The Lunch Date
Watch the video,
The Lunch Date
(Links to an external site.)
, which won the Academy Award for Best Short Film in 1991, and then write a two to three page paper that responds to the following questions. You can see the video using the link above, or click on the link in the writing assignments folder on the Canvas website.
1) Do you see the woman as prejudiced (racist)? If you answered yes, do you see her as displaying explicit hostile racist attitudes and behaviors or do you see her as displaying more unconscious, implicit biases? You will not be graded on whether or not you see the woman as prejudiced or whether or not you view her prejudices as explicit or implicit, but rather whether you are able to present strong evidence to support your claims. Please provide at least three examples of the woman’s behavior that support your position on whether or not she is racist (Feel free to provide more than three examples). If you think she is prejudiced, use these behaviors to explain why you think she holds implicit or explicit prejudices. Be sure to explain why these behaviors reflect (or do not reflect) implicit or explicit prejudicial attitudes. _____/10 points
2) How did the woman act when a stranger bumped into her and then tried to help her pick up her fallen items? Why do you think she refused the man’s help? _____/5 points
3) What do you think the woman was thinking when she returned to “her table” only to find someone eating “her salad”? How did she respond to the situation? _____/5 points
4) What do you think the man was thinking when a stranger sat down at his table and claimed his food was hers? How did he respond to the situation? _____/5 points
5) What do you think the woman was thinking when she returned to the table and saw the dirty salad plate and cups but not her packages? What do you think she believes happened to her packages? Are there any potential alternative explanations for her “missing” packages? If so, what are they? _____/5 points
6) Why do you think the woman laughs when she finds her packages and the salad at the end of the film? What do you think she is thinking at this time? _____/5 points
7) How do you think this “lunch date” would have played out if the gender and ethnicity of the characters were reversed? That is, what would have happened if a black man left his packages and salad at the table and returned to find a white woman eating “his salad”? _____/5 points
8) If you think there would be any differences in how the situation takes place, explain whether you think these differences are due to changes in a) the ethnicity of the characters, b) the gender of the characters, or c) both the gender and ethnicity. To get credit for this question, I want you to explain why gender, ethnicity, or both dimensions would matter and not just say it is due to the characters’ gender (or their ethnicity). _____/5 points
I will also assign three points for how well the paper is written in regard to grammar, spelling, etc. as there were numerous papers for the first assignment that had significant grammatical errors. I would like to you to proof read your papers before turning them in order to reduce the amount of these errors. _____/5 points
