Baltimore

Today during work I and my students (middle school) were talking about the Bill of Rights and why we have it. This then led us to talk about the current situation in Baltimore. As an aspiring politician, I’ve thought about the recent events that have happened this past year. I’ve come to the conclusion that the best solution to improving our world is having strong organizations and the other is time.

In “Letters from Birmingham Jail”, Martin Luther King says that the oppressed won’t always be oppressed and eventually the oppressed will act for freedom. In the very beginning, Martin Luther King talks about the organization that he’s president of, and of other organizations that are helping in the movement. A year later, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed by the Johnson administration, which I think helped, but as we can see today, there still needs to be lots of improvement. This compares to Malcom Gladwell’s “Small Change: Why the Revolution will not be Tweeted” because Gladwell shows that during this time period, the civil rights movement was a hierarchical institution with many groups who had leaders and a chain of command. It was because of this hierarchical structure that (at least tried to) prevents activist form acting Willy nilly and doing something that would jeopardize the movement. It was also these groups that weeded out those that were committed and willing to die to those that weren’t. To bring this to more contemporary issues, Brit Bennett in “I don’t know what to do with good white people” talks about deleting and unfriending a racist friend for a post they made, shows that doing this was a minuscule move, and proves Gladwell’s point about social media being a “weak tie” when trying to organize a group.

                When Brit Bennett wrote her article, it was over 50 years when MLK wrote his. Bennett uses her grandma as an example and MLK describes his time, shows that blacks and whites had a terrible relationship, such as using dogs against activist and police humiliating people. When Bennett talks about her conversation with her friends she says that they look for the good in people and think that white people mean well. This shows the change of mindset that people and society have gone through these past 50 years and shows that even though there are faults, the wheels of progress are slowly moving.

                Even after all of these readings and analysis, the moment with the biggest impact was today with my students. Those 7^th graders know that the death of Freddy Grey in Baltimore was wrong and they admitted it, but it shows me that this and the next generations don’t want to make the same mistakes that previous generations have made. It’s when I see this, future generations can make this a stronger and united America. 

how should we improve our world? by moving on already with life

How do we go about improving our world? Simple. CHANGE HOW WE RAISE OUR CHILDREN. Change what we teach our children. Change what our schools teach children. We can change the past believe it or not. For example, I was taught mainly through school lessons about racism. I learned about the Ku Klux Klan, I learned about slavery, I learned about the white people racism in the past… the list goes on and on. Guess what? If school never taught me that stuff, I never would have known about racism existing honestly. Maybe that is why black people are outraged at white people to the present day. Because their parents and schools raised them by teaching them about slavery and inequality in our history. I know that this is true because I am still learning about racism against black people at nineteen. We talked about it in my history class, fine arts class, political science class, and college writing class. That’s all of my classes. The repetitiveness and years of stories of slavery being imbeded into my brain and everyone else’s brain I am sure will always cause racial tension between skin colors. If we literally do not raise our kids telling horrible stories about what some white people in the past and pretend like we do not know what racism is, guess what I guarantee that no one will care anymore about racism. Our society just amps it up all the stories about racist this and racist that. We should make it a law that if you talk about old slavery stories and racist things then you get sent to prison. Just stop raising our kids based on the past. MOVE ONNNNNNNNNNNN ALREADYYYYYYYYYYYYY quit living in the past. It’s so annoying. 

Revolutions Should Be Tweeted

Malcolm Gladwell used pathos most effectively in “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted”. Gladwell pulls examples from boycotts in the south to show how strong willed activists were in wanting equality. When anyone mentions activists in the sixties it usually strikes a range of emotions. Using this example in the beginning and throughout the reading, sets the tone for the whole thing. In between the passages of activists in the sixties, Gladwell includes recent activist actions with the help of the internet, with Iran, Moldova, the P.L.O., the Darfur campaigns, and the case of the stolen phone, establishing “distinction between traditional activism and its online variant”. Adding traditional activism Gladwell also mentions the Red Brigades, Afghanistan, and East Germany. The inclusion of all these places and events are necessary pathos for him. All these events, old and recent, spark feelings of pride, fear, happiness, and everything in between. The wide range of locations are used to make it more relatable and close to home. The older generations could relate to the older activist movements, because they themselves could have experienced it or had friends and family involved. The more recent movements, the “online” ones, were more relatable to me because I was raised in the age of technology.. Especially the passage of Sameer Bhatia. The fact that he couldn’t find bone marrow and people from all over the world sought out to contribute. Without social media, the man could have died. Having really simple and fast ways of helping can really make a difference in anyone’s life. This is backed up by all the different campaigns on social media to help those in need. Ultimately Gladwell uses pathos throughout the reading to prove the revolution will not be tweeted. However, I saw this reading and took it as that even though times are changing and technology is evolving, the revolution will be tweeted and will help in the end. Documenting things online will only help spread awareness and reinforcements to the cause.

