I had a very hard time picking which three articles I would want to write about. All of them have great reading content, but a few of them really struck me as intriguing. The articles I chose were “Obama Sharply Assails Absent Black Fathers” by Julie Bosman, “Age Becomes the New Race and Gender” by Adam Nagourney, and “Politics and Race: History Lessons” that were letters to the editor.
In the article “Obama Sharply Assails Absent Black Fathers” Bosman reports on a speech that Obama gave to a 20,000-member Apostolic Church of God in Michigan. His main focus was that “responsibility does not end at conception.” Obama let the congregation know a few statistics such as more than half of all black children live in single-parent households. He was stressing to the congregation that a child needs to grow up with both a mother and a father. Unfortunately, Obama did not grow up with a mother and a father. His father left when he was just two years old. The concept of his speech was very good; he also said that, “Any fool can have a child. That doesn’t make you a father. It’s the courage to raise a child that makes you a father.” I chose this article because as I searched the internet to find the actual speech itself I saw that it raised some eyebrows. In my opinion, it was very gutsy of Obama to talk about this issue in front of a church. Bringing up the issue of black fathers not being in their child’s lives is a very thin line to walk on, but I guess that is what is so great about Obama, he really doesn’t hold anything back. I enjoyed reading this article because the things that he said really did need to be addressed. I think not only black fathers, but white fathers too need to be involved in their child’s life.
In “Age Becomes a New Race and Gender,” the author talks about how the republican presidential nominee, John McCain, is so old. John McCain is 72. The article sums up the issues that are brought up with age. The article also gives statistics on the voting demographic and who will vote for whom. The article thinks that a large variation will be determined on the age of the voters. This article was interesting to me because I had not thought about “age becoming a new race and gender.” Being a teenager, I have felt discriminated against for being young and naïve. I had never thought of someone being scrutinized for being old. In my perspective, I feel like I can do anything at the age of 19, and I feel like McCain can do anything at his age of 72. I think people need to stop being so preoccupied with the outer shell. Obama is black. Hillary is a woman. McCain is old. The American people should be concentrating on what these political leaders stand for, not what they look like.
The final article I read was “Politics and Race: History Lessons” is an article comprised of 3 different letters to the editor regarding a previous article posted in the New York Times. I tried to search around the website to find the article that they are talking about, but I was unable to find it. From reading the letters I insinuated that the previous article was about how this presidential race is changing how America looks at racism. One of the letters states that “the transformation of America [has] made the presidential nomination of Barack Obama possible.” I chose this article because it really made me think of how far America has come. Just to think that hundreds of years ago black people were hated against solely for the color of their skin, and now a person of color is actually running for the president of the United States. I think that America is finally coming to the realization that everyone is equal. God made us all the same. In the second letter written in this article, a lady states that she has finally come to “accept the idea of a black president.” I believe that accepting is the first step.
All three of these articles touch on different aspects of the political campaign. All of them are things that Americans see on television each and every day. It was good to read articles written by professionals, but in the last article that were just letters written by ordinary Americans it was a good feeling. Knowing that we can let our opinions be heard is very comforting.
Race is prominently displayed in two of the articles. The third article is mostly about age, which in this political race can be in a category with race and gender. These articles touched on gender, but none of them went into great detail about that certain subject.
I have been watching the campaign off and on. From what I have seen the media frames race and gender to a tee. They make fun of Clinton for crying during a debate. They said that just because she is a female then she is extra sensitive. They concentrate on Obama’s skin color. They focus on McCain’s age. Each one of these candidates has something wrong with their outer appearance. Just as I mentioned before is that the American people need to be worried about what the candidates believe in, not what they look like.
Now that Obama has officially been elected the Democratic nominee I feel as race will have a very large effect on the 2008 presidential election. I think that people will think that black people will vote for Obama and white people will vote for McCain. I do not think that is the case at all, and American people are going to be surprised when this does not happen.
No, in the articles I chose privilege was not apparent in the content. I did read one article that did focus on privilege, but I did not choose to compare and contrast that certain article.
