A Reflection on Affirmative Action: The Problem or the Solution

This week in class we watched the documentary  Affirmative Action: The Problem or the Solution in which Gary Anthony Ramsey goes into detail about the ongoing heated debate about affirmative action. The purpose of this documentary was to provide an objective perspective on the issue by presenting both sides of the case and letting the audience decide. The documentary defines affirmative action as a system put in place to remedy the wrongs that minorities have been subject to over the course of history that prevented them from getting a good education or doing certain jobs. With the help of affirmative action universities have been able to bring in a more diverse student body. However, there are some who are opposed to this system. They claim that the acceptance of these minorities into universities is harmful because " they're creating the environment that doing worse is still acceptable" (Duke Machado). The documentary provides a thorough explanation of all the arguments people have about affirmative action.
Personally, I'm very conflicted about this issue. I believe that affirmative action, in essence, is a well thought out system with the right intentions. However, the whole situation seems to me like a never ending cycle. Affirmative action is a system made to fight racial discrimination with the help of more racial categories. Isn't the very existence of such a system a sad truth about the once discriminatory nature of American society? Does the continued existence of this system not imply that nothing has changed? That we have not evolved into the colorblind society that many civil rights activists have fought for? One of the texts we read in class (source A) had a very intriguing quote that captures the situation perfectly. Affirmative action "is  a strange cure that generates its own disease." Affirmative Action has, without a doubt, been a much needed system in our society to fight racial discrimination, however, its continued existence is one that needs great evaluation.

Language, Gender, and Race

Deepak Chopra once said "Language creates reality. Words have power." These two simple statements speak a truth not often realized by most. Language is an innate part of one's life, an honest reflection of one's character and growth, and inevitably has an enormous impact on the way we view each other. The article, "How Our Words Affect Our Thoughts on Race and Gender"  by Julie Sedivy discusses how our language and upbringing have a crucial role in the way people treat each other, especially in terms of race and gender.  Sedivy claims that opinions on controversial topics such as gender and race are developed at a young age and are largely impacted by the language used at home. One specific aspect of language that play a part in creating social categories are nouns.  Sedivy states "Nouns serve as powerful invitations to create categories—they signal that things that are labeled with the same noun (e.g., cats) are similar to each other along many dimensions and different from things that have a different name (e.g., dogs)." She goes on to argue that noun labels encourage the formation of categories, especially ones that apply to people, leaving children to treat people of a particular social category, like gender or race, a certain way. Sedivy mentions a study in which it was found that children generalized traits when categories appeared in generic statements. The author went on to detail how beliefs about how disparities between genders or races often stimulate discrimination. She then recounts an Israeli study in which researchers recorded a conversation between parents and children while they read a picture book with  Arab and Jewish characters. Researchers took note of the generic statements that the parents used, especially the ones that believed that there were fundamental differences between the groups.  These statements had a huge impact on the children who, as a result of their parent's language patterns, had similar beliefs about the differences between the two groups. It is evident how language, especially the language patterns heard at a young age, can impact the way people view others.

Reflection on "Marked Women, Unmarked Men" By Deborah Tannen

The article, " Marked Women, Unmarked Men" by Deborah Tannen is an interesting piece that argues that no woman is unmarked. The word "unmarked" in this context refers to the denotative meaning of a word. However, the word "marked" refers to the way language alters the definition of a word and gives it its connotative meaning. In her article, Tannen focuses on how how the concept of "marked" and "unmarked" is relevant in today's society, especially concerning women and men. She details in the text how in English the unmarked tense of words refers to the male while marked tense is made by adding endings such as "ess" or "ette" adding a sort of silly connotation into the mist. The purpose of this text was to relay the tendencies in language, and in real life, that make women marked. She adopts a colloquial tone to make her seem more relatable and  easy to understand. Tannen utilized multiple pieces of evidence to support her claim. Her evidence consisted of personal anecdotes and references to the book The Sociolinguistics of Langiveguage by Ralph Fasold. She conveyed her evidence with the use of several rhetorical techniques such as imagery and diction. In the beginning of  the article Tannen uses imagery to describe the women at a conference she attended and how their clothing and makeup, or even lack of makeup, reflected how they were marked. She then explains that every aspect of the women's clothing was a decision they made that would carry a meaning to someone. For instance, she states, "There is no woman's hair style that can be called standard, that says nothing about her. ...but a woman whose hair has no particular style is perceived as not caring about how she looks, which can disqualify her for many positions, and will subtly diminish her as a person in the eyes of some." Tannen then continued to say that men had the option to be unmarked, an option not available to women. Another rhetorical technique she employed was diction which she used in the example regarding titles. Tannen explained that even the titles given to us on a form are marked for women. Titles such as"Miss", "Mrs" or "Ms" provide a lot of information about a woman. For example, Tannen states that "Checking "Ms." declines to let on about marriage (checking "Mr." declines nothing since nothing was asked), but it also marks her as either liberated or rebellious, depending on the observer's attitudes and assumptions." Her use of the words liberated and rebellious have a great effect on the audience as it not only shows what is assumed by checking "Ms" but also shows this one aspect of language could go such a long way to categorize a woman. I really enjoyed this article as it really broadened my perspective of prejudice against women. I never knew that prejudice went as far deep as the language we speak. This article actually reminded me of an episode of Grey's Anatomy, where one of the older characters was reminiscing about his residency and how one of his fellow residents, a woman, wasn't taken seriously because of her gender. Although I do not know if she was referred to as doctorette, the episode did show that every decision she made as a woman greatly impacted what people thought of her.

