Chrissy

Basically I think that if we “stay the course” in Iraq nothing beneficial is going to come out of it and American troops are going to keep dying. I think this proposal is actually really good. If it succeeds, Iraq’s government will take some important steps in gaining stability and it’ll have the support of its neighboring countries. At the same time, its army and economy will start to improve so that America can slowly back away from the situation. I think it’s important that we help steer Iraq in a direction that will able them to continue without us. Also, I think it’s a good idea to pay some more attention to other problems in that region, especially when they’re considered worse than the Iraq conflict.

I thought this article was very interesting. It doesn’t surprise me that many Americans, both black and white almost jump to state racism still exists, but a lot fewer were willing to admit they themselves were racist. I agree that the concept of racism has mutated and become less recognizable unless a person is looking for it. Acts of discrimination and racism are much more subtle. Three parts of the article jumped out at me the most. The first was a statistic stating one of eight Americans of either race consider themselves a racist. I feel like most of the racism discussions revolve around whites being racist towards black people. This is probably because that’s the way its generally always been. But I was interested in how this article basically starting out by saying that racism occurs on both sides. I was also bothered by one of the quotes from Blair William. He said, “Another race can only respect you if you respect yourself and currently, I find that blacks still devalue and disgrace each other and themselves.” I totally disagree with what he said and the way he said it. First of all, a lot of black people don’t disrespect themselves, eachother, or people of other races. I don’t think its right at all for William to categorize all black people under that statement. It’s especially weird because people of all other races are fully capable of disrespecting eachother and themselves, too. Lastly, I think it’s interesting that people of other races besides white and black aren’t really mentioned in this article. Racism can encompass every race.

Satire is popular because it’s a way for people to express their opinions on certain social issues without being too upfront. Through satire people can examine certain controversies and appear as though they’re only poking fun and nothing more. Many people like writers and stand up comics prefer using satire because as long as what they say makes people laugh, they can be successful in their career and deliver their opinions. “A Modern Proposal” and “Borat” are satire because they are organized to seem serious, but are so shocking or ridiculous they’re funny. But the whole time they have very distinct underlying meanings, as though the writers are mocking social concepts. Last year in English we had to try writing our own satire and I wasn’t very good at it, but I like watching t.v. shows or movies like Borat because you can just chill and enjoy the humor, but there are also many underlying meanings to contemplate if you want.

I was so shocked by this piece of writing; it was a totally different experience to read about the lives of slaves from the perspective of a former slave. The way they were forced to live is truly astonishing. I always knew that they had long work hours and uncomfortable living space. But I always figured they consistently had decent amounts of clothing and food to keep them going. It’s horrible that the slaves were intentionally sleep-deprived and famished to keep them too weak to try to escape. It’s like the slave owners had an evil plan put into place to keep the slaves subdued and obedient. It’s frightening that people are capable of that.