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Final draft (changes highlighted)
Journal Entry
October 17- Slam Poem Reflection I chose two slam poems to watch by the same young boy, Royce Mann. He is a 14 year old student who has writes slam poems about social issues that are people are experiencing today, mostly dealing with race. The first poem by him was performed at his school, and it's called "White Boy Privilege". In this poem he addresses women, African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and immigrants. He expresses how sorry he is to anybody that isn't a "middle or upper-class white boy" that he was born with this privilege that they will never experience. In this poem he explains that although he didn't create the system, he profits from it every day, and he is sorry that his privileges are hurting other people. He finishes the poem by saying "it's time to take that ladder and turn it into a bridge". He is saying that the social ladder, where middle and upper white males are at the top, should be horizontal, so that no one group of people is above the other. The second poem is called "All Lives Matter, but..." and it was performed by him in front of an audience on a talk show. This poem focuses more on the Black Lives Matter movement, and how prevalent police brutality towards African Americans is currently. My favorite line from this poem was when he says "102, that's how many unarmed black people were killed by police last year. One, is one more than that number should've been". I just think it's so impressive how informed this boy is at only 14. He is speaking for the Black Lives Matter movement when it doesn't even directly involve him, and I think that it's so important to voice your opinion on social matters, because you will be heard.
Slam Poem
This is a thank you to my mom. The white one. The real one. Thank you for feeding me, giving me shelter, for always giving the best advice, and for loving me unconditionally. Thank you for always providing me with what I need and more. A little over 17 years ago, on June 2nd 1999, I was adopted from Danang, a coastal city in central Vietnam. Being adopted to me isn’t some crazy thing, it’s just a part of me. The same way I have brown eyes and brown hair, I am also adopted. When my birth mom had me she was only 16. In Vietnam that’s a big dishonor so she knew she had to make a choice. Her parents would have cut her off financially, and she would have had no way to take care of me. Her putting me up for adoption was the most selfless thing she could’ve done. I never really had to be told I was adopted, I just kind of knew. My parents are both white, unlike me, so it wasn’t that difficult to figure out. That being said, my mom and dad, the white ones, are my parents. They taught me how to talk and walk and took care of me when I was sick. The fact that I was born 8,820 miles away from them doesn’t change their title to me. I think a lot of people get confused and assume that because my parents aren't biologically my parents it means I don't love them the way I would with my birthmom. That couldn't be further from the truth. So, thank you, to my birth mom, for giving me up all of those years ago. I would not be where I am today without that selfless act. Thank you for not being my mom.
Reflection
The main goal of the visual-oral literacy was to show the importance of tone, audience, and mood while presenting our pieces of writing. We started this unit by viewing visual arguments, and we were given a PowerPoint of images to look at along with some questions. The images ranged anywhere from a man being held at gunpoint during the Vietnam war to an overwhelmed stay at home mom on a State Farm advertisement. Each image evoked a different feeling just from the visual. We also watched and reflected on videos such as “The Art of Rhetoric”, YouTube video commercials, and a polar bear commercial. These videos used egos, logos, and pathos to make the viewer, in this case me, feel the way the creator the video wanted me to feel. We also had readings in the textbook for this unit. We read the chapters on Visuals, Advertisements R Us, and Meaningful Observation. These chapters taught me how effective visuals are in proving a point, and how they’ve been using the same techniques since the 1950s. I also read that art and innovation is a big part of the education system and it can be almost as important as science and math. In this section of class we also watched slam poems as well as created our own. I chose to view slam poems about social issues going on currently, such as police brutality and white privilege. I wrote my slam poem on my adoption, and how thankful I am that my birthmother gave me up. It was titled “A Thank You to My Mom”. Presenting my slam poem taught me how important tone and mood was while speaking, so I could have my audience feel the way I wanted them to feel. Although I could’ve done a better job at it, I realize how important this process is. Our major project for the visual-oral literacy unit was the ethnography paper. We were required to make observations as well as create a list of questions to interview someone who fit our control group. I chose to do my ethnography on Greek life and how it affects academic performance. We had to include primary and secondary data. The ethnography was extremely challenging for me, and I did not do nearly as good as I wanted to. I don’t think I spent enough time building my argument and I should’ve focused more on incorporating the data to help prove my point. I already knew the importance of visual-oral literacy but again, this unit helped me get a deeper understanding on the topic. I agree with all of the assignments, and I think they really helped challenge me in an area of writing I wasn’t familiar with. I learned a lot about myself as a writer from this unit, and it showed me my weaknesses that I should focus on before UWRT 1102.