Jessica Corona

Professor Fernandez

English 1S/1T

February 10, 2017

1. Copy the following statements and fill in the blanks in a paragraph or more for each.
Your responses will begin your brainstorming process for Essay 2. So respond
thoughtfully and thoroughly in order to use the information when we begin drafting the
essay next week.

a. Before reading Letter from a Birmingham Jail, I believed the segregation was
discrimination against African Americans. A social system that provided
seperation facilities for minority groups. A form of keeping African Americans
separate from whites, a way that took color peoples rights and freedom.

b. But after reading MLKs letter, my view has changed in the following ways. I still
believe that segregation is what I mentioned above and more. Now I see how
segregation dehumanized people. They were attacked by police and dogs they
were beaten and arrested unfairly for fighting for basic human rights. After
reading this I noticed that segregation not only took basic human rights and
freedom from African Americans, but took their life from them. They werent
acknowledged they didnt have a voice they were mistreated and looked down as
inferior to whites. As I read the text it made me realized how not much has
changed now in 2017. Living here in the United States with the new President
Donald Trump minorities are still discriminated, dehumanized, and treated as they
are inferior to whites.

c. Although the text has persuaded me to stand up together with other minorities and
demand change, I still have some doubts. Activist are demanding change and I
feel like that is nearly impossible reason being that 54 years later racism still exist
and minorities are still being dehumanized. I feel like if protesting worked then
things would be different and racism wouldnt exist anymore. Although, being
active has brought some changes to this country I feel like we are headed towards
destruction again with our new president. I understand that having a black
president was a win for the United States on January 20th, 2009, but I believe we
 took a step back by electing president Trump. This only shows how society hasnt
changed and how racism will continue forever.

d. The most significant questions the text raises for me are how is it that we are
living in a predominantly brown/black country where whites are still the
majority? Why is it that the senate is predominantly white when we are the
minority? What are the the brown/black people doing wrong? Nothing, but we
still live in a world where we are still considered minorities and are still being
segregated. How is that anyone or anything associated with color is considered
less than? What is it about color that makes whites think that color is ghetto, poor,
ignorant? How is it that we allow the essence of who we are to be used as
entertainment? Why do we allow white people to belittle us? How do we
entertain them and allow them to create an image of who we are with the music,
movies, language, etc that use which perceive us as less than?

e. The most important insights I have gotten from reading MLKs letter are his
believes. MLK believed in nonviolence he believed every person is sacred,
unique, dignified, and loved by God. To him this was meaningful and he
incorporated into the human society. He believed that violence was the death of
every possibility of Democracy, therefore he organized nonviolent protest.
Reading MLKs letter made me realize that violence isnt always the answer. I
realized that there are numerous solutions to a problem and the civil rights
movement is a great example. There were people like MLK and people like
Malcolm X who attempted to solve the same problem in completely different
ways. Now I'm not saying that I completely believe in peaceful protest, but it did
make me realize that saving our souls can be more important than being tainted by
sin.

2. Read the following pages from chapter 4 (Reading Rhetorically): Examining a Texts
Use of Visual Elements pages 80-87 and list any lines that are helpful to your analysis
of Dr. Kings letter.
a. Visual Elements and Audience Appeals is a visual element that is helpful to my analysis
of MLKs letter.
Helpful lines: Images, like words, are often selected and constructed to create particular
emotional responses. Photographs, drawings, information graphs, and other images that
accompany a text are typically added by the editor of the publication, electronic or print,
where the text appears. Nonetheless, these images are another vehicle or rhetorical
appeals and thus merit close attention when you analyze any text. (pg. 80)
 Drawing on the idea that seeing is believing, writers often support their claims with
visual evidence. Thus, the most common use of visual elements as logical appears is to
supply evidence to verify or support a writers argument. (pg. 82)
Probably the most powerful rhetorical use of visual elements is to appeal to an
audiences emotions, values, and interest- to pathos. Three common and often
overlapping ways in which visual elements create audience appeals are by setting a tone,
fostering identifications between readers and content, and evoking emotions and values.
(pg. 84)

3. Read Exploring Your Responses to a Text pages 88-92 and complete the following
tasks:
1. Complete the Believe and Doubt chart below:

Believe: List 5 points you Doubt: List 5 points you

believe doubt
1. Police brutality was
terrifying
2. The letter helped make
a change.
3. The imagery in his text
help the reader better
understand the text.
4. The letter is persuasive.
5. MLK was a
revolutionist.
1. The ignorance of the
modest.
2. Having peaceful protest
was the correct way to
obtain justice.
3. Hope during a time of
destruction.
4. The openly acceptance
of being penalized due to
an unjust law.
5. Social revolution
existed.