Activity 1: Scapegoating in Disease-Fearing New York Texts
In-Class Activity:
Step 1 (5 mins) Hand out a worksheet with the newspaper excerpts and questions on them. Scapegoating is defined as the unfair blaming of a person or a specific group of people for something that they are not responsible for. This term will be used to frame the activity as students look at how the blame was placed on Eastern European Jewish immigrants for the spread of cholera in New York City, even before cholera entered the New York Port from Hamburg in August 1892. Step 2 (12 mins) Instruct students to read the quotes and discuss the following questions in pairs.
Discuss the following questions as a class.
Vocabulary List:
Regulations: rule made by authority Contagious: spread from person to person by contact Infectious: likely to be spread from person to person Prominent: important, noticeable Ignorant: uneducated, unsophisticated Refuge: safety, shelter Offensive: causing hurt, repulsive Menace: person or thing likely to cause harm Originate: to come from Riffraff: people regarded as worthless |