Homework #4: Read Jamelle Bouie's "Remembering History as Fable" and write a 3-paragraph essay that explains how an absence of black voices contributes to a pernicious mythology about the Civil War.
Homework #5 for 9-24:
Read Cal Newport's book excerpt from his book So Good They Can't Ignore You and write a 3-paragraph essay that explains 3 dangerous features of the Passion Hypothesis.
Essay #2 Due on 10-3-18
For Essay #2, you need 2 credible sources minimum for your MLA format Works Cited page.
Option One: In the context of Debra Dickerson’s “The Great White Way,” develop a thesis that evaluates the assertion that race is not an objective reality but a malignant fabrication designed to enable a history of American kleptocracy in order to give power to one group and take away power from other groups. I recommend you consult the online essay “The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates.
Option Two. Compare the theme of kleptocracy in Debra Dickerson’s “The Great White Way” with Jordan Peele’s movie Get Out.
Option Three. In the context of Jamelle Bouie’s “Remembering History as Fable,” develop a thesis that evaluates the assertion that for many Americans the Civil War denies real history and replaces that real history with a pernicious mythology that perpetuates the false doctrine of white supremacy.
Option Four. In an essay of appropriate length, defend, refute, or complicate Cal Newport’s argument from his book excerpt (available online) from So Good They Can't Ignore You that the Passion Hypothesis is dangerous and should be replaced by the craftsman mindset.
Option Five. Develop a thesis that analyzes the human inclination for staying within the tribe of sameness as explained in David Brooks’ “People Like Us.”
Today's Essay Option
Option Three. In the context of Jamelle Bouie’s “Remembering History as Fable,” develop a thesis that evaluates the assertion that for many Americans the Civil War denies real history and replaces that real history with a pernicious mythology that perpetuates the false doctrine of white supremacy.
Framing the Debate
When white people dress up in Confederate Army uniforms and do "Civil War reenactments," are they engaging in innocent, wholesome fun, or are they being morally repulsive by doing something empirically proven to be evil: denying the evils of America's slavery Holocaust by reimagining history to conform to their infantile, racist narcissism?
Moreover, are these same white people spreading racist propaganda and essentially waging a war against truth that, by any universal definition, makes them evil?
Does obfuscating (to deny or conceal facts) evil make one complicit with evil?
Obfuscation is a variation of BS, a topic made into a book by Harry Frankfurt.
Obfuscate is to make something unclear often through dishonest methods and willful neglect of facts:
Denial or neglect of facts and obfuscation of evil, such as the Holocaust of Slavery, is to commit evil. Therefore, an "innocent sunny parade at the park with people celebrating their Confederate roots, their family honor, and their grand old way of life" is to commit BS, obfuscation, and evil.
These paraders are rubbing people's faces in evil while denying the core historical fact of the Civil War and the motivations of the Confederacy.
Racist Gaslighting
White Confederate apologists were some of America's first gaslighters, people who reverse the moral equation by making the good guys look bad and the bad guys--the racist apologists--look good.
Confederate apologists say, "It's not fair that people demonize us as racist. We're not racist. We are simply celebrating our white culture and the white honor of our ancestors. Slavery wasn't even that bad. But because of the brainwashing and bias from our opponents, many people unfairly criticize us."
This narrative remains popular today.
Americans who don't believe in the racist Confederacy narrative have appeased Confederate Kool-Aid drinkers since the end of the Civil War and have allowed these racist apologists to erect statues of their Confederate soldiers, raise Confederate flags over government buildings, and even make racist monuments like Stone Mountain.
Just How Sick Are These Racist Statues, Flags, and Monuments?
To give us an idea of how sick and perverted these racist statues, flags, and monuments are, we must consider this: We are the only country that allows a chunk of its population to celebrate human atrocities and evil. Other countries are either ashamed of their past sins, like Germany, which has made it illegal to display the Nazi flag. You don't see statues of Nazis in Germany.
Even evil countries don't show off their evil. They try to hide it and will deny the evil they do.
But not America. America is the only country in the world that committed the slavery Holocaust and then rubs our faces in it with Civil War reenactments, statues, monuments, and other shamelessly racist celebrations.
