Black Men and Public Space

“Black Men and Public Space” (1986) and essay written by Brent Staples, describes the unfair accusations declared about black men. Staples develops his thesis using examples of how black men are treated and how was personally treated. Staples explained how he felt about being labeled and accused in order to make his readers think about racism. He forms a very personal relationship with his audience.

                When reading the essay, I began to think of the times where I had been afraid of someone on the street, and they happened to be a black man. I assumed they were up to no good, and walked away. Staples opened my mind up and made me think about the other person. I never thought that someone in the streets that late could be minding their own business. I might think differently next time there is a similar situation.

                Staples really opened up his reader’s minds to see the other side of things. A black man’s point of view is entirely different than a white man’s. “I could cross in front of a car stopped at a traffic light and elicit the thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk of the driver-black, white, male or female-hammering down the door locks.” He was an innocent man, walking the streets, constantly being accused of being someone he was not. People feared him without knowing anything about him.

               

  By: Rachel Nabors

Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn't Call the Police

Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police by Martin Gansberg is a short story describing the murder of Catherine Genovese.  The murder of Ms. Genovese happened in Kew Gardens in Queens, New York. Gansberg describes almost every minute from the time Mrs. Genovese arrived home from work, then being stabbed by her killer, to witnesses in her apartment building not calling 911 until she was already died.

            Around 3:20 am one morning is when Ms. Genovese’s night mare all started. She was coming home from work and was headed up to her apartment, when she noticed a man at the end of the parking where she parked. She knew something was not right, so she started heading in the other direction, when the man came up behind her and grabbed her. The man stabbed her once and Ms. Genovese screamed for help. Her neighbors in the apartment turned on their lights and people looked and one man yelled “Let that girl alone!” The man left and Ms. Genovese tried to go to her apartment. The killer returned a second time, found her and then stabbed her again. Ms. Genovese screamed “I’m dying.” People in the apartment again turned on their apartment lights and looked but the killer fled. But, not knowing what was going to happen next, Ms. Genovese’s night mare got even worse. The killer returned for the last time, leaving Ms. Genovese to die. He stabbed her for the last time; the last stab is the one that end up killing her. Once she was died, her neighbors then decided to call the local police.

            The police cannot figure out why the neighbors did not call them. When the police received the phone call, they were at the crime scene in two minutes. The cops believe if someone would have called in when they first heard Ms. Genovese scream, then they might been able to have saved her life. The police officers asked some of her neighbors why they did not call in and some of them said “I didn’t know” or “I was tired.”

            This to me is unbelievable. I cannot see how thirty-eight people can witness a murder and not one call the police. They may not have seen the young lady, but when you hear someone scream early in the morning, something probably is wrong. In my opinion whether, they did or didn’t know what was really going on, the neighbors should have called the police. It is always in my opinion better to call the cops and be on the safe side then not call and something terrible happen. For example, my mom and I left our house one morning an noticed a suspicious car on our road. We called the cops to report them. We don’t think that they were up to anything but we were not sure. They could have been there to rob a house or something; who knows. So, that is why it is always good to keep your eyes open and pay attention to your surroundings. 

By: Brittany B.

Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain

Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain, an excerpt by Jessica Mitford describes the process in which a body is embalmed. The embalming process happens every day to someone who has become deceased. The excerpt that Mitford describes about the embalming process goes into every little detail about how the corpus becomes embalmed. From the time a corpus should be embalmed for when a body becomes deceased, then onto the process of the fluids and other items to prepare the corpus, and lastly when the body is being placed in the coffin for the corpus to be view.

            When Mitford is describing the process where the body is getting prepared for the embalming stage, she lists all the tools that the embalmer is going to use in the morgue. Mitford mentions that a lot of the tools used are very similar to what a surgeon uses in a operating room. Mitford says that the first step in the embalming process is to drain the blood from the body. When she was describing this part of the process, I immediately thought of a vampire. I thought of a vampire draining the blood out of someone. Later on in the embalming process, Mitford describes how the mouth and eyes get sewed together. When this part was being described, a zombie popped in my head. Hocus Pocus, a Disney movie, does a great job at showing a zombie. When reading Mitford’s excerpt, I started think about different Halloween characters when she was describing the embalming process. But, when Mitford started talking about the corpus being put in a casket and people coming to view the body, I thought about my own experiences with going to funerals. I was think about those time when I had to say my finally good bye to the people I loved.    

The whole embalming process, in my opinion, is a gross and disturbing. How someone can do this to a body blows my mind. I know that I could not do this but I am glad that someone can. At least that someone can do this, so that family and friends can see their love ones. When the viewing is allowed, this is our time to say our last good bye to our love ones. If the embalming process was not around now, I do not think that we could have funerals. The embalming process is a very essential thing to have when someone becomes deceased.

By: Brittany B

The Beauty of Color

In Diane Ackerman article, " Why leaves Turn Color in the fall", (1990) She focused on the beauty of fall and what all in goes through. She gave me very descriptive examples that made a clear version of what exactly she was talking about such as; red- winged blackbird or goldfinch perching. Doing so made the words on the paper come to life in my mind. Ackerman's purpose is to explain the scientific process of leases changing colors in a poetic fashion, in order to teach others how this process happens.

