Revised Blogs
From what I can see so far, the revisions of your blogs were a step in the right direction. Remember, you can hit the buttons "design" and "dashboard" to bring yourself to a screen that lists your posts. When you hit 'edit posts,' you can change your blog instead of copying and pasting your blogs into an entirely new post.
Lab Production and ENG 103 Grades
What you're able to accomplish in lab plays directly into your participation grade for ENG 103. It's very clear who is able to produce the assignments in the assigned time, and this is something I can check on at the end of the semester during grade tallies. Remember, ENG 103 only has two grades: the research paper and participation. I will be more lenient towards lab exercises that are almost done than exercises that only have one or two sentences. You should feel rewarded by the work you do in this time, and I plan to make those rewards evident through the participation grade. I will update everyone on their status at the midterm.
Titles
Please give your blogs titles that make sense with what you produce for the assignment.
Blog Comments
If you would specifically like your most recent blog to be read in a certain way by the LaGuardia Peer Tutors, please indicate that to me.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Lab Excercise: Blog Revisions & Archive Drafts
Blog Revisions
Most students received comments from LaGuardia Peer Tutors about their first blog assignments. Students should read those comments and set about revising their blogs. If students did not receive comments, they should read the comments on at least two other blogs from class. They should note what the peer tutors said and see if that criticism could apply to their own work.
Archive Drafts
If you finish your assignment, start on your blog assignment.
Most students received comments from LaGuardia Peer Tutors about their first blog assignments. Students should read those comments and set about revising their blogs. If students did not receive comments, they should read the comments on at least two other blogs from class. They should note what the peer tutors said and see if that criticism could apply to their own work.
Archive Drafts
If you finish your assignment, start on your blog assignment.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Blog Assignment Two: Archives Visit
Due Date CHANGE: Tuesday by 11 pm
Blog Assignment: Begin your blog by summarizing your visit to the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives. Explain what the Archives is and what happened when you visited. For the rest of your blog, consider the document that you examined at the Archives and help your reader understand its significance. Be sure to summarize its main points and place it in the proper context. Finally, at the end of your blog be sure to add your own perspective.
Evaluation: A below average blog will accomplish these tasks with minimal information and in a manner that confuses outside readers. It won't define its terms and ideas and won't summarize the main points. It's perspective is unoriginal.
An average blog will accomplish these tasks in a routine and perfunctory way. Readers will have a fairly solid idea of what you're describing. It will define some of its terms and ideas and summarize some of the main points. It's perspective is somewhat original.
An above average blog will excel in summary, detail, and original perspective. It defines all of its terms and ideas summarize all the main points. It's perspective is mostly or wholly original.
Blog Assignment: Begin your blog by summarizing your visit to the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives. Explain what the Archives is and what happened when you visited. For the rest of your blog, consider the document that you examined at the Archives and help your reader understand its significance. Be sure to summarize its main points and place it in the proper context. Finally, at the end of your blog be sure to add your own perspective.
Evaluation: A below average blog will accomplish these tasks with minimal information and in a manner that confuses outside readers. It won't define its terms and ideas and won't summarize the main points. It's perspective is unoriginal.
An average blog will accomplish these tasks in a routine and perfunctory way. Readers will have a fairly solid idea of what you're describing. It will define some of its terms and ideas and summarize some of the main points. It's perspective is somewhat original.
An above average blog will excel in summary, detail, and original perspective. It defines all of its terms and ideas summarize all the main points. It's perspective is mostly or wholly original.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Topic Sentence Exercise
Re-arrange the following sentences into the correct sequences for a paragraph. Afterward, in your notes, describe why you re-ordered them the way that you did.
Exercise One
1. After the Watts uprising, committees were assigned to study the causes and make recommendations. These were composed of the "experts on Negroes," the "qualified."
2. I am not opposed to the presence on such committees of intellectuals and professionals or merely making a parallel objection to poverty boards that don't include the poor.
