Tim Wise Essay: Group Assignment

“We may all bleed the same color—as they say in homilies—but some of us bleed a lot more than others.” According to Tim Wise, the antiracism activist who made this powerful assertion, this statement sums up the state of the union in regards to racial matters. Through boycotts and demonstrations members of various races, be they part of the minority or the majority, have come together in order to create a more perfect union; one free of oppression and equal to all. Unfortunately, despite all efforts, there still exists a distinction between the rights and abilities of members of different races. Racism and privilege are two concepts developed through the beliefs of a nation, as well as on an individual scale. By analyzing the history of the United States, and its present state of affairs, one will be able to construct an informed view of how each race of the present is affected by the actions of our countries ancestors, and how these issues can be handled and addressed.

Racism and privilege can be defined as an act that systematically treats a group of individuals differently based on their race, where the privileged are the racists. As race continues to be a defining quality for people in our nation today, racism and privilege are still factors towards people of different ethnic groups racism is still rampant in our country today. As the very educated and knowledgeable source on racism and privilege, Tim Wise, states, “Racism is an ideology that says certain people, by virtue of their race, are either inferior or superior to others of a different race, with race usually being defined by skin color.” This definition of racism applies to the United States today as we have become a melting pot of the races and every day people come in contact with many different races. If racism was thought to be nonexistent today, it is extensive in reality. So many races have come together in this country, and privilege is still being blamed on the whites. Tim Wise defines privilege as “any advantage, head start, or protection the system grants whites but not people of color.” This definition by a scholar and expert on the subject of racism and privilege just goes to show that even with the vast amount of races in America today, whites are still considered the privileged and the ones considered the racists.

The United States of America has made large strides towards racial equality over the years, but there are still high levels of injustice produced by lines drawn between those born of privilege and those born of strife. Being of mixed heritage, I have the ability to form a view of the racial state of America, through the eyes of not only a minority, but also slightly from the point of the majority. As a young child I knew that I was not completely like the African American side of my family, or the Caucasian side; I knew that I was a blend of both. I was informed, however, very quickly from my black side, that no matter how much white I had in me, if I had even a drop of black blood in me, I was black to the “white man.” Hearing this statement as a young child struck me very hard, as before that I have assumed that I was just as whiter as I was black. Even back in 1997, years after the civil rights movement, black people still had the mindset of us against them. Them being white America. Now as a young adult that can better construct my own views of the world, I am proud of my white side, but still in the back of my mind I believe that I am not one of “them” and I never will be. The races will never be as desegregated as we desire to be.

This article relates to paper three due to the correlation between food communities and racial groups. Both provide a sense of belonging to those involved, while both segregate those that are not. Whether it is unintentionally or intentionally, both publics classify themselves as well as classifying others groups. The perpetual continuum of “white supremacy” and “black minorities” is existent because of humans declaring themselves as such. Tim Wise seeks to decrease the amount of separations while maintaining the uniqueness and difference between various backgrounds to fulfill the American culture.

Picking My Sources

English 101 is a class where we discuss current events and then write essays reflecting what we think about them. To do this, we must sometimes quote sources, and finding those sources can be a bit difficult, especially when the source needs to be peer reviewed or come from a book, or things along those lines. This is how I typically go about finding my sources...

First I read the assignment guidelines and see what is required of me for the sources. Usually it's about one to three sources, and one sources needs to be scholarly. Finding the first two sources is pretty easy, as I just look around the internet for interesting articles that will enhance my paper, and then when I find them, I use them in appropriate places in my paper. Those sources are fun to find and really help my paper once I incorporate them.

Now comes the hard part. Finding a scholarly source is difficult for me. I know that we went to the library and someone directed us through it, but I still find it quite difficult. I go to the WSU library website an use the journal search engine and look through there, but it's still usually hard to find articles that really fit my paper. Hopefully I get the hang of it by the end of the semester.

Paper one was the easiest paper to find sources for, because they all came from my brain. Paper two was also relatively easy to find a source for, because it did not have to be peer reviewed (which for some reason makes it even harder to find a source). Paper three is the paper we just turned our first draft in for, and then paper that is still giving me trouble. For the first draft I included just one source, because the other two I had were good, but I am looking to find better. Over these next few weeks I will be looking for better sources for paper three and amazing sources for paper four. Wish me luck!

The Final Four

Reading these last few chapters of Omnivore's Dilemma has ben bitter sweet. While I am happy that reading negative views of my favorite foods has finally come to an end, I am a little sad that I am done reading these interesting tales about the food industry.

Chapter 15 of the Omnivore's dilemma, was primarily about Pollan getting the courage to become a forager, and his journey to this goal. The best part of this chapter in my opinion, was Pollan's childhood memories, because they were similar to mine. Besides that however, it was a little boring to read about his misadventures as he began to hunt. He also upset me a bit when he said that one had to "endure" a hunting class to get a hunter's license. While he may have said this specifically for effect, to me it sounded as if he thought this class might be a waste of time, and I didn't appreciate this.

The three remaining chapter in the book 18,19, and 20 basically continued with Pollan's story of hunting, and franly, I don't enjoy reading about someone hunting, no matter how basic the instinct. I did, however, appreciate the insight Pollan provided to how it really is to catch and prepare one's own food. Overall, Pollan ended the Omnivore's Dilemma on a good note, and even though I would not have chosen to read this book, I guess Im kind of happy I did.

