Expansion of mind 

            Being a student of such a class designed to challenge the minds of those who decide to go through the phases presented in the class, allowed me and many others within the classroom to improve and develop the ideologies that we once had/have. The “before and after” transformation from the way I express myself in my writing to deciding the type of rhetorical appeal I have decided to use to connect with the audience, has differed tremendous throughout these phases. Coming into this class, I had expectation of perhaps the class being a standard English class similar to one of a high school. The black and white expectations that were given, the books that were passed out to the class to read the chapters from such to such, and then make either an informative, persuasive, or argumentative essay. I didn’t think at all that my perceptive would be challenged and that the way I thought of language would change. 

            The first phase of the classroom being the “Language and literacy” phase allowed for me to explore how language has a tremendous effect on an individual and how they express themselves. Many of the students that are in my class are mainly from other countries, this meant that most of our parents are immigrants. This is when I explored how language for immigrant households and communication between first generation children affected their day-to-day life. Before I thought that language was just used in order to understand each other and function as a society but it is much deeper than that. In my particular situation, being raised by Ecuadorian parents, it was difficult trying to retain my Spanish in an English dominate Country. Especially, since I was living in an area that was more concentrated with African Americans, I learned certain “lingos” that I would use when I spoke to my friends. When I came back home, it was back to Spanish where I had some difficulty trying to pronounce certain words. The basis of this was that there was multiple cultures that I had to deal with and changing languages back and forth was sometimes a struggle but it gave me the opportunity to become friends with people around the world and indulge in my own culture as well. 

“Throughout the years, learning English and being in mostly environments that people spoke English, my Spanish was fading away. To further elaborate, I used to talk very fluent Spanish as a young child but when confronted with an audience that was mostly English speaking, it was hard to practice my own native language outside of my household.”

            The second phase of the classroom was the “Rhetorical Analysis” phase which allowed me to explore the different types of rhetorical devices I could use to appeal to my audience. Throughout this phase, I had the opportunity to identify different appeal that authors used in their own writing, this implement the basis for me to understand how and when to have the appropriate appeal in my own writing. This appeal being Logos, Pathos, or Ethos, which was the main appeals I used throughout my writing. Using a personal anecdote was a good tool as well and the learning that took place was the diversity with the use of these tools. 

            “The learning outcome that I gain from this phase of the class was how to be able to use and recognize different rhetorical terms and strategies being used in a writing.” 

            The third phase being a “Research Essay” phase which I made my own topic of discussion. The class had to make an informative essay with their own claim on their topic. The topic I chose was about gender roles in society. To be more specific the development and comparison between traditional gender roles and modern gender roles. The learning experience that I received during this phase was how to find scholarly article and utilize them to either provide supporting evidence to your claim, or to provide a counter argument to challenge your claim. This is something that before I would have not know how to do but with the help of this exercise I was able to do both in my writing. 

            “This phase’s assignment helped me learn how to cite my sources and practice systematic application of citation conventions. I want the reader to be open to the discussion of gender roles and how they have changed and remained the same in different aspects. These observations were all made with the account of many factors that are involved with gender roles. These factors such as race, religion, culture, and societies were taken into account when making my claim. I encourage for people to do their own research on this topic to get a better grasp of this topic because there is much more to it than only the factors I listed.”

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The audience for my particular piece was for the modern generation of our modern society. This includes generation z, which I am a part of and many others in my class of English. I chose this as my audience for my research paper because of how gender roles are being shaped and formed different due to modern ideologies coming from my generation. The rhetorical appeal I mostly used was logos with the use of scholarly sources, it gave validation to the statement I made and gave some type of background to make such claim. Some of the most meaningful insights I’ve gained in this phase is the grasp of information that is available to anyone to do their own research on any topic they please. Learning about my topic of gender roles and the different societies there are, was an eye-opening experience and allowed me to have more perspectives. The concept of creating your own thesis and argument based on information that you gather has been a very impactful thing I learned throughout this learning phase. Building up a claim that is supported with multiple sources and creating counter arguments to demonstrate that other claims aren’t valid to the one I am making was a useful thing to learn. This phase’s assignment helped me learn how to cite my sources and practice systematic application of citation conventions. I want the reader to be open to the discussion of gender roles and how they have changed and remained the same in different aspects. These observations were all made with the account of many factors that are involved with gender roles. These factors such as race, religion, culture, and societies were taken into account when making my claim. I encourage for people to do their own research on this topic to get a better grasp of this topic because there is much more to it than only the factors I listed. In the modern world, it is seen that women are the major amount of people who are advocating for gender roles to be changed instead of men. Most decisions or choices are made from emotion instead of logic and creates a hateful environment towards men. Such examples are of “modern feminism”, who are extremist and just make more division between genders than create unity and harmony. These extremists are really trying to seek “revenge” for the mistreatment of past ages and try to act more as a “guy” or masculine in their eyes. Taking all this into consideration, I want to make this argument as unbiased as possible and hope the reader enjoys.  