3. The three criteria mentioned here -- money, who you know, and especially education -- are what people mean when they use the word qualified.
4. My objection is to the basic approach, which excludes the unqualified.
Exercise One
1. After the Watts uprising, committees were assigned to study the causes and make recommendations. These were composed of the "experts on Negroes," the "qualified."
2. I am not opposed to the presence on such committees of intellectuals and professionals or merely making a parallel objection to poverty boards that don't include the poor.
3. The three criteria mentioned here -- money, who you know, and especially education -- are what people mean when they use the word qualified.
4. My objection is to the basic approach, which excludes the unqualified.
Exercise Two
Exercise Two
Re-arrange the following sentences into the correct sequences for a paragraph. Afterward, in your notes, describe why you re-ordered them the way that you did.
Think now of the Southern Negro, driven off the land in increasing numbers today, coming to the Northern city.
He can hardly be compared to previous immigrants, most of whom brought skills with them.
Others took menial work until they could save up and own "a little shop."
The Southern Negro arrives ; is he to pick cotton in Manhattan?
He finds the menial work automated and the "little shop" gobbled up by the supermarkets.
He is, in fact, unemployable -- from the Mississippi Delta to Watts. As for finding work in the new factories of the "changing South," he can forget it ; if anything, those factories will be more automated than others.
As for education, he probably cannot even read or write because Southern Negro elementary schools are that bad.
You have to pass tests to get into college ; he doesn't even have the education to get an education.
Civil rights protest has not materially benefitted the masses of Negroes ; it has helped those who were already just a little ahead.
The main result of that protest has been an opening up of the mobility. Jobs have opened up, but they are mainly the jobs on Madison Avenue or Wall Street - which require education.
Housing has opened up, but mainly in the "better neighborhoods."
In a sense, the Negroes helped by protest have been those who never wanted to be Negroes.
Americans who would point to the occasional Negro in his $30,000 home or his sports car and say, "He made it," should have met the Mississippi lady of color who said to me in 1962: "The food that Ralph Bunche eats doesn't fill my stomach."
Re-arrange the following sentences into the correct sequences for a paragraph. Afterward, in your notes, describe why you re-ordered them the way that you did.
Think now of the Southern Negro, driven off the land in increasing numbers today, coming to the Northern city.
He can hardly be compared to previous immigrants, most of whom brought skills with them.
Others took menial work until they could save up and own "a little shop."
The Southern Negro arrives ; is he to pick cotton in Manhattan?
He finds the menial work automated and the "little shop" gobbled up by the supermarkets.
He is, in fact, unemployable -- from the Mississippi Delta to Watts. As for finding work in the new factories of the "changing South," he can forget it ; if anything, those factories will be more automated than others.
As for education, he probably cannot even read or write because Southern Negro elementary schools are that bad.
You have to pass tests to get into college ; he doesn't even have the education to get an education.
Civil rights protest has not materially benefitted the masses of Negroes ; it has helped those who were already just a little ahead.
The main result of that protest has been an opening up of the mobility. Jobs have opened up, but they are mainly the jobs on Madison Avenue or Wall Street - which require education.
Housing has opened up, but mainly in the "better neighborhoods."
In a sense, the Negroes helped by protest have been those who never wanted to be Negroes.
Americans who would point to the occasional Negro in his $30,000 home or his sports car and say, "He made it," should have met the Mississippi lady of color who said to me in 1962: "The food that Ralph Bunche eats doesn't fill my stomach."
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
LIB 110: Roles, Needs, Idea description
Sketching timetables, roles, needs; connecting plans to course themes
Reflect: On your own, reflect for five minutes on any new connections you've made in the cluster between courses. As you reflect, consider how these connections could modify the video project you're developing in your group.
Group: In your groups, consider what kind of video you want to make. This video is a project: it's purpose is to explain something important to other LaGuardia students and faculty. What is the main goal of the project? In a sentence, what is the message of the video? What is the story you're going to tell? Is there a conflict you can address? What kind of "news" can you bring?
