindset and growth mindset. Connect one of her concepts to the issue Coates raises about the US being reluctant to study reparations. Quote both texts and write at least 3 of your own informal sentences to connect the texts.
- Fixed mindset– The U.S. wanting to stay in the white comfort zone that it created over hundreds of years.
- “From their more fixed mindset perspective, their intelligence had been up for judgment, and they failed” (Dweck, 00:41) AND “The idea of reparations is frightening not simply because we might lack the ability to pay. The idea of reparations threatens something much deeper—America’s heritage, history, and standing in the world” (Coates, part 9 para. 8). These quotes can be tied together through the idea of a fear of failure. A fixed mindset described by Dweck is somewhat a fear of coming out of your comfort zone which is what the U.S. is dealing with. The U.S. has had a long and painful history being constantly covered up and whitewashed. The reparations that were requested through the HR 40 bill are seen as threatening the comfort zone that the U.S. created for itself. There is no clear cut way to pay reparations after years of generational trauma, so the U.S. is faced with either not acknowledging the past, or not providing a sufficient way of paying those reparations. The U.S. does not want to fail, but it already has by ignoring this call of reparations for so long.
- Revisit either Lukianoff and Haidt’s concept of “vindictive protectiveness” or one of the following: emotional reasoning, fortune telling, or catastrophizing? Might one of these concepts help make sense of what Coates finds about HR 40? Explain with evidence and at least 3 of your own informal sentences.
- “turn campuses into “safe spaces” where young adults are shielded from words and ideas that make some uncomfortable. And more than the last, this movement seeks to punish anyone who interferes with that aim, even accidentally. You might call this impulse vindictive protectiveness. It is creating a culture in which everyone must think twice before speaking up, lest they face charges of insensitivity, aggression, or worse” (L&H, para. 5). AND “That HR 40 has never—under either Democrats or Republicans—made it to the House floor suggests our concerns are rooted not in the impracticality of reparations but in something more existential” (Coates, part 3 para. 14). Connecting these two quotes start with the roots of the U.S. The majority of the U.S. in my opinion, is of the mindset “don’t ask don’t tell” and “every man for himself” so the thought of paying reparations is a jab at these ideals. Lukianoff and Haidt point out the idea of vindictive protectiveness with respect to speaking on issues that may be uncomfortable for some individuals to hear. The U.S. is trying to protect itself from having to confront and pay reparations for all the hurtful history that it’s tried to cover up for hundreds of years.
Meep<3