Modern vs. Past Gender roles

An important topic that I feel should be discussed about more should be about gender roles within a society. The existence of gender roles and how they evolved in the way they did. The connection between culture and gender role. As well the relation between religion and gender roles. There are many factors that come into account when trying to discuss why such roles have been accepted within different societies. I would like to compare the difference of Western society to the rest of the world as well to see the development of gender roles within different parts of the world. In my humble opinion, I believe that gender roles are a beneficial way of conducting society to an extent. There is fine line between common gender roles and sexism. Distinguishing the difference between misogyny and sexism with common gender roles beliefs will be further investigated to ensure an unbiased approach with this topic. With all of this said I believe that gender roles persist till this day and will continue to for future generations and their defined purposes benefit a functioning society.

To begin with I would like to present a counter argument. In the article, “Gender Roles in the Future? Theoretical Foundations and Future Research Directions” (2019), author Alice H. Eagly and Sabine Szczesny in collaboration, from the Department of Psychology of Northwestern University and University of Bern, asserts that stereotypical gender roles will continue to be a part of society and that its certain roles should belong to men or women. They also suggest that in a world where gender is always in flux, women will conceive in agentic traits but still remain more communal than men, further reinforcing the idea that the phenomenon of gender is in relation with nature or natural instinct. They back up these claims by doing the following: first, they discuss about how there is less women in political and economic institutions and the gender inequality within these institutes; next, they elaborate the inconsistencies of gender roles such as women being in leader role positions because of the defined natural roles that are more inclined for men, this is due to the natural reason that men have more agentic values than women; last, they attack the idea that in order to create gender equality putting more women in leadership role in organizations will not ensure equal opportunity because social behavior. Eagly and Sczesny appears to write in hopes of increasing awareness that gender roles will not be going away regardless of as much diversity there is in different industries in order to inform the reader that these traits will continue in the far future. Because of the author’s academic tone, it seems as if they are writing for past and present generations becoming the main target for their writing.

On the other hand in her blog “Gender Roles in Modern Society” (2016), Joy Nash asserts that on the contrary to the first article that gender roles are a social construct by addressing that there is a change of gender stereotypes, they are dictated based on the environment an individual lives in and explaining the difference between gender and sex. By supplying the reader with information about the idea of masculinity or femininity and gender expectations, Nash builds her claims about gender roles aren’t relevant in the present. Nash wishes to convey to readers the importance of trying to break generational beliefs of roles in order to create a modern generation in where “gender equality” is true concept. The author’s audience likely consists of those interested in trying to create more opportunities for people regardless of gender as is evident through her references to similar career paths that both women or men can pursue and stating that sex is anatomic , but gender is social and psychological construct; she addresses readers with a tone that is critical and accepting. The different perspectives that both authors have been contrary to one another. The first two authors of the article being Eagly, and Sczesny supported the view that I proposed. This being that gender roles will not be disappearing, and it is essential for a functioning society. On the other hand, the author Nash disputed my argument trying to establish that gender roles shouldn’t be something that defines a person or that limits a person to express themselves. As stated by Eagly and Sczesny, there are different position in industries that will be better suited for men than women. These roles could be leadership roles in companies because of the agentic nature that men have instead of women. It would be viewed negatively if a woman was in a leadership position because the workers would perceive her has a “Queen Bee”, a woman that is seen as having more masculine character traits in male-dominated fields. This means that for there is true gender equality there must be more women that portray masculine traits of being leaders. On the other hand, Nash states, “Many of the gender stereotypes we know today were not always present in the past; they are relatively new trends in human society”, further explaining that “that between the years 1918 and 1940, pink was viewed as a masculine color, while blue was seen dainty and soft, making it best suited for females. Bobolts also states that during the Middle Ages in Europe, high heels were exclusively for men, rather than women”. The most significant idea here is that Nash is trying to explain that gender identify fluctuates and that was is seen as masculine and feminine will change over the course of time. My point here is that these examples that the author uses are weak examples to explain why some gender stereotypes aren’t present today because of superficial appearance. Instead of the other discussing the character traits of an individual, they want to develop the idea that because there is gender fluctuation in modern society that gender roles from past generations should not be used as a guideline as to how people of a certain sex should behave, because they are not reliable nor constant. The author tries to use matriarchal societies to argue this point but when looked closely into these societies women who had leadership positions were mostly in family and raising children, women are more praised for their domestic realm of life. My point here is that although these societies have existed and continue to exist, they still portray tradition gender roles but just put more emphasize in praising the women in society. Therefore, bring to the conclusion that gender roles have been present even in these types of societies.

