f. douglass - slaves && fourth of july

Douglass was asked to talk in front of a group of abolitionists about the fourth of July. He generally uses the "Declaration of Independence" as a back support when talking about how he feels about the fourth of July. Douglass was saying that although the "Declaration of Independence" was written by good men, it didn`t really support him and the people like him, meaning the black slaves. I know that he is saying that is it written by good men because he says “The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men…”. “This Fourth July is yours, not mine” (Douglass), I think he saying that the fourth of July really doesn`t share freedom with all the men because the slaves were still being slaves and having to do what the whites wanted them to do. Therefore, it really didn`t mean much to him since the “all men are created equal” part of the Declaration was just talking about the white men but was said in different words. It was said that all “men”, meaning that the actual “men” were just the whites and that the slaves weren`t real men, they were JUST slaves and nothing else. Douglass says that the slaves shouldn`t be accounted as men because they can do anything that any other man can do. Referring to what the whites believed, Douglass thought of the man and freedom situation like this: man = freedom, slave = man, then slave = freedom.

Douglass appeals to pathos, ethos, and logos in order to pull the audience to his side of the argument. When to comes to ethos, he appeals to ethos by have the credibility. He is able to express his side of the opinion with back up since he is a slave and a black man himself and is being fair by saying yes the writers of the Declaration are good men, but.... Appealing to logos is when Douglass supports his claims by examples. When he says that a slave can do what a man can do, he is saying that slaves are no different and he backs this up by being a black male slave himself and he is able to escape on his own and set up his own freedom. He can be strong and do things for himself like any other man. Douglass appeals to pathos. He does this by showing some sense of emotion. He has this type of “are you serious?” or “seriously?” type of thing going on, which allows you to know that he is sharing some type of tone that is serious and shocking to himself. He uses himself as an example of how slaves feel about having to be not considered “man”.

causes of prejudice -- parillo !

According to Parillo, in the “socialization process”, “individuals acquire the values, attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions of their culture or subculture, including religion, nationality, and social class”. Parillo is saying that like children take up what they know about the world && the people in it from their parents. The children usually accept it because they don`t know anything other than what they are told from their parents. The child then starts to learn && intake their parents prejudices, discrimination, and beliefs. For example, you are brought up/ told by your parents ever since you were little that black people aren`t smart and they don`t know anything. You get “adapted” to the beliefs and you discriminate against them by not wanting to have anything to with them without even realizing that you are being prejudice.

Yes, I agree that prejudices or really any beliefs in general are instilled in this way with ANYONE. All of us are brought up being told that one thing is good and the other is bad and with what you are told when you are little, you don`t really know another view of it, so you just take it with you as you grow up. And once again, as you get older, you don`t notice that you aren`t doing this certain thing JUST because what your parents told you, you`ve already lived with believing a certain way that it`s hard for you to change your belief.

I believe that everyone may judge anyone person that would walk into our English class during the middle of one of our discussions. You would probably wonder, why do they have on that ugly sweater or something like that. You`re quick to judge anyone really, && it`s just something that just happens, I think. [This part probably doesn`t make sense, but as I was writing this blog I thought about it].

t . jefferson && the image

If you ask me, Thomas Jefferson is some different type of guy. By what I`ve known about Thomas Jefferson before reading this passage, I presumed that he was a “good” guy and that he thought that the citizens were actually important and should be equal. But from a discussion in class, I know that he actually meant “all MEN are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence, not really worrying much about women. He was definitely a slave owner in the west, but I didn`t know that he has SEX with his slaves, which I was informed by Brittney (which is really gross, by the way, because you are having sex with someone who is working for you && who you don`t even really have feelings for, but you`re just doing it because they are there && you can make them have sex with you since they are working for YOU).

After looking at the image on page 85, I can suspect that the people surrounding the stone are Jefferson`s descendants. I find the picture to be pretty unrealistic because I don`t think that the black people in the image wouldn’t want to go visit his stone do to the way they were treated. It`s kind of like why go visit someone when you know that you were treated badly by them? The passage also talked about how like Jefferson basically didn`t like the slaves, he thought they smelled bad && their skin was dark. But when referring back to what Brittney told me, it makes me wonder why would you even have sex with them when you didn`t really like them. Not many would have sex or want to around someone when you know that they “stink”.