After reading all eight articles it was very difficult to choose which ones to write about. I chose to write about the ones that I knew and felt the most passionately about. I am so glad that I am living history right now. The 2008 presidential race is making history.
In the article “Obama Sharply Assails Absent Black Fathers” Bosman reports on a speech that Obama gave to a 20,000-member Apostolic Church of God in Michigan. His main focus was that “responsibility does not end at conception.” Obama let the congregation know a few statistics such as more than half of all black children live in single-parent households. He was stressing to the congregation that a child needs to grow up with both a mother and a father. Unfortunately, Obama did not grow up with a mother and a father. His father left when he was just two years old. The concept of his speech was very good; he also said that, “Any fool can have a child. That doesn’t make you a father. It’s the courage to raise a child that makes you a father.” I chose this article because as I searched the internet to find the actual speech itself I saw that it raised some eyebrows. In my opinion, it was very gutsy of Obama to talk about this issue in front of a church. Bringing up the issue of black fathers not being in their child’s lives is a very thin line to walk on, but I guess that is what is so great about Obama, he really doesn’t hold anything back. I enjoyed reading this article because the things that he said really did need to be addressed. I think not only black fathers, but white fathers too need to be involved in their child’s life.
In “Age Becomes a New Race and Gender,” the author talks about how the republican presidential nominee, John McCain, is so old. John McCain is 72. The article sums up the issues that are brought up with age. The article also gives statistics on the voting demographic and who will vote for whom. The article thinks that a large variation will be determined on the age of the voters. This article was interesting to me because I had not thought about “age becoming a new race and gender.” Being a teenager, I have felt discriminated against for being young and naïve. I had never thought of someone being scrutinized for being old. In my perspective, I feel like I can do anything at the age of 19, and I feel like McCain can do anything at his age of 72. I think people need to stop being so preoccupied with the outer shell. Obama is black. Hillary is a woman. McCain is old. The American people should be concentrating on what these political leaders stand for, not what they look like.
The final article I read was “Politics and Race: History Lessons” is an article comprised of 3 different letters to the editor regarding a previous article posted in the New York Times. I tried to search around the website to find the article that they are talking about, but I was unable to find it. From reading the letters I insinuated that the previous article was about how this presidential race is changing how America looks at racism. One of the letters states that “the transformation of America [has] made the presidential nomination of Barack Obama possible.” I chose this article because it really made me think of how far America has come. Just to think that hundreds of years ago black people were hated against solely for the color of their skin, and now a person of color is actually running for the president of the United States. I think that America is finally coming to the realization that everyone is equal. God made us all the same. In the second letter written in this article, a lady states that she has finally come to “accept the idea of a black president.” I believe that accepting is the first step.
All three of these articles touch on different aspects of the political campaign. All of them are things that Americans see on television each and every day. It was good to read articles written by professionals, but in the last article that were just letters written by ordinary Americans it was a good feeling. Knowing that we can let our opinions be heard is very comforting.
Race is prominently displayed in two of the articles. The third article is mostly about age, which in this political race can be in a category with race and gender. These articles touched on gender, but none of them went into great detail about that certain subject.
I have been watching the campaign off and on. From what I have seen the media frames race and gender to a tee. They make fun of Clinton for crying during a debate. They said that just because she is a female then she is extra sensitive. They concentrate on Obama’s skin color. They focus on McCain’s age. Each one of these candidates has something wrong with their outer appearance. Just as I mentioned before is that the American people need to be worried about what the candidates believe in, not what they look like.
Now that Obama has officially been elected the Democratic nominee I feel as race will have a very large effect on the 2008 presidential election. I think that people will think that black people will vote for Obama and white people will vote for McCain. I do not think that is the case at all, and American people are going to be surprised when this does not happen.
No, in the articles I chose privilege was not apparent in the content. I did read one article that did focus on privilege, but I did not choose to compare and contrast that certain article.
After reading all eight articles it was very difficult to choose which ones to write about. I chose to write about the ones that I knew and felt the most passionately about. I am so glad that I am living history right now. The 2008 presidential race is making history.
1 comment:
I am pleased with the articles that you chose for this assignment. From the beginning of class until now, you have become more confident in your ideas. Thank you for that effort.
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