Gaslighting Today by Saying Real News and Truth Are Biased
We have fake news organization who use the above faulty reasoning to spread fake news by claiming that the truth is biased.
BS Matters.
BS matters because BS obfuscates evil, apologizes for evil actions, celebrates evil under a smokescreen (Northern aggression, state rights, family honor, family courage), it rubs people's faces in evil, and it perpetuates false history.
America is the only country where a swath of the population celebrates a Holocaust. No other country does this. Countries throughout the world that commit human rights violations try to hide those violations.
But American apologists for the Civil War are celebrating a Holocaust right before our eyes. No other country has a population that celebrates its historical atrocities.
Why does this take place in America? Because we've allowed Americans to smear BS on history. That is a crime. These paraders are criminals.
Marching in a parade that celebrates slavery is an A---- move.
We don't have to use the A-word even though two professors have written scholarly books arguing that no other word can describe certain behaviors as well as the A-word. I refer you to Geoffrey Nunberg and Aaron James who argue that this word captures a certain despicable type of immoral character.
Even though the A-word captures a certain type of obnoxious evil better than other words, we can use more elevated language.
People who celebrate slavery are either sociopaths or psychopaths.
Sociopaths know they're evil and they celebrate their evil.
Psychopaths believe they're good, but they are delusional because their "goodness" is really evil.
The Losers of the Civil War Relied on BS to Rewrite History
The losers of the Civil War were pro-slavery racists who committed treason and seceded from the Union. Their desire for "state rights" really was their desire for one right: to maintain the evil institution of slavery. They lost the war. But they rewrote history under a notion of "The Lost Cause."
As we read in the National Register of Historic Places:
The Cult of the Lost Cause had its roots in the Southern search for justification and the need to find a substitute for victory in the Civil War. In attempting to deal with defeat, Southerners created an image of the war as a great heroic epic. A major theme of the Cult of the Lost Cause was the clash of two civilizations, one inferior to the other. The North, “invigorated by constant struggle with nature, had become materialistic, grasping for wealth and power.” The South had a “more generous climate” which had led to a finer society based upon “veracity and honor in man, chastity and fidelity in women.” Like tragic heroes, Southerners had waged a noble but doomed struggle to preserve their superior civilization. There was an element of chivalry in the way the South had fought, achieving noteworthy victories against staggering odds. This was the “Lost Cause” as the late nineteenth century saw it, and a whole generation of Southerners set about glorifying and celebrating it.
The above is the mythology that inspires Civil War reenactments. "The Lost Cause" is an example of BS being rubbed in our face to this day.
In this BS history, the North is the enemy, the people of bias, and the South are the good people who fought with courage to preserve an honorable way of life.
BS Is Alive and Well Today
We've allowed slavery apologists to rub BS in our faces for hundreds of years. As a result, we tolerate BS to this day.
"The Lost Cause roots of Sinclair's propaganda"
"Remembering History as Fable" (short enough to read entire essay)
Excerpts
Without these voices and stories, we’re left with a narrow and impoverished portrait of the end of the war, to say nothing of the whole conflict. But that’s where we are in our public commemoration of the Civil War. And unfortunately, that’s where we’ve been for a long time.
Hostile to black Americans, tired of sectional conflict, and committed to white supremacy, white Americans, North and South, had written emancipation out of the legacy of the war and embraced a new mythology of honorable soldiers and glorious combat, a synthesis of Confederate remembrance and Northern sentiment for the Old South. Their Civil War was a white man’s fight, for the ideals of a white nation. “[I]t was slavery that raised the question of State sovereignty; but it was not on behalf of slavery, but on behalf of State sovereignty and all that it implied, that these men fought,” wrote the editors of the Outlook, a liberal magazine, in their coverage of the event. “Both sides,” it concluded, had fought for “the same ideal—the ideal of civil liberty.”
Ignored in this story of Gettysburg, and the war, was emancipation. As David Blight details in Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, in the first years and decades after the war, at least in the North and among former enslaved people, black freedom was as much a part of remembrance as reunion. “They are not dead,” said a speaker of the fallen in Kenduskeag, Maine, in 1869; “The early manhood of this nation retains its majesty by their fall, and the black stain of slavery has been effaced from the bosom of this fair land by martyr blood.” Likewise, at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery at Gettysburg on July 1 of that year, Indiana Gov. Oliver P. Morton—a Union partisan—declared, “The rebellion, the offspring of slavery, hath murdered its unnatural parent, and the perfect reign of liberty is at hand.”