At this stage. who wants to do what? What kinds of props and stuff do you need? Sketch a timetable that corresponds to our LIB 110 class hours.
Reflect: On your own, reflect for five minutes on any new connections you've made in the cluster between courses. As you reflect, consider how these connections could modify the video project you're developing in your group.
Group: In your groups, consider what kind of video you want to make. This video is a project: it's purpose is to explain something important to other LaGuardia students and faculty. What is the main goal of the project? In a sentence, what is the message of the video? What is the story you're going to tell? Is there a conflict you can address? What kind of "news" can you bring?
At this stage. who wants to do what? What kinds of props and stuff do you need? Sketch a timetable that corresponds to our LIB 110 class hours.
Blogging the Peer Review: Essay One
How does this essay become four pages?
For pages three and four, consider:
- addressing another way that Mosley explains the Harlem Riot
- looking at the Harlem Defense Council or Time magazine article and focusing on how some part of those documents fits into your thesis, or explains another aspect of your argument on the '64 riots
- using the Malcolm X speeches to comment upon the riots and support your thesis
- using any of the above in your conclusion (to be continued Thursday).
For pages three and four, consider:
- addressing another way that Mosley explains the Harlem Riot
- looking at the Harlem Defense Council or Time magazine article and focusing on how some part of those documents fits into your thesis, or explains another aspect of your argument on the '64 riots
- using the Malcolm X speeches to comment upon the riots and support your thesis
- using any of the above in your conclusion (to be continued Thursday).
Diagnostic Class Comments
As you look over your diagnostic grading grids and your scores, remember:
- the score is not a grade. It reflects the fact that the diagnostic was a draft. If I graded it as a final draft, you would subtract 5-10 points from it.
- The scores are consistent across the class (a range of 70s and 80s).
- The comments are similar in structure for each student. This is because many of the drafts had the same issues. Each set of comments are personalized with individual suggestions.
- Overall, the class demonstrates good, even above-average, reading and summary skills.
- Organization skills need improvement: theses and topic sentences were rare.
- Some refinement and expansion of critical thinking is necessary. Keywords and their definitions are one immediate way to address this issue right now.
- Writing progress happens by doing - we're going to have more in-class exercises like the lab today where we practice the skills we need to work on.
- the score is not a grade. It reflects the fact that the diagnostic was a draft. If I graded it as a final draft, you would subtract 5-10 points from it.
- The scores are consistent across the class (a range of 70s and 80s).
- The comments are similar in structure for each student. This is because many of the drafts had the same issues. Each set of comments are personalized with individual suggestions.
- Overall, the class demonstrates good, even above-average, reading and summary skills.
- Organization skills need improvement: theses and topic sentences were rare.
- Some refinement and expansion of critical thinking is necessary. Keywords and their definitions are one immediate way to address this issue right now.
- Writing progress happens by doing - we're going to have more in-class exercises like the lab today where we practice the skills we need to work on.
Blogging the Lab
Should I refer to all three texts (one speech, two videos) in my in-class draft?
Yes, but only in your introduction. The second paragraph is an opportunity for you to focus on one aspect of the ideas contained in the speeches.
Do I have to incorporate all aspects of all three speeches?
No, use your judgement. The introduction should be dense with at least a reference and a main idea of each speech, and then that intro should transition into a tiny thesis statement (what is the most important idea and explain its significance).
So what then should I focus on in the second paragraph?
In the second paragraph, the most important thing is writing a topic sentence that connects to your thesis statement. This topic sentence will also organize that paragraph.
Basic Template
In Malcolm X's three speeches from the early 1960s, "The Bullet or the Ballot," "We are Living in a Police State," and "There is a Global Revolution," we can see several provocative ideas. In "Bullet," he speaks about...In "Police State," he talks about...In "Global Revolution," He talks about...The most significant idea in all his speeches is his idea of XXX because ABBA, DABBA, and DOO.
