Fredrick boiiiiiii!

In his speech, Frederick Douglass is saying that the Fourth of July was not independence for slaves. All the talk of liberty, independence, and prosperity didn't apply to slaves because they weren't free. Douglass felt mocked because blacks weren't considered men therefore the Declaration of Independence wasn't referring to blacks. Then Douglass begins to name off allt hese things that blacks can do that are equal to whites. With all of the qualifications that says blacks aren't men, Douglass turns the tabe on that reasoning and says he doesn't really have to prove that blacks are actual men too because they ahve alreayd done it. this is when he uses the appeal to logos by turning the tables on to them. i felt this was a very powerful pieve within the whole speech. if I was one of the people attacking Douglass and the black race saying that they aren't qualified, after hearing that I would feel really stupid. He uses the appeal to logos in order to turn the tables against them and by the tone he is using along with first hand experience as a slave and knowing what it's like not to have your freedom and to be considered somthing less than a man. In a sense he also appeals to ethos from his first hand experience; what he's saying is credible because he has lived it.

Parillo- Causes of Prejudices

According to Parillo, the socialization process is how one shapes his or her beliefs, morals, attitudes, and vantage point of subcultures or own culture, based on the individuals parents, and what their parent's beliefs were. Kids usually conform to what their parents believe or do not believe in. Children usually accept what thier parents believe without asking questions to whether it's right or wrong; this in turn becomes a part, and shapes their belief system. As stated in this passage, this socialization process isn't the only factor that creates prejudice, but I do believe that this is one of the main reasons why people do have them. Without even dealing with the issue of prejudices, really anything that parents belief then their children will also believe it most likely because kids don't really question their parents about certain things they believe in. Kids trust their parents's judgement on what is right and what is wrong, so they grow up thinking that what they have been taught and believed in all these years is acceptable.

Jefferson

The image of Thomas Jefferson that I received from my history class and text book this year was that of a good man who helped advance exploration of the West in the United States. My history book didn't shy away from the fact that he also was a slaveowner. Though the book said this, I had already known this about Jefferson from my parents. My parents also told me that he had sex with alot of his black women slaves, so I wasn't really surprsied when I saw the photo of his decendants on page 82. By knowing that Jefferson had slaves, then of course I concluded that he had some form of prejudice against them. But, I didn't know how he really felt about black slaves. Jefferson seemed disgusted by black skin, like he didn't know how the color was formed on a human being, or where it derived from. He referred to the dark color possibly coming from bile or other secretions in the body. He also talks about how blacks smelled really bad because they sweat so much as a result of their black skin. As I read this, and then saw the picture, it made me mad that he would say all of this, yet he obviously was attracted to dark women, no matter how they smelled. Jefferson was against the "mixing" of both races, yet he obviously "mixed" with black women multiple times.

CORA GURL!

In my opinion, I thought Cora Tucker and Willy Loman were different from one another. Cora isn't rich at all and probably would like more materialistsic things, the things she can't have. Yet she doesn't complain about what she does have. She seems content with the way her life is. Willy on the other hand isn't satisfied with what he has, he wants things that he can't have. But instead of coping with it and living his life without basing it on that, he does just the opposite. Unlike Willy, Cora doesn't care what people think about her. She is very bold within her community and fightd for what she belives in no matter who it offends or makes upset. She's not scared to take a stand. As a result, many people respect her because even those who don't agree with her say that Cora is a very imformed person and knows whats going on in political issues that affect her community. Cora likes to take the initiative and doesn't realy on other people, while that's all Willy did. He relied on people to like him and so he didn't become successful.

Death of a Salesman 1

Willly Loman had this whole concept of being "well liked" in order to succeed in the business world. I'm not sure if my interpretation is right, but to me it seemed like Willy needed the approval of others to succeed. He let them define who he was instead of determining that himself. So if they perceived him as nothing but a salesman and nothing more, then that was how he would live. He could dream and hope for success, but he was only as successful as others made him to be. Willy thought that having an educatoin wasn't important in becoming sccessful and having individual opportunity. But he focused on the point that having connections with people that liked you was of greater importance. I don't know, I was kind of confused about this topic in the book. Further discussion in class will probably clear this up for me.

Seaker 2- Nick Martin

Nick's introduction with the survey was a creative idea and different from everyone else's. The ontroduction engaged me right form that start and made me want to hear more about what he had to say. As Nick spoke his voice wasn't monotone and boring and made me pay more attention. I liked how Nick told his own personal sory of how he was personally connected to the organization. He was emotional, not sappy, but emotionally tied to his big brother. It think it's cute that he can depend and share things with his big brother and just have that support system there for him when it feels like nobody else is around to be there for him.

