Among The Thugs By William Buford

Argument: Dubus includes references to Kenneth having an inner conflict between being the man of the house, or letting his transgender feelings show.

In the short book of “No Heroes, No Villains” by Steven Phillips On June 28, 1972, a Transit Authority patrolman, John Skagen, was on his way home from testifying at court for an arrest he made a couple of weeks prior. Skagen was taking the train home to the Bronx when he saw and stopped James Richardson who was awaiting the subway train which would take him to work at Lincoln Hospital. Skagen ordered him to “put up your hands, and get against the wall”. Skagen’s actions seem unprovoked and unnecessary. After a short tussle the two men exchanged shots and Richardson fled the scene on foot. Two other officers that were on the main street above the subway station rushed to the scene.

The diversity between Americans has always been evident, and not just by the skin tone or religion, but also by their backgrounds, as well as how their lives are like today. Especially in African Americans and those who wanted to change the ways of religion, and the prejudice against them continues to stick, even today.

Riot by Walter Dean Myers is a book that takes place in New york city in 1863 when many uncontrolled riots were going on. These riots were about races and many African Americans were being beaten, robbed, and killed. The many police that were trying to stop the riots had no luck as they kept occurring and people kept being killed. The protagonist of the story is Claire who is a fifteen year old girl. Her dad is African American and her mom is Irish. Claire doesn’t know what to do or where she fits in the riot because she is half black and half Irish. A big part of the story is Claire trying to figure out who she really is inside because she is torn by two warring sides.

Michael Kingston’s “Creating a Criminal” Discuss a new law known as Section 598b of the California Penal Code. 598b states Every Person is guilty of a misdemeanor who possesses, import into the state, sells, buys, gives away, or accepts any carcass of any animal traditionally or commonly kept as a pet/companion with the sole intent of killing and using the animal for food. Kingston brings up a good point on what exactly is constituted as a pet? In America cats and dogs are traditionally regarded as pets. However people who traditionally eat dogs or cats as food are Vietnamese. He also explains that “ A Vietnamese-American family, canine-eating family is no more a threat to the pet-trading industry than a family of European

“I am here to start a fight, because I’m a man and that’s how I solve problems” (Phillips) The main argument presented in Brian Phillips’s essay “Man Up” is what ‘being a man’ means in the football world. In football, being a man means dealing with your problems and not being afraid to fight back physically. Phillips says that football players put on this tough guy act on the field, they fight like real men, and do not run from their problems. In this essay, Phillips argues against this idea of toughness by redefining it. All aspects of football, not just the player, but the networks and the fans treat football as a man’s sport. Phillips addresses mental/emotional issues as a problem in football by describing the abusive relationship between Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin. Since football is a man's sport, emotional issues are just unacceptable, but Phillips challenges this idea.

Molly Ivins’s “Get a Knife, Get a Dog, but get Rid of Guns” is the authors personal opinion on how guns should be banned from public use; she argues guns only kill that it would be safer to carry a knife or get a dog to protect us. She uses the Second Amendment to back up her argument about guns being only for the well-trained militia. The claim of the argument is Guns are a Danger, so it’s safer to get a knife or a dog. Ivins’s argument is unclear without addressing the main reasons why guns are bad overall.

In this essay I intend to explore the narrative conventions and values, which Oliver Smithfield presents in the short story Victim. The short story positions the reader to have negative and sympathetic opinion on the issues presented. Such as power, identity and bullying. For example Mickey the young boy is having issues facing his identity. It could be argued that finding your identity may have the individual stuck trying to fit in with upon two groups.

Just walk on by Black Men and Public Space by Brent Staples is an interesting and captivating piece of writing. His publication captures one 's interest and makes a person think about the role of prejudice in his or her daily interactions. It is full of metaphors, which achieves the desired figurative effect. The Declaration of Independence, on the other hand, is the founding document of the traditions of the politics of the United States (Lucas). It clearly explains the fundamental ideas that constitute America that all men are free and equal, and have similar inherent natural rights. There are several ways that the writer’s experiences and arguments are consistent and are at the same time inconsistent with the principles contained in the document. It follows that a deeper understanding of whether the idea laid out in Thomas Jefferson 's "Declaration of Independence" should be hold true for these authors.

