A. Read Brent Staples’ “Just Walk On By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space” pages 233-236 in the 14th edition, pages 231-34 in the 15th edition of your Patterns for College Writing reader. If you have an E-book, this essay can be found in Chapter 8/Exemplification. Write a summary sentence in which you mention the essay title in quotes, the author’s complete name, and the author’s message/thesis. Here is an example: In Brent Staples’ essay “Just Walk On By: A Black Man Alters Public Space,” he discusses how people reacted negatively to his walking the streets in the evening.
Then, copy three quotes from Staples’ essay, citing the page number the quote is found, and write a brief personal comment about your selected quote. Here is an example: Staples focuses on “precautions to make myself less threatening” (236). Sometimes, in social situations, I try to make myself friendlier than I might normally be, just to appear more welcoming to others. I think many people do this. *Note: When the first letter in the quote is lower case, it means it is not the first word in the sentence.
B. Read Amy Chua’s “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” pages 402-406 in the 14th edition, pages 396-400 in the 15th edition. If you have an E-book, this essay can be found in Chapter 11/Comparison and Contrast. Write a summary sentence in which you mention the essay’s title in quotes, the author’s complete name, and the author’s message/thesis. Note above example with Staples. Then, copy three quotes from Chua’s essay, citing the page number the quote is found, and then write a brief personal comment about your selected quote. Again, see the Staples example above. Note: We will be using the 2016 MLA version for documentation. In your reader, this starts on page 737-39. Also, you can reference Purdue Owl on the internet. Plus, when you introduce a writer’s cited quote, please practice changing your verbs: Chua observes/ed; illustrates/ed; implies/ed. You can write your verbs in present or past tense. Just be consistent. Here is a list. acknowledges, adds, admits, agrees, argues, asks, asserts, believes, claims, comments, compares, confirms, contends, declares, defines, disputes, emphasizes, endorses, grants, illustrates, implies, insists, notes, objects, observes, points out, reasons, refutes, rejects, responds, reveals, states, suggests, thinks, views, writes.
Brent Staples, a black journalist, wrote some of his personal encounters that how others mistakenly assumed he would commit criminal activities toward them, simply based on his race and gender, and how he intentionally changed his behavior to minimize the risk to become the victim of such misjudgement in his essay“Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space”.
- Staples is sincerely concerned about his personal safety, by being misunderstood and misjudged with racial stereotyping and/or racial profiling, while he alleged “Where fear and weapons meet – and they often do in urban America – there is always the possibility of death.” (234) He afraids that the fear about black Americans in our society, with the combination of police brutality and the misuse of armed forces, may eventually get him killed.
- Staples describes “... there were the standard unpleasantries with police, doormen, bouncers, cab drivers, and others whose business is to screen out troublesome individuals before there is any nastiness.” (234) as his countless life experiences of being misjudged in Chicago as a victim under “ the language of fear”. It seems experiencing such racial misjudgement is part of his daily life while he lived in Chicago.
- Staples intentionally whistles popular classical melodies to hint the passer-by about his intellectual and education background because “Virtually everybody seems to sense that a mugger wouldn't be warbling bright, sunny selections from Vivaldi's Four Seasons.” (236). He subtly disclosed truthful information about himself to the nervous people around him to reduce the opportunity of being misunderstood. He took proactive action to change the situation around him- by being more intentional. He realized he could change how others perceive him individually regardless how they would misjudge other black males. He started to change what he can control and took action to build up the sense of safety of his own personal image while others encountered him.
In her essay “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” Yale University professor Amy Chua, a Chinese mom, established a theory of Chinese parenthood and argued what Chinese parents assume and believe about their children, how they establish high standards to their children, why they can achieve that, and some of her own personal story.
- Chua established that Chinese parents dedicate more of their energy to educate the academic aspect of their children by informally mentioned external evidence as “Other studies indicate that compared to Western parents, Chinese parents spend approximately 10 times as long every day drilling academic activities with their children. By contrast, Western kids are more likely to participate in sports teams.” (403) She compares and contrasts the differences of what the Chinese parents and Western parents are focusing on. I believe one reason could be that many Chinese parents are concerned about the survival skills of their children and they believe academic achievement is the core distinguishing factor for that.
- Chua argued the main reason Chinese parents behave differently is because “Chinese parents demand perfect grades because they believe that their child can get them.” (405) since they “assume strength, not fragility” (404) of their children “and as a result they behave very differently.” (404) This is a very interesting way to explain why Chinese parents usually set very high standards for their children. She established that such high expectation is rooted from the confidences and faith of the parents toward their offsprings.
- Chua contends a moral obligation of being a good parent includes the duty to educate their children of persistence and endurance: “But as a parent, one of the worst things you can do for your child's self-esteem is to let them give up. On the flip side, there's nothing better for building confidence than learning you can do something you thought you couldn't.” (406) She asserts that the parents need to push their children to conquer difficult tasks because the struggling is an inevitable part of mastering a difficult skill and the children need their parents to establish a high goal for them and forcefully push them toward their edge to break through their current limit.