In response to “Making kids read The Help is not the way to teach them about the civil rights struggle”, writer Jessica Roake informs the audience that she is giving facts about how kids shouldn’t read these books because it’s written by white authors in her article “Not Helpful.” Using several rhetorical strategies, Roake effectively builds her argument. One important rhetorical strategy Roake uses is Logos. She builds her argument by using facts about the Jim Crow laws. She establishes “Jim Crow was a time of systematic oppression, when an entire population was terrorized because of the color of their skin” (Roake, 2).
Pap’s virulently negative reaction to the African American professor is ironic because Pap is an abusive, alcoholic, ignorant thief who would definitely fall under the category of the scum or scourge of society and yet he finds the idea of this intelligent, responsible, African American professor voting repugnant, calling him a “prowling, thieving, infernal, white-shirted free nigger,” (27). Pap himself was “too drunk to get there [the polls]”(27) but now Pap “[he]’ll never vote ag’in”(27) which will most likely better the voting population. Pap’s feeling of superiority and juxtaposition of Pap and the African American professor shows the unfounded claims of racism throughout America, questioning the ethos of its perpetuators and their own
There are many “serpents” in our Government who believe that they can simply erase themselves from a situation. Instead of fixing the issue themselves, they turn towards the people’s vote. 45 percent of the people said that they believe that the programs have gone too far, and should be ended because they unfairly discriminate against whites. A equal 45 percent said that they believe affirmative action programs are still needed today. This case may impact the greater community in many ways.
Against School by John Gatto is an essay that attempts to persuade the reader that public education fails to educate its students. The main way Gatto tries to persuade his audience is by presenting anecdotal evidence and by showing the historical narrative to the education system of the Untied States. Gatto attempts also attempts to reach out to his audience by referring to commonalities in the public education system that have been experienced by many people. Overall the essay is persuasive but lacks any practical authority. The first thing the author does is provide background, background on himself and the situation with education in the United States; and, this is what the author primarily does.
David Leonhardt, an American journalist and columnist, wrote an article published by New York Times, “Make Colleges Diverse,” on the need to enroll more working-class students at elite universities. Universities have implemented a different racial and ethnic student body, but lacked the acceptance of students with low financial status. The financial burden from colleges has discouraged students from achieving their goals at Ivy League schools. David Leonhardt mentions that universities should work with the middle class students of all races. Overall, he uses rhetorical questions, stylistic language, and an informal tone to emphasize the need for colleges to be more diverse starting with the financial status of each person.
The inclusion of evidence, ethos, pathos, and a strong claim, but it can also be strengthened by what is not included. In the essay “Why I am Black, Not African American” the author John McWhorter made the decision to omit an opposition statement. This was a risky decision, because not acknowledging the other side of the argument can make the reader perceive the author as closed minded and shallow. However, the lack of opposition in this essay was not seen in that light. The lack of an opposition statement provided the essay with a stronger flow.
This is also the cause of what we call “achievement gaps”, which is the disparity of academic performance between white students and students of a minority, along with students from low income families and those from higher income families. Jonathan Kozol and Diane Ravitch are two different writers who wrote on similar claims, however, they both had written their pieces with different strategies to convey their arguments. In “Still Separate, Still Unequal”, Jonathon Kozol berates the
Author Darryl Lorenzo Wellington, wrote “The Power of Black Lives Matter,” published in 2015 in The Crisis, and he emphasizes the importance of Black Lives Matter and argues that is the only way to correct the issue of class. Wellington builds his credibility with reputable facts, statistics, citing sources, and successfully employing rhetorical appeals such as ethos, pathos, and logos. He adopts a didactic tone of voice in order to sound like a high scholar to create a sense of superiority, while addressing the issues of class and race to white Americans’ and other races in the United States. In his article, Wellington first introduces his argument by making an inference of a cultural shift by saying, “Something indeed is happening here and now in America,” and that “class exists” and
According to Gregory Mantsios in “Class in America: Myths and Realities,” social class has a large influence on your educational achievements through life. Examining the test scores of half a million children the, poor and rich, also known as the bottom and the upper quartile, Richard de Lone found the crucial influence of social status on SAT scores. Another study by William Sewell comparing the rich and poor found that the upper class was two times as likely to get more training after high school and four times as likely to complete a postgraduate degree primarily due to their socioeconomic class. Decided at birth from your class standing to your life chances.
“Affirmative Action may not be a perfect system, but there should be no doubt that it has endangered many successes. It has opened the doors of America’s most elite educational institutions to minority students, granting them unprecedented opportunities” (Ogletree 12). Thanks to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson a policy that prohibits employment and education discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, and sex is offered today to those who suffer from said discriminations (A Brief History). Affirmative action has opened abundant openings for minorities, allowing the cycle of going to college to be passed down generations and provided job opportunities that otherwise would not be considered by most. Affirmative
Only 75 percent of blacks have received post-high school education, compared to 85 percent of whites. Not surprisingly, blacks on average also make less money than whites” (Philip M. Deutsch). It’s unjust that people of color are treated as inferior to white people, and it is that kind of social issue that interferes with the liberties of all Americans of
Delgado and Stefancic (2011) stated that Critical Race Theory explores how “race, racism, and power intersect to create different circumstances for people of color within society [...] and in postsecondary institutions” (as cited in Quaye, 2013, p. 172). Within the field of higher education, it is important for student affairs professionals to recognize how race permeates all aspects of an individual’s life to fully understand their students’ experiences. Unlike other student development theories, such as Baxter-Magolda’s (2008) self-authorship and Abes, Jones, and McEwen’s (2007) Model of Multiple Identities, CRT places race at the “center of the analysis and assumes that race is omnipresent” in an individual’s life (Quaye, 2013, p. 167).
However, with diversity comes inequalities that people of color face throughout their lives. A particular issue in the United States, specifically in education, is unequal opportunities and treatment in regard to race. Research shows that students from single-parent black families had a high chance of dropping out and participating in illicit behavior (Hallinan 54). While the issue of race is a complicated issue to breach for
According to the dominant theory the affirmative action was firstly introduced to deal with two types of social disruption in the 1960s as campus protests and urban riots in the North. However, this article is based on different theory as dominant theory's empirical evidence is limited. It examines the initial reason for advent of race-conscious affirmative action in 17 undergraduate institutions in the United States. And according to the research this article concludes that there were two waves that contributed to affirmative action: 1) first wave in the early 1960s introduced by northern college administrators 2) second wave in the late 1960s introduced as a response to the protests of campus-based students. This article will help me to establish the main reasons for introduction of race-conscious affirmative action in undergraduate
Throughout many of the affirmative action legal cases, one of the main arguments from proponents is that it is necessary in order to right the wrongs of past racial discrimination. Some say that affirmative action is justified because even though white applicants may be more qualified, this is only because they did not face the same hardships as their minority counterparts (Rachels, Ethics, 1973). Many argue if we do not integrate disadvantaged minorities into mainstream social institutions, they will continue to suffer the discrimination that has plagued our country for centuries and that this is detrimental to not only the minorities but also society as a whole (Anderson, 2002, 1270–71). However, the debate has recently shifted to the benefits of diversity in the classroom which the Supreme Court has affirmed as being a positive thing
