Uhphermuhtivv Akshun Update 11/30

Today I found a great resource that I think is going to prove key for both sides of my affirmative action in college acceptance debate. Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) was a Supreme court case that directly confronted the issue, asking whether or not the judgment based on race that may have kept Barbara Grutter from being accepted into the University of Michigan Law School. The Court majority voted in favor of the law school stating that such judgment was constitutional, with Sandra Day O'Connor writing the majority opinion and Ruth Bader Ginsburg writing a concurrence. Justices Thomas, Kennedy, and Scalia and Chief Justice Rehnquist all wrote dissenting opinions. This case, filled with important statistics and educated opinions, is a vast wealth of information for my paper that may single-handedly take me where I need to go!

Just in case you're curious:

The Oyez Project, Grutter v. Bollinger , 539 U.S. 306 (2003)
available at: (http://oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2002/2002_02_241)
(last visited Sunday, November 29, 2009).

Layeramee Prahgekkt

Watching the Laramie Project gave me incredibly mixed emotions about the inspiration of the film itself. Throughout the entire film, I felt great sympathy for Matthew Sheppard, his family and friends, and the entire Laramie community, and I wish there was some way such a catastrophe could have been avoided. However, the movie itself seemed to push the support of hate crime legislation that I just do not know enough about to feel comfortable to accept at this point. I was somewhat disappointed in the fact that a movie that could have been incredibly powerful without the ending political message had to add that piece in. The story of Sheppard on its own raises a great deal of important awareness of social injustice within our country. However, the political aspect of the piece with hate crime legislation left me fairly upset.

Yoshino Rhetorical Triangle

Purpose- To inform the societal dominant groups of the covering plight of minority groups

Exigence- Yoshino has been forced to cover during much of his adult life due to his sexuality not neccesarily being accepted by the mainstream

Audience- Although Yoshino does not necessarily believe in a mainstream, he believes that the group of people that would most likely represent the mainstream of society

Credibility- His experiences as a gay man covering in society as well as the accounts of real people that he has interviewed

Logic- His belief that there is a consistent pressure of minority groups to conform to the social norms within our society.

Emotion- He is exposing a major subjugation of the minority groups within our society

Imagery- Because he does not believe the mainstream exists, Yoshino is forced to paint a picture of what he believes that the mainstream would look like had it existed

Figurative Language- The language he uses is actually very literal

Syntax- His sentence structure is fairly standard, creating a simple easy-to-understand storyline

Diction- His word use is fairly simple, making it easier to understand the clear point he is attempting to get across

Presher too Sukseed

The meaning behind Kenji Yoshino's statement that "the mainstream is a myth" is that America was built to not have one type of main group or culture but rather have a constantly changing set of beliefs and customs to fit all who live in the country. Yoshino's statement is based on the fact that the United States has had many different "identities" as our country has progressed. Multiple waves of immigration put different faces on what a mainstream American was supposed to look like, so there really is no one permanent set look, act, or feeling of a person who is considered "mainstream." Also, individuals can take upon multiple personalities/identities which can add to the lack of one true identity.
Yoshino is quite credible due to the fact that his personal beliefs and actions would not be considered mainstream and he has suffered from the consequences described in his writings.

FREE PHILTHY RICH!!!!!
FREE BIG LURCH!!!!!
FREE MYSTIKAL!!!!!

Studddds

The story of C.P. Ellis is a story of reconciliation and redemption that sticks out like a sore thumb in the society from which Ellis came due to his willingness to change himself. Ellis used his natural human ability to reason in a way that none of his family or friends ever would, and even more importantly acted upon that reasoning. However, I don't believe his method of change necessarily can translate to a total overcoming of racial and other types of misunderstanding. This is because his change of heart was more of an internal decision. The vast majority of bigots and racists in America do not have or refuse to acknowledge the existence of an ethical conscience about race. Therefore an internal change would almost be impossible and outside forces would have to come into play in order to have that type of effect on the people in question. However, Ellis's story is definitely credible due to the fact that he lived through a time where he actually associated with people who hate others more than any other group in the country and experienced things with them that set his story apart from most others.