The idea of ABBA is important because...In the speech "Police State" where he talks about this idea, he says...He also says...While some might think that...., others could say...We must pay attention closely when he says "DABBY DABBY DOO" because...("Police State"). This is crucial because DABBA DABBY. It also connects to the idea from "Bullet or the Ballot" of...Taken together, we could think...or we could think...
Yes, but only in your introduction. The second paragraph is an opportunity for you to focus on one aspect of the ideas contained in the speeches.
Do I have to incorporate all aspects of all three speeches?
No, use your judgement. The introduction should be dense with at least a reference and a main idea of each speech, and then that intro should transition into a tiny thesis statement (what is the most important idea and explain its significance).
So what then should I focus on in the second paragraph?
In the second paragraph, the most important thing is writing a topic sentence that connects to your thesis statement. This topic sentence will also organize that paragraph.
Basic Template
In Malcolm X's three speeches from the early 1960s, "The Bullet or the Ballot," "We are Living in a Police State," and "There is a Global Revolution," we can see several provocative ideas. In "Bullet," he speaks about...In "Police State," he talks about...In "Global Revolution," He talks about...The most significant idea in all his speeches is his idea of XXX because ABBA, DABBA, and DOO.
The idea of ABBA is important because...In the speech "Police State" where he talks about this idea, he says...He also says...While some might think that...., others could say...We must pay attention closely when he says "DABBY DABBY DOO" because...("Police State"). This is crucial because DABBA DABBY. It also connects to the idea from "Bullet or the Ballot" of...Taken together, we could think...or we could think...
Malcolm X In Class Exercise: Thesis and Topic Sentences
Lab Goal
After watching video clips of Malcolm X speeches, the goal of this lab is to have students write and create two paragraphs that revise their earlier diagnostic: an introduction/thesis statement and a supporting paragraph.
Activity Description
First, watch the clips here and take notes on
- their main ideas
- their best statements
- anything else you find important
VIDEO
VIDEO
Next, students will write paragraphs that will be a modified revision of the first-week diagnostic. Students will review their diagnostic and pay special attention to their introduction paragraphs and their second paragraphs. They should note the professor's comments and be aware of three things:
- the introduction's inclusion of the main ideas
- the introduction's inclusion of a thesis statement (applying what students now know)
- the introduction's inclusion of textual introduction (s)
- students don't have to worry about an opening story for this lab
The second paragraph should contain
- a topic sentence that both refers to the thesis statement and refers to the main idea of the paragraph
- a "They Say/He says" section (He=Malcolm)
- a direct quote
- an explanation of the meaning of the direct quote (should be twice the length of the direct quote
Looking Ahead
Students will be able to use these ideas as
- potential connections for critical thinking in their first assignment
- potential material for conclusions in their first assignment
- potential material for future essays in this class
After watching video clips of Malcolm X speeches, the goal of this lab is to have students write and create two paragraphs that revise their earlier diagnostic: an introduction/thesis statement and a supporting paragraph.
Activity Description
First, watch the clips here and take notes on
- their main ideas
- their best statements
- anything else you find important
VIDEO
VIDEO
Next, students will write paragraphs that will be a modified revision of the first-week diagnostic. Students will review their diagnostic and pay special attention to their introduction paragraphs and their second paragraphs. They should note the professor's comments and be aware of three things:
- the introduction's inclusion of the main ideas
- the introduction's inclusion of a thesis statement (applying what students now know)
- the introduction's inclusion of textual introduction (s)
- students don't have to worry about an opening story for this lab
The second paragraph should contain
- a topic sentence that both refers to the thesis statement and refers to the main idea of the paragraph
- a "They Say/He says" section (He=Malcolm)
- a direct quote
- an explanation of the meaning of the direct quote (should be twice the length of the direct quote
Looking Ahead
Students will be able to use these ideas as
- potential connections for critical thinking in their first assignment
- potential material for conclusions in their first assignment
- potential material for future essays in this class
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
LIB 110 Brainstorm
1. Are there any connections between courses right now? A couple? All three?
2. Think visually as well as intellectually. Are there images that come to your mind? Movies? Books? Likwise, is there any story you can tell that will allow these ideas to come out? A story doesn't have to be fiction. Real stories can help illustrate complex ideas; are there any you can tell?
