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Essay about Developing My Critical Thinking Skills

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Given the especially large number of students you see each semester, I don't expect any recollection of my presence in your COMM150 class-- I certainly wasn't an exemplary enough student to have left any lasting memories (which is both good and bad). But I wanted to share with you a small anecdote, because four years later I've realized that your class served as an important catalyst in the development of my critical thinking abilities.

As a freshmen at the Altoona campus, I took your class on a whim because I needed a Comm class. Of course I was 'confident' (re: cocky) in my abilities, so I didn't study for exams and ended up in a bad place part-way through the semester. That's when you offered an extra-credit assignment that required …show more content…

I didn't 'get it' then--but I certainly do now.

Do the Right Thing is a 1989 film by Spike Lee. According to Entertainment Weekly, it is one of the 25 most controversial films ever. It was deemed culturally significant by the Library of Congress in 1999, and then placed in the National Film Registry. The story follows the lives of citizens of the Bedford-Stuyvesant District in New York City, on the hottest day of the summer, and what they do to cope with the heat. To summarize the entire plot—it ends in a riot. I’d like to analyze some of the situations found in the movie, and discuss how, if at all, it related to race relations in America. When watching the film, I wasn’t overly interested in the plot. Nothing interesting happened (until the end of the movie) and there was nothing that made me (as a viewer) intrigued to continue watching. What I found important, however, was the character portrayals in the movie, and this is what kept me watching. I’m not sure what Lee wanted from this movie, because to me, it seemed as if he was being a) overtly racist towards non African-Americans, and b) stereotypical of his own race. Throughout the movie I was astounded by the portrayal of the black characters in this movie. Specifically, Buggin’ Out’s character. While I realize that the character’s name is a direct reference to his personality, I think Lee went a bit too far. For example, when the white cyclist accidentally scuffed his

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