TOW #24: "The Color of Water" (Part 2)

          The issue of race has become such an integral part of our culture. There are distinct divisions between black and white neighborhoods and stereotypes fill social media. This wasn't always a widespread issue, shown in The Color of Water by James McBride. He wrote the rest of his novel in the same fashion as before, with chapters illustrating his own life and then his mother's journal entries in between. The first half of the book centered on the fact that people would look at McBride weirdly as a child because of the difference between the dominate race in the neighborhood and his mother's skin color, yet as a child, he was blissfully unaware. The second half of the book focuses more on how his mother influenced him using her ideas on race, religion, and education.
          At first, I thought that the book's purpose was to establish a different perspective on race. Usually, the books on race involve tales of those fighting for their freedom or against segregation, yet this novel was completely different. It showed a white woman living in the world of the black race and how she kept her head high and acted honorably even when everyone discriminated against her. While it was first believed that McBride's idea was to show how prominent the idea of race could really be, after reading the rest of the story, it displayed something else: He wanted to express his feeling that to understand the present, one must be familiar with the past. Towards the end of the book, McBride explains, "I felt like a Tinkertoy kid building my own self out of one of those toy building sets; for as she laid her life before me, I reassembled the tableau of her words like a picture puzzle, and as I did, so my own life was rebuilt." This comes from his description of the idea that his mom's life was completely bound to his, and that his mother's history helped him understand his own life. Also, to more understand McBride's dual racial identity, he needed to know what happened to his mother and why she would choose to make a family with a black man as a white woman even with all of the ridicule.

TOW #23: "How Not to Explain Success"

This article was found at nytimes.com.

          There are many ways to define one's success. One individual might believe they are successful for the rest of their life if they win a basketball trophy in the seventh grade, while someone else bases their conclusion on raising a healthy family and avoiding divorce. The author of this article was looking at another book that said success depended on a certain combination of three specific traits: a belief that their group was superior to others, a sense of personal insecurity, and a high degree of impulse control. Christopher Chabris and Joshua Hart then made this their own personal argument and tried to figure out a way to prove it without including all of the anecdotes and stereotypes that were in the original book.
          One way they were able to create some specific evidence and avoid stereotypes was through two online surveys. They surveyed 1,258 adults in the United States where the participants had to complete a variety of standard questionnaires to measure his or her impulsiveness, ethnocentrism, and personal security (all of the components of success). After this, the participants completed a test of their cognitive abilities, so they reported their income, occupation, education, and other achievements that could have defined their success. After the data was analyzed by the authors, it was found that more successful people, based on these standards anyway, had parents that were more educated, made more money, and had higher cognitive ability. Also, it was seen that more successful participants did not possess greater feelings of ethnocentrism or personal insecurity, and actually the opposite was true.
          The authors of this article had an argument that they tried to prove right through an experiment that actually showed the exact opposite of what they were trying to prove true. So, they obviously didn't pick good enough evidence for their topic and actually disproved their argument. This might have been their purpose, to abolish a theory that seemed weird to them, and I believe it to have been achieved. Their evidence didn't help their argument, but it allowed them to show this interesting theory and disprove it. They could've helped their argument by including other types of evidence like more statistics or personal stories that could've further explained what they were trying to say.
       

TOW #22: "Why Slaves' Graves Matter"

This article was found at www.nytimes.com.

       
          Sandra A. Arnold grew up in a small rural town in West Tennessee, surrounded by where her ancestors were once enslaved. When she was a teenager, she realized that the old church they went to was a short distance from a cemetery that housed many individuals. The cemetery contained an area with graves marked only with plain rocks of various sizes, and these people were those who had been enslaved and lived and died in Arnold's community. For a while, she felt no personal connection to her great grandfather Ben who was born into slavery around 1855 and actually buried in that cemetery. Yet, after visiting his grave, that completely changed for her. Instead of referring to him as "just some distant relative who was enslaved," she called him "Grandpa Ben."
          The author argued that memorialization keeps us connected to what is most significant about those who are no longer with us. She wonders what it means that the grave sites of countless enslaved Americans have not been afforded the recognition they deserve. She uses substantial anecdotes from her childhood that support how important it is to her that these people receive the memorial they should get. Besides just telling experiences she has had with her family, Arnold continued her research to the National Burial Database of Enslaved Americans, and also looking up burial grounds that are in danger of being lost. She mentions a community in Shelby County, Alabama, and a church congregation in Queens, New York to support her argument. All of this specific evidence displays what a horrible problem this has become, and also opens up to the reader's eyes about how relevant and disturbing this problem actually is. I didn't know that this was an issue before, so I am certain that she was able to achieve her purpose because her evidence as so specific and intellectually moving.