Freedumb

Linda was able to finally escape to the north through the help of her friend Peter. At first when he offered her safe passage to the North, she turned him down due to the killing of a fugitive slave in the recent past that had deeply frightened her grandmother. She instead has Peter take her fugitive friend Fanny to the boat with him. However, eventually her grandmother relented, and Linda joined Fanny on the boat to Philadelphia to begin a new life in a free northern state. This does not end her troubles with the Flint family, who continued to pursue Linda to bring her back home until well after the death of Dr. Flint, but this gave Linda her first experience working for herself and gave a glimpse of what it was like to truly be without a master. The one thing that did upset her about this freedom was the fact that she was never able to see her grandmother while they were both free women even though they both died free.

FREE PHILTHY RICH!!!!!

Ahnestee phur Kredibyllitee

"And I was so selfish. I thought more of what I had lost, than of what my brother had gained. A new anxiety began to trouble me." In this passage, Linda is referencing the escape of her brother from the friendly captivity, yet captivity nevertheless, of Mr. Sands. Linda's honesty is important in this passage due to the fact that William's escape does not necessarily please here even though he is free, because she found the relationship between her and her brother to be more important than the freedom of one party or the other. This is a fairly common notion in slave culture at the time: that the sense of community between all of the slaves on a certain plantation is more important than the rights of individual members of the group, something that would not be expected in a situation like theirs.

FREE PHILTHY RICH!!!

Innsidence in the Lyph of a Slayv Gurlll

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl has a certain raw energy to it that cannot be compared to any textbook reading I have done or any encyclopedia entry. This raw energy comes from the course, biting language used throughout the narrative. Without such verbage within the story, I think the story would be less captivating. What makes this so special is the rough texture that the dialogue creates. Slavery was not pretty, fluffy or clean, and the story comes off as a much better representation of real life slavery due to the language it uses. Also, I find this story to be more powerful because it is a true story and not a work of fiction. This is because the sheer fact that this particular story actually happened has a much stronger mental effect. Had this story been just a representation of something that may have happened on a plantation that really isn't based on an actual story, I would have taken the plot to a much less serious degree. However, because of the nature of this true story, I not only have really been absorbed into the story, but I also have taken its message much more seriously.

Free Big Lurch!

Let's talk about racism!

Due to my generally tranquil cheery nature, I tend to avoid confrontation of any kind, especially confrontations about something I hate talking about like race. However, I have been a witness to several different interactions involving heated discussions about whether or not someone has been acting "racist" by the way they have been talking or acting, and believe me, I'm happy I've stayed out of it up to this point. From what I have seen, really there is no winner in these kinds of discussions because the conversation eventually declines into a name-calling shouting match which is utterly useless. I find this disappointing because if there are ever true racial issues that arise in our society, they are almost impossible to discuss without America, the country that cried racist, flipping out and discrediting the real problems. I completely agree with Wachtel in that the word "racist" has totally lost its value because of its massive overuse. It is being used to describe things that should be labeled as prejudice, bias, bigotry, etc. I find it interesting how the misuse of language has actually desensitized the public to an issue that is largely important in today's society.

Free Big Lurch!

Soeshelyz8hun Prahsess

Vincent Parillo's Socialization Process is a process in which individuals acquire what they value, believe, and perceive of different groups of people, usually conforming to the beliefs of their parents or other major role models in youth. The youth in question usually has no other sources of alternatives to the beliefs of his/her parents, so their beliefs are usually accepted as the real ones from a very early age. I believe this process does instill beliefs just from looking at my childhood, and I don't think there is anything wrong with this. It is a parent's responsibility to teach their children wrong from right and how to treat other people. Had my parents been woman-hating white supremacists, I probably would have at least started out as one too! Parillo's socialization process definitely exists in our society, and a cycle of bigotry is created by parents producing hateful children, who then produce hateful children of there own and so on.