Connections Questions for the Classroom

The following are some questions for classroom discussion to help students connect the history presented in this website to their own lives and the choices they make everyday.

• Create an identity chart for Jesus Colon like the one below. It contains words individuals call themselves as well as the labels society gives them. What words does Colon use to describe himself? What words might others use to describe him? Include both on the diagram.
  
  
  

• What dilemma does the narrator face? What risks does he perceive if he tries to help the woman? Would the dilemma have been different if the woman had been in danger? If the incident had taken place during the day?
  
  
• Jesus Colon describes labels that others have placed on him. What labels does he place on the groups to which he belongs? On other groups? How did those labels shape the way he perceived his choices? The decision he made? Why does he have regrets? Did he make the right choice? Would your answer be different if he were a white American? who is the victim in this story-Colon, the woman, or the larger society?
  
  
• Political scientist Benjamin Barber defines civility as "a work of the imagination, for it is through the imagination that we render others sufficiently like ourselves that we view them as worthy of tolerance and respect, if not always affection." What does courtesy mean? How are courtesy and civility related? Colon writes that he "buried his courtesy" that morning. What does he mean? What is the significance of that loss?
  
  
• Create a different ending to Colon’s story. What do you think Colon might have done? How do you think the woman might have responded to the action you have imagined for Colon? Describe the effect of that action on Colon.