TOW #21: "The Gettysburg Tweet"

          This visual text has displayed one of our well know presidents as just a regular guy standing next to a skateboard and tweeting his Gettysburg Address instead of delivering it in a speech. While this can be seen as just a humorous idea to show the effect of social media on our life, I think it goes a lot deeper than that. The idea of the Gettysburg Address is iconic. Our president shared his words about not wanting those who died to have died in vain and although it was rather short, it is considered one of the greatest speeches in history. While displaying the words as text speech could be considered mildly insulting, it is a great display of the immense power that social media has taken in our society, especially in politics.
          With the presidential election in full swing right now, everyone is talking about Donald Trump's infamous tweets or Mitt Romney's responses. While this would probably not happen face to face if they were standing next to each other, the ability to just tweet out your opinions like they are doing has completely changed the way the elections work now. People can express their extreme dislike or support for candidates before the poll numbers are revealed. President Obama can express his grief when there is a mass shooting, which is extremely similar to what happened with Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
          There's no doubt that social media has completely changed how the world works today, and this is yet another example of how it works. Because of this, I completely agree with their message of how social media can make the more famous politicians seem like regular people with their ability to address the nation through social media.

TOW #20: "The Color of Water" (Part 1)

          Some might describe the color of water as clear, colorless, or something not worth acknowledging. James McBride, author of The Color of Water wrote an autobiography paired with a journal entries from his mother's life. Growing up with a white mother, mixed stepfather that his mom married after his black biological father died, and 15 mixed siblings and half siblings, the issue of race would seem like a big deal to him. But, it wasn't. He would see his black friends' mothers look at him oddly for holding a white woman's hand, but McBride's mother took it all in stride. She had a family that she loved and was proud of, and that's all that mattered. Whenever James would ask his mother about the color of her skin, she would just claim that she was "light-skinned" and change the subject. Yet, as James got older, he realized the enormity of what his mother sacrificed for her family, and he wrote this as a tribute to his mother.
          McBride used historical references to provide context before he would tell a story from his perspective. On page 25, the author mentions how in 1966 at the age of nine, black power had permeated into every aspect of their lives, how Malcolm X had been killed the year before, that afros were now in style, and mentioned the Black Panthers. It gives the readers the chance to "catch up." I personally have never lived in that time period, yet I do know the history, and it helped me to connect more to what I was reading. Another tool that McBride uses to connect to his audience would be similes. He states that his mother's "contradictions crashed and slammed against one another like bumper cars at Coney Island" (McBride 29). This also creates the sense of imagery that helps a reader understand what is happening and is more interesting to read. I think his purpose, other than sharing his story, is to display the message to younger readers that your race was actually an issue and people judged you for it. Using these tools, he is then able to connect to a whole other demographic in his audience, and can therefore teach many young people this valuable lesson.

TOW #19: "Don't Call Me the 'Black Seth Rogen'"

This article is taken from nytimes.com.

        Colton Dunn, known writer for the famous show "Key and Peele," recently went to a Hollywood showcase to meet with movie directors and producers. At these showcases, the directors and producers are looking for the "variety types" meaning those who have a different skin color than white or have a different sexual orientation than "straight." Dunn expresses his gratitude for his dad's darker skin color because it has given him jobs in Hollywood, yet he also shares his deep distrust in Hollywood's way of doing things.
          By using an anecdote that includes specific details about his experiences in Hollywood, it makes him that much more credible towards the subject, and also provides some humor as well. He tells about how his agent told him to enhance his "black accent" and to really play up the experience he received from being around successful black comedians. It bothers him a lot this agent had to make people change or to enhance their "gayness" just to get a part. He also uses a lot of sarcasm to display how angry he is about this phenomenon that occurs. It provides a nice break from all of the seriousness of the topic because he also brings in the subject of racism.
          Dunn connects this occurrence to the Oscars/Academy Awards that are occurring this weekend. Since no black actors were nominated for any of the awards, it caused a major uproar, and this is just more evidence of what Colton is trying to prove: Hollywood is racist, and uses people based on their skin color to make the directors look good for the general public. While Hollywood is making an effort to be more diverse, it can be seen as a step in the wrong direction with this happening, and he uses personal anecdotes and sarcasm to achieve this.
         

TOW #18: "From Heaven"

This letter was taken from lettersofnote.com

          Sir William Osler is known by those in the medical field as the writer of "The Principles and Practice of Medicine" or most commonly known as the "Physician's Bible." He became incredibly famous and his contributions to medicine can still be seen today. Unfortunately, a year after his life altering book was published, his newborn son died only after living for a week. This was especially devastating because of Olser's sister's death when she was only two years old. To comfort his wife, William posed as his dead son Paul and wrote as if he were in heaven talking to his mother.
          This letter was very depressing to read because of the context behind it but there was also some humor in it that contributed to his purpose. His main goal was to comfort his wife after their heart wrenching loss and also to provide closure, so by having a healthy balance, William was able to be more convincing as a child. The "son" mentions how many kids there are and that it was amazing when he found out that everyone from around the world goes to the same place. He also mentions that people are put into six different divisions based on their age and how weird that was for him. By speaking so innocently, he was probably able to capture the embodiment of the character that he was playing a lot more and be more convincing.
         Another way that William made this letter come alive was through the effective use of imagery. In the beginning of the letter, "Paul" describes what heaven looks like. He mentions the green spot that he woke up in with all the trees and how pretty it all was. It paints such a beautiful picture for William's wife to have in her mind so that she can feel better about where her son is now. Also with not knowing anything for sure about heaven, having that visual in her head, if she believes William, can help her to eventually cope with what happened. Through the use of these strategies, Osler was able to convince his wife that everything was going to turn out fine and that she shouldn't be worried.