Rainbow Boys Essay

In 1991 magic johnson stuns the world by announcing his retirement from the L.A. Lakers, after testing positive for HIV, the virus that cause AIDS. At the time , many americans viewed AIDS as a gay white man's disease. Magic Johnson who is an african american was one of the first sports stars to to go public about his status. As one of the greatest basketball players of all time, Magic Johnson spent his entire nba career with the LA Lakers, helping them win five championships in the 1980’s. Today Johnson is a spokesman for aids awareness and has transformed aids from a death sentence to a manageable condition for many

What do we learn about life in the 18th century and how successfully does the writer convey this information whilst telling us a good story?

     John Hughes’ 1985 film, The Breakfast Club, gives countless examples of the principles of interpersonal communication. Five high school students: Allison, a weirdo, Brian, a nerd, John, a criminal, Claire, a prom queen, and Andrew, a jock, are forced to spend the day in Saturday detention. By the end of the day, they find that they have more in common than they ever realized.

Ever since the first cases of what eventually came to be known as AIDS were diagnosed in the early 1980s, people with HIV/AIDS have been stigmatized. Over time, there have been many misconceptions about this disease. Even though there have been many discoveries, and treatments for HIV have improved over time, there are still many people who understand very little about this disease. This lack of understanding, along with fear, misinformation about how the disease is transmitted, and “moral” judgments made about the types of people who contract HIV, all have led to stigmatization of, and discrimination against, people who are living with HIV/AIDS. Understanding the stigmatization of people with HIV/AIDS is an important social justice issue because that stigmatization can result in people with HIV being insulted, rejected, gossiped about, excluded from family and social activities, fired, and even jailed. People with HIV are no different from people suffering from other chronic diseases. Instead of being alienated, they have a right to be treated with fairness, respect, and dignity.

In the story “Blue against White”, the author, Jeannette C. Armstrong, writes about a native girl coming home to her reserve after spending time in the city. The topic of memories is very apparent throughout the story as the main character, Lena, is reminiscing through most of it. Whether we like it or not, life always goes on and sometimes, there are things we don’t really pay attention to until it’s too late. Memories can help to keep the past alive and get us through some pretty tough situations. In the story, Lena thinks about her time in the city and how she got through it with her memories of the place she grew up in. Armstrong represents her idea of memory of the past in her text with the use of the blue door as a symbol, comparing

Energy is one of the single most important concepts to keep in mind when writing, it can make even the most insignificant occurrences interesting. Energy plays with the reader’s senses combining subject matter, leaps/ spacing and words into one to create a fascinating piece of work. “Good writers choose a topic they know a lot about—relationships, travel, growing up, bedrooms, hotels, restaurants, the synagogue on 42nd Street—and they trust that they will discover things about the topic as they work.” (Sellers 71) Rick Moody author of “Boys” has taken a relatable topic the process of growing up and has turned a thirty year frame into a condensed

Like female athletes, African Americans have had a difficult time getting equal treatment and representation for their successes by the media. African Americans were thought to have a feeling of hate towards others, as displayed in the classic feature, Remember the Titans, “Look at them, they hate us, they’ll always hate us.” In today’s sports arena, African American athletes are represented in their sports’ categories in a much larger group than in the past. However, they are still struggling to have the same equalization as their teammates in the media’s representation of their talents and skills. A typical stereotype of the African American by the media is their depiction of them having more brawn than brain. For example, Luke Walton of the Los Angeles Lakers, for example, is a white male whom commentators often commend for his high basketball IQ when he makes plays, but often fault for his insufficient physical ability when he doesn’t. African American teammates of Walton’s, in contrast, find their “skills” praised when they execute well and their “mental errors” blamed for failures to execute. Sports-related socialization of this discriminatory type can perpetuate stereotypes generation after generation.

As soon as Magic Johnson announced he had HIV, he immediately was a role model for others to get tested and have hope of living a long and fulfilling life. In 2011, Magic Johnson talked about living with AIDS/HIV for 20 years, and how this disease is not a death sentence. He encourages others to get educated and get tested. However, when Johnson first found out he had the AIDS/HIV virus, his concern was not how did he get the disease or what is going to happen or how will he afford the medical expenses, but rather, “How am I going to live a long time?” (Moughty).

HIV/ AIDS affect African Americans at a higher rate than any other race (White, Asian, and Hispanic). With African Americans making up approximately 13 percent of the U.S. population, in 2014, they made up almost half of all new HIV/AIDS cases; 44 percent. African American men accounted for 73 percent of new HIV/AIDS cases, and of that 43 percent of African American men were heterosexual (CDC 2014). Since heterosexual African American men don’t equate to the larger population of HIV cases as compared to African American men who have sex with men, these heterosexual men are virtually invisible in the theoretical and empirical psychological HIV/AIDS literature (Bowleg, 2004, p.166).

Four years earlier he had been asked by his local hospital to come in for an Aids test. But the stigma surrounding the condition meant his family were not given a definitive picture.” - https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/jul/11/health.aids1

John Boyne has created a sophisticated and meaningful novel in The Boy in the Striped

“In an age when Americans enjoy dozens of cable sports channels, when professional athletes often command salaries in the tens of millions of dollars...it’s hard to fully appreciate how important the rising prominence of the University of Washington’s crew was to the people of Seattle in 1935” (Brown 173). As seen by this quote, America is a much different place than what it was in the 1930s. The times have changed significantly. In today’s day and age we have it all too good. The world we live in is one of leisure and not nearly as much hard work as there used to be. Back in the early 20th century the people had it pretty rough and dealt with many frightening problems of their generation such as

According to recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, approximately 1.2 million individuals in the United States have HIV (about 14 percent of which are unaware of their infection and another 1.1 million have progressed to AIDS. Over the past decade, the number of HIV cases in the US has increased, however, the annual number of cases remains stable at about 50, 000 new cases per year. Within these estimates, certain groups tend to carry the burden of these disease, particularly the gay, bisexual, and men who have sex with men (MSM) and among race/ethnic groups, Blacks/African American males remain disproportionately affected. (CDC)

In the book Beautiful Boy David Sheff the father describes his and his family’s experience dealing with his son Nic who is addicted to the drug crystal meth. In telling his story David takes us down memory lane to the beginning of his life with his first wife who gives birth to his son Nic.

What do we learn about life in the 18th century and how successfully does the writer convey this information whilst telling us a good story?