But by the beginning of the 20th century, this meaning of the war had faded from mainstream memory, replaced by the Lost Cause and its vision of dutiful soldiers, honorable leaders, and white supremacy. A thoroughly racist public had no interest in black memory of the war, a fact underscored by the color of the 50th Gettysburg anniversary. Few arrangements were made for black veterans of the war (nearly 200,000 freedmen and freemen served in the Union Army and Navy), and there’s little evidence of black attendance. If blacks were present, it was under the shadow of Jim Crow, as laborers, janitors, and other service workers.
Hostile to black Americans, tired of sectional conflict, and committed to white supremacy, white Americans, North and South, had written emancipation out of the legacy of the war and embraced a new mythology of honorable soldiers and glorious combat, a synthesis of Confederate remembrance and Northern sentiment for the Old South. Their Civil War was a white man’s fight, for the ideals of a white nation. “[I]t was slavery that raised the question of State sovereignty; but it was not on behalf of slavery, but on behalf of State sovereignty and all that it implied, that these men fought,” wrote the editors of the Outlook, a liberal magazine, in their coverage of the event. “Both sides,” it concluded, had fought for “the same ideal—the ideal of civil liberty.”
Slavery doesn’t touch the re-enactors’ war. Or at least, not much. “It wasn’t just [slavery]; there were many other causes, with slavery being part of it,” explained Charlie, who was re-enacting a medical officer. He “wore blue” because he believes the Confederacy was an illegal government. “I want to fight for the one that was legal.” For another re-enactor, Lorne, who played a Union soldier, the remembrance at Appomattox was about the “emotion” of the surrender for “the Southerners and the Northerners who had been fighting for so long.” “When the final shot was over, the soldiers just came together,” he said, “it was something very special.“ “They fought because they were defending their rights, defending their home—defending their way of life,” said Bill. “Were there other issues? Of course there were other issues … but both sides were fighting for their constitutional rights.”
Lost Cause Propaganda and Sample Thesis Statements
Option Three. In the context of Jamelle Bouie’s “Remembering History as Fable,” develop a thesis that evaluates the assertion that for many Americans the Civil War denies real history and replaces that real history with a pernicious mythology that perpetuates the false doctrine of white supremacy.
Sample Theses
Whites who re-enact the Civil War and white-wash the evils of slavery are engaging in white supremacist propaganda, what is called the Lost Cause myth or the Lost Cause Cult.
The Lost Cause explanation of the Civil War is racist propaganda that pours salts into the deep wounds of slavery and Jim Crow.
Attributing the Civil War to "state rights," "Northern Aggression," and the Lost Cause is a moral abomination that white washes the true history of slavery and the true causes of the Civil War.
BS matters. Allowing Confederacy apologists to spread their fake news based on the mythical Lost Cause narrative opens the flood gates for more fake news to pollute society and make racism spread like a cancer.
Confederacy apologists who have "innocent picnics" reenacting the Civil War are showing signs of abnormal psychology evidenced by pathological gaslighting, obfuscation of the truth, gross denial of America's slavery Holocaust, and the sadism of rubbing our faces in their racist, pro-slavery narrative.
Mapping Components to Consider for Your Essay's Body Paragraphs
One. Promoting Civil War propaganda perpetuates America's divisiveness and the friction between those who take accountability for America's slavery and those who to this day whitewash or sugar coat or flat out deny the evils of slavery by saying "it wasn't that bad," "it was favorable to black Americans," it preserved America's culture of "honor and courage."
Two. Civil War propaganda that whitewashes the evils of slavery is a moral abomination that rubs its victims' faces in the horrors of slavery by the propaganda, which includes fake history and statues to the Confederate soldiers.
Three. Promoting any propaganda, including Civil War propaganda, is a war on truth, and to engage in a war on truth is, empirically speaking, to work for the forces of evil.
Four. Promoting Civil War propaganda is to pollute society with what philosophy professor Harry Frankfurt calls "bullshit." In his best-selling book On Bullshit, Frankfurt's thesis is that when we accept bullshit into our lives, the bullshit insidiously gets inside our brains and slowly steals the truth and with the destruction of truth comes the destruction of morality.