Cora Tucker && Willy Loman

Comparing Cora Tucker to Willy Loman is not as easy as I thought it would be. However, I believe that comparing them to each other about the simple things is more of the way to go. Willy is more of the person that wants stuff to go his way but doesn`t want to work as hard, he would rather the good things just come to his while he isn`t trying. Cora actually is working for what she wants. For example, she is doing what ever she can for the black community to be basically equal as the whites and have the same chances as the whites. Cora isn`t depending on anyone, she stands up for herself in the government, while Willy depends more on connections, other people, being well-liked, his sons. Willy thinks that you don`t really have to work to be successful or do things that you are capable of doing like Cora. He believes that just by being well-liked you can be successful in business. More of since you know all of these people, you don`t have to work because you are well-liked by these people so you are depending on them to make things accessible to you. Cora would kind of do the things that she believes is right to protect herself and her race basically, while Willy was more focused on so much about well-liked without even thinking about how he can be successful by following up what he was capable of doing.

willy lo[W]man - success

Willy believes that ‘individual opportunity’ just comes naturally after being well-liked. His aspect of being successful is to simply be well-liked. He thinks that it is more important of who you than of what you`re capable of doing. With the case of Biff, who has trouble in math class, Willy doesn`t think that he has to worry about passing math since he is well-liked and he doesn`t have to worry about education so much since he is well-liked. Once again, well-liked meaning that Biff can still get a nice job or successful job even though he doesn`t pass math.

In my opinion, it doesn`t matter whether or not you are well-liked or not to become successful. There are many people who don`t even have many friends and are no where near being popular, but they still become doctors, lawyers, etc. Being well-liked shouldn`t determine would you can become, it`s just a matter of what you can do and how serious you are about your education to be successful in the long run. Also, it is important to have some kind of support, such as from your parents, when trying to be successful. In the case of Biff, he doesn`t really have a parent pushing him for successful because his own parent believes that he doesn`t have to pass a class to be successful and as long as he is well-liked classes don`t matter.

wednesday - second day of presentations [ my reaction ]

The presentation that I am going to react to is Nick Martin’s presentation about the Big Brother Big Sisters program. What I understood about the presentation is that the purpose is to provide support to those who don’t feel like they like worthy or that feel lonely. It allows them to receive support and tutoring services. I enjoyed the fact that Nick was an actual “little brother” in this organization and he had the credibility to tell us what exactly the organization does since he is a part of it. Two other things that I found interesting are that he quickly engaged the audience, well the class, by asking us two questions in the beginning of his presentation. The other is that he started with a quote.

I believe that is really important for students to be able to go to a place which they have someone to talk to and tell anything that they want to. With the program, they have “Big Brothers” and “Big Sisters” who support them. Overall, Good Job Nick, I found this organization interesting and I’m glad you enjoy being in the program !

tuesday - first day of presentations [ my reaction ]

Soooooo, I was pretty pissed that I was the first one picked out of the cup. But it’s okay, because once I got it over with I felt pretty good and it felt like those 10 pounds weights were off my shoulder. I was extremely nervous about the situation and was stressing out the night before. The presentation that I am going to react to is Eli's about the Dad's Inc. organization.

What I understood was that the purpose of the organization was to provide support and education for dads so they can be more involved in their children’s lives. I believe that this is important because there are so many dads out there that don’t really have a connection with their children. Yea, yea, there are also moms that are the same way. But it’s more with dads. These dads are usually called “dead beat dads”. It’s important for children, especially male children, to have the father figure so they can have two parents to look up to. I liked how Eli presented a story that actually touched him. Good Job Eli !

