October 15, 2015 Essays - Americas, Politics, Political Philosophy

October 15, 2015 Essays - Americas, Politics, Political Philosophy October 15, 2015 Intro to Afro American Studies Bi-Weekly Essay #3 What are some of the similarities and differences in practices of self-determination of Africans in the U.S. and their counterparts throughout the hemisphere? Abstract: Both Africans in the Western Hemisphere and Africans in the United States practiced self-determination. They practiced self-determination in many ways such as marronage and quilombismo as a means to bring African people together to determine their own statehoods and form their own allegiances. Africans used their difference to fight one another rather than uniting themselves in the 18th and 19th century. However, Africans began to realize that if they wanted to conquer enslavement they would have to overcome the dominating social structure. The Africans in the Western hemisphere used the knowledge passed down from their griots when practicing self-determination. They did this more often than the Africans in the U.S. because they underestimated them and they were uneducated for a while. Africans in the U.S. were more aware of what was happening around them versus the other parts of the world. Although, Africans were divided by suffering from the injustice of slavery. they we re able to preserve their culture and use such as their means to resist. Critical Review of Scholarship: To begin answering this question, I will use the information provided during lectures as well as the readings. One of sources is coming from "Black Self Determination: A Cultural History of the Faith of Fathers. This source will be used to elaborate on what self-determination is and how it evolved. The second source is "Quilombismo: An Afro-Brazilian Political Alternative. This source will be used to further elaborate on what quilombismo is and how it effective in helping the African race as a whole in the practice of self-determination. Another source I will use to elaborate on marronage is the "Black Movements in America by Cedric Robinson. My other evidence will come from class lectures and Dr.Carr particularly from the human social organization and their influence over people and nations. Discussion: To completely understand the practices of self-determination within the African community, you have to define what self-determination is. "Self Determination is the uniqueness of culture" (Dr.Carr). It is the process by which a person or group controls their own life, decides their own statehood and forms their own allegiances. (Franklin P., V. Black Self Determination: A Cultural History of the Faith of the Fathers. Southern Historical Association, 1986. Print.) From the small movements such as spiritual and secular slave songs, the Federal Writers Project and addresses in front of the Congress have demonstrated what self-determination means in the African community. The Western Hemisphere Africans and the U.S. Africans used maroonage to practice e self-determination. Maroonage was a common way Africans resisted throughout the hemisphere. Maroon is a based word from the Spanish culture. Maroons are small private communities that served as a safe refuge for runaway slaves and indentured servants. (Robinson, Cedric J. Black Movements in America. New York: Routledge, 1997. Print.) They were fugitive communities where escapees went. These maroons gave slaves hope of a community where they could have a new home and are apart of a safe haven to rebuild their families. Unfortunately these maroons never lasted so long because of the pressure it created on the Europeans. Regardless of the hardships of slavery, Africans did not let anyone take their culture from them. Their culture is what kept them dehumanized. Abolition always followed the Blacks regardless of where they were from. Because the Africans seemed less than the Europeans, the Africans wanted to create something to become equal with the higher powers. They combined their religion to create Afro Catholicism in hopes in acceptance of their religion to become equal as the Europeans. North Americans began practicing Afro Christianity as a means of resistance and a way Africans could gather publically. Quilombismo significance was "the value in the tactics and strategies of survival, resistance and progress of African communities in contemporary Brazil" (Nascimento Do, Abdias. Quilombismo: An Afro- Brazilian Political Alternative. Journal of Black Studies, 1980. Print.) Quilombismo revealed itself as a factor capable of mobilizing the Black masses in a disciplined manner when the Afro-Brazilians registered the quilombist concept. Quilombismo is in a constant process of renewal

