Groups have a tendency to be stereotypical and mean when it comes to difference or change. I think it was really rude that people thought that Barack Obama had a fake birth certificate. It even got to the point that he had to post his birth certificate online and show people he was from Honolulu. The facts that his father was a citizen from Kenya and his mother lived internationally were two reasons Barack Obama was judged so badly. However the article also brought up some points about how the Internet has helped enhance baracks reputation and spread his birth certificate on you tube to show he was a citizen. Media online also has torn peoples reputations. So I guess its just a losing games when it comes to first impressions. I guess people will always have their first impressions. He is currently our President now.
Robert H. Frank
Robert. H Frank talks about many things we do as people that just doesn’t make sense; and I really agree that we are complex individuals who don’t function on a very rational and logical lifestyle. To us..it’s better to be right than to come to a compromise. We fight between impulsive actions of feelings and what the most logical solution could be between each other. Most importantly, the interaction between each other is very self interest oriented. I guess if we all acted logical and compromised than we won’t feel as human as we want to be or feel we should be. He makes a point that if we are hungry even though it’s not necessary that we need food, then we will still strive to conquer the hunger. This is very irrational and we humans do this a lot. I think about the various subtle addictions and habits we all fall prey to when he talked about this, or the apparent actions we fall to and people have learned to accept. All in all, we as people don’t make sense and if we could become aware of our own small natural habits. Then we could possibly help ourselves be aware of others around us.
Crash
Crash was an amazing and inspiring film that will forever be one of my top favorites. It’s about various individuals and their struggles with issues that range from racism, sexism, pride, trafficking and trust. The stories told are taken place in the street of Hollywood, Ca. Each individual has their story and they all meet with each other through the plot. The most intriguing part to me was when the police officer would have to help the lady who he earlier in the film touched a young lady unnecessarily and her husband has to watch. She gets in a big crash that is potentially about to become a flamed, and the officer has to rescue her. The fact that she refuses his help, and she’s hurt was really astonishing. He made it clear that he was not going to touch her and she finally let him help her out of the fire. This was a very amazing twist in the movie. The mixed feelings and definitions of how to think about choices was really real in this movie. To me, this movie shows how life truly is and how we must critically think about things on a day to day basis.
“The Gettysburg Address”
The Gettysburg Address I remember through movies with scenes that showed parents watching their children recited early historical events in American History. Abraham Lincoln starts his speech off with “Four Score and seven years ago.” This line has been known throughout history for many generations and is now very well know as Abrahams most well know speech about the Gettysburg. He uses pathos in his speech and acknowledges that his words would probably not be remembered. So he believed action speaks louder than any speech anyone ever wrote. Which through history he has been a man of his word. Abraham Lincoln has really great ethos because he is leading a nation that’s splitting up into two nations, and still has confidence in his roots of the founding fathers. I really recognize and appreciate his compassion when he speaks. His devotion to America as president was shown through his speech because he talked about the soldiers who fought for the country, and promised that we will be eternal as a nation. Abraham Lincoln’s speech is very short and simple, but very powerful. I feel like I haven’t really been exposed to this speech as much, and it has a lot to say. Especially because it was during a time of slavery and the nation possibly becoming split.
Public Displays of Connection
I found this document very interesting to read, it shared a lot of statistics and research on Human communications on social media sites. Such as Facebook, Twitter, linkedIn, ect. The main points of this article talk about why we use social media in our daily lives. It still has instinctual means and in America. Status, Power and communication are huge. So signaling is important in displaying this to everyone.For example“…a fast and energetic gazelle will exhibit a behavior called “stotting” when it sees a predator. Instead of running off, it jumps up and down in place, expending a lot of energy and wasting time.” This signalling lets everyone know who you are through pictures, post, number of friends and other people who mention you though social media. Its pretty neat to see that people will display and image to everyone. However social media is a step away from real life so people can actually create their own mask of appearance and display something new and different. A big problem with that is it lead to negative intentions such as stalking, identity theft, and loss of trust. It actually takes a lot of work to be successful and creating a new image tho. Meaning getting enough friends to accept you, fake pictures that show the person and keeping the same style and mannerisms. This is the downside of social media. However I feel like there will always be negative and positive things to everything even social media site. All in all, this new direction of communication has been revolutionary.
“Just walk on By..”
Brent Staples used a lot of logos in my opinion when he wrote this short experience about being a black man walking around the streets of Chicago. He encountered the subconscious fears and terror of many people who assumed that they were in danger because Staples was black. Even tho he was a good kid from Pennsylvania, and is has no intention of mugging anyone. They still treat this college graduate student like he is a danger, and should be avoided. Staples was very good at explaining these fact. Staples explained how he can see clearly the fear in everyone who passed by him while calmly strolling at night. They would have a ‘hunch posture” that showed the stress on the body. Its true that in Chicago their are a lot of muggings and mainly young black male would do the mugging, however Staples concern was that it has developed into a subconscious prejudice These are the facts and logic( logos) that is being told in this story of Staples empirical adventure as a journalist/ University student. He even learned how to ease his fellow pedestrians with whistling classical tunes so they can let their guard down a little bit more.
“Exquisite Corpse”
The process of showing power of one group as supreme through images to the dominated groups has been widely used with the Ku Klux klan. “Inquisite Corpse” by Ashraf H. A. Rushdy explains that images and photography can influence a wide group of people positively and negatively. His use of pathos shows his concerns. For example The Ku Klux Klan lynched, mutilated, burned, castrated and tortured black bodies to show supremacy. He explains the details vividly and truthful. Emmett Till was another body that was lynched, but the mother asked the funeral home to let everyone see the body to show their hatred. This brought national attention, and more lynched black bodies started showing up on magazines against the Ku Klux Klan. The author uses good emotions in the article by catching the readers attention about raw truth and how bad the KKK were using images to show their better. Then he starts speaking about Emmett Till and how it slowly put the white activist’s value of showing dominates as less effective. These images became pictures of hate, and not pride. i felt there was a lot of good word usage that was understandable the writer uses to let me be on the same page as him. All in all, this writer had a lot of Pathos in his article.