Exploring cultural norms is an important accept of genre roles. UCLA researcher and author, Paola Giuliano, in her blog post, “Age-Old Cultural Norms Dictate Gender Roles Even Today”, published the 28 of October 2020, addresses the topic of the cultural norms that have been created by humans that depict a certain way for how different genders should behave and their roles and argues that cultural norms and gender roles have resulted because of the economic considerations. She supports this claim by talking about agricultural traditions, patrilocal societies, and mothers-in-law. Giuliano’s purpose is to display the reasons for why different societies have different gender roles based on the economic situation of each society in order to compare to modern gender roles present today. She adopts a direct tone for her audience, the readers of “Age-Old Cultural Norms Dictate Gender Roles Even Today” and others interested in the topic of culture norms.

In addition in the article, “Women’s roles in different parts of the world” (2019), published by insureandgo, asserts that western societies are trying to create gender equality by breaking gender roles and suggests that in comparison to other societies such as remote tribal communities, developing communities, and matriarchal societies the idea of “new” gender roles is practically brand new. The publisher backs up this claim by doing the following: first they explain that the western societies are trying to implement same rights for women as they had for men; next, they take about how developing communities have a lack of education for women; last, remote tribal communities have old tradition gender roles. The publisher appears to write in hopes of enlighten people about the difference between western society and other countries. Because of the author’s informative tone, it seems as if they write for a western and global audience. Throughout both the article and blog post, they have a connection between how the culture that an individual is raised will have an effect on the gender roles that the individual has. Each author has similar claims that intertwine with each other’s claims and falls in line with what I believe has an effect on how an individual views the “job” of a women or men in a society. I want to further explain the points that author Giuliano makes are that in an agricultural society where men were seen has the people to do the brute labor and the women focused on the home, this meant that had less “freedom” outside the house because the man had more of the parental authority. In addition, the author contrasts a matrilocal society because there was more emphasizes on the women, married couples “move in with the bride’s parents” but this meant that their education wasn’t put first instead. The third point is how mothers-in-law had an effect on gender roles because “A woman is likelier to work if her mother-in-law worked than if her own mother worked. A 2004 study suggests that sons who grew up with working mothers may prefer a working wife or are likelier to participate in household activities, making it easier for their partners to work”. All these societies are very similar to what the publisher (insureandgo) such as the remote tribal communities that have “Men are trained to be warriors while women learn to gather food, cook, clean, and bear children. Tribes such as the Maasai (one of the oldest tribes in Africa, present in Kenya and Tanzania), are most often patriarchal and relationships tend to be polygamous. Women will share a husband, and there is often a large age gap between young women and their older spouse” and developing nations that have “hindrances to women in developing countries is the lack of access to education, which has sadly resulted in women accounting for two-thirds of the world’s illiterate population. Women are often expected to adhere to more outdated roles, where they stay at home, cook, and care for children”. The only society that gives women power is the Matriarchal societies, where power is given over the man, “Today, a Chinese ethnic group known as Mosuo sees children take the last name of their mother and property is passed down through the female side of the family. Women of the Minangkabau of West Sumatra are the same, and while led by a male chief, it is the women who have the power to choose and remove him from power”. When creating such comparisons with western society there is more freedom for the women, they aren’t dictated over but there are still the traditional gender roles. “Women in westernized societies enjoy most of the same rights as men, including things like the right to vote, drive, and ability to own land, access to education, and protection against violence”. There is a persistence for western societies to make people chose a side of men and women are “equal”. In reality, we are not equal but there is a misinterpretation that this means one gender is better than the other by that statement I mean there are things women can do better than men and things men can to better than women.

