An Analysis Of Knock, Knock, It's Enoch

Chamberlain makes the strong claim, "What has been done to the black is a terrible thing." This is opinionated, yet many can empathize that it is true. While Kilrain agrees that the blacks have been indeed treated very unfairly, he

David Brook’s essay, “People Like Us, describes about the tolerance and diversity in the United States. Since the great immigration of the late 19th century, America has been cited as one of the most diverse countries in the world. The United States is home to individuals from many different races, ethnic backgrounds, religions, political views, interests, personalities, and income levels. However, according to Brook’s, instead of the population of the country uniting in its diversity and using it as a strength, individuals are trying to distance themselves from others who are not like themselves, rather, band themselves together with those who are like them. Brook’s notes that, even though most of Americans are doing the right thing by finding locations where they are most comfortable and where they believe they can succeed. Their decisions make them achieve their goals often lead towards their own ethnic or racial extractions. For instance, Brook’s himself confesses that he has in the past gravitated towards places where he believed he could be most comfortable in and where he also felt he could pursue his identity. He further states, that the majority of his friends are middle-income level Caucasians and conservative Christians. Brooks’ main argument in the essay is that many individuals in the United States often do not even bother to show that they would like to

Also, it is natural to search out or relate to that which is "like" or common to us. These ideas form or create the self definition of who an individual is. Cultural togetherness is not a bad thing. However, these ideas have negative retributions when acted upon in extreme degrees. The individuality of a group is wonderful, but not when it causes a cut off from other groups. What segregation brings or prevents is the opportunity for experience of diversity or a wide range of livelihood in general. There is more to the world then just you or just me. This type of separation causes barriers or invisible lines and walls that are rarely crossed by people in our society today. These barriers produce the loss of uniqueness among both a group of people as well as individuals. When everyone is the same or alike, people lose the capability to be special or unmatched ( Myers, 34). Differences and diversity should be celebrated as a chance or opportunity to be able to stand out as well as the chance to educate each other about the creation of man and woman.

A majority of people here in the United States have felt a touch of the issues, that come with classification of race. Due to this, many men and women of the minority racial groups are put in to sub-groups as a way to “help” give them an identity that can relate to. This idea to separate people by giving them identities is called the Racial Formation Theory. First introduced by Michael Omi and Howard Winant, the theory is a tool that helps build the idea that race is a social contracted tool where your racial status is weighed upon by many factors such as by those social, economic and political origin. By using race a way to build lines and boundaries, this has resulted in causing a rift to grow between the majority and minority

For this week’s memo, I decided to read “Racial Formations” by Omi and Winant. The reading talks about the meaning of race as being defined and challenged throughout society in both collective and personal practices. It also suggests that racial categories are created, changed, ruined, and renewed. Omi and Winant explore the idea that the conception of race developed progressively, ultimately being created to validate and rationalize inequality. It began with the denial of political rights and extended into the introduction of slavery and other forms of forcible labor.

I learned early on not to judge a Jelly Bean by its color, and that it was an unrewarding practice to group together these individual candies because when not every bean fit into a color category, I forced it to. The same can be said for people. Each and every one of us are unique individuals, and it is virtually impossible to effectively ‘sort’ us into groups - even more so as our society progresses. Identifiers such as race, religion, sexual orientation - even gender - which we once used to group people together, now make up the many cracks in modern American society. It is this action of separating the Red Jelly Bellies from the rest that creates an almost immobile American mindset: you are a Red… you must be a cherry.

What if we lived in a world where there were no races? What if people were not discriminated against because of the color of their skin or because they are different from what we see as acceptable? This is what Kwame Anthony Appiah tries to examine in his essay “Race, Culture, Identity: Misunderstood Connections.” Appiah tries to point out that “American social distinctions cannot be understood in terms of the concept of race.” (102) That America is made up of so many different races that no race is the more superior or in other cases inferior to one another. America is defined by its cultural diversity; it is what makes America the nation that it is. It is the reason that we as Americans have freedoms other people

Since our nation has such diverse qualities and characteristics, you would think that everyone who lives in such a country, we would all come and stick together. With people who are so different, in so many different types of ways, being a united and unified nation would be knowledgeable. But instead our country consists of "people making strenuous efforts to group themselves with people who are basically like themselves" (Brooks 62). When taking a deeper look, and basically breaking down the nation piece by piece, we see segregation that happens to go unnoticed. There are neighborhoods that have a reputation for being where "African Americans live," “Asians Live," "Caucasians live," "Mexicans live" etc. which is not a good thing. People tend to not go out of their comfort zone and expand on what they are used to, to try new things, which is usually only

Published by the New York Times under the Opinion section, the audience for this article is any interested reader. At the time it was released, November 18th, 2016, this article arrived during last year’s elections, in which a large, but surprising number of Americans voted for candidate Donald Trump, shocking many forecasters who had predicted otherwise. Therefore, after the election, many people may have been researching the demographics of the election, and this article, which briefly shared Brooks’ opinion on the nature of the election and how viewing others through the lens of a dominant identity influenced how the votes fell where they did, may have caught a keen reader’s eye. Also, this article came at a time where racism and prejudice caused many problems, leading some to view others as one-dimensional, represented only by a skin color or religion. Since prejudice and hate is still a large issue today, tackling this problem helps make this article relevant, nearly a year after its release.

In David Brooks’ “People Like Us” passage on the issue of diversity, Brooks takes a personally emotional perspective of the way in which Americans don’t appreciate how diverse our nation is while “relatively homogeneous” (Brooks 136). His argument is weakened, however, through a bias and hypocrisy that his diction conveys. He claims that grouping ourselves with those who we are most alike is in our nature to, and in doing so, we separate ourselves from those who are different. Using certain statistics as evidence, Brooks points out that the social segmentation created by society will always exist.

Once, race and religion were two traditional structural components of society from the past, but today the two act as social dividers. The disconnection of people of varying beliefs and races as well as the misunderstanding of each other in societies are issues well interpreted in the novels, Black Like Me, by John Howard Griffin and The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin. Both authors would agree that something must be done to bridge the gap in racially segregated society. From a personal perspective, as long as there are people who think they are socially and spiritually different from others, there will always be misunderstanding between people.

I think the main idea that John Howard Griffin is trying to make is that nobody had any idea what the black population was feeling, or even doing. The white population was just content to think they were all happy and smiling all the time. On page 166 Griffin says “if he did not do his yessing and grinning and act out the stereotyped image, then he was immediately considered a “bad Negro,”. On the same page”

are a “melting pot” of differences that should work together to create a better future for us all

Yes, those were divisive times. But the seeds of division are not planted by those of us who seek to eliminate racial and ethnic preferences; they are planted by those who believe that our skin color and gender and how we spell our last names should entitle us to the harvest of diversity ― college admission, government employment, and contracts. (Connerly 5)

When we meet new people, we create small talk discussing about interest, dislikes etc. this then may lead to a new friendships or another person to avoid. Our diverse thoughts, interests and experiences steer us to the people we are close to and love. If everyone was exactly the same our relationships would be meaningless because rather than having a two way relationship , it will be like talking to yourself. Also because everyone has their interests and experiences when we meet people who have similar interest and experiences, we can feel excited or relieved knowing there is someone who we can relate to. This then can create a special bond.Some may believe diversity can divide us because we may disagree on opinions, have different lifestyles, create subcultures etc. however ignorance is what divides us. We can become closer as a society by embracing everyone's differences rather than excluding others because of their differences. In other words with diversity will come unity.