Discussion about respect G 1

The movie

 Respect

 Instructions:

 Work in pairs.

 Read the description and the introduction to the movie. The click on the link

Watch the movie and answer the questions in pairs. Choose 8 in total.

 Only one student must upload the answers you discussed in pairs.

Description: Cesar Chavez (1927 - 1993) is the United States' best-known Latino-American leader. He is remembered as the head of the United Farm Workers ("UFW") which sought higher pay and better working conditions in an industry that traditionally paid less than a living wage and made its employees work long days outside in the heat or cold, without breaks, without adequate water, and with no toilet facilities. 

However, Cesar Chavez was not a one-dimensional man. In fact, he was a moral pioneer, adopting progressive positions in the second half of the 20th century long before they became popular. He did this by relentlessly extending the ethical principle of "respect" that he first demanded for farmworkers

Introduction to the Movie 

At the beginning of the second half of the 20th century, America and its allies had recently defeated Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan. The U.S. was one of two great superpowers. While it was locked in a Cold War with the Soviet Union, the U.S. had never been more powerful or more preeminent in the world. 

This was a time of great economic expansion in the U.S. Household income increased dramatically from 1940 - 1970 and moderately for the rest of the century. As of 1950, it was clear that the economic hardships of the Great Depression were finally over. 

However, not everyone participated in the new prosperity. Racism, sexism, and homophobia prevented millions from reaching their full potential. In 1950 America was a different place than it is today. Back then, most people accepted the status quo as inevitable and even beneficial. Thus:

• Racist laws targeting Americans of African descent existed throughout the Southeastern U.S.; racist customs and social conventions were adhered to throughout the country;

• Other minorities, including Latinos, Americans of Asian descent, and Jews, also suffered from discrimination;

• There was endemic poverty in many parts of the country, especially in rural areas and particularly among migrant farmworkers;
• Women in the workforce were paid less than men for the same work, were denied advancement, and were subject to sexual harassment; "a woman's place was in the home;"

• Gays and lesbians were given harsh treatment and were often subjected to physical violence; most gays and lesbians hid their sexual orientation;

• Migrant farmworkers (of every race and national origin: white, black, Hispanic, Filipino, Yemeni) toiled in the fields for little pay and in miserable conditions; and

• Children of migrant farmworkers worked in the fields with their parents for much of the year.

Now go to:

http://www.teachwithmovies.org/snippets/sn-us-hist-cesar-chavez-respect.html

Respect for All: Respect is an important value in Hispanic culture — and Cesar Chavez was all about respect. He realized that the farmworkers could not demand respect from their bosses without giving respect to other disadvantaged groups. He applied the ethical principles of reciprocity taught by all major religions. In the Judeo/Christian religions it is expressed as the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you" and "Love they neighbor as thyself." Chavez, as an observant Catholic, applied the ethical principles of the Christian religion in his relations with other groups of people and with other sentient beings. This led him to take his progressive positions on women in the workplace as well as on gay gay rights. 

After Watching the Film 

• Read the following quote from a speech Cesar Chavez gave in 1984.

I'm not very different from anyone else who has ever tried to accomplish something with his life. My motivation comes from my personal life, from watching what my mother and father went through when I was growing up, from what we experienced as migrant workers in California. That dream, that vision grew from my own experience with racism, with hope, with a desire to be treated fairly, and to see my people treated as human beings and not as chattel. It grew from anger and rage, emotions I felt 40 years ago when people of my color were denied the right to see a movie or eat at a restaurant in many parts of California. It grew from the frustration and humiliation I felt as a boy who couldn't understand how the growers could abuse and exploit farmworkers when there were so many of us and so few of them. (Speech to the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, November 9, 1984)

Discussion Questions:  Select questions: 1.   What does respect mean? . Another way to start this discussion is to ask "Does respect have to be earned or is it a given to all?" 2.   What role does respect play in your family? Do your parents or siblings demand respect? 3.   What does an oppressed group have to do to gain respect?   (1) Respect is the underlying ethical basis of all rights movements; and (2) We can't demand equality for our own people while tolerating discrimination against anyone else.  4.   When an industry insists that its workers perform exhausting mind-numbing repetitive work for 12 hours a day in the heat and the cold, without providing sanitary facilities and without providing adequate water, what does this show about the attitudes of the employers toward the workers? . 5.   What is the problem with sexism?  6.   What was the relationship between Cesar Chavez' advocacy for farm workers and his advocacy for [ask each one separately: (1) gay rights; (2) women in the workplace; (3) a plant-based diet and animal rights].    7.   We've been speaking of people by classifying them into broad groups such as "women," "gays," "farm workers," "Hispanics." Is there a problem with this, and if so, what is it?  8.   When Cesar Chavez said, "I became a vegetarian after realizing that animals feel afraid, cold, hungry and unhappy like we do" what ethical priciple was he applying to animals?   9.   What is the unifying concept among the various ethical stances of Cesar Chavez? Suggested Response: The ethical principle of respect for all sentient beings. 10.   Before he was murdered in 1968, a national leader wrote a telegram to Cesar Chavez referring to Chavez' efforts to help farm workers.  Who was this man? Do you agree or disagree with what he wrote? Does this also apply to Cesar Chavez' other causes, gay rights, respect for women in the workplace, prohibition of child labor in the fields, and respect for animals?

Bridges to Reading: Sal Si Puedes by Peter Matthiessen.  Links to the Internet: Cultural Values of Latino Patients and Families by Marcia Carteret in Dimensions of Culture; Incorporating the Cultural Value of Respeto Into a Framework of Latino Parenting by Esther J. Calzada, Yenny Fernandez, and Dharma E. Cortes, Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 16(1), 77-86; How Cesar Chavez Changed the World -- The farmworker's initiative improved lives in America's fields, and beyond by Miriam Pawel, Smithsonian Magazine, November 2013; Cesar Chavez: Commonwealth Club Address delivered November 9, 1984; LGBT rights and labor movements share a long, intertwined history by Ian Stokell and Steve Lee, San Diego LGBT Weekly, March 29th, 2012;