Also, people, show me some love. I need love.

self-reliance; emersonnn

What I got from Emerson’s writing was that he was trying to give us the idea that to become successful, you need to trust and follow your own thoughts and allow yourself to control whatever you are basically doing. Meaning, not to even consider others’ impressions of you and what has happen to you in your past. Emerson thinks that the way to have a better future is to just forget what all has happened in the past, not listen to others, and go about your own. I somewhat agree and I somewhat disagree. It is easy to say that you are going to forget about what has happened in the past because it shouldn’t affect you, and that you’re just going to go on about your own business without worrying about others and what mistakes you have made in your past. However, it is not so easy to actually do it. Also, in a sense, you want to remember your past so you don’t repeat a mistake you have made, and if you aren’t worrying about what others think and so into yourself, who are you going to rely on for help when you need it. To be successful, you also have to have some kind of communication, so you know how to be successful.

ragged dick vs. cruz

Due to the fact that I was on a field trip with my publication design class and not in attendance to see the "Roger & Me" film, I will not be comparing Ragged Dick and "Roger & Me". I will be comparing Ragged Dick and Stephen Cruz.

Both Ragged Dick and Stephen Cruz share their opinions in the readings. However, there are definetly some differences. Stephen Cruz talks about how their is selfishness within the American Dream, which he believes involves racial inequity. Cruz tells his own story of the racial inequity and how he was a minority and how it is harder for him to be successful versus those who are of the majority.

However, with the Ragged Dick reading, he believes that everyone has the opportunity to be succesful when hard work is put in. He tells his story of how he, in the beginning, had trouble getting a job and wanted to live the American Dream of being successful. Surprisingly, he had this "remarkable" story which explains how he became successful. Dick saves a business man`s son from drowning and is then offered a high paying job. Later, he recieved a high raise/ promotion within the company, therefore, he was now successful. Dick believes that with hard work everyone can be successful. Having no job to working hard and living the American Dream and be done, according to Dick.

I, personally, do not agree with Dick, but do enitrely agree with Cruz. I, being an African American, do think that us African Americans have to harder when it comes to success. A lot of the times I think about how if a white person was going to apply for the job and so was a minority, the white person would of course get the job. Minorities have to work so much harder to get what they want and have to work so much harder to not have the bad impression that is usually given off with any minority. Racial inequity happens everday, I think, and I have high doubt that it will ever stop.

organization -- presentation topic

The organization that I chose to argue for is “Childhelp”. Childhelp is an organization for abused children founded by Sara O’Meara and Yvonne Fedderson in 1959. It started in Tokyo, Japan when they promised to take care of 10 orphans, which later the number got up to 100 children. The mission statement is “Childhelp exists to meet the physical, emotional, educational, and spiritual needs of abused, neglected and at-risk children. We focus our efforts on advocacy, prevention, treatment, and community outreach”. Basically, this organization allows for children to receive all kind of help to prevent child abuse and to treat abused children. The program wants to be able to heal and develop self-esteem in every child and give the children unconditional love that they usually don’t receive
Facts are given when asked for you to donate to the organization about how many children each day die from child abuse and how often it’s (child abuse) reported. Every dollar that is donated to the organization, 90 cents of the dollar is used to support the children.
The reason I chose this organization is because I believe that children are a unique creation because they are all different in some way. Abusing children is like abusing little people that don’t really know what is going on and don’t know how to fight back. When I think about someone abusing a innocent human being it makes me want to do all I can do so there is no more abusing on this people who don’t even know what entirely is going on.

'extending the critical context' #9 page 284

“Dalton argues that the Alger myth should be buried, or, to use his word, ‘interred’.” When supposing for the moment that I am agreeing with the fact that Alger’s myth should be demolished, I believe that it can only be accomplished once people start to realize is an actual myth. I think that it is just like presenting an argument and having significant reasons for your argument. A way that having an argument with reasons refers to interring Alger’s myth is that one can’t really stop believing in what they already believe until there are reasons behind it. For example, some one is not just going stop believing in the fact that ragged can become rich because they don’t have reasons behind it. People won’t start realizing that this is a myth until facts support why and that they are told that it isn’t true from the “get go” or since they’re little. It’s basically like a mind set when believing that the more money equals the more power. It is our job (as Americans) to stop believing that with some kind knowledge that classes shouldn’t mean anything.