Critical thinking requires sensitivity to different cultural perspectives, listening to the opinions of other cultures, and reflecting thoughtfully and objectively on the values of other cultures. 

Our Objectives for this activity: 

• Analyze and interpret works of art, literature, religion, philosophy, and other primary source texts in historical contexts. 

• Examine the contrast between counterarguments.

An (S) symbol will indicate material added by students. If you have one you'd like me to add, please message me or include it in any of your initial posts or replies. 

Trigger Warning: Some of these videos might have objectionable language, racist tones, and threatening behavior.  

I have a handful of videos queued up to review before I list them here. Bear with me as I upload them.

Asian Civil Rights Coming Soon

Indian Civil Rights Coming Soon

Indigenous American Civil Rights Coming Soon

Eastern European Civil Rights Coming Soon

Irish Civil Rights Coming Soon

USA CounterCultures of the 1960s

• The Emergence of a Counterculture (pdf)

• Future Shock Documentary (1972) (video, 50 mins)

• Old Commercials That Would Be "Politically Incorrect" Today (Video, 15 mins)(Rate R)

• Counterculture of the 1950s-1960s (website with videos). For this link, specifically the Beatniks & Hippies video portions

Anti-War Hippie Movement (USA)

• Soldier Reveals What He Saw In Vietnam (video, 15 mins)

• 1960s Vietnam War, US Soldier Captured (video, 10 mins)

• Johnny Get Your Gun (anti-war movie, 1960s) (Video 2 hours)

Love-in Hippie Movement 

• Summer of Love (Video, 8 mins)

• Late 1960s, early 1970s Teenage Girl Groupie Doesn't Want to go Home (video, 9 mins)

Women's Rights (USA circa 1960-70s)

• The Fight For Women's Rights (video, 7 mins)

• ​​I Love Lucy (TV Show) (Women's Rights) (video clip, 3 mins)

• 'Submitting to my husband' Tradwife movement(6 mins, YouTube)

• Lucy and Host go to battle over inappropriate touching (TikTok, 3 mins)

• Leave It To Beaver (video clip, 1 min)

• When voting rights didn't protect all women (video, 7 mins)

• 19th Amendment Myths (article)

• Equal pay - Women's liberation (video clip, 3 mins)

Hispanic Chicano Civil Rights (USA)

• Rage Against the Machine Zack de la Rocha Interview 1997 (video, 6 mins)

• How a 1968 Student Protest Fueled a Chicano Rights Movement (video, 12 mins) (S)

Life in a Gang (USA)

• 1980s Blood Gang members interview (video, 3 mins)

• Inside Portland's Turf War Between Proud Boys and Local Antifascists (video, 4 mins)

• Life as a Gang Member | Inside the Crip Sets of Houston (YouTube, 30 mins) (S)

• How 9 Gangs And Mafias Actually Work — From The Crips To Hells Angels (YouTube, 30 mins)

Social Classes in America circa 1950s

• Social Class in America? (1957) (Video, 4 mins)

  • The ideal American dream was never an objective ideal, but rather a social construct designed to achieve a particular social goal. As the video description so accurately stated, “This film was produced to explain basic concepts of sociology, but ends up presenting a rather dark view of social class and mobility in America.”

South African Civil Rights Movement

• 1957 High School Debate. Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana & South Africa. Prejudice (video, 20 mins)

• Reflecting on the Anti-Apartheid Movement: South African & U.S. Perspectives (YouTube, 90 mins)

• US Anti-Apartheid Movement Helped Bring Change to South Africa (YouTube, 4 mins)

• Apartheid in South Africa - Documentary on Racism | Interviews with Black & Afrikaner Leaders (1957) (YouTube, 33 mins)

African American Civil Rights Movement (USA)

• “Minorities: What’s A Minority? ” 1972 (Video, 10 mins) (S)

• Separate But Equal Making a Comeback? (Video, 3 mins)

• Frustrated Man Demanded Americans Keep Their Word (Video, 5 mins)

