It becomes apparent that the standard for humane actions can be easily skewed with a majority of a social group being instilled with fear. Inhumane actions can easily seem humane if everyone believes it. In any case, murder is not accepted by the laws of society and is a cruel act of hate. In Malcom Gladwell’s work, he discusses the murderer Bernie Goetz, and how he was able to get away with murder, with his name in good standing, because he murdered what many people feared. Gladwell describes the way the people in the city perceive Goetz’ actions when he says “They seemed the embodiment of the kind of young thug feared by nearly all urban-dwellers, and the mysterious gunman who shot them down seemed like an avenging angle” (150).
The Beautiful Struggle, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, is a memoir that heavily reflects upon the personal experiences of a young boy that was growing up in West Baltimore. The author, Coates himself, uses his own personal experiences from his life to show the hardships that he had to endure through and preserve on in order to acquire social progress despite the ample number of historical obstacles that were present in his early life. The constant struggle to progress is social standing and striving to gain his parent’s approval and acceptance is the general theme that seems to come up throughout the memoir. In regard to impending social progress, Coates had to live through environmental and social racism along with familial behavioral changes
Even just by reading pages 5-12, I can tell that Ta-Nehisi Coates is a good writer because his essay is highly thoughtful and provocative, and the well-written narrative provides lots of powerful examples to depicts the racial struggle in the U.S. He told his son, “You must always remember that the sociology, the history, the economics, the graphs, the charts, the regression all land, with great violence, upon the body.” The concept of violence upon the body appears on every important point of my reading. This is more powerful than the examples of law enforcement and black Americans because it leads the reader to truly see the the fears provoked.
Early memories of violence play a significant role in Geoffrey Canada's Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America and Richard Wright's Black Boy. Both had experiences being rob as very young boys and both found this memory crucial enough to include it at the beginning of their memoir. While their stories echo one another in many ways, there are also important differences. Both Canada and Wright experience a share of violence and fear, however Wright had to fight his own battle and conquered his fear but Canada still suffer with fear and constant violence.
In Zeitoun, Eggers does not only promote awareness of social injustices but uses pathos: an appeal to emotion, ethos: an appeal to credibility, and logos: an appeal to logic, to show Zeitoun’s experience during Hurricane Katrina and post-9/11. When Zeitoun is being imprisoned at Camp Greyhound because he was accused of being a terrorist, Eggers specifically described by using powerful imagery the horrible conditions that took place such as the forced strip-downs, being sprayed with toxic gas, and being abused by the soldiers. Eggers also uses ethos to show Zeitoun's credibility in his neighborhood by helping stray dogs, saving lives of many people on his street, and his excellent work performance. Reading this book, anyone can immediately develop a connection with Zeitoun and feel utter sympathy for him without the knowledge of the true felonies he has been charged
We are living in a world where the erasure and dehumanization of people of color is slowly becoming a normative. Voices silenced, struggles trivialized, deaths becoming statistics, brutality only brought up for shock factor, achievements hidden and it is all slowly becoming accepted. Through various rhetorical strategies Claudia Rankine illustrates the experience of being part of the marginalized identity in the United States and depicts how subtly and multifaceted the methods of oppression take place in the daily life are and the negative repercussions it holds on the individual. The ambiguity of her writing with the lack of punctuation and clarification of what is thought and what is aloud allows the readers to input their own interpretation of these various scenarios.
INTRODUCTION On Saturday, August 9, 1997, nearly twenty (20) years ago, Haitian immigrant Abner Louima made a decision that would haunt him for the rest of his life. When he left his apartment in the East-Flatbush section of Brooklyn, accompanied by his younger brother and an older cousin, he had no idea that his life would be forever changed. He would become victim to an unspeakable, grotesque, dreadful and inhumane act of violence that would not only shock the conscience of the world community but would forever leave him with the stigma of having been the victim of the worst crime in the history of police brutality in New York City. Abner Louima was born in Haiti. He immigrated to the United States.
