TOW #10 | Written - Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"

One of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s most famous texts, "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," was written during his time in prison after leading a non-violent civil rights riot in Birmingham, Alabama. He writes this letter to the clergymen in an attempt to bring awareness of how badly African-Americans at the time were being treated at that there needs to be change. Through references to expert testimony, Martin Luther King Jr. defines what a “just right” is to portray that the African-American community is not receiving the opportunities, facilities, and lifestyles that they deserve.

In order to concretely define between a just and unjust right, Martin Luther King Jr. references St. Thomas Aquinas, who defines an unjust right as, “a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law.” St. Thomas Aquinas, a philosopher and theologian, helps the audience find credence in King’s argument. Unlike King, who is simply a pastor with no experience in philosophy, Aquinas is a philosopher, validating the statements that he makes about the definition of an unjust right. Not only does King reference one person--he goes on to reference two more men: Michael Buber, Jewish philosopher; and Paul Tillich, one of the most well-known philosophers and Lutheran theologians. Referencing two other philosophers, King establishes the fact that segregation is “a sin” and falls under the category of an “unjust” right. By allowing his audience to find credence in his claims, King is able to gain trust from the audience, building up his credibility throughout the text.

Although many other people at the time feared the government and clergymen, Martin Luther King Jr. stepped up and fought for his people’s rights by writing such a letter while contained in prison. He used references to expert testimony to establish his credibility as he protests for just rights for African-Americans.

MP2 | IRB Intro - Sigmund Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents

Noted as one of Sigmund Freud's most famous and well-written books, Civilization and Its Discontents is a book Freud took upon writing one summer in 1929, where he explores the human life, connecting them to his theories, such as the Oedipus Complex. Through his use of juxtaposition of "civil" human life versus "savage" human life, Freud reveals the dirty but raw truth about human nature and society. While frequently displaying interest in Freud, I never had a chance to read any of his books or understand any of his theories to the fullest. By reading Civilization and Its Discontents, I hope to further inform as well as entertain myself about one of the most important psychoanalysts of our time.

TOW #9 | Written - Team of Vatican Geneticists Successfully Clone God

The Onion, a well-known satirical news source published an article titled, “Team of Vatican Geneticists Successfully Clone God.” Through maintaining a satirical tone throughout the article and using allusions to the Bible, the Onion effectively reveals the irony of the article in order to entertain the audience and mock the close-minded Catholic community.

The irony present in the article is very outright and straightforward. The title itself, “Team of Vatican Geneticists Successfully Clone God,” expresses irony in which Vatican people are very Catholic and conservative, and would never approve messing with “God’s power” by cloning. The act of cloning God is ironic as well for the same reasons. Because of this ridiculous irony of conservative, Catholic people going against their faith and cloning God, the being in which condemns acts such as cloning allows the audience to laugh at the ridiculousness of the irony. Throughout the article, the Onion manages to allude to the Bible in order to emphasize that the clone is being treated like God. They refer to the newborn clone of God as “He,” and claim that the newborn is able to “possesses complete omniscience, and even at this early age, we have observed Him beginning to transcend space and time” (8). These descriptions emphasize how the newborn clone is something of greater power and superior to humans. The way that the author describes and refers to the clone portrays an element of seriousness, a stark contrast to the satire present before. This added element of contrast and irony by referring to the clone in a holy, serious manner further entertains and pokes fun at the close-minded conservative Catholic community.

The irony throughout the text is portrayed through maintaining a satirical tone and adding allusions to the Bible in the article; By doing so, the Onion entertains the audience and mocks the close-minded Catholic community.

TOW #8 | IRB - Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers

As Malcolm Gladwell continues to connect stories of success with the common theme of “talent plus preparation,” he presents to the curious American public how much a combination of opportunity and origin can influence successes and failures that occur throughout the world. He utilizes statistics in one specific analysis, “The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes,” to portray how one’s upbringing in a specific geographic location can influence their capability to fly a plane.

Gladwell brings up one statistic--a list of countries that were ranked in terms of “uncertainty avoidance”--to portray how a country’s tolerance of ambiguity stems from their culture. Countries that were at the top of the uncertainty avoidance list, like Greece and Guatemala, have the commonality of conservative cultures, in which their people were taught to stick by the rules and not stray away from any set of rules, regardless of the circumstances. Other countries that were at the bottom of the list, like Denmark and Singapore, have cultures that are free to conform to situations and are not constricted by a specific set of rules. The people from the countries of the bottom of the list, as a result, were able to conform better to emergency situations (e.g. the fuel running low, the plane at risk of crashing), for they had no rules that they were trapped by, unlike the countries at the top of the list. Another similar statistic Gladwell adds presents a list of countries ranked in terms of the Power-Distance Index, or PDI. South Korea, a culture that emphasizes superiority of bosses and elders, ranked second in this list, proving that Koreans’ inability to equally distribute authority and “power” resulted in the high number of plane crashes that occurred in the early 2000s. These statistics thus helped Gladwell in his attempt to show the correlation between the culture of a specific geographic location and a person’s ability to fly a plane.