Kevin Kline in Fish Called Wanda essays

Kevin Kline in Fish Called Wanda essays The film A Fish Called Wanda is on the AFIs (American Film Institute) Greatest 100 Comedies list. Although this film features talented actors like John Cleese and Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline easily steals the show. Kline gives a brilliant performance as the pseudo-intellectual Otto. What makes Kline so remarkable is the way that he moves and makes his character dance across the screen. Right from the outset, in one of the films first scene, we see that Klines Otto is no normal jewel thief. Even though Otto is supposed to be working under the guise that he is Wandas (Jamie Lee Curtis) sister, he quickly gives her breast a squeeze in full view of Ken, one of the other robbers. What makes this movement work comically is that Kline does it so lightening fast and that if you blinked you might miss it. He has such control over his arm that he is able to extend it, and withdraw it in a matter of maybe a second. This allows for the suspended disbelief that Ken does not see him do it. Another movement that Kline makes also speaks volumes about his body control. Otto and Wanda are together in what I take to be Ottos quarters. They are speaking excitedly about something and he leaps into the air, grabs a pipe that is suspended from the ceiling, lifts himself completely off the ground and sails on to the bed with the grace of a ballerina. This is so interesting because Klines Otto is supposed to a be a vulgar American bank robber. His graceful movement is evidenced again when Otto and Wanda go to the garage to claim the jewels the stole from a safe. Otto is angered by the fact that the jewels are not there. He goes over to kick a car out of anger. Rather then just kicking the tire, or burying his foot into the car door, Kline leaps into up and kicks the car twice while he is in the air. He takes what is just a ...

MASS MEDIA ASSIGNMENT (Sociology) Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

MASS MEDIA (Sociology) - Assignment Example These types of advertisements frequently make appeals to dark humor as a means of both gaining attention and delivering a specific message that their product or service is uniquely suited to answer. The message is embedded within the rhetoric of the visual and textual elements of the ad. To examine how rhetoric is used in advertising, an ad from the Northern Bariatric Surgery Institute that promotes weight loss with seeming emphasis on delivering a social message will be examined for its intended and perhaps unintended output. There are two basic approaches advertisers might take to the development of their ad -- first, to present a social message for the overall benefit to society with their product or service taking a modest interest through the presentation of a logo or title somewhere on the page and second, to present the product or service as the main focus of the ad with social responsibility considered secondary or not at all. Whether we acknowledge it or not, there is a grea t deal of truth behind the statement that we are what the media tells us we are. â€Å"Much of what we share, and what we know, and even what we treasure, is carried to us each second in a plasma of electrons, pixels and ink, underwritten by multinational advertising agencies dedicated to attracting our attention for entirely nonaltruistic reasons† (Twitchell, 1996: 468). In working to create the ultimate ad, many advertisers forget to consider the unintended impacts their message might have on the greater social front. â€Å"Broadly speaking, the media exist in a very close, sympathetic relationship to power and established values. They favor a consensus view of any problem: they reflect overwhelmingly middle class attitudes and experience† (Hall, 1974). Subtle clues embedded within the action or image of an advertisement such as this one can change the way people interpret and react to specific behaviors such as overeating. This ad is focused on the problem of obesit y and relies mostly upon a dominant image to impart its message. â€Å"Inductive reasoning takes a specific representative case or facts and then draws generalizations or conclusions from them. Inductive reasoning must be based on a sufficient amount of reliable evidence, in other words the facts you draw on must fairly represent the larger situation or population† (Weida, 2007). The image featured is that of a heavyset man holding his shirt open to reveal sticks of butter strapped to his torso like dynamite. It is intended to evoke an immediate negative reaction to the concept of obesity. According to Weida (2007), emotional appeals such as this are usually made to â€Å"paint a more legitimate and moving picture of reality or illuminate the truth.† Rather than relying on a string of text to make this emotional appeal, the advertisement relies almost exclusively on image with only a few small words to help direct the focus of attention. The faceless image is filled wi th the torso of this man and the numerous sticks of butter that have been attached, causing him to appear as a suicide bomber. The most dominant words on the page are â€Å"Obesity is Suicide.† As further analysis reveals, this ad works to encourage negative attitudes toward obesity, indicate an active, willing participant in the creation of an overweight person, elicit associations