Lazere in Chapter 7 talks about stereotyping and prejudice. The section about prejudice talked about how it has been used in jokes and comic stand-up routines. The first person that popped to mind was Dave Chappelle. Stereotypes were the basis of a solid portion of the more memorable jokes on the show. As I look through my boxed sets of Season 1 and 2 and the episode descriptions, each seemed to have a racially or sexuality based skit. Hell, an entire episode was dedicated to Dave Chappelle's mock game show "I Know Black People" where contestants included a professor of African American studies and history, and NYC police officer, a writer for both the Chris Rock show and Chappelle's Show, a Korean store clerk, and white DJ, a social worker from Delaware, a white High School student who claimed that the majority of his schoolmates were black, and the lone black contestant a barber from Brooklyn. The questions ranged from things about black people in general such as lingo, things about the show Good Times and "why black people like menthol cigarrettes?" Suprisingly, the winner was the DJ who's grand prize was a can of hair grease, 2 bootleg DVDs and a pack of menthol cigarrettes. Oddly enough Chappelle has said on many instances one of the many reasons why he never came back for the much anticipated 3rd season was that he felt that he saw a white guy in his crew laughing in certain way in response to one of the more racially charged skits they had been working on for the season.

On that note, the piece by James Patterson and Peter Kim "Beverly Hills vs the South Bronx: The Day They Told the Truth on Rodeo Drive" examined the levels of morality "at two poles of American society." They sampled a few hundred people from both regions where even the difference of people surveyed showed a significant difference between the two. The jobs of those surveyed in the South Bronx held more noble jobs such as a clerk, a cook, a nurse aide, a teacher, and a cab driver to name a few. While the Beverly Hills sample include the president of an oil company, two film producers, an accountant, and a physician. The results of some questions such as the higher rates of homicide, rape and robbery in the South Bronx over Beverly Hills, and perhaps higher suicide rates in the Hills. Others such as Hills residents are more likely to commit adultery, hide crime, and own guns (even admitting to shooting people). They are also less to donate to charity considering that the area's average income is over 10 times that of the South Bronx. They concluded in their study that the majority of people in the South Bronx are honest, hardworking people trying to overcome the situation they've been dealt. Beverly Hills also has a high rate of drug use compared to the South Bronx. I wonder if any of them are stereotypical crackheads like Chappelle's Show favorite: Tyrone Biggums

Chapter 6 of Lazere talked about how ethnocentrism and culturally conditioned assumptions affect the value of an argument. He talks about how one's ethnic, religious, and regional background affects how they respond to certain things. What he was saying about abitrary customs and traditions that continue for no reason really other than because that's the way its always been. As someone that plans on being involved television, the example of the laugh track to imply something was funny. An example in television I'm more familiar with is the APPLAUSE sign. I went to tapings of Late Night with Conan O'Brien where on several instances the sign would flash, such as going to and coming from a commercial break, during the opening, when guests/performers would come on stage, and at the end of the show. I think theres some reason for that especially in late night comedy shows where you need a good level of energy to stay entertained and perhaps awake since it IS late at night for the viewer at home.

The dress codes, in particular the hair struck me a bit. Before my parents got used to my long hair (before I cut it I should say, since it was much longer a while back) they would always say "how do you expect to get a job with your hair like that?" Also myself being a Yankees fan, am very familiar with the idea of keeping hair neat means success. Last offseason's acquisition of the free-spirited, caveman-looking Johnny Damon, the cutting of the hair and the shaving of his beard to follow owner George Steinbrenner's personal rule of short neat hair and no facial hair with the exception of mustaches.

Damn, couldn't find a pic of him with his mustache that many of his teammates were sporting in August. Anyway, going on with the dress code, where I've worked the last three summers I noticed an interesting thing about dress code. It was a pretty casual atmosphere since it was a place specifically for adolescent youths, so alot of the staff regularly dressed in jeans and t-shirts. People that were more involved with the operations of the instituion such as finance and on some level legal, although many still worked with the youth, often dressed in slacks and collared shirts. And of course everyone participated in Casual Friday.

The hyperboles of parochialism such as "The World Series" and "The Big Game" whereever it is, gave me a chuckle. I look at "The World Series" more in terms of the baseball world, which I can sort of justify by looking at World Series logos from 1974 to 1986, then to emphasize my theory the addition of the baseball diamond from 1987 to 1991, then the globe from 1992 to the logo for the upcoming 2006 World Series. My last point is on American Ethnocentrism, with the fact that when we refer to America (and even the rest of the world) we're only talking about the United State and not including our North American neighbors Canada and Mexico and Central, South and the Caribbean. My own school is guilty of Penn State Ethnocentrism, we call ourselves "State" to emphasize ourselves as the best of the land-grant schools. That also reminds me of my friend that goes to Penn (University of Pennsylvania), they're the only Pennsylvania school (at one point at least, til we came along), so as my friend tells me of her schoolmates that wear "Not Penn State" on their shirts just in case anyone forgot what school they went to.

In high school statistics class my teacher Mr. Thomas always told us to check our assumptions. In statistics assumptions are used to determine whether or not a study is suitable for analysis. Typical statistical procedures require for a sample to be a simple random sample of the population being questioned. Another assumption is that the sample size is greater than a certain amount because the sample should reflect as much of the population as permitted by the funding available to conduct said study. Such an assumption attempts to assure that the sample reflects a good portion of the population and to eliminate possible bias when the study is a survey.