Although one's culture or specific geographic location can seem so far away from one's ability to fly a plane, Gladwell manages to reveal the relationship between the two through the use of statistics. He therefore portrays to his audience the intriguing nature of how one's origins can influence their job choice. 

TOW #7 | Visual - Center For Food Safety's "Not Milk"

With genetically modified foods now a “normal” part of society, the Center For Food Safety creates the advertisement “Not Milk” to emphasize that genetically modifying food--like cloning cows for milk--is not something that should be acceptable in our society. They target the people of America, urging them to “tell the FDA” about taking out these animal clones that make up our food. The text utilizes color to help portray that genetically modified food is not good, and people should take action in changing the rules in the FDA to not allow animal clones in food.

The color green is one of the only prominent colors that are used in the text, the milk carton, and as a “milk mustache” on the child’s face. When the color green is associated with food like milk, it usually represents something spoiled or bad for one’s health. Making the child’s milk mustache green portrays that the green milk carton, which is labeled “lab cloned whole milk,” is something bad for one’s health. With green having a negative connotation in this advertisement, it shows that the Center For Food Safety also has a negative opinion towards the FDA and animal clones, portrayed by the green text above the milk carton. This green color allows the audience to gain a better understanding of the Center For Food Safety’s attempt to show the negative aspects of genetically modified foods, so that the audience will be able to fulfill the Center For Food Safety’s purpose: to take action and try to change the FDA regulations on animal cloned foods.

Although not labeled, we see genetically modified foods everywhere--from milk to cheese to bread to even strawberries--and the FDA has yet to regulate any of it. The Center of Food Safety wants to not only portray the negative aspects of genetically modified foods like animal cloning, but also wants the American people to go out and take action to get rid of the genetically modified foods. They use color as a main aspect in an attempt to have their audience go out and try to change the FDA’s rules and regulations towards animal cloning in food.

TOW #6 | Written - Zora Neale Hurston's "How It Feels to Be Colored Me"

In Zora Neale Hurston's "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," she defines what it means to be colored. Instead of being a characteristic one is born with, she instead associates being "colored" with feeling apart or different from the majority. She uses sharp diction and metaphors to describe her personal experiences of feeling "colored."

Although she does share her experience of how she became "colored," she highlights how being colored did not bring her down in any way. She explained how "there is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes" (6). The use of terms like "dammed" and "lurking" emphasizes on the normal reaction other people in society have once they recognize that they are colored. By using these strong terms and portraying how Hurston was able to fight against the "dammed sorrow" and the "lurking behind her eyes," it shows how strong Hurston was in those situations. This also reveals to the audience the effect stereotyping can have on people and the importance of standing up for oneself and accepting oneself as who they are as an individual, regardless of the stereotypes that come with certain traits like their skin color.

Hurston also uses metaphor to describe her experiences being the minority. She describes herself as "a dark rock surged upon, overswept by a creamy sea" (10). By describing herself as a dark rock and white people as a creamy sea, Hurston highlights the color of their skin tone to help the audience understand how she felt at the time, being a black individual at the time. The metaphor is also used for the audience to gain understanding of how she felt; she wanted to point out how much these stereotypes and discrimination "overswept her," like a huge sea would do to a small rock that had nowhere else to move.

Sharing her experiences being a black woman, Hurston expresses her discontent with society's stereotyping and discrimination through the use of sharp diction and metaphor.

TOW #5 | Written - Martin Luther's "I Have a Dream"

The mid-1900s displayed racial segregation to its fullest--from schools to public restrooms, the United States had separate facilities for whites and blacks. However, a man by the name of Martin Luther King Jr. took the first leap in ending segregation through means of peaceful protests. One of his most influential speeches, “I Have a Dream,” still clings to the hearts of Americans today, reminding them of the powerful message King delivered to the American people in an effort to stop racial discrimination and give African-Americans the rights that they deserve.

Martin Luther King Jr. utilizes a variety of rhetorical devices, but one of the most prominent devices he uses is allusion. In the beginning of his speech, King alludes to Abraham Lincoln, describing him as a “great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand today” (2). By alluding to Abraham Lincoln, King brings a well-respected figure that all Americans know and think highly of to support his claim of ending racial segregation. Because Lincoln is a well-known, adored figure that advocated for equal rights for blacks, King uses Lincoln’s authoritative status to build credibility so that the audience is able to find credence in King’s argument from the beginning of his speech. 

In addition to an allusion to Lincoln, King also alludes to the Declaration of Independence, stating that according to it, all men, black and white, were promised “‘unalienable rights’ of ‘Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness’” (4). Using the Declaration of Independence, one of the speeches that are a major asset to our country, King proves how that the United States was not made to segregate between races, but rather give equal rights to everyone, despite their race. Pulling out such an iconic line that everyone in America knows from the Declaration of Independence portrays how America and the people of America should begin to treat everyone with “unalienable rights.” It further allows the audience to understand the importance of equal rights to the United States and the original intent one of the United States’ most well-known speeches that helped rebuild the country out of slavery.

Being an iconic figure in black history, Martin Luther King Jr. did more than deliver a speech for the American people--he began a revolution that would soon grant African-Americans the “Life, Liberty, and pursuit of Happiness” that they should have been given from the beginning.