The existences of gender expectations can have an affect in gender roles. Readers of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Steve Kelly, are presented with his political carton, “Sexist cartoons in the post-Gazette drawing from Pittsburghers”, published on Thursday, January 17, 2019, addresses the topic of gender roles and argues that modern gender roles only pertain when it benefits that specific gender. He supports this claim by demonstrating how women want to apply traditional gender roles when it benefits them in certain times, then shows the man in the cartoon shocked, and finally the women are looking angry or entitled. Kelly’s purpose is to prove that the modern gender roles is flawed in order to show that in reality gender roles persist in our current society and are used when it benefits that certain gender. He adopts biased tone of his audience, the readers of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and others interested in the topic of gender roles in modern society.

In the YouTube video, “Gender Roles: What Does the Bible Teach?” (2014), author Russell D. Moore and Ligon Duncan, published by the channel “ERLC”, a priest Ligon and Ethics & Religious Liberty Commissioner Russell, asserts that women and men are equal in worth and suggest that they have different roles in marriage, family life, and the church. They back up this claim by doing the following; first, they speak upon the complementarianism within individuals; next, they speak upon the Egalitarian; last, they speak about accountability for the individual in religious. Moore and Duncan discuss this issue in hopes of spreading a positive message about gender roles in order to have the youth of our society follow how their religious excepts them to behave and have a functions society, in this case I am talking about the bible. Because of the author’s calm tone, it seems as if they are making this video for a religious and non-religious audience.

Both sources support the thesis that I suggest, being that gender roles are beneficial for both a man and a woman. On one side, author Kelly demonstrates the double standards that are created in modern gender role expectations. The lady excepts the man to pay for the date that they went to but is supposed to be this “boss” woman that should want to split the check 50-50. In this case the author is trying to portray the idea that the modern women are flawed in the way that they have expectation for a man to be the provider but don’t except the man to have the same expectation for them to be a caretaker or housewife. On the other side, Moore and Ducan discuss about how our society either has complementarity or Egalitarian people and there is no middle ground that can advocate for both. What is defined as complementarianism is “that men and women are equal in personhood. There is no difference in worth. Rather, proponents of complementarianism believe that men and women have separate, though equal, roles in marriage, family life, the church, and elsewhere”, and the definition of egalitarian is “they agree with complementarians that men and women are equal in worth. However, egalitarianism goes further to state that men and women are considered equal in role capabilities as well; there are no gender restrictions on what roles men and women can fulfill in the church, home, and society”. The pastor explains how the woman and man should be in unison with each other and take accountability of their spiritual journey which makes the man the leader. In the bible, the man is supposed to be the leader of the family but with that comes responsibility. This is where man deviate from their spiritual side of being the leader and just focus on how to control the women. Therefore, is it seen as a negative view for a man to justify his actions because he uses it as an excuse to protect his intentions which may not always be what god intended. The man is responsible for making sure that the family practices their region and goes to church. Putting an emphasis on the role of the women is important too because her taking care of the kids and household is a job, which is looked down upon when is should be praised for the hard work that they put into a family.

Overall, it can be seen that there are many ways in which gender roles are affected, which are religion, culture, and different countries you were raised in. From all the sources used it many of them aligned with the ideal that I proposed about how gender roles are a beneficial way for society to function. My stances on this were proven by the way region gives a positive connation to gender roles, how western society is influencing away from traditional gender roles even though it isn’t having a positive effect, and the expectations that each has on each other coming from traditional gender roles as portrayed in the carton.

Bibliography

Eagly, Alice H., and Sabine Sczesny. “Editorial: Gender Roles in the Future? Theoretical Foundations and Future Research Directions.” Frontiers, Frontiers, 1 Jan. 1AD, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01965/full. 

10 Banneker 2016, Written By: Joy Nash Grade. “Gender Roles in Modern Society – One World Education.” One World Education –, 23 Aug. 2020, https://www.oneworldeducation.org/our-students-writing/gender-roles-in-modern-society/. 

Kmenke. “Age-Old Cultural Norms Dictate Gender Roles Even Today.” UCLA Anderson Review, 12 Oct. 2021, https://anderson-review.ucla.edu/gender-and-culture/. 