• Lester Maddox and Jim Brown Get Into Heated Debate on Segregation (video, 12mins)

• Charles Barkley: Our black youth are brainwashed (video, 4 mins) (S)

• All the Way Home (1957) (video, 30 mins)

• Paul Robeson: On colonialism, African-American rights (video clip, 3 mins)

• Eartha Kitt Speaks To The House: Eartha Kitt vs. LBJ (Video, 10 mins)

• The March 1963 (video, 30 mins)

• How a Lunch Counter Sit-In Became an Iconic Civil Rights Moment (video, 7 mins)

Arab & MIddle Eastern CIvil Rights Movements & Conflicts

• Social Experiment - Kurd Talks (YouTube, 25 mins)

• (circa 2010) Anti-Muslim ranters ganged up on a Muslim man at a town hall meeting (YouTube, 5 mins)

• 1979: Iranian Revolution: Women Protest Against Compulsory Hijab (YouTube, 2 mins) (S)

• Mahsa Amini: Women in Iran burn headscarves in anti-hijab protests (2022) (YouTube, 2 mins)

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Five-Minute Read :)

The Human Condition

By Professor Kelly Perez | Spring 2014

The Humanities seeks to understand the similarities and differences amongst ideologies, not the right and wrong ideologies. Philosophy seeks to understand our society’s ideas, and then, after much contemplation, we discuss possible answers and see what stems from the advantages and challenges of that discourse. The Presocratics shifted speculation away from the ideals of the supernatural to the natural realm of reality and knowledge as it appeared in the natural world. Socrates emphasized knowledge, virtue, and goodness in all his teachings as he searched for objective knowledge. 

To give you perspective on the Presocratics and Western Philosophy, we will begin with Xenophanes of Colophon, who lived roughly 500 years before Christ or the Before Common Era. As a predecessor to the great Greek Philosophers, he focused his ideas on the chaos of the time, something we can all relate to #2020IsRough. His Greece looked like a typical Watch of the Titans movie. Gods here, gods, their gods everywhere. Wars to the left and wars to the right, and at the center of it all, was the eternal question - why? What is our purpose? If we were going to die anyway, what was the whole point? Exploring the Human Condition is a lifelong pursuit you will tackle this week. Xenophanes looked to his corrupt leaders and flawed gods and said No! The very nature of a supreme god would be good, everlasting, ultimate, and wise. They would not be rapists or murderers who lusted after each other and caused untold trauma, as seen with the Homeric gods. The Human Condition is your task this week. --- Now that you are here on this planet -- tell me why.

The Human Condition

The Human Condition begins with investigating a culture's habits, historical events, and psychological identity, which shape the human experience. Yet before we can understand the human experience, we must first ask ourselves, what does it mean to study human conditions? Look at these beautiful dogs. What would you say about their appearance? The dogs are lean, alert, poised, and covered in fur based on their physical makeup alone.

Now, what could we say about their mental condition? According to the Canine Behavioral Center, dogs are brilliant, can interpret human signals, are social beings with a pack mentality, and, above all, see weakness as a sign of sickness and unrest. The Canine Behavioral Center observed that if a mother gives birth to seven pups and one of them is sick, she will push it away and ignore it. The key trait inherent in their DNA is survival. That’s the condition of the canine species. 

So, what is the human condition?

We’d be remiss if our philosophical look into the Human Condition didn’t include four types of philosophers: the Presocratics, the Enlightenment Rationalists, the Romantics, and the Modern Nihilists. Looking at the Human Condition from each perspective will give us a cursory idea. For a more in-depth study of the question, I implore you to dig deeper into each era’s philosophy; it’s quite fascinating! 

The Human Condition as seen through Objective Greek Knowledge

Philosophy is a tool used to achieve Justified Knowledge. Looking at the figures below, can you guess where you are as students enter their first week of philosophy class?

Let me introduce you to the father of Western Philosopher Socrates and his pupil Plato.