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| Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Image Credit: Vimeo.com |
Historian Khalil Gibran Muhammad is the Guest on Bill Moyers & Company (click on the link above to watch the full show). Here are questions to consider while watching this clip:
I. Questions About the Art and Science of History
Why does Muhammad say that history is all around us? Why does he say that history is the building block of all of our knowledge about society?
Where does Muhammad say that black history begins? What does he say is the character of black history? How is the narrative of history contingent upon what one is trying to convey to the consumers of that history?
What do Moyers and Muhammad say about the complications of trying to celebrate the present without whitewashing the past?
How does Muhammad answer the question of how we know which part of the past to trust?
In what ways does Muhammad suggest that American history is a situational irony – an irony of situation?
What does Muhammad say about the contradictions of the founding fathers? What does he say about the difference between an individual living with contradictions and the act of crafting ideas to justify and validate those contradictions?
Why does Muhammad say that Americans, Black or White, tend to avoid discussions about the contradictions of American history during national holidays, such as the 4th of July?
II. Key Aspects of American History
What does Muhammad identify as being the "motivating principle" for the shaping of American society?
What does Muhammad say was at the heart of the very notion of settlement in America?
What does Muhammad say about the relationship between citizenship and property?
What does Muhammad say are the origins of the criminal justice system in the United States?
III. Questions Concerning Race and the Criminal Justice System in the United States
What does Muhammad describe as being the difference between how civic reformers responded to the criminality and deviant social behavior of European immigrants in the early 20th century and that of African American migrants during the same period?
What were differences in the underlying assumptions, among social reformers, about the origins of criminal behavior among European immigrants as contrasted against that of Black migrants? How did the differences between these two assumptions affect social responses to crime associated with these two groups?
Moreover, what does Muhammad describe as being the difference between the social response and treatment of behavior by European immigrants, deemed to be a threat to civility to the social order, as opposed to similar behavior exhibited by African American migrants?
What does Muhammad describe as being the process of refashioning the identity of African Americans as a criminal identity, and how was this criminal identity related to social and human services that were, or were not, provided to Blacks?
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