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.

Exploring Space, Exploring Oppressive Frontiers: A Comparative Analysis of Segregation on Two Continents

In this exercise, building upon what they’ve learned about South African apartheid, students draw connections between the segregated South of the United States and apartheid in South Africa through an exploration of one of Trevor Noah’s interviews with esteemed NASA scientist Gregory Robinson.

In the July 19, 2022 episode of The Daily Show, Trevor Noah interviewed Gregory Robinson, the director of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope program, which is the groundbreaking multi-year effort to launch a $10-billion dollar telescope into outer space, to view never-before-seen footage of our galaxy and beyond. Over the course of their discussion (as seen in this clip), Noah draws attention to Robinson’s early childhood, growing up in the segregated American South in rural Virginia during the Jim Crow era.

In this exercise, you will develop a global perspective on how segregation has affected Black communities by exploring apartheid in South Africa and Jim Crow-era segregation in the United States and broadening your understanding of the impact of racist systems of oppression.