They say three aspects of a thriving society are where we’re from, who we know, and how we think. On the flip side of that coin, these very same aspects can ironically be our undoing. That delicate balance can be the difference between a life in prison and a life dedicated to others. Yes, the sobering realities of life can be harsh but it can also shape and mold us into the people that we’re destined to be. In The Other Wes Moore, The lives of two young men are examined through three distinct lenses.
Does upholstering the law count as arsony? In Frank Trippett’s article, ‘A Red Light for Scofflaws’, he speaks openly about how social construct will collapse in itself when normal law abiding citizens begin to break laws without any means to. In layman 's terms, they break the law without thinking much of it. He does not provide much evidence when clearly the evidence is already laid out in plain sight, examples like Ferguson or the San Bernardino shootings are becoming more common in lives and are somehow beginning to become normal to americans. Yet the author, thankfully, uses an angry, direct tone with his most likely political audience.
One great notion I have developed over the years is that every human has gone through some meaning experiences in his/her life that he/ she can identify with when such experience is depicted through an artwork, painting, photography, or any form of media. After coming in contact with Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother, 1936, artwork (fig 4.151), I feel more connected to this artwork because it speaks directly to me and draws my attention to my personal life experience. This artwork is more of Leo Tolstoy’s definition of art that views art from a social prospective. Lange’s Migrant Mother artwork shows a mother’s strength and determination in the time of extreme need. Observing this artwork, we can conclude that the there’s always a strong, natural
Paul Beatty’s The White Boy Shuffle complicates the binary of the nonviolent and violent approaches to justice and instead suggests the creation of alternative paths to seek justice. The text engages with personal and social forms of justice. We can analyze the main character, Gunner Kaufman, to better understand how the text advocates for these alternatives. Although Gunner initiates violence in a dream sequence and in a truck driver scene, he does not cause harm to the victims, which complicates the previous binary of violence and nonviolence. Gunner advocates for gun use to seek justice for his fallen friend, while his gang uses alternative weapons, which endorses the creation of nontraditional avenues to justice.
“Throughout my childhood, there were other reminders of the injustice I first saw when I was six. Seeing so-called “terrorists” lying dead on the ground, trophy style, in SABC TV news bulletins, yet they seemed mere children to me. They couldn’t have been more than sixteen years of age. Or going to the school camp I went to when I was nine, where they taught us to “shoot” black cardboard cutouts in the middle of the night with our torches. How bizarre it seemed to me at that age—sleeping outside in the freezing cold, playing these war games, raising the flag and singing the national anthem military style every morning.”
Well-known writer and essayist Joan Didion, in her essay, The White Album, shatters every preconceived notion of the late nineteen sixties. Set primarily in Los Angeles, California Didion blends reportage and personal essay to recount cultural tensions that arose during the period- protests, murder, apathy-with her own psychosis. Incorporating fragmented narrative and film technique Didion offers snapshots of the events with language that is curt yet symbolic of her unique style. “The White Album,” demonstrates that everything in life is meant to teach us something. Through Didion’s experiences behind the pen, as a news reporter, her narration attempts to understand the lesson and discovers "We Tell OURSELVES STORIES in order to live" (Didion
Most people imagine a monster as it is defined, an imaginary creature that is typically large, ugly, and frightening. But how is it defined figuratively? Can a human be depicted as a monster? Can, somehow, a monster show humanoid features? How are the two roles switched in the novel, Frankenstein?
In his painting, “ The Problem We All Live With,” Norman Rockwell captures young Ruby Bridges’ isolation resulting from the country’s outrage over court-ordered desegregation in order to open a dialogue about the enduring legacy of racism. Rockwell used Ruby’s loneliness and innocence in the center of all the hatred towards her race to create a painting that shows her impact and the country’s reaction. Her dark skin in her bright white dress contrasted to the grayish brown walls with a racial insult laced specifically above her used during slavery and and hate organization called the KKK that resisted against Black American freedom. Norman Rockwell paints a crack and a tomato smashed against the wall where it says the racial insult, “nigger”
