Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Racism

Rands piece is about the very controversial topic of racism. But unlike the usual topics of racism, like the KKK, and other white supremacists movements, her piece describes racism in a very different way. In the beginning of the article she starts out by referencing history, and the lineage people have. She starts talking about men's lineage to racism, and she says that men have a genetic lineage to racism. It claims a man's mind is what she says, and that it is determined even before you are born. She goes on from saying this into saying that there is one psychological root to racism, and that is the racists sense of his own inferiority. Throughout the rest of the piece she begins talking about the nazi's and their racism towards other people who they found "different" and then she begins talking about the civil rights movement. In this piece she has a very odd way of describing racism.

I didn't like this piece so much, mainly because I personally didn't like how it was structured. I couldn't really understand what her main point of the piece was. I like reading about racism because I believe it is a very interesting and argumentative topic. But throughout this whole piece I could never really pick up on what she was wanting to say. I got very confused, and I still have no idea what her main reason was for writing this article. Was it to inform people on racism? Was it to inform people where racism comes from inside of us? I honestly have no idea. But the only reason I didn't like this article was because I didn't understand the purpose, maybe if I did I would like it a lot better.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Sedaris - Solution to Saturday's Puzzle

Sedaris shows humor in an interesting way. His humor mainly comes out when he pulls out his Time Magazine and starts his crossword puzzle. He uses the crossword puzzle to practically release the anger he has bottled up from the woman sitting next to him, Becky. She gets angry at him because he won't give up his seat on the plane, and his humor appears when he is doing his puzzle. For example my favorite is, seventeen across: a fifteen-letter word for enlightenment....I am not an asshole. This is funny because instead of releasing his anger directly on Becky he releases it in a more discreet way, by using his puzzle, making it being said behind her back. I like his humor, and I wish I was this clever...

A horse walks into a bar, he sits down and the bartender asks him, "Why the long face?" The second horse walks in with jumper cables attached to it's head, he sits down, and the bartender says, "I don't mind the long face, but don't u go and try to start anything!"

Friday, February 11, 2011

Ronson

In this piece Ronson tells a story of him meeting a Ku Klux Klan member. He tells this story as if he is just observing the Klan, and throughout the whole story he doesn't judge what the leader Thom is actually saying. Thom the leader, as Ronson describes, seems to want to be know as a "good and kind" klansman group. Thom wants them to look friendly, so they can gain political power. Also if they look friendly they will gain the trust of the feminine masses, therefore gaining more political power. Thom also says that he doesn't want his klans members to call black people by the "N" word, he thinks that word reflects badly on the entire klan, which in Thom's opinion will not help them achieve their overall goal.

I liked this piece, and I thought it was really interesting. I thought Thom's leadership ideas were very different than that of a usual klansman. Instead of thinking, do we hate negroes? Thom has this idea that instead of saying you hate negroes, you love white people. I don't agree with the Ku Klux Klan in anyway, but I believe that in this piece Ronson shows us that not all klansman think in the same way, that some aren't as racist as we all believe them to be.