The book in Contempt was written by Paul Hawken. Paul Hawken is a famous environmentalist, entrepreneur, and author on the subject of corporate sustainability. In his book, Paul Hawken charges business and industry as, one, the major culprit in causing the deterioration of the biosphere, and, two, the only institution that is large, pervasive and powerful enough, to really lead humankind out of this situation. The book focus on the total of damage to the ecosystem and the risks that it poses for mankind. Environmental risks comes from in the extinction of many different species, and many species have already become extinct due to human. All and every species is a part of the ecosystem and each species play a role in the global system. When

bell hooks, renowned black feminist and cultural critic criticizes the lack of racial awareness in her essay, Representing Whiteness in the Black Imagination (1992). ‘bell hooks’ is written in lower case to convey that the substance of her work reigns more important than the writer. From a marginalized perspective, hooks argues that sites of dominance, not otherness is problematic and critiques the lack of attention that white scholars pay to the representation of whiteness in the black imagination. Critical feminist scholars Peggy McIntosh and Ruth Frankenberg identify their own whiteness as a dominant discourse, but share a critical departure from hooks with the notion of whiteness as terror. hooks aim is not to reverse racism, but discuss her position to authentically inform readers about how she experiences racism. Furthermore, systems of oppression are manufactured by human thought and thus the site of the Other is always produced as a site of difference. Gender, race, sex, class, disability, and geography are situated differently in social structure, but dominant groups assume they share the same reality though they cannot experience it. In consequence, the Other cannot hold a singularized identity of their own and the binary structure succeeds in containing racialized bodies in place. What happens to those bodies when they cross boundaries of the binary? hooks recounts being routinely disciplined back into place when crossing the border; however, dominant white

City of Thieves starts off with Lev Beniov sitting atop his roof, on a firefighting detail, under the German siege of Leningrad in Kirov, Russia. As he sits on top of his building’s roof with his friends Vera Osiponva, and the Antokolsky twins they listen to anti-aircraft fire, and they see a paratrooper falling to the ground. The group hops the Kirov gate, and runs towards the paratrooper’s landing sight, realizing he is drifting to the ground dead. They began looting his body, and as Lev got a German knife from the man, the GAZ turned on Voinova Street, and they had to run. While running back to Kirov, Vera slipped, and Lev had to go and get her. As he helped her over the fence, the GAZ grabbed him. Since it was after curfew, he believed execution was inevitable. He was taken to “Piter”’s prison called the Crosses with no light or sound. Soon, a Russian officer named Kolya was thrown in the cell with him. In the morning, the two prisoners were taken to a mansion with NKVD officers in it. The Colonel had a mission for the prisoners. He took their ration cards, and told Kolya and Lev they had until Thursday to get one dozen eggs. On that Saturday morning, Kolya and Lev had left their lives on the line for a dozen eggs.

Whiteness is an integrative ideology that has transpired in North America throughout the late 20th century to contemporary society. It is a social construction that sustains itself as a dogma to social class and vindicates discrimination against non-whites. The power of whiteness is illustrated in social, cultural and political practices. These measures are recognized as the intent standard in which other cultures are persuaded to live by. Bell hooks discusses the evolution of whiteness in an innovative article in which she theorizes this conviction as normative, a structural advantage, an inclusive standpoint, and an unmarked name by those who are manipulating this interdisciplinary. Most intellects, including hooks, would argue that whiteness is a continuation of history; a dominant cultural location that has been unconsciously disclosing its normativity of cultural practice, advocating fear, destruction, and terror for those who are being affected by this designation.

With a youthful face, and striking blonde hair, the 41 year old is very knowledgable when it comes to crime within families. “the kids that I deal with suffer from massive issues with things like ADHD and there are other things running along side like schizophrenia and they are constantly committing crime, its almost like an impulse. There are other kids with preverbal trauma who have grown up in a violent background with people around them who have abused the law and when they grow up tend to do the same.”

The literary element setting includes the time when the story happens and location where the story takes place. Some stories use variety of settings to initiate an interesting beginning. However, the 12 Angry Man has only one fixed setting – the jury room, which is not commonly used in a novel. The author, Reginald Rose, overcomes the limitation in setting by describing changes in weather, initiating different types of character and imitating the events of the murder.