Reflection on Pillow Angels

The article, "Pillow Angle Ethics" by Nancy Gibbs talks about "The Ashley Case" which is about a young girl, Ashley, who is brain-damaged and is receiving estrogen treatment as requested by her parents on the basis that stunting her growth would make caring for her easier. The purpose of the piece was to inform the audience about the situation and the backlash the treatment is getting. According to the article many had difficulty determining whether the treatment was ethical. While reading the article it seemed as if even the author believed that the decision was unethical. In fact, she began her article by stating "What kind of doctors would agree to intentionally shorten and sterilize a disabled six-year-old girl to make it easier for her parents to take care of her? " Her use of  the phrase "easier for her parents" portrays the parent's decision as one made by the need to lesson a burden. This one phrase set the tone for the ,majority of the passage. The idea of using medicine to stunt or cease growth is understandably hard to understand and in my opinion it is somewhat of an oxymoron. However, in Ashley's case her both her parents and doctors make a reasonable argument to justify their decision. The doctors also removed her uterus and breast tissue which they justified by saying cancer runs in their family. This is a valid concern and cannot be dismissed. I found this article extremely interesting because I had to look at it form a different lens. I had to put my morals aside and evaluate the situation based on the ethics of American society. On the show "Grey's Anatomy" there was a case similar to Ashley's. There was a child who was under a coma and unresponsive leaving the parents with the decision of what to do. The parents eventually chose to pull the plug even though it must have been an unbelievably hard decision to make. I think Ashley's parent's felt the same way with the estrogen treatment. All they wanted was more comfort for Ashley.

Reflection on Logical Fallacies Activity

This week in class we learned about logical fallacies and their role in invalidating arguments through flawed reasoning. There are numerous logical fallacies and some include but are not limited to Ad Hominem, Slippery Slope, Bandwagon, and Strawman. The existence of these fallacies in arguments indicate the unsound nature of said argument. For this project, my partner, Saba, and I further investigated the slippery slope fallacy. We defined the fallacy as the argument that claims that one event must result from one or more initial events. Slippery slopes are very common in everyday life. My partner and I were able to identify them in speeches, political cartoons and advertisements. The first of the pictures posted shows a quote by Donald Trump which displays this fallacy quite clearly. In the quote Trump goes from stating the worst of Mexican people to saying they're not all bad. This shows the rather illogical manner of slippery slope fallacies. The other image is an ad that calls for an end to animal abuse. The slippery slope aspect of the argument is evident because the ad was asserting that stopping animal abuse and domestic violence are interconnected. These examples show how slippery slopes are easily disguised for the manipulation of the people, making it all the more effective.

Reflection of the article "Don’t Fight Flames With Flames Social Media Arguments: Can’t-Win Propositions"

The article, "Don’t Fight Flames With Flames Social Media Arguments: Can’t-Win Propositions" by Nick Bilton argues that social media arguments cannot be won and that people are better off not commenting their opinion. The purpose of this piece was to persuade the audience to believe that social media arguments are pointless and have no valuable outcome. The author deployed a colloquial tone which contributed to a sense of casualness and trust. He wrote with authority on the subject - as a frequent social media user. Bilton made his argument by providing a personal anecdote about giving one's opinion on social media. He stated " Emotions were running high. O.K. — deep breath — last year I got into an argument with a group of people on Twitter about Trayvon Martin". Bilton's use of diction is evident here as he makes painfully clear his shame for posting his opinion on social media. He went on to describe how his friend saw the situation and told him to "ABORT" and how he was pelted with hate-filled comments. Bilton supports his claim by providing several pieces of evidence proving that social media arguments can't be won. He mentions journalists whose advice was to never engage in conversation. Despite using several pieces of evidence to support his claim, the author never points out any good that can come out of social media arguments. In fact, he portrayed the argument as if that was the only side to the story. While the author fails to mention the positives he did however make some valid points about the motive and the speed of the arguments. However, from a wider perspective, it should be noted that social media is increasing awareness of current events. People can learn about current events from watching a short clip on Facebook as opposed to watching the news or reading the newspaper.

Reflection on The Wisdom of Psycopaths

In the text The Wisdom of Psychopaths Kevin Dutton argues that psychopaths possess qualities that set them up for success throughout their life. Dutton, a British psychologist, asserts that psychopathic traits are an advantage in certain fields. The author mentions that qualities such as fearlessness, ruthlessness and being charming and focused are all attributes that allow a psychopath to take charge and function appropriately in high stress situations. The author lists occupations such as bomb-disposal operatives, surgeons, and CEOs and states that many of these people possess psychopathic qualities. To display the validity of his claim the author provides several studies conducted by several universities. For instance, he describes a study done by Lilianne Mujica-Parodi at Stony Brook University in which they collected fear sweat and regular sweat and made volunteers inhale the sweat with the help of a device. The results showed that people who inhaled the fear sweat were more alert and had more brain activity as opposed to those who breathed in the regular sweat. This allowed the researches to come up with the conclusion that fear is "contagious" and prompted them to inquire about immunity to this apparent biological component that makes stress contagious. After conducting more experiments, the researchers found that psychopaths were unfazed by the fear sweat and thought rationally, without allowing the anxiety to get to them. This study illustrates how psychopaths have a biological component that allows them to be more focused, making them suitable for certain positions. This article was effective as it provided numerous pieces of evidence to support its claim of fact. I took a great liking to this text and it reminded me of one of the characters, Mona, from the show Pretty Little Liars. Mona, who was administered to a sanitarium for psychological treatment, showed the aforementioned qualities of ruthlessness and manipulative charm as well as the the ability to function rationally in high stress situations. Due to this connection, the text seemed more compelling and unique in its categorization of psychopaths as people of success.