Who are “we”? Who are “they”?
The answers to these questions can have profound consequences, because they define who belongs and who does not. This chapter explores the human tendency to create “in” groups and “out” groups and the consequences of that behavior.
Before exploring our readings on "we" and "they" throughout history, get familiar with the chapter's central themes and concepts.
A poem by James Berry invites us to question the ways we as individuals and societies react to difference.
Reflect on how individuals, communities, and nations decide who has rights that are worthy of respect and protection with this introduction to the concept of the "universe of obligation" (Spanish available).
Journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski traces back to the earliest family-tribes and discusses how human beings either cooperate or divide with “the other."
Consider what interactions between the first Spanish explorers and Indigenous Peoples demonstrate about encountering the unfamiliar.
Learn how race and racism evolved within North America’s first European settlements with the stories of two African Americans who secured freedom in colonial Virginia.
Learn how Bacon’s Rebellion became a turning point for the way the laws of colonial Virginia distinguished people of different races.
Consider the conflict in eighteenth-century US and France between the Enlightenment ideal of equality and the existence of deep social inequalities like slavery.
Read about the seventeenth- and eighteenth- century scientists who tried to prove that humankind is divided into separate and unequal races.
Learn how the US Constitution’s promise of equal protection under the law has been questioned throughout US history in debates over issues such as women's right to vote and birthright citizenship.
Read statements by George Washington and Napoleon Bonaparte about religious freedom and the membership of Jews in eighteenth-century France and the United States.
Learn how people in the late nineteenth-century used race science, social Darwinism, and eugenics to justify their ideas about membership.
Read about the confluence of nationalism, race science, and German-unification efforts in mid-eighteenth-century German society.
Deepen your understanding of the history of antisemitism with this overview of the persecution, violence, and restrictions Jews throughout Europe faced during the Middle Ages.
Learn about the restricted rights and membership of Jews in newly unified Germany, and antisemitism's pervasiveness across Europe during this period.
Read about nineteenth-century Imperialism, the Congress of Berlin, and W. E. B. Du Bois’ analysis of the profound consequences of Europe's colonization of Africa.
Learn about Germany’s atrocities against the Herero, the Nama, and other Indigenous groups in South-West Africa during Europe's colonization of Africa in the late 1800s.
Enhance your students’ understanding of our readings on "we" and "they" with these follow-up questions and prompts.
Lead your middle and high school students through a thorough examination of the history of the Holocaust. Over the course of the unit, students will learn to:
