We will be watching A Bronx Tale as a sort of case study for our first unit.   A Bronx Tale is based on a true story.    Watch movie here.

Day 1 questions

1. Where and when does the story take place?

2. Describe the Anello family: Lorenzo, Rosina, and their son Calogero.

3. Describe Sonny and his friends.

4. After the shooting, what should Calogero have done? Why?

5. If you had been Lorenzo, would you have taken the $150/week from Sonny? Why or why not?

6. How did Sonny influence Calogero?

7. How did Lorenzo react to Sonny�s influence on �C�?

Day 2 questions

1. Describe C�s friends.

2. List two pieces of advice Sonny gives C. How does this differ from Lorenzo�s advice?

3. Describe C as a young man.

4. Describe Jane and her relationship with C.

5. How did C react when his friends attacked the young black men?

6. Describe Sonny�s �door test.�

7. What prevented Jane from having her first date with C?

Day 3 questions

1. What happened to C�s friends? What happened to Sonny?

2. What were the movie�s main themes? Rate the movie on a 1 to 10 scale.

 The racism throughout the film is obvious. What is often taken for granted is where the racism comes from.  Where does the racism come from?    It seems like we never fully understand racism amongst/between other cultural groups until we are thrust into another culture or we move away from our society and learn it somewhere else.  In this movie we see racism between Italians and African Americans.  You are probably not surprised that racism exists between all cultures.  But as I was writing this I thought of the question:  Is racism culturally universal or a Western Idea?  Where did it come from?  When did it start?  Is it everywhere?

So I decided to research some thoughts from Sociologists on this.  I came across an article titled "Is Racism a Western Idea."  Dinesh D'Souza is the author of this article.  In the article he makes the statement  "racism is a uniquely white pathology which can be traced to the beginnings of Western civilization."  By the end of the article he has come to the conclusion that because there was a beginning, there can be an end to racism.  Unfortunately (as of 2020) I can't access this article without paying for a subscription but another link I found shows similar research and conclusions.  Click here to see it.  Western States:

I read another article titled "How Racist are We?"  Here is the link.  In the article William Thomas, the author, talks about how racism has transformed into cultural groups-or at least the idea has.  He talks of white culture groups and black culture groups and now the fast growing Latino culture group.

And lastly, I read an article that deals with racism from a psychologist point of view.  The name of the article was "Cultural Bias for Racism."  Here is the link.  The article says "Literature, movies, TV, radio and the Internet all contribute to the problem by exhibiting the same stereotypes that others work so hard to snuff out."  What they did was had subjects take a "free association" test.  The subject hears a word and then quickly says the first thing that comes to their mind.  Psychologists say that because of what people read and hear in American culture, their responses can be prejudice.  (read it to find out more)

So I am interested in what you think after reading and researching this topic.  Is racism culturally universal or a Western civilization concept?  Is it a byproduct of media and western culture.  Where did it come from?  When did it start?  Is it everywhere?