“What Are Womens’ Lives like in Different Parts of the World?” InsureandGo Australia, 24 Nov. 2021, https://www.insureandgo.com.au/travel-hub/women-roles-different-parts-world/. 

Kelley, Steve. “Sexist Cartoons in the Post-Gazette Draw Ire from Pittsburghers.” Bado’s Blog, http://bado-badosblog.blogspot.com/2019/01/sexist-cartoons-in-post-gazette-draw.html. 

erlcsbc. “Gender Roles: What Does the Bible Teach?” YouTube, YouTube, 29 Jan. 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSHxmDSo9sM. 

Roat, Alyssa. “What Are Complementarianism and Egalitarianism? What’s the Difference?” Christianity.com, Christianity.com, 5 July 2019, https://www.christianity.com/wiki/christian-terms/what-are-complementarianism-and-egalitarianism-what-s-the-difference.html. 

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During the writing of this piece choosing the audience was a very complex area because I wanted to relate to them the most. At the end I chose my audience to be mostly foreigners, such as immigrants or people that move into very concertation area of a specific ethnic group. I chose this as my audience because these are the people that could relate the most to the issue, I am presenting to them. The language and personal anecdote I used in my writing was on purpose so that it felt like a conversation between me and the audience. Trying to use situations that most of them used to or would be in if there was no integration in their environment. 

This leads me to my writing piece and the issue I will be presenting. The concept of my argument is that different culture, races, and/or ethnic group should be more accepting of each other and create integration between different cultures. The end result is to create unity in a community and a bond between human beginnings to create a better future for both our children and future generations. No unity within a community creates division and tension because no one is willing to help each other and creates bias opinion about each other. 

The most meaningful insights I have gain would be the diversity there is in work environment but the lack of diversity there is when everyone is at home. Yes, there is blacks, Hispanic, Whites at a workplace but have you ever though where they lived, how there is a difference. Hispanics are within a Hispanic community, White are within White community, and Blacks and within Black community. In turn creating a heavy concertation of people in different areas. Why can’t there just be an even distribution of people live anywhere, why do people have to do research on the best areas to live just because the community isn’t of theirs? The learning outcome that I gain from this phase of the class was how to be able to use and recognize different rhetorical terms and strategies being used in a writing. 

For example, all the reading we had in the first phase of the class used different rhetorical struggles such has logos, pathos, or ethos. Not only this but now I am able to use it in my writing to relate to the audience and get my message across. In my writing I used more logos like statics and demographic charts to send a direct message to the audience instead of beating around the bush. My intent is to be as truthful and direct as I can be to get my message across. I wanted to also go in depth with my argument by not just making about Black or White but making it about every race that is in the United States or any country in the world. I allow used pathos to connect with the audience in a human level, to create an emotional reason to stop creating such concertation’s of communities. 

I also used my personal anecdote as I mentioned before in order to create a valid argument because it is something I went through on a personal level. It created a trust worth source and the right person to give an opinion on such topic. In addition, my extra assignment had a similar argument to my blog post. Instead, I decided to be inspired by Langston Hugh’s piece of writing called “The Theme for English B” and speak upon the “truth” or the different realities that a White person and an African American person may have. What I mean by “realities”, I mean that the different struggles that a particular race goes through. The audience of my piece was for people that struggle within society and the limitation that are put upon them in society. There is no way to essential relate to one another if they have different struggles. The most meaningful insight that I got is that the use of different rhetorical devices can be more effective than others. The most impactful insight is that political cartoon can really be an effective way to portray a message in a very visual manner. A course learning outcome is that I was able to compose texts that is integrated with the argument I was trying to portray with the use of my source being my cartoon. Overall, I want the reader to be open to change and different perceptive in order to full grasp the concept I am agreeing about.

          Integration

  The integration of cultures is an issue within some communities. Even though there is no legal segregation, referring to how it was before in the 1900’s with the separation of White and Blacks, people still decide to segregate themselves due to culture and racial reasons. The willingness to mix cultures is very rare now a days because there is prejudice between different races. For example, in the community that I currently live in there is a segregation between Asians and Latinos because there is no common ground between cultures. Since we don’t have a common ground, both communities decide to keep away from each other. 

