A Different Mirror

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

The Different Mirror Effect: Multiculturalism in America 30 Years Later

Originally published in 1993, A Different Mirror has long been considered a groundbreaking text, helping pave the way for greater diversity in American scholarship and American society in general. In this activity, students will chart the ways in which American life has changed since A Different Mirror was first published and seek out tangible results of its multicultural messaging.

When A Different Mirror was published in 1993, it was a much different time in America: a time before the Black Lives Matter movement, before the #MeToo movement, before the Dakota Pipeline protests. The world, including the United States, was a very different place.

In this small-group exercise, you will create presentations (either electronically with slideshow software or on paper with poster board) that chart the ways in which Takaki’s messages in A Different Mirror have become ingrained in the fabric of American culture.

• Start by reviewing a list of social movements that you find or brainstorm together. Select the movement that you’d like to focus on. Present your social movement on Slide 1 of your presentation, and explain how it relates to the themes of A Different Mirror.
• Next, research the status of this social justice issue in 1993. Search the internet to find out how people felt about this issue, and how it was discussed in the media. In Slide 2, your group should discuss this issue in 1993, using primary sources (interviews, letters, etc.) to help make your point.
• Finally, in Slide 3, answer the following question: What is next for the social movement of your choice? What is next for the future of this movement?

After each group has presented, discuss as a class what came up for you as you listened to each presentation. Are there certain social justice movements that were left out of the discussion?

Teaching Suggestion: Students will likely be able to discuss the most important social justice movements of the present-day, but you may want to give them some resources to help figure out what life was like in 1993. Some resources you can use to do so: (1) from Weird history, “Timeline: 1993 – Everything That Happened in ’93,” (2) from The Paris Review, “In the Nineties, Race Didn’t Exist,” and (3) from PBS, “A Look at Racism in 1993.” Also, encourage students that, like Takaki, they should use primary sources in their presentations; it may be beneficial to take this as another opportunity to explain why Takaki felt that primary sources were of the utmost importance when upending the “Master Narrative of American History.”

• “The Decade in 11 Movements” from The American Prospect or a similar resource might be used for ideas on social movements.