Assumptions in an argument are important because they help the reader or the audience the author is trying to convince to see where they drew their conclusions from. Using assumptions in an argument might not effectively deliver the point across because these assumptions might pertain to the author's beliefs and not necessarily that of the author's audience. The reader then must under their own reasoning figure the assumptions in order to determine whether or not to agree with the author.

Chapter 3 of Reading and Writing for Civic Literacy

In this chapter, Donald Lazere talks a little about how bias can be created by one's background, whether it be ethnic, religious, political or regional. It also talks about when formulating your arguments, they must appeal to a general audience, as stated by Mina Shaughnessy in her book Errors and Expectations: A Guide for the Teacher of Basic Writing. Also how recursiveness and cumulativeness are effective in understanding the writer's point. Rereading a previous section and the building up of ideas to reach the overall point the author is trying to make.

Recursiveness, I thin, is pretty key in understanding anything. Repetition helps us to memorize and if there was something that we may have missed upon reading it the first time around, we'll be hopeful to catch it the second time around, or however many attempts it takes. Also cumulativeness because the reader is feed points by the author before he makes their conclusion or makes their point true to the audience.

The Patriot Act Infringes on International Students' Privacy Rights

Part I: Sonia Mukhi; Part II: Kate McCormack

Part II of this article published in the Daily Cardinal in February 2004 talks about how international students have been subject to background checks before being permitted to study abroad in the United States. as stated in the article "SEVIS, the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, is a national Internet-based monitoring system for all non-resident students studying in the United States." SEVIS was enstated in January 2003 as a part of the USA PATRIOT Act. the author seems to be against SEVIS because the actions a student takes while in college such as switching their major, or going away to visit their home country for whatever reason without reporting it to the government through SEVIS, may be enough to deport them fromt he country.

We believe this article is written well in that the writer sets up the situation that international students are in with: " Imagine having to notify the government any time you wanted to change your major, drop a class or go home for a break." as to present the reality that they are forced to face. She uses the fact that its a part of the Patriot Act to show why its intrusive to the the people it affects, since the Patriot Act on a whole is doing that to the citizens of the US.

aloha, my name is mikhail herrera. I'm a student at Penn State Harrisburg looking to pursue a major in communications. I'm from the beautiful city of New York. I didn't live in a glamorous part of it, but thats what makes the city so diverse. my parents are from the Dominican Republic and moved here many, many years before I was even a thought of. I'm writing this blog for my honors english class, which is kinda cool I suppose because that means I'm using the intarwebs during class. this blogging thing isnt entirely new to me seeing as I've had a xanga, livejournal, myspace and facebook. so, yea...I'm a pretty laid back guy, I don't let things bother me much. many people I know say I'm the nicest person they've ever met, which is weird to me since that vibe is completely unintentional.

so, yea the reading I did for class over the last 5 days in textbook had some pretty interesting topics. it kinda hit me a little since it talked about how media (particularly television) really skews politics, seeing as I want to be television production. I have always noticed how anchors and tv personalities aren't really allowed to express their opinions, but I think that is their job to just deliver the facts and let their audience develop their own opinions. a show in which people of opposing views discuss certain topics could work well, but I think many people are so one sided these days its hard to find a compromise between the two (or more in some cases). unfortunately, I think its acceptable to believe that certain facts are left out, which really do end up altering one's opinion. I think our society at this point in time we've become pretty sheltered by the ideas presented to us by the media.

appropriate that I write this on the 5th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001 because it has become an excuse to shelter us. that had to have been one of the weirdest days I've ever lived to see. it started out odd I must say. I walked to school with a classmate of mine I rarely talked to (rather cute girl I should say) and my teacher and on the way to school we asked who our teacher was going to vote for in the primary election for mayor (which was supposed to happen that day). then we were in class and they started calling peoples names over the pa. as they started calling names from the loud speaker more and more frequently, I started to think more and more something just wasn't right. my cousin's mother picked me, her, and my brother up and took us home in a taxi. the driver began to tell us the current situation sometime after my cousin and her mother were dropped off. he told us the bridges and tunnels were closed and something about a big cloud of smoke downtown. me and my brother get home, and we get a nice hug from our grandmother who was a bit frantic. my father was sitting in the living room with a pretty grimm look, which is very unlike him. I looked at the tv and saw the towers burning with that black smoke eminating from the hole. then I saw the footage of the second tower getting hit by the airplane. then watching the towers collapse was just mindblowing. I remember I went to the store with my mother to get a few things shortly after she came home. my usually vibrant neighborhood was silent and almost deserted. no music from anyones car stereo's, no one playing dominoes, no planes in the air since they grounded all flights. you know what was weird though, that was the bluest sky I had ever seen and it sucks that it has to be associated with such a horrific day. one thing the attacks have really done for me is that I it has given me a reason to always expect the great day ahead. thats probably because thats all I couldve expected the day after that. being a New Yorker it pains me to continue to hear the constant bickering about rebuilding lower manhattan. we owe it to the innocent that lost their lives to rebuild the area that they used to work in, have lunch at, take pictures of the rest of the city from.