Being a part of the Latino community, there is prejudice against us and almost get stereotyped within the Asian community. I want for every ethnic group to learn and prosper from each other instead of creating separation, create union. The creation of China town in Flushing is what has made my community more Asian based. According to a demographic article , the demographics of Chinatown Flushing is 60 percent Asian, 17 percent white, 17 percent Hispanic and others 6 percent. The use of statics can be used to analysis the profound impact that cultural integration has within a community. Being surrounding mostly by Asians isn’t the problem/issue here, but the lack of welcoming and openness to different people is. There isn’t anything that they do specifically to make us feel unwelcomed but instead it is what they don’t do which makes us have this feeling. Living in Flushing for almost three years, I don’t know my neighbors’ names or who they actually are.  

There is a YouTube video that explains the idea that I am trying to portray, showing that there is diversity and integration at work environments but when everyone goes home there is a segregation of communities. A study from Cornell and Penn state, this study shows the concertation of people during work hours and then when everyone such as African American, White, and Hispanics go home. The YouTube video of integration.

The matter of the fact is that we justify these segregated communities because of the diversity there is at work environment. Furthermore, affecting the livelihood of shared spaces with different racial communities that could cause tension or discomfort between each other. Imagine a world where everyone was seen as equal humans and it truly didn’t matter what ethic group you belonged to, sadly we could only imagine but we can still make a difference. Try food from different cultures, relate to similar struggles that both may have experienced, and build a connection between two human beings.

  The argument that I was trying to get across was that there should be more willingness to integrate cultures and communities in order to create a true harmonic community. I was compelled to discuss this issue because of the many times I have witnessed bystanders not helping people in need or ignoring/leaving areas that aren’t the same ethnic backgrounds as the individual. During this argument, I choice to use personal anecdote about the experiences that I had with difficulty trying to integrate with the Asian community. Although I may have used these ethic groups to take about this specific issue, it doesn’t only pertain within those communities. 

My goal was to speak for all ethnic group, making my audience a wide spectrum like African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Whites, Europeans, etc.… I purposely chose to be a worldwide spectrum because this idea or theory shouldn’t only be followed by a small minority but instead by a large majority. Opening the eyes of many people that didn’t realize that this is a true issue. The genre that I chose for my argument was a YouTube video that explains the topic of issue I was trying to present to my audience. This video gave a more in-depth idea of how community segregate happened with the last few decades. 

The use of statics is what made it helpful to use this video because it shows concrete information of why some communities are more Hispanic concentrated or why some communities are African American concentrated. It starts from the era of Urbanization; White engineers create cookie cut houses for “White communities” during the 1900’s and creating a mass movement of creating a “pure” community.

Even within supposal diverse work environments, there is a sense of inequality because of the position of jobs that different cultures get into. When you think of a company like Boeing, Nike, or even Chase, the first thing that comes to mine is “Who is the boss”, the one in charge of the whole operation, the CEO, Well unfortunately it isn’t really diverse in this accept of life. If you search up who are the CEO of these companies all of them are White Americans. Doesn’t it seem ironic that we “promote” cultural integration and diversity yet most of the important position are taken by one ethnic group. The rhetorical strategies that I used where logos and pathos for the issue I am discussing. 

The use of demographic charts for the anecdote I used was to further enforce the idea there is a concentration of people in one area that likes to enclose themselves from different cultures. As well during the end of the rhetorical text, the use of pathos was purposely done to make the audience sympathize with the fault that us as individuals have and to touch the heart of others in order to give back and help different communities. I feel that a blog is the most effective matter to handle this issue because it can be advertised or prompted within social media to spread the message. It is on the internet for someone to read whenever, wherever, and however they feel like. Someone with a big platform, by that I mean following, can use this and post it in their blog to spread the message making it assessable for anyone in the world. The use of a blog is also more utilized within the younger generation and able to create more impressions within that area. This creates a greater opportunity to change our future.

Reality Check

            One of the arguments that stood out to be from all the course texts that we as a class have read was the one made by Langston Hughes in his poem, “The Theme for English B”. The struggle of creating a real connection between an African American and a Caucasian man. In this instance it is between these two ethnic groups because of the historical context that the author was writing from. This doesn’t mean that it can only portray issue an issue between only these two races but instead between a wide spectrum of races. 