Is it possible to think musically about this? Is it possible to think statistically? Is it possible to think scientifically?
3. As you brainstorm, consider too that your ultimate goal is to instruct your audience about something. You will need to make complex ideas easy to hear, see, and know. What are those ideas?
2. Think visually as well as intellectually. Are there images that come to your mind? Movies? Books? Likwise, is there any story you can tell that will allow these ideas to come out? A story doesn't have to be fiction. Real stories can help illustrate complex ideas; are there any you can tell?
Is it possible to think musically about this? Is it possible to think statistically? Is it possible to think scientifically?
3. As you brainstorm, consider too that your ultimate goal is to instruct your audience about something. You will need to make complex ideas easy to hear, see, and know. What are those ideas?
LIB 110 Video Teams
1. Andres, Shabana, Carla, Chris
2. Steven, Elvia, Mamadou, Jordan
3. Haisly, Adam, Robbie, Emmanuel
4. Elizabeth, Casey, Danny
2. Steven, Elvia, Mamadou, Jordan
3. Haisly, Adam, Robbie, Emmanuel
4. Elizabeth, Casey, Danny
Class Lab: Revising and integrating paraphrases into summaries
1. Sign into Blogger. Select one of the class blogs, read it over, and offer the writer 1) a compliment on something specific (an idea, a sentence, etc) and 2) a specific suggestion for revision.
2. Take the surveys linked on a previous blog post.
3. After the surveys, examine the paraphrases from class yesterday. Revise yours if necessary. Afterward, incorporate a paraphrase into your summary paragraph.
4. When you have an explicit (visible) paraphrase in your summary, revise your personal summary so that it touches on every main aspect of the chapter.
5. Finally, add a paragraph beneath it that summarizes chapter three (39-54) in only five sentences. In those five sentences, your summary should focus only on why black history and African-American experience matters to any American. Although this is your goal, you still have to introduce and define any particular keywords -- the trick here is to select only those keywords that you might use in your upcoming paper (use your best guess).
When you're finished, you should have a two-paragraph in-class blog that's a revised and expanded version of your in-class writing from yesterday.
2. Take the surveys linked on a previous blog post.
3. After the surveys, examine the paraphrases from class yesterday. Revise yours if necessary. Afterward, incorporate a paraphrase into your summary paragraph.
4. When you have an explicit (visible) paraphrase in your summary, revise your personal summary so that it touches on every main aspect of the chapter.
5. Finally, add a paragraph beneath it that summarizes chapter three (39-54) in only five sentences. In those five sentences, your summary should focus only on why black history and African-American experience matters to any American. Although this is your goal, you still have to introduce and define any particular keywords -- the trick here is to select only those keywords that you might use in your upcoming paper (use your best guess).
When you're finished, you should have a two-paragraph in-class blog that's a revised and expanded version of your in-class writing from yesterday.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Paraphrases
1. NAME - Elvia
PAGE 23
PARAPHRASE: In chapter two Mosley quotes the bible as saying, when you lay down your load, you'll have eternal peace. This quote illustrates religious domestication, or a way to train someone to believe in a so-called heaven.
2. NAME - Elizabeth
PAGE 33
PARAPHRASE: According to Mosley, we have grown to love our chains because we have let the chains define and become us as a person.
3. NAME- Daniel
PAGE 23
PARAPHRASE: In Mosley’s writing, we find democracy’s purpose has mutated from rights to riches. Science is growing both helpful and fearful while the greater flaws grow bigger under the cover of censorship. This is the obstacle in the pursuit of happiness.