Speaker 1- Maggie

I really enjoyed Maggie's presentation. She made great eye contact with the audience and was brave enough not to use the podium. She seemed really confident up there and when she spoke you could tell she really felt passionate about the Posse Foundation. I, who already feel strongly about anything dealing with minorities, felt even more impassioned. Maggie seemed very knowledgeable about her organization and spoke from her heart which made me see how connected she really felt toward the Posse Foundation. The foundaton itself was very interesting. I am i strong believer in education to help people get out of poverty because i think alot of educated people think that minorities are illiterate and aren't up on their level so they disregard them. But if more minorities are inspired to get a college education then they won't be looked down upon as much.

Self Reliance

I think what Emerson is saying about becoming successful is that an individual should trust their own present instincts, while forgetting about past impressions or the impressions of what others think. Emerson says that an individual has to rely on their ownselves to become successful, i disagree with his argument because no one can just rely on their selves to become successful. A part of becoming a successful person is having connections, an individual has to have connections in higher positions. A person also has to have friends and collegues to help him/her out because you can't always rely on yourself to know what to do in certain situations. A successful person can't make it on their own, they need the help of others to guide him in making the right decisions.

Persuasion

So, I'm doing my project on Third Phase, which is a women's shelter.

Rereading America 4

A way to get rid of Alger’s myths would be very hard to accomplish. You’d have to change the minds of those already made up and who have been thinking their own way for a long time. But, if something were to change, people would need to simply address the realization that our country’s era of everlasting potential is now over with. We are slowly diminishing our possibilities as a nation. As a nation we need to stop intentionally being ignorant or turning a blind eye to the notion that there is a problem here in our social classes. Even if it makes the wealthy feel uncomfortable, who cares? Would you rather keep feeling uncomfortable addressing these issues or help people take a step in the right direction so they can also have the opportunity to succeed in life. The only way that can occur is if the wealthy realize that people in poverty can’t just pick themselves up from their bootstraps. Alger’s myths make the wealthy believe that racism and poverty don’t exist, that people in poverty just need to try harder. Our working poor communities need to stop believing Alger’s myths that everyone can win. They need to stop fantasizing that if they keep working hard then they will move up in this society. They aren’t going anywhere with that mindset.

Rereading America 3

After reading the story of Dick the boot-shiner, I realized how pathetic this story is. It may make for a good children’s book or something, but it is anything but near reality. Alger does a great job of creating false hope for anyone living in poverty that reads his stories. Dick’s success at the end of the story may, in actual reality, happen to about one and five thousand people. Though it is a good idea to encourage people to make a better life for themselves, it’s easier said then done. It’s so difficult to get out of poverty.
In most cases, most people don’t have a “Dick success story”. They don’t just go out one day, save someone and the person they save actually has a rich daddy who wants to reward them and give them a great job and that pays extremely well. That’s unrealistic.
At the end of the tale, Dick’s friend Fosdick suddenly gets a raise on his job and so he and Dick want to go buy a new apartment. Yeah, that doesn’t happen. Asking for a raise at McDonald’s is like someone in hell asking for water. Even if a raise is granted to them, it’s not significant at all. In Nickel and Dimed, Barbara wasn’t able to make living with one, even two or three jobs. Finding a place to stay was one of the hardest things for her. The rent was so high, so that consumed most of her money each month, then she still had to worry about food and bills to pay for.
Horatio Alger gives Dick this attitude in the story that basically says “Oh as long as I work hard, everything will fall in place in the end. I will be wealthy as long as I continue to work like a little robot boot shining. Well that’s a big, fat lie. Any poverty stricken person can work as hard as they want, but most likely they won’t be gong anywhere. Our American society wasn’t set up for the working class to succeed. It is set up in a way to keep people in a life of servitude. I don’t know if our government is trying to brain wash the poor into thinking that there is actually an American Dream available for them, when in reality the working poor are being used for their man power. They are only there to serve others by our society’s standards. To be looked down upon and thought badly of. Society doesn’t want there to be hope for them because the only thing America is concerned about is the almighty dollar. And it doesn’t matter who it hurts in the process to get to that money. Yeah, then we want to go feed people in Africa and act like we care. In Cruz’s argument, he says that no matter how great of a worker he was, he wasn’t ever going to have a job as manager. For all the companies he worked for, they all did the same thing, they built him up with false hope of maybe one day becoming manager, but in reality they knew they could never have anyone of a different ethnicity put in a place of power. Gotta love America!