Tweeting the revolution

The idea reading, written by Malcolm Gladwell, was an interesting and relatable piece that I enjoyed. The author did a very good job of utilizing all three types of the rhetoric triangle in his piece, however if I had to say which he used best I would say logos. He uses ethos in the piece when discussing the many books, articles, periodicals, etc. written about this topic, which adds credibility to him as an author. It allows us as readers to believe he has done sufficient research to know what he is talking about and it only helps his topic to be more interesting with other opinions to compare and contrast. He also uses a good amount of pathos in his diction when discussing his own view about high-risk ties and how he claims that the social media ties we create are “weak”. By using these wordings he portrays to us how insufficient social media is compared to the real thing, and that we as a society should recognize that our efforts are basically nothing in comparison to the effort of the past generations, they had to get out of the house and spend time and effort to actually show genuine care and we as the lazy generation just have to like a post or retweet a hash tag. But I believe the best-used rhetoric in this piece is the logical aspect of it. By using ethos and pathos to spark our interests and add credibility he is able to appeal to our logic by pointing out how little of a difference we actually make in comparison. It is shown in the writing as if the quicker awareness and adaptability only can cause smaller weaker changes, and he uses this to lead into that if it came to issues involving danger or structure this will not be enough. Which I believe to make sense as a conclusion, he is right because if the like, retweet, or repost came with a chance of being in legal trouble or being assaulted physically by opposition I can guarantee not nearly as many people would be “involved”. The weak ties he speaks about are not enough to start a revolution, even though they can help spread awareness. If we as countries are participating in another revolution, more effort must be made as we follow the precedents of those who protested before us.

Tweeting The Revolution

            This story is primarily pathos just within its nature. This subject is a highly emotional one that connects deeply with most. Black people are reminded of what their relatives went through. White people are reminded of what their relatives did. For both it already causes a great deal of emotion just thinking about the subject. Mr. Gladwell mentions “when ten thousand protestors took to the streets in Moldava.” A person fighting for his or her rights brings a sense of patriotic pride to those of us that have them. We generally want everyone to be able to have the same amount of freedom that we are so lucky to have. Later he mentions “that Al Qaeda was ‘eating our lunch on the Internet.’” This again brings up a sensitive subject in the hearts of many Americans. This terrorist group brought one of the biggest national disasters that this country has ever seen. For ten years, and hopefully for many more we remember the terrible things that happened on that day. The Klu Klux Klan is mentioned and a story is told about three young boys trying to help out that were kidnapped and killed, again trying to bring up emotions from the reader in order to pull them closer to siding with him. This author I believe is trying to push people to actually do something. “But it (Donating Bone Marrow) doesn’t involve financial or personal risk; it doesn’t mean spending a summer being chased by armed men in pickup trucks.” They (evangelists of social media) seem to believe that a Facebook friend is the same as a real friend and that singing up for a donor registry in Silicon Valley today is activism in the same snse as sitting at a segregated lunch counter.”

Should we Tweet the Revolution?

In his essay, “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted”, Malcolm Gladwell talks about social media platforms and how they influence masses of people. Even though social media platforms can cause massive change, Gladwell says that social media wouldn’t have been successful in the civil rights movement, as compared to the example that he gives about donating bone marrow.

