News of the George Floyd killing in Minnesota in May 2020 sent shock waves around the world and led to mass protests and demonstrations throughout the US and abroad. Browse through some national newspapers (New York Times, LA Times, Chicago Tribune etc.)–online is fine–and find a story in the last 5 years that focuses on issues of identity and difference in American or British society. Relating it to concepts discussed in class and in the readings (such as the process of ‘othering’; formation and maintenance of racial or ethnic neighborhoods; gendered or queer spaces; resistance and protest; bodily expressions of ethnic/gendered identity; home and workplace issues etc.), write a paper summarizing the news story and describe its underlying cultural geography (i.e. how the story relates to, for example, our understanding of neighborhoods, spatial experience, the importance of space or place in identity; spatial operations of power), though the latter may not be necessarily mentioned in the news story.
Note, this assignment is about applying everyday issues that occur locally and elsewhere in the ‘real world’, as represented in the news, to cultural geographical concepts and theories.
[General Guidelines for Papers: Papers should be at least 2-and-a-half pages in length (but absolutely no more than 6), excluding any illustrations (photos, maps, tables, graphs, etc.), which, by the way, should include numbered captions or labels. Use a double-spaced, 12-point type in a Times New Roman, Garamond, Book Antiqua, or Calibri font and reset the page to 1-inch margins, and 1 inch at the top and bottom. Papers should include your name, a title, in-text citations (Author Last Name, YEAR, p. #), and at the end a list of ‘References’ for materials used throughout the paper (General APA is preferred).