Week Twleve

This week we started our group projects. I'm kind of excited for the project and hope people pick my question. I think this project is going to allow everyone to really write how they feel about the topics we discuss. This is kind of a free write group project and I like that.

Theme: Address visibility or indivisibility of Black-Native Americans

My Question: As an African American does claiming to have Native American heritage change how one is perceived by American people in general?

Claim: If one appears to be African American, as in by the color of their skin, other people will treat them accordingly regardless of their percentage of native American blood. The Black perception is skin deep and blood heritage will not change that.

Aside from the group project, the reading we had on Monday was sort of interesting. It was about women and how they are represented in the hip-hop and rap industry. All i want to say in regards to this is as a female I am well aware of how the type of clothes I may wear, the language I use, how my hair and nails are done etc. will be perceived. Knowing this I make careful choices about how I carry myself. I think women need to let it go and instead of arguing about what is said by male hip-hop/rap artist make sure they themselves are portraying what the men talk about and therefore the stereotype doesn’t apply to them. If you carry yourself in a certain way you will be perceived accordingly, and if you're presenting yourself in a positive way it won't matter what Lil Wayne says because it wouldn’t apply to you.

Week Eleven

This week we read a piece by Susan Brownmiller titled From Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape. Judging by the title one would assume this essay would be about rape and the horror it brings. Funny thing is that it is about pornography. As a reader my first turn-off to Susan’s argument was her comparing porn to rape. Rape is serious crime and a devastating violation to a person’s body, comparing that to legal, high paying recordings of people having “relations” to arouse the consumer is utterly ridiculous, and quite frankly an ignorant comparison. Through Susan’s eyes porn is no different but she forgot two crucial pieces that would disprove her argument. One, people who do porn get paid, and in some cases such as Jenna Jamison or “Pinky” make millions from being involved in the industry. Point two, which is most important, is the fact that most pornography participants are choosing and have volunteering their bodies to advertisement. Honestly her essay just aggravated me because there were so many holes in her argument and she was truly being reckless with that comparison.

Week Eight (Analyze Catigorical, Defintional and Causal Arugments)

Categorical-The basic idea of the categorical is simply to explain why one thing doesn’t belong in a group with another. It’s easiest to explain with an example. Claim: Marijuana isn’t a harmful drug therefore it should be legal. Explain what a harmful drug is: i.e. highly addictive or unhealthy physically and mentally. Explain why Marijuana isn't highly addictive or unhealthy.

Definitional-Argument that tries to piece together an already understood definition. Most of the time the writer is trying to persuade the reader to see a definition in another way. They can do this by trying to make a point using an unusual perspective. It is important to format this type of essay by first: introducing the claim second: Present criteria (include the opposition) third: Present a match

Causal- There is three ways you can go about writing a causal argument. You can use speculation or ideas/theories of what caused a particular event to occur. Secondly there is to use a unexpected approach to the cause of an event. The idea is to surprise the reading using unknown or uncommon information. Lastly prediction, this allows the author to persuade the author to give into their ideals to normally prevent what they predict. All of these ways can be explain step by step in an essay or through the use of inductive reasoning.

Week Seven (Pidieron Cacao)

I had to of course look up Don Omar and listen to some of his music to really understand where he was coming from. I included my favorite video after watching a couple. I have NO IDEA what he is saying but I liked the beat and feel of the song. That’s one thing about music; that is truly universal. No matter what language you speak or what music you typically enjoy, a good song is a good song and you can get a feeling from it.

Though I have never heard of Don Omar before this, clearly because I don’t speak Spanish and therefore don’t listen to "real" reggaton I asked some friends from back home if they knew him or about hit. I asked my friend Mely specifically if she thought anything of him being Black and Hispanic and if she felt that the genre wasn’t meant for him. Mely responded: saying "no, of course not...I didn’t even realize he was black, he looks Spanish to me, but I don’t really care he speaks Spanish so he's cool" obviously I had to paraphrase but you ge the gist of her reaction. While I had her I also asked how she felt about being called "Spanish"...and like most of my Spanish friends from home, she said she didn’t really care because its a general statement being that she is actually Dominican it doesn’t bother he as long as people know that.

She agrees that labels are complicated and sometimes they are just better left then to argue constantly over them. I <3 her!!

Week Six (Analyze Visual Arguments)

To analyze this advertisement I want to address its Logos. Ethos. Pathos. Kairos

Logos- This is a clear stance. Basically they are showing/saying that meat is fattening and therefore being obese/overweight causes death and health issues and that technically that’s abuse of a child. Obviously this is an inference but the conclusion I drew is most likely going to be everyone who views this original understanding. It's actually less arguable because the foods that would fed to children in replacement of meat and vegetables and OBVIOUSLY there is no argument that veggies aren’t healthy.

Ethos-PETA for those who don’t know stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Whether or not you know what it stands for, most likely people have heard of the group and know what they typically stand for. I will say it’s interesting that they aren’t taking a stand for animals in this advertisement as much as they are fighting for children and child obesity.

Pathos- Basically overweight children make me sad and often times sick to my stomach. I'm very weight conscious whether it’s a good or bad thing; I am that type of person who this ad would appeal though. However I don’t think meat is the only factor that leads to kids being overweight.

Kairos-This is very current, everyday someone is talking about 20lbs babies and child diabetes etc.

Week Five (Write about essays read/your essay)

Ok, I’ll just start by saying this I tend to always be in disagreement with a majority of opinions. My mom says I should be a Republican because I tend to be more conservative and certainly more conservative for an African American Women. I think my ideals come from growing up in such a diverse population. My high school wasn't full of ignorant people or racist, we had all grew up together and around people of different ethnic backgrounds. I’m proud to say that I have Indian, black, white, Spanish, Asian friends. I loved that about my home town and didn’t realize just how blessed I was to have grown up there.

Anyways as it regards to our assigned readings, I’m sorry to say but I don’t understand Roberto’s issue in his essay "Black and Latino". I'm going to try to put this as lightly as I can...and I hope no one gets offended, and I'm proud to be African American and everything but I don't personally think anyone who isn’t black (African descendants brought to AMERICA through slavery...not Hispanic or direct immigrants) wants to be black and identify themselves with a "people" that isn’t "desirable" -- I’m using the word desirable loosely but in terms of the American idea of its superior race.

And I'm aware that that sounds awful but I just don’t get why he's so upset when lots of people would love to able to claim they were mixed with something besides just being black.

Bottom line: if you were given the choice when you were born to be white (Asian Hispanic Indian etc.) or black, which would you choose?

But I do think that’s one of the things that sets blacks apart from everyone else, that when children "find out they’re black" they have to fight to not only love themselves but get others to love and accept them. I think that is what makes black culture so powerful...it’s a real struggle.

Week Four (research for first essay)

Unfortunately this is my first week in this class, so I'm a little behind but I’m excited to get learning, and interested in the topics we are supposed to discuss. As far as class goes I’m slightly over whelmed with the idea of writing arguments. Personally I don’t tend to agree with half of the things I’m supposed to write about so it’s difficult to first pretend to take a stand for something and then counter argue it. Also I don’t have a lot of experience with incorporating research to back up my writing so I can tell this class is coming to an uphill battle for me.

Research like I mentioned isn’t really my thing, so as I begin to collect my information for the upcoming essay I'm finding great information but not quite sure how to use it. Research is even taking a lot longer then I originally expected it to take too, I actually have to use other websites other than Wikipedia...this is going to be a very long and frustrating semester, but I’m up for the challenge!