Five. We must morally condemn and excoriate these white Civil War reenactors because in the Internet age, their propaganda and bullshit is weaponized over social media, feeding racist clowns like Alex Jones, Breitbart News followers, and the Alt-Right.
Some Counterarguments You Need to Address in Your Essay Before You Reach Your Conclusion
"You're disrespecting white culture in the South, by dismissing the real causes of the Civil War, state rights and Northern aggression."
Rebuttal to the Above
"You're disrespecting my white family, many of whom belonged to the Confederacy, and who lived courageous and honorable lives."
Rebuttal to the Above
"You have a biased agenda against white people, which makes you a racist against the white race. Stop calling me a racist when you're the biggest racist in the room."
Rebuttal to the Above
"I don't hate white people. I hate bullshitters, regardless of skin color. That white people are showing up to these Civil War reenactments and waving their racist Confederacy flags and preaching a whitewashed history that denies that cruelty that slavery inflicted upon black Americans is a moral abomination, and I'm going to call them out on it. Don't twist the argument around to suit your needs. This isn't about me being racist. This is about me calling out bullshit."
Correct the faulty parallelism by rewriting the sentences below.
One. Parenting toddlers is difficult for many reasons, not the least of which is that toddlers contradict everything you ask them to do; they have giant mood swings and all-night tantrums.
Parenting toddlers is difficult for many reasons, not the least of which is that toddlers contradict everything you ask them to do, they have giant mood swings, and they have all-night tantrums.
Two. You should avoid all-you-can-eat buffets: They encourage gluttony; they feature fatty, over-salted foods and high sugar content.
You should avoid all-you-can-eat buffets: They encourage gluttony, they feature fatty, over-salted foods, and the lard everything with sugar.
Three. I prefer kettlebell training at home than the gym because of the increased privacy, the absence of loud “gym” music, and I’m able to concentrate more.
I prefer kettlebell training at home than the gym because of the increased privacy, the absent gym music, and the improved concentration.
Four. To write a successful research paper you must adhere to the exact MLA format, employ a variety of paragraph transitions, and writing an intellectually rigorous thesis.
To write a successful research paper you must adhere to the exact MLA format, employ a variety of paragraph transitions, and write an intellectually rigorous thesis.
Five. The difficulty of adhering to the MLA format is that the rules are frequently being updated, the sheer abundance of rules you have to follow, and to integrate your research into your essay.
The difficulty of adhering to the MLA format is that the rules are frequently being updated, the rules are hard to follow, and the MLA in-text citations are difficult to master.
Six. You should avoid watching “reality shows” on TV because they encourage a depraved form of voyeurism; they distract you from your own problems and their brain-dumbing effects.
You should avoid watching "reality shows" because they encourage a depraved form of voyeurism, they distract you from your own problems, and they dumb you down.
Seven. I’m still fat even though I’ve tried the low-carb diet, the Paleo diet, the Rock-in-the-Mouth diet, and fasting every other day.
I'm still fat even though I've tried the low-carb diet, the Paleo diet, the Rock-in-the-Mouth diet, and the fasting diet.
Eight. To write a successful thesis, you must have a compelling topic, a sophisticated take on that topic, and developing a thesis that elevates the reader’s consciousness to a higher level.
To write a successful thesis, you must have a compelling topic, a sophisticated take on that topic, and a thesis that elevates the reader's consciousness to a higher level.
Nine. Getting enough sleep, exercising daily, and the importance of a positive attitude are essential for academic success.
Getting enough sleep, exercising daily, and maintaining a positive attitude are essential for academic success.
Ten. My children never react to my calm commands or when I beg them to do things.
My children never react to my calm commands or my lugubrious supplications.
Commas are designed to help writers avoid confusing sentences and to clarify the logic of their sentences.
If you cook Jeff will clean the dishes. (Will you cook Jeff?)
While we were eating a rattlesnake approached us. (Were we eating a rattlesnake?)
Comma Rule 1: Use a comma before a coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS) joining two independent clauses.
Rattlesnakes are high in protein, but I’d rather eat a peanut butter sandwich.
Rattlesnakes are dangerous, and