David Brooks 'Making Modern Toughness'
Recommended: David Brooks Making modern toughness
Victor Rios begins chapter six by describing the way the Latino boys he studied used masculinity as a rehabilitative tool. He describes how the boys are constantly “questioning” each other’s manhood as a way of proving their own masculinity. “The boys’ social relations with one another and with community members were saturated with expressions and discourses of manhood” (pg.125). Rios continues to describe the affects criminalization and its gendered practices has influenced these young boy’s mentality of what it means to be masculine. In chapter six, the author explains that although the boys had easy access to weapons, they rarely used them because of their clear understanding the consequences associated with such violence.
Brent Staples in his article “Black men and Public Space” used an effective amount of rhetorical devices and strategies to develop his claim. The message of the article is to vocialize how Black men are overrepresented as thugs and gangsters and when they’re in public spaces they are treated as such. In the article, Staples pulled from his own experiences and give examples of other peoples instances with this issue. However he did it in such a way using rhetorical devices that strengthen his point and gave the reader something to think about. At some points of the article the reader may have even gotten offended or maybe felt guilty about doing some of the things that he brings up.
In his column, “Putting Grit in Its Place” (2016), David Brooks argues that “gritty people” (9) are fueled through desire and longing, but G.P.A, “the mother of all extrinsic motivations” (3), only eradicates the grit towards student’s “passionate interests” (16) and instead points it towards “joyless intonations” (5) that are done to simply “get close to that 4.0” (2) or beyond. Brooks supports his claim by appealing to the readers’ emotions through describing the strenuous lives of students and athletes who are willing to complete anything “in the most arduous way possible” (7), the author also illustrates the “unpleasantness” (6) of students having to fulfill the expectations created in our society by being “prudentially balanced about
Staples uses the strong appeal of Pathos and emotion to support his message that society not only fears the presence of him on the street but also acts irrationally against him because he is a black male. Namely, he gets his message across to his audience with the use of imagery. Even so, he says that when he’s out walking the streets of Brooklyn at night, he finds that women “set their faces on neutral”, place their purses “across their chest bandolier style”, and “forge ahead as though bracing themselves from being talked” (Staples 543). With this use of imagery, Staples is able to place an image in the reader’s head of a young woman walking the streets-
In American society men are suppose to be the stronger, more physical beings. There are those two guys through school, the jocks and the nerds. So a journalist from Queens, New york analyzes on a piece in a special sports issue of The Nation, a magazine focused around politics. In Jock Culture, longtime sportswriter Robert Lipsyte personal analyzes the effect jock culture has on our society. He argues all the things wrong with having jock culture, and what impacts are left because of it.
Stereotypes have the power to label someone and rob them of all their hard work or strike fear into others. One such stereotype is that of black men being more dangerous;yet, one black writer voices his opinion on such a stereotype. In the essay “Just Walk On By” by Brent Staples, Staples describes his experience of being a large black man and how it affects the people around him. From people locking their doors to pedestrians crossing the street to avoid a confrontation, people seem to be afraid of Staples just from a glance. Yet Staples does nothing to cause this fear, rather his stereotype is to blame.
Overall, “Black Men in Public Space” proved to be more successful in conveying its message clearly and concisely, stemming from Staples’ manipulation of rhetorical devices and tone. It is apparent from reading both essays that the authors' purposes for writing their pieces are to inform readers of deeply rooted problems in society and the consequences of those problems on the people they affect. Staples explains in “Black Men in Public Space” how the unjust perception of black men as threats has not only pervaded society but also has caused an irrational fear of them. Staples writes to show
I sometimes get irritated when people don’t agree on the same ideas that I have or when the other person says something that I don’t agree with. The objective of this chapter made me comprehend that based on an individual’s experiences and viewpoints impacts the person’s behavior. Some experience may deal with the oppressions and privileges a person has, the article “Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person…” made me realize that I am more privilege than what I thought. The author didn’t think she was privilege until she read a book she got recommended and from her article she summarizes
In addition, media also repetitively displays crimes to produce sensationalism and attract more audiences. In other words, fear is effective used as an instrument to manipulate the public and to achieve personal gains. However, the side effect is a violent, unstable society. Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine begins as an investigation of gun abuses but then expands to explore the causes of customary violence in the United States. Under his camera, Moore reveals a society destabilized and paranoid by a culture of fear and distrust, providing an insightful and unprecedented explanation of the United States’ violence and shooting
Synthesis Research Paper Everyday growing up as a young black male we have a target on our back. Society was set out for black males not to succeed in life. I would always hear my dad talk about how police in his younger days would roam around the town looking for people to arrest or get into an altercation with. As a young boy growing up I couldn’t believe some of the things he said was happening. However as I got older I would frequently hear about someone getting killed by the police force.
These students are many times symbolically labeled and classed as, “weird,” “gay,” or “loser” due to non-conformist dress, behavior, or participation in unmasculine activities such as art and drama (Kimmel and Mahler 2003). Consequently, these labels tend to define how others treat and interact with these students (Ballantine and Spade 2015). Students displaying volatility in emotional self-management experience poor treatment. Young men who fall short or step outside of the representation of hegemonic masculinity are met with relentless persecution (Kimmel and Mahler 2003). Tragically, over time, the compilation of these various symbolic factors and negative interactions can compound and incite deadly, violent outbursts.
My identity has always felt inextricably linked to what Miami is. A city that is teeming with immigrants, a city with dreams stacked and slopped atop each other, and a city that is living proof of the failed American dream. I say so because of my early observation that generation after generation of immigrants often seemed to stay trapped in dead end jobs; I saw this within my own family – within my grandmother, my aunts and uncles, and even my cousins. Here it was even within my own family tree the deep implicit message that there was no way out of our socioeconomic level. When I made it into an Ivy League college, it was a message that was slowly re-enforced by the fact that my demographic was the most represented in the custodial staff rather than within my own classmates.
“Black Men and Public Spaces” Diagnostic Essay Brent Staples in “Black Men and Public Spaces,” illustrates the inescapable prejudices and stereotyping that African-American men face in America. He does this by relating to his audience through his personal experiences with stereotyping, and sharing his malcontent on how these events have made him alter his way of living. From “victimizing” woman, watching people lock themselves away, and having to whistle classical music to calm the nerves of people around him; Staples builds a picture to help people better sympathize and understand his frustration. Although Staples describes himself as a college graduate, a journalist, and a softy in the face of violence, he details that the overall public deems him a dangerous criminal.
“Cohen has a strong view that media itself jumps to conclusions and overreacts to behaviour which happens which is challenging to the social norms. Cohen’s work illustrated how those reactions influenced the formation and enforcement of social policy, law, and societal perceptions of threats posed by the youth groups.” (Dr. Bonn, Scott 2015) Moral panic by society is seen in the media, which fires further social unacceptable behaviour. Within a moral panic the media identify a group as a ‘folk devil’, it can be identified as a threat to society’s values, the media also distorts the group in a negative stereotypical way in which it is then exaggerates the scale of the
Throughout history, we tend to correlate toughness and aggression with men, but maybe it doesn 't always have to be like that? Maybe it doesn 't have to be a norm anymore to be aggressive. Another article titled Boy 's Emotional Needs by Sarah Glazer was published on June 18th, 1998. This article was published shortly after the tragedy most of us know to be the Columbine shootings. She related the issues we see in men nowadays to the issues the two men who shot their classmates were suffering with.
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