Over and Out ;)

2/23 English Reading Response

Omnivore's Dilemma Chapter 16 Response

Essentially I gathered two concepts from this chapter. FIrstly I understood that one reason human might have a higher intelligence than the other species of plants and animals that cover the earth, is because of not only what we eat, but also how we eat it. By cooking things, humans found a way to unlock nutrients that would otherwise be harmful to them. Also, I understood that in current times instead of humans being able to eat freely and safely (which would be due to all of the knowledge that has been collected over the centuries about what is and what is not safe to eat), they instead must be just as cautious as they were hundreds of years ago, because instead of natural defenses, companies that produce food have now made other types of unsafe edibles, and we must again interpret what is safe and what is not. I find this interesting, because I never quite understood what the big deal about additives was, but now I see that food additives can be just as dangerous of natural ones.

Chapter 17 Response

This chapter of Pollan's ever fascinating book was something that I think about often. In this part of the book Pollan discusses how killing an animal has far more consequences than just dietary, and humans ought to know the exact process of killing an animal in order to understand the moral issue behind it. The reason this chapter was intriguing to me, was because though I am a huge supporter of animal rights, but I am also a huge supporter of anti-vegetarian diets. Though it may be hard to understand how I can be both, I do indeed love animals, and my cat is my baby, but I also love to eat meat. I guess I just feel like some animals have to die, but since it's only a few species of animals that are routinely eaten, I feel like that makes it ok. Really I guess its not. This issue if this omnivore's dilemma.

Reading Response #2

They Say, I Say (ch 4-5)

Chapters Four and Five of They Say, I Say peeked my interest. In my junior year English class my teacher always told us that as a rule, when responding to someone else's argument, we should always take a firm stance. It was either in the affirmative or the negative, no in-between, though we could reflect on something that was said, which might indeed have some validity. In They Say, I Say however, the author's took a bit more lenient position and suggested that while you should state your position as early on in the writing as possible, you may indeed take a yes, no, or a combination of the two viewpoint. I really enjoyed reading the different methods of establishing different arguments, and while I will keep my teacher's advice in my head, I will also remember that rules were meant to be broken.

Also, the fifth chapter, while informative, wasn't quite as interesting in my opinion. I usually don't have difficulties with distinguishing my ideas, from that of someone else's, because my viewpoint is often in opposition to theirs. I do however, take note that this chapter can be of very great help, when one's own thoughts are similar to that of another's.

Omnivore's Dilemma (ch 12-13)

As I have stated many time in class, I am the type of person that does not care where there food comes from as long as it's good, and won't make me sick. Reading these two chapters actually changed my views, but not for the reason's one might think. While I still kind of don't mind that my chicken was produced in a large factory, I have now have reservations about the fact that this hurts small farmer's businesses. In these two chapters of Omnivore's Dilemma, it was shown that not only are small farm's food healthier, but the work is "honest" and it is community building. Just as large books stores like Barnes and Nobles make it hard for mom and pop book stores to flourish, the same happens with large meat producers and small scale farmers. Just as finding a one of a kind book loses it's magic when said book is available instore, online, as an iphone app, and on Kindle...having a truly delicious piece of chicken loses its appeal when it was raised for the purpose of being food, and led no kind of happy life what so ever.

Big Organic Blog Response

While reading the chapter Big Organic in Michael Pollan's Ominvore's dilemma, I had quite a few thoughts. Admittedly, I am the type of person that doesn't usually care much about where their food comes from as long as it's good. As I read this chapter, however, Pollan actually began to convince me through his positive words about Whole Foods, that maybe it is worth it to pay a bit extra to have food from a cow that was grown on a farm where he lived a happy life. For the first time probably ever, I actually leaned towards eating exclusively from health food stores...and then I read on.

As the chapter continues the truth emerges. While packaging of foods from stores like Whole Foods to indeed display literature which soothes the consumer's conscience about how their food got on the shelf, it is not displayed in all honesty. As Pollan delved deeper into the marketing of the "organic" food, he found that often the truth was stretched about where the food came from, and the food at the supermarkets that have been injected with hormones and raised specifically to be food, is very close to the "all natural" and "free range" food promoted at health food stores. Ultimately this chapter let me know that I would be just as well off eating food from my local non organic grocery store as I would be from eating only food from Whole Foods. Thanks Pollan.

Blog Response 2: They Say, I Say ch. 1-3

In the first chapter of They Say, I Say, the point the writers are trying to get across is that in order for one to present information on a given topic, they must also give back ground information on the topic, opposing views, and other important information in order to keep the reader engaged. I find that this advice is quite sound. It the past while writing essays and speeches I have found that if you only include what you have to say about a topic and exclude other important info, the reader becomes disengaged very quickly. They also provided templates which I have seen before, and a few that I haven't. I appreciated that the writers provided examples of what is correct and what is something that needed to be improved upon.

Chapter 2 was more focused on the art of summarizing which connects back to giving all of the information about a topic when you present an argument about it. The main goal a writer has when delivering a summary of another work is to play what writer theorist Peter Elbow calls the "believing game." Basically this means to give a summary without personal input, causing the reader to believe that the summary is so unbiased that you believe what was said yourself. I find this "believing game" to be a very helpful way of viewing how to write a summary. Often when I am reading summaries that my friends have written for class I feel that what they said wasn't exactly a summary, but more of a response.

Lastly, the third chapter discussed quoting correctly. It spoke of when to quote, how to quote, and why we quote in the first place. I feel that this chapter was extremely helpful to me, because often I place a quote in my writing because I know my teacher will look favorably upon it, not because it was actually needed. This chapter gave me templates and ideas about when and how to use a quote that I believe I can actually implement in my own writing.