            Overall I was confused with the concept of the paper. Ackerman format was very hard to understand from how she moved for one thought to another. It was written in a poetry type setting which made it even harder since I really don’t have a fond for poetry. I do love the Fall season. It’s my favorite season of the year because of how cool the weather is and the colorful leaves that fall on the ground. I always thought that this season was called fall because of the symbolic of the leaves falling on the floor but after reading this article I was informed that it originated from the Old English word feallan and it means to fall. The season Fall is beautiful and peaceful. 

        By: Marlene. B

Rolling Stones

‘That’s How I Roll” by Ginny Donaldson (2009) is a short look at some of the phrases and anecdotes that are used in language today, defining there origins. Donaldson backs up assertions made in the opening exchanges with facts about the phrase “That’s How I Roll”, and its growth from 50,000,000 links to 56,200,000 in just over one day. Donaldson then goes on to give more examples taken as quotes from the Internet, often using clever pieces of information from her own life to back up claims and strengthen points. The purpose of this piece would be to inform; it does not make conclusive findings about the origins of a phrase. But while it does not conclude definitively about the origins of such phrases, it does help the audience to understand their place in language today.

            My initial response to this essay was that of enjoyment. I enjoyed the quotes given to back up claims about slang or a certain phrase expanding in our language. The quote “we created our own language by altering the language we already know and called it slang” is one of the most important lines in the text from my perspective. Not only does it give an accurate representation of Donaldson’s main point, what is slang and what are its origins, but for me its sums up the paper as a whole in one line. Although the origins of “That’s How I Roll” as a phrase are not truly conclusive, Donaldson’s take on how we create and edit our language, shortening and simplifying where necessary, altering already existing phrases to make them ‘slang’, is a perfect summing up of how these phrases are brought into language today. Overall I agreed entirely with Donaldson’s interpretation of where these phrases in our language come from. I just wish she could have found the origin of the phrase!

I think the meaning of the text is not to find one specific example of a phrase and its origin, but to give an insight as to how our language has evolved and taken in these slang/language hybrids to become the language we have today. Donaldson makes a point using quotes from “Made To Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die” by Dan Heath. She raises the point that if all concepts either ‘stick’ or do not, then there must have been a time when slang itself ‘stuck’. This then leads on to the still unexplained phrase “That’s How I Roll” and how its origin, and that of slang, and that of the English Language can not be directly traced to just on specific input, but is the combination of all these things that give us what we have today.

Rhys Jukes

Marking a book

How to Mark a Book (1940) an excerpt written by Mortimer Adler defines what is means and the importance of marking a book. Adler goes into descriptive detail on what owning a book really means. He wants the reader to understand the importance of marking the pages you read in order to fully understand the book and truly have ownership of it.

After reading this excerpt, I reflected back on all these books I have read and the emotions I felt while reading them. I have never marked on any book unless it was for vocabulary but Alder made me wish I had. I would love to be able to re-read a book and look at my own notes and comments on certain events or conflicts. Maybe I would feel differently after reading the book a second time. I could really understand and truly have ownership of the book because it would become a part of me as Alder states. Alder gave a new meaning to owning a book for me.

Alder really defines what it means to own a book. He says that you must digest the information and make the book a part of you to own it. Some people who never mark their books, or never make notes on what they are reading, do not always own or completely understand the text. He mentions three type of book owners and says that only the one who marks or writes down what he is reading is the one that can truly comprehend and own his book. Alder redefines ownership and shows the importance of marking our books.

By: Rachel Nabors

Speaking Spanglish?

Spanglish (1988) is an essay written by a collaboration of authors: Janice Castro, Dan Cook, and Cristina Garcia. In Spanglish, the authors define the now free-form blend of Spanish/English used today in American culture. Within the first paragraph there is examples give of how this has become a routine part of life for most people. Like a billboard announcing “CERVEZA – SIX PACK!” Spanglish has become ‘as much a part of daily life as sunglasses’ (10). The authors continue to develop theses ideas throughout the essay, giving numerous examples to support this budding language phenomenon. I feel like the author’s purpose is not to argue for or against Spanglish, but more to inform. I see this essay as a light hearted look at society as is stands today, with a mass influx of Spanish speaking people in America resulting in the diverse culture and language we are all a part of. Also, being written for TIME magazine, I would guess at a wide audience, with any one from Average-Joe to Wall Street picking up their magazine.
            From my perspective I find this very interesting, as it is so reflective of my everyday life. Being an international student and playing Soccer at Clayton State, we naturally have many people of different nationalities, races, and of course languages. On a daily basis I will converse in Spanish, or Spanglish, English, French and Afrikaans. So my immediate thought about this essay is that I agree entirely, understanding not only where the authors are coming from, but experiencing it myself on a daily basis.

            Sub-consciously I feel the paper says more than just Spanglish. It is asking us to recognize the fact that todays America is a truly multi-cultural America, with Spanglish representative of not only Spanish speaking and English speaking cultures, but all cultures mixing and inter-mingling. ‘Spanglish is a sort of code for Latinos: the speakers know Spanish, but their hybrid language reflects the American culture in which they live’. This sums my point up perfectly, and I feel represents the essay well as a whole. It shows the heritage of a culture, but also the two-way acceptance of America/ Spansih and Spanish/American.

Rhys Jukes