The author uses a personal anecdote in which he is called upon to write an English paper about their individual truth. To really understand the authors position, we have to look at the time frame that he wrote this piece of writing. It was 1951, the height of the civil rights movement trying to create a path for African Americans in the right direction. It is difficult to write a paper for a person that hasn’t lived the same reality as you. This division was what puzzled the author making it difficult to complete the assignment given. Just like the author, there are many people throughout the world that may want to express their truth but it is minimized because others may not understand it. Afraid to perhaps speak the truth and use their voice because the individual is being oppressed from others.

An example of such injustice can be seen in many parts of world. To be more specific in the United States. The foundation upon this country has and always will be from racial inequality. In the cartoon it can be seen how a white male and African American women are having a race to the finishing line but the African American women has impossible obstacles to go through. The white male says to stop whing because it is the same “distance” from the finishing lines. In reality both their truths are different. They might have the same ability to pursue the same opportunity but the path they must take in order to achieve that opportunity differs completely. The sad reality is that this has been a reoccurring issue but we are the individual that could change this.

    The argument that I was trying to get across is that someone’s truth may not be your truth or vise versa. What I mean by this phrase is that someone may be going through hardship and wants to speak upon their hardship, but the other party doesn’t understand the struggle they are going through. Not understanding the difference and difficulty that another person goes through is what makes a division between races, parties, etc.…. This division causes racial tension which just causes problems within a community. 

The intended audience in this case would be anyone who has been discriminated against and for the general public. Being able to provide insight on how there was a time that many African Americans struggled to move up in status and become recognize as human beings. I want the audience to be patient with other human being and try to understand each other, instead of comparing or judge each other’s struggles. The genre I chose to do what about a pollical cartoon. In this political carton, it demonstrated the struggle between a white male and an African American women trying to achieve the same goal or the “finish line”. Within the path of trying to pursue the finish line, the white male seems to have an easy and clean path to follow. 

On the other hand, The African American women had a shackle on the right side of her food and the path she had to go through was filled with spikes, alligators, and rocks. This makes it impossible for the women to be able to win the race. This cartoon demonstrates the hardships that different individual have to go through just to achieve the same goal. The white male proceeds say “stop whining, it’s the same distance”, this proves that others truth might not be the same as their truth. In this instance, the truth of the African American women is that she has to go through hardship just to at the same place as the white male. 

The use of logos and pathos was a useful way to portray the sad reality that many people go. The logos part was utilized when the historical context of the author. That was the part in which the civil right movement was just beginning, and many African Americans were trying to create a voice. The use of pathos was with the help of the cartoon. The audience should feel a sense of empathy for individuals that don’t have an easier reality and have to work twice as hard just because of the color of their skin. Both were a great way to portray the argument that was in play. I feel that a political cartoon is an effective manner to handle this situation because it is more effective than any writing or video can be. This is because it humanizes the issue that the artist is trying to portray. A political carton makes you think about the issue or argument and also forms an opinion at the same time, it can change your mind without you even knowing it did.

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Cover Page

Creating a piece of writing that explains the struggles of coming from an immigrant household showed the vulnerability that many of the individuals in our classroom had to go through. One of the most insightful lessons I have learned throughout this process was that most of us assimilated or mimicked the language or form of speech due to the surrounding we are involved in. In addition, the form of how we speak is something we all should be proud of, there is no “incorrect” way to speak a specific language. Individualism is what allows for many different dialects to exist, and it should be appreciated not frown upon. In my case, the intended audience that I was targeting were immigrant households and the struggles of being the first generation being born in the United States.

The expectation that everyone has because you are the one that is supposed to know everything in the English language. For this reason, I added some Spanish phrases in writing but translated them for the reader to get a better grasp of what they are reading. One concept that impacted my learning of language is the expectations that were put upon me since I was young child. What I mean by this is that when asked something like translating or speaking for a family member in English, you were supposed to know what to do or say no matter what. If you didn’t know then they would say, “para que te mando a la escuela”, “what do I send to school for”, this phrase meaning that you aren’t learning or that your useless. That is what made me want to learn and improve myself every day in order to stop hearing that phrase. It also gave me a sense of accomplishment when I knew what to do or so in certain situation. One of the most interesting ways to get your point across to the audience is through the help of technology. In our project we had to use multiple sources of technology. This could be PowerPoint slides, audio messages, pictures, websites, videos, music, and so much more.