                Out of the 3 different appeals that we learned (Logos, Pathos, and Ethos), I think that Gladwell has good ethos when he’s writing this essay. Ethos is the author’s appeal and how we see him and I think that Gladwell does a good job doing that. On page 312, we see a little short biography of Malcom Gladwell where it says that he’s a writer for the New Yorker, has written 3 books, and was one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people. Just within these few sentences we see that he’s very accomplished and successful.

                Outside of this short paragraph, Gladwell uses Ethos, right at the start by giving a historical example of the Woolworth’s sit-in. Besides the Woolworth’s sit-in, Gladwell also cites multiple writers and scholars throughout his essay. One of the first people that Gladwell cites is Golnaz Esfandiari from Foreign Policy, where she stated that despite what some say, there was not a twitter revolution during the 2009 Iranian presidential election. This contributes to his argument because Gladwell believes that social media platforms don’t really contribute to revolutions of this scale, while Esfandiari says that since many Americans were the ones tweeting it didn’t really make a difference in Iran.

                Gladwell cites another source that helps build his ethos. Gladwell cites Doug McAdam on page 318, where McAdam brings up the “Strong-tie” concept that was prevalent during the civil rights movement. This was because activist had strong personal connections to the civil rights movement, as opposed to today’s social media platforms where people’s online friends can closely resemble acquaintances in real life. This contributes to his ethos because it shows that this strengthens his argument by saying that social media would not work in a civil rights movement type of revolution.

                In the 3^rd and last part where I think Gladwell builds his ethos is when he shows that social media can make a difference, when he uses the example from The Dragonfly Effect about the bone marrow transplant on page 320. Gladwell says that because there were low stakes in what was being asked of the people on social media (bone marrow testing) more people participated and spread the message to all of their followers. This helps because this example is not a “strong-tie” like the civil rights movement, but a “weak tie” movement, which is what Gladwell believes that social media was made for.

                Overall, Gladwell has good ethos in this essay because he constantly brings up different examples to support his argument from different sources to show that he is knowledgeable in the subject.

Ally's choice and Being a More perfect Union

I personally found “Ally’s choice” to be very interesting. I just had never heard of a story like this, it was so different. It just made me realized how people everywhere go through different experiences. Basically, Ally has black and white in her blood. She started off as a child being characterized as black because that is what her mother wanted Ally and her sister to be, even though they could pass as white. Her and her sister were bullied for being black all through middle school but as Ally went on to high school she wanted to change that. Since she could pass as white she did a few more things to change the way she looked and started hanging out with a older crowd, saying she was white and lying about her family being black. She and her friends would pick on her sister being black. This is how they grew up. Although they care for each other there will always be this memory separating the sisters from each other. It’s sad how Ally would chose popularity over family. I find this story to be credible just because of the reputation of where Ally and her family were raised. Racism seemed to be an issue. I believe Ally is knowledgeable because this was her past. Only she can take credit for what happened. Although I feel she didn't make the wisest decisions, I can understand her doing things to fit in high school. You can tell Ally came off harsh and only wanted to do things to help herself but you have to remember this was high school. High school is all about fitting in and being with the right crowd. Her and her sister lived two different lives so Ally didn't seem as emotional as her sister because she had a good young life and her sister didn't.
As for “Being a More Perfect Union”, I found the author to be more knowledgeable than Ally just because he seemed of higher power considering he was in politics, therefore making him more credible. His story had to deal with his church and where him and his family came from. He had black and white in his family as well but it never seemed to be good enough. He was either too black or too white. This wasn't good for him just because he was in politics and he needed people's votes. Him and his priest were different people. Although He believed in his priest and they were close, he still didn't agree with his priest politically. They were both black but saw racism differently. This just seems like a common thing. I could see others relating to this because everyone has different opinions and it's very rare that someone would agree with another person completely. I felt the author was kind and even the priest was kind but they both just had different lives and experiences.