4. NAME- Robbie
PAGE- 28
PARAPHRASE- We willingly accept man made nonsense because it can prove to be a pleasant distraction from our own observations and self-analysis. We subconsciously blind ourselves to reality.
5. NAME- Adam C
PAGE- 28
PARAPHRASE- It is complicated when it comes to ignoring lies from the media because it is those same lies that everyone blindly follows.
6. NAME
PAGE
PARAPHRASE
7. NAME-carla
PAGE 6
PARAPHRASE- In this piece Mosley describes how the economic system has enslaved people as currency instead of individuals with rights (6).
8. NAME Mamadou
PAGE 21
PARAPHRASE in this quote Mosley, was talking about the freedom that we think we have but it’s not are a real freedom it’s about the money or Economy
9. Casey Duncan
22
Democracy is a good that is controlled by Democrats and Republicans
10. NAME Emmanuel
PAGE28
PARAPHRASE If you present two-thirds of the truth to those in pursuit of it, while one-third of it is shrouded in fallacy, the people will accept this as a whole.
11. NAME
PAGE
PARAPHRASE
12. NAME
Mosley in-class summary
Summary
In chapter two of Walter Mosley’s Workin on the Chain Gang he discusses the many chains of American life that prevents people from knowing themselves and their country. By chains he means those constraints that we put on ourselves, that others put on us, and those that we have no control over, such as death or environmental factors. He distrusts the media and both political parties, and he feels that science has potential that we don’t use. For example, he says that science can create miracles, such as extending life and youth. It can also make bombs; we can use it against ourselves and others. Mosley criticizes the limits we place on science because we don’t allow all of our innovations to actually heal others. We let people starve and die of AIDS, he argues, because it’s simply not worth it to us to keep them alive. He is especially critical of “spectacle” and “illusion” (Mosley 25). He considers sports, commercial sexuality, movies, and stories about disposable bodies (such as women killed by an ever-present supply of serial killers). These spectacles and illusions aren’t brainwashing by media companies or power-hungry politicians, but are in fact tools that we ourselves use to avoid sustained reflection about the meaning of our lives. People choose their chains, Mosley implies. None of us could last even 15 minutes with ourselves, he says; we need all that stimulation to avoid the blank silence that might inhabit our minds. We’re afraid of our freedom. Mosley mourns for what is still left to accomplish on humanity birthday, such as starvation. Mosley also calls attention to the chains of love: the thinking of the slave is either, I will not submit to injustice¸ or, I love my master. Mosley feels that real freedom is breaking all these chains.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Blog Assignment One: Summary, Paraphrase, and Direct Quotation
Length: 250-300 words
For your first blog, summarize the introduction of Walter Mosley's Workin on the Chain Gang. Be sure to practice the following techniques:
* Give your reader directions. Who is your audience? What do they need to know when they encounter your blog post for the first time?
Sample directions: In this blog I will discuss...
* Practice summary: summary is the art of condensing lots of information into just several sentences. You may have to raise key terms, key dates, keywords, or key ideas. You will have to arrange these ideas in a way that makes sense for your reader. You should define the special terms, keywords, or ideas that you bring up. If the reader needs to know more about the passage where you found the idea, it's your job to explain it.
* Practice paraphrase: Paraphrasing happens when you put a short phrase or sentence or important idea into your own words. Remember to refer to the author.
* Direct quotation: Once in your blog, use "direct quotation" to pull out a special phrase, group of words, single word, or sentence that you find especially meaningful. Be sure to put citation at the end of your sentence, before the period. Then explain the meaning of that quotation to your reader, no matter what else happens in your blog.
This quote is important because...
OR
Here, Mosley's ideas are important because....
For your first blog, summarize the introduction of Walter Mosley's Workin on the Chain Gang. Be sure to practice the following techniques:
* Give your reader directions. Who is your audience? What do they need to know when they encounter your blog post for the first time?
Sample directions: In this blog I will discuss...