For one of the presentations in the classroom, there was a classmate that used PowerPoint that resonated with me. He used his form of comedy to make the issue he was talking about light but at the same time talking about something serious. It was an enjoyable experience for the reader or audience when he was presenting and easy to follow what was trying to portray. In my case, I used three multimedia components, one being a video I created explaining the situation I grew up in when I was a young child, the second being a picture of a neighborhood that later in my life I moved too and created my childhood friends, and the third being a website of how my Ecuadorian background and how there would be festival representing my culture. With the use of these powerful tools, I was able to portray the idea of my childhood and the environment I grew up within so that the audience can understand my perspective. Other example of the use of multimedia content was the distribution of physical copies of a book or item that enhanced the story of the writer or presenter. Many of the classmates used books or stick figures to talk about the situation they grew up within. With this in mind, I want the reader to have an open mind of how people express themselves and their story. 

Internal Struggles

Growing up I was exposed to a lot of intercultural languages and mannerisms when talking to different types of groups. Starting out living in Jamacia Queens, I would go to school and talk very laid back and relaxed like nothing bothered me. Walking to the F train at Sutphin Blvd, where all the homeless people would go to sleep under the train and people casually smoking early in the day. How they would speak in a slur, and I would imitate their mannerisms. Speaking with your chest puffed up or keeping direct eye contact all the time were small details I picked up. “Yo wasgood brodie”, I said, “Yerrrr”, my friend would say back. A way of communicating that is very simplistic but portrayed a lot of meaning behind it. Even when we were saying goodbye for the night, “ight bro stay up”, I would say to my friends. It a very simple phrase but it meant to stay safe or to wish them good luck don’t be discouraged in anyway. You could also take it in a literal manner and mean stay alive instead of being 6 feet deep. 

Later in my childhood I moved to 90 street Elmhurst Avenue, where I grew up with Ecuadorian parents, so it was obligatory to know some sort of Spanish, this became my native language. During this time fame was when I started to learn English and forgetting my native language. Throughout the years, learning English and being in mostly environments that people spoke English, my Spanish was fading away. To further elaborate, I used to talk very fluent Spanish as a young child but when confronted with an audience that was mostly English speaking, it was hard to practice my own native language outside of my household. I remember my friends and I would challenge each other to pronounce words in Spanish that were difficult for us. We did this to test each other’s Spanish and not forget our native languages. There was one word that I would always pronounce wrong, and it was “periódico”. This word meant newspaper, but my tongue couldn’t pronounce it correctly, I would always get angry because I would lose the challenge due to this word. In a grand scheme of things, this was such a simple word, yet I couldn’t get myself to say it. That is day I went home and tried to say it correctly and inform myself on my own native language. I also used to struggle on how to write in Spanish and during that time frame that I was learning how to pronounce words, I decided to learn how to write them as well. It had a fundamental change on the way I spoke Spanish and wrote it as well.

This exercise or challenge that we had has a collective friend group help me out in the long run. It benefited all the people that participated because it helps us develop a sense of cultural appreciation. I was able to communicate with my people and when I mean “people”, I mean Spanish speaking individuals. Becoming bilingual could be the most beneficial tool that I had as a Spanish speaker. My livelihood was so much different from the other kids that were in my community or went to school. I was the family’s “translator”, what I mean is that literally I was the person that everyone depended on to either learn English or to speak for them. Reminiscing on the times my family would ask me to speak for them on the phone when they were making a doctor appointment, “Hey, how may I help you” were the words I would always here whenever I had to intervene. “Guan mome” is what my parents said when they passed the phone to me, I used to be ashamed of the way my parents would speak English.  It would always be the case that the person would not take them serious because of this border of language. Getting infuriated in the way that they would treat my parents, I would always talk to the person on the other side of the line. “Excuse me, can you be more polite”, is what I said and continue with, “Can I make an appointment for Thursday”. They would reply with an apologetic tone, “I apologize for any inconvenience, I am available at 2:30 pm on Thursday”, at that moment I would realize that there is significant way in the way to speak English in this country. From there on, I would always tell my mother whenever she needs my help to call me or to ask me. After that interaction, I realized that I shouldn’t be ashamed about how she spoke because it meant that I viewed her how they viewed them. I would encourage my mother to learn the English language as how I was learning the Spanish language. I embraced the accent that she had and talked to her the same manner in order for her to feel more comfortable talking English. “Mami, dice que puede este Jueves”, I talked to her saying that “mom, they said they could on Thursday”, she replies saying “gracias mijo”, “thank you son”.  

This is the area I grew up within my childhood

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