Obama's Speech and Ally's Choice

The purposes of both Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” speech and the Ally’s Choice podcast differ from each other significantly. In Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” speech, Barack Obama gets into his personal history and the history of his family, and talks about how both white and black people comprised his family. He also talks about all of the places that he’s been to and the varying amounts of wealth represented by those places, and talks about how he made it to where he is now. By talking about these things, Barack Obama allowed people to see him as an actual person rather than just some political figure that isn’t anything like them, making him more relatable and even likeable to many people as a result, even to those who might disagree with his political views and platform. His openness about his personal life and history also makes him more credible, and feelings of are triggered because of this. However, because he is applying all of these things for political purposes, the intentions behind this speech differ from those in the “Ally’s Choice” podcast. In the “Ally’s Choice” podcast, multiple women, all of who are related, are interviewed regarding their history together. The woman who the podcast is centered around, Ally, explains that, while she grew up in a black family, she has not considered herself black for most of her life, resulting in conflict between her, her mother, and her sister. It also led to Ally telling everyone around her that she was not black, but was actually white. All of them also get into their experiences with racism in both school and the town that they lived in, even up to the 1980’s and 1990’s. Two examples of this were students holding up signs telling them to go home on Martin Luther King Day, and their family becoming a potential target of the Ku Klux Klan. During the interview, emotions related to sadness are triggered, because listeners are able to hear about the hardships of those time periods from people who experienced them directly. Because they are describing personal hardships, the podcast also makes the women interviewed relatable to those who are listening. Because the women interviewed are talking about what they had to go through with the intention of showing people what things were like for them at the time rather than winning over people politically, they are also more trustworthy.

Obama & Ally's choice

In both of these texts, “A More Perfect Union” by Barack Obama and Ally’s Choice podcast they used emotion (pathos) to convey a messages to their listeners/readers. In Obamas speech he goes into great detail about his early life and childhood, about how he is black, white, and has so many different ethnicities in his family. He talks about his family and the nice countries they’ve lived in and also the poorest cities they’ve been in. He shares his good and bad experiences to create emotions so his listeners can relate and connect with him. In the Ally’s choice podcast she goes to talk about how being black when she was younger wasn’t enjoyable. She purposely decided one day that she didn’t want to be black anymore and she wanted to be white. I think both Obama and the Ally’s choice shared their life experiences about race because race is actually a huge issue and major topic in society today. Its very relevant so they share their stories to show that they are like everyone else who struggled or to even share the stories of their struggle.  I personally enjoyed reading president Obamas More perfect union because his story was genuine and interesting. He made me feel for him and almost as if I understood him. He talked about how America has an issue with race and that we need to fix it if we ever want it to get better. Both of these pieces of work are very important and are helpful when it comes to sharing experiences.

April 13 blog

I would say that in the More Perfect Union Speech written by Barack Obama, I think that Obama portrayed himself as relatable. He states that he had a white mother and a black father, that he lived in very rich parts of town, and very poor parts of town, and he has relatives in multiple different continents. Buy mentioning these certain things about him; it really draws supporters and even non-supporters to him. These certain details that he expressed about him self, made him relatable to a vast variety of people. I feel like when you have similar connections with someone else, you ultimately can see them as someone you can relate to like a friend, or as someone you can trust. So since Barack Obama made himself relatable to a wide variety of people in his speech, he ultimately became trustworthy. For the podcast, I am going to assume that the author of this is Ally. I am also going to assume that Ally is the woman talking in the podcast telling her side of what it is like having black roots but looks as if she is white. She tells people she is white even though technically her roots are black. To me, I think that Ally portrays herself as insecure. I do not think that she was intentionally trying to portray herself like this, but that is how it came across to me when listening to the podcast. Ally talks a lot about just wanting to fit in with the popular girls so she told people at school that she was white. This is because she grew up in a small town in Ohio that is around 97% white and so there are some racist tendencies because it used to be a white town solely. I guess because of the town’s history and current status, and having grown up in this environment, this story is credible. At the same time, I feel as if her persona is portrayed as being a victim. I say this because her certain aspects of her story seem super emotional like just so she could fit in with other white people, she helped her quote on quote “friends” help make fun of her own sister. To me that is just playing the victim card in a way. Overall Barack Obama did a good job portraying himself as being universal through his writing. He did a good job at making his persona seem trustworthy through all of his personal experiences. On the other hand, Ally made her character appear to be super emotional and insecure. After listening to her podcast it made me feel like her story of growing up in the predominantly white city in Ohio was very one sided, which made it untreatable.

