State and Local Government, Day 8 - Class Recap

Rowena Crest Viewpoint, near Moiser, Oregon (which was just in the news as the site of an oil train derailment). Photo taken in 2016.

Dear class

I enjoyed talking with everyone about the election today, and also our work with analyzing how race has impacted our state and local government, especially in Portland. Here's what happened in class today:

Learning Targets Addressed:

Knowledge LT 1: I can demonstrate an understanding of the interplay between citizens and their governments.
Knowledge LT 5: I can demonstrate an understanding of the principles, structures, and functions of different levels of U.S. government.
Research LT 5: I can effectively conduct and apply research. 

Soundtrack: "Coming Home" by Mat Kearney. Selected for today because it is a song about Oregon. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 6/7/16:
News Brief – Jay
State and Local Presentations?
Lift Ev'ry Voice
Discussion

Homework: Read the blog. Continue studying for finals! Next news brief: Kate.

News Brief: Jay had the news brief today and selected an article about this story: Billboard.com - Smoke DZA Delivers Election-Inspired Project 'Don't Pass Trump the Blunt': Premiere. A good combination of election news and recreational marijuana news to relate to government! ;-)

We also talked about the last major day of the presidential primary election, with California being the big state voting today. I showed the New York Times updates on what is going on, and we also looked at the national election map of results for both parties. Cool visual!

State and Local Presentations? We finished up with these today in class! Woo hoo! If you have not turned in the corresponding paper, please do so ASAP, as I will be grading these with your finals.

Lift Ev'ry Voice: With our last few days before the final, I wanted to focus on how our state and local community has acted with regards to race - specifically, the black community in Portland. To start, I showed this article that (while pretty long) does a great job at going into detailed history here:

Gizmodo.com - Oregon Was Founded As a Racist Utopia

We then watched the first part of an excellent recent documentary from OPB, called Lift Ev'ry Voice. We still have about 40 minutes next class to watch, but if you want to watch again, share, or get caught up, it is here:

OPB.org - Portland Civil Rights: Lift Ev'ry Voice

Here is the worksheet that goes along with the documentary:

Google Drive: Lift Ev'ry Voice Documentary Questions

I think it is super important that we understand our own history regarding race in Portland, especially as I think there are some common assumptions that are just not true. As such, I was glad to see that almost everyone was glued to this in class. I'm looking forward to finishing it up next time and discussing it!

See you on Thursday, everyone!