Week 10 Discussion — Whose Word, Whose Strike? — Traditional alternative (no AI)

Instructors: publish this instead of the adaptive version if you prefer, and unpublish or delete the adaptive one.

Hook

A single word on a sign can tell a family they belong, or tell them nobody asked. A single sentence in a history can give a strike to one group and take it from another. This week you read the Chicano movement, the Delano grape strike, the walkouts of 1968, the many communities grouped under one federal term, and the terms themselves.

Your discussion question — choose Option A or Option B; they carry the same weight and the same rubric, and you say which you picked.

Option A: An illustrative neighborhood clinic is printing a new welcome sign and a new intake form. One staff member wants the word Hispanic, another wants Latino, a third wants Latinx, and a volunteer says the form should list national origins (Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Salvadoran) instead of any umbrella term. Which wording would you choose for the sign and for the form, and why? Use the course definitions of Hispanic and Latino, the federal term "Hispanic or Latino", and the rule that people are named as they most commonly name themselves, and give the strongest case for a choice you did not make.

Option B: The Delano grape strike was begun in September 1965 by more than 800 Filipino farmworkers of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, and eight days later the National Farm Workers Association voted to join, bringing Mexican American farmworkers in. The Chicano movement of the 1960s and 1970s joined farm labor organizing, school walkouts, land-grant claims, and campus demands for Chicano studies. Is it fair to tell the Delano grape strike as a chapter of the Chicano movement, unfair, or both? Use who began the strike and who joined it, Chicana/o as a self-chosen political identity, and what a retelling leaves out, and give the other view its strongest case.

There is no single right answer. A group term can fit one family and miss another, and a strike can belong to more than one story; pick the option you care about, and show us your reasoning.

Expectations

Activity format: one initial post followed by two substantive peer replies. Plan on about 45 minutes across the two deadlines; your instructor sets both due dates in Canvas.

Working on your own: this version of the discussion is written entirely from your own reasoning, in your own words.

Your initial post — by the first due date (early in the module week):

• Say which option you chose.
• For Option A, say which wording you would choose for the clinic's sign and form, and test it against the definitions of Hispanic and Latino; for Option B, say whether telling the Delano grape strike as a chapter of the Chicano movement is fair, unfair, or both, naming who began the strike and who joined it.
• Use at least two of this week's terms (Hispanic, Latino, Hispanic or Latino, Chicana/o, Latinx or Latine, the Chicano movement) correctly, and name people as they most commonly name themselves.
• Give your judgment, with a reason, and give the other choice or view its strongest case.
• Length: roughly 150–250 words if written. You may instead record your post as audio or video (about two minutes) and attach a transcript; both forms are scored by the same rubric.

Your replies — by the second due date (the end of the module week):

• Reply substantively to at least two classmates.
• A substantive reply does more than agree: test a classmate's chosen term against a family it might miss, offer the strongest case for the view they did not take, or name a dated detail from this week that supports or complicates their reading. "Nice point!" on its own does not count.

What a strong post looks like:

I chose Option B and say both. Calling Delano a chapter of the Chicano movement is fair for the Mexican American farmworkers who joined it, because farm labor organizing was one of the movement's strands. But it is unfair if the retelling starts with the vote to join, because more than 800 Filipino farmworkers of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee struck first, eight days earlier. The other side has a point: the strike grew into something both groups built. I would still want to read how the Filipino strikers' own organization described the strike.

Notice how it names who began the strike and who joined it, keeps the history plain, gives the other side its due, and says what it would still check. That is the bar.

Participation rubric

This discussion is worth 10 points. The three criteria below look at your initial post and your peer replies.

Post early if you can — the best threads happen when people have time to reply before the second due date.

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