Author Portrayal and Style

           The style of “Ally’s Choice” is a podcast, thus, the ‘writing style’ so to speak is much different from “A More Perfect Union”. Ally’s choice draws pathos and emotion from listeners by having multiple people speak about racism, which also adds to the credibility on their part. The lady who primarily speaks seems knowledgeable for she pulls in references directly from history such as “The Trail of Tears” pertaining to the Native Americans. She also seems to pertain to pathos and emotion by saying in a sad voice that when someone looks black, black becomes “who they are”, and that it becomes what defines them as a person to most, even if they aren’t fully or even half African American. One of the women that speaks on the podcast also adds to the credibility for she had first-hand experiences growing up with oppression and racism, stating that when she went to a primarily white school, the kids would hold up signs saying “Go home Negroids” on Martin Luther King day… She lied to her classmates and told them that she was white, even ignoring her sister to be popular and “white”, which is very depressing, and by touching on this you can really see her persona coming through.

                The style of “A More Perfect Union” written by Barack Obama, uses pathos to emotionally draw in his viewers/listeners. He does this in many different ways, one of which being that he quotes “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union”, then goes on to state how this large and life-changing statement was tainted and ruined by slavery and other bad decisions on America’s part. He makes himself trustworthy by promising he will help to put an end to this issue, and by also showing us that he has firsthand issues with oppression and racism, but has overcome them and wants to help others do so too. He seems very knowledgeable due to his diction and tone that he speaks/writes in, and this makes me more inclined to not only like him but believe him. I can tell that his persona is very determined, caring, and reliable. 

Being white

being white in today's society has many stereotypes and "advantages". Here are some that I belive I have just for being white. 

1. Employers might give a chance over someone else 

2. I am not judged by authorities for doing nothing like some other races. 

3. I am assumused to be smart and assumed to go to school 

4. I am assumed to have money and be able to afford anything. 

5. I wouldn't get in trouble for doing the same thing as maybe a minority might. 

6. Sometimes white people get less or no punishment. 

7. I'm not labeled as a terrorist. 

8. People don't stare at me in stores and think I'm stealing 

9. People feel more confortable around me. 

10. It's easier for me to get certian things that for others 

11. People assume that white people are better and aren't in bad situations. 

12. I might get a job over someone's else 

13. People assume im trust worthy. 

14. Whites aren't thugs 

15. Whites obey laws. 

White Privilege

            Due to the fact that I am white I have certain privileges that are not given to other races.

1.     Nude Band-Aids match my skin color

2.     Not worrying about law enforcement abuse

3.     I can be well spoken without people being surprised

4.     There’s no questions asked if I get a good job people think I’m qualified.

5.     Not being monitored in a store because of my skin color

6.     Not being labeled as a terrorist

7.     Not having to worry about being stopped and frisked

8.     Never being told to “get over slavery”

9.     I never have to be aware of my color

10.  Nude colored items match my skin tone

11.  When learning about my national heritage, people of my color are seen

12.  Renting, buying, leasing property is much easier

13.  My neighbors will be generally neutral or pleasant to me

14.  Most of the media is centered around people of my color

15.  My skin color will not represent my financial status

Unearned Privileges

15 unearned privileges for being straight.

1.     Receiving social acceptance by neighbors, colleagues, and friends.

2.     Having positive and accurate media images of people with whom I can identify.

3.     Expecting to be around others of my sexuality most of the time. Not worrying about being the only one of my sexuality in a class, on a job, or in a social situation

4.     Not being asked “how does sex work for you?” or other too-personal questions by strangers.

5.     Not having to hide or lie about women/men only social activities.

6.     Legal marriage to the person I love.

7.     Freedom of sexual expression without fear of being prosecuted for breaking the law.

8.     Knowing that I will not be fired from a job or denied a promotion based on my sexuality.

9.     Going wherever I wish and know that I will not be harassed, beaten, or killed because of my sexuality.

10. Having role models of my gender and sexual orientation.

11. Public recognition and support for an intimate relationship (e.g., congratulations for an engagement).

12. Expressing pain when a relationship ends from death or separation and receiving support from others.

13. Talking openly about my relationship, vacations, and family planning me and my partner are doing.

14. Acting, dressing, or talking as I choose without it being a reflection on people of my sexuality.

15. Joint child custody.