* Practice summary: summary is the art of condensing lots of information into just several sentences. You may have to raise key terms, key dates, keywords, or key ideas. You will have to arrange these ideas in a way that makes sense for your reader. You should define the special terms, keywords, or ideas that you bring up. If the reader needs to know more about the passage where you found the idea, it's your job to explain it.
* Practice paraphrase: Paraphrasing happens when you put a short phrase or sentence or important idea into your own words. Remember to refer to the author.
* Direct quotation: Once in your blog, use "direct quotation" to pull out a special phrase, group of words, single word, or sentence that you find especially meaningful. Be sure to put citation at the end of your sentence, before the period. Then explain the meaning of that quotation to your reader, no matter what else happens in your blog.
This quote is important because...
OR
Here, Mosley's ideas are important because....
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Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Blog Buttons to Know
"New Post" - You can find this on your main blog page and on your Dashboard page. This allows you to write a "new blog entry." This is different from creating an altogether new blog.
"Design" - Look at the top right-hand part of the screen. This button brings up the "Dashboard" button.
"Dashboard" - this allows you to create new blogs, to edit your posts, and other functions.
"Design" - Look at the top right-hand part of the screen. This button brings up the "Dashboard" button.
"Dashboard" - this allows you to create new blogs, to edit your posts, and other functions.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Global Politics Diagnostic
Writing Directions
Read the passage above and write a 400-word essay responding to the ideas it presents. In your essay, be sure to summarize the passage in your own words, stating the author’s most important ideas. Develop your essay by identifying the one idea in the passage that you feel is especially significant, and explain its significance. Support your claims with evidence or examples drawn from what you have read, learned in school, and/or personally experienced.
Remember to review your essay and make any changes or corrections that are needed to help your reader follow your thinking. You will have 60 minutes to complete your essay.
Remember: Even though this is an emotional speech, you should approach intellectually. There are several ideas that come through at different points, especially if you 'read between the lines.' Remember the context for this speech: in 1964, African-Americans would just win a legal victory with the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. This speech was made in the context of white supremacist terrorism, Jim Crow racism, and the Civil Rights Movement. No matter what you argue is the main idea of the speech or its meaning, be sure to take notes and assign, perhaps, a different summary to each paragraph of the speech.
Remember: Even though this is an emotional speech, you should approach intellectually. There are several ideas that come through at different points, especially if you 'read between the lines.' Remember the context for this speech: in 1964, African-Americans would just win a legal victory with the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. This speech was made in the context of white supremacist terrorism, Jim Crow racism, and the Civil Rights Movement. No matter what you argue is the main idea of the speech or its meaning, be sure to take notes and assign, perhaps, a different summary to each paragraph of the speech.
1964 threatens to be the most explosive year America has ever witnessed. The most explosive year. Why? It's also a political year. It's the year when all of the white politicians will be back in the so-called Negro community jiving you and me for some votes. The year when all of the white political crooks will be right back in your and my community with their false promises, building up our hopes for a letdown, with their trickery and their treachery, with their false promises which they don't intend to keep. As they nourish these dissatisfactions, it can only lead to one thing, an explosion; and now we have the type of black man on the scene in America today -- I'm sorry, Brother Lomax -- who just doesn't intend to turn the other cheek any longer.
Don't let anybody tell you anything about the odds are against you. If they draft you, they send you to Korea and make you face 800 million Chinese. If you can be brave over there, you can be brave right here. These odds aren't as great as those odds. And if you fight here, you will at least know what you're fighting for.
I'm not a politician, not even a student of politics; in fact, I'm not a student of much of anything. I'm not a Democrat. I'm not a Republican, and I don't even consider myself an American. If you and I were Americans, there'd be no problem. Those Honkies that just got off the boat, they're already Americans; Polacks are already Americans; the Italian refugees are already Americans. Everything that came out of Europe, every blue-eyed thing, is already an American. And as long as you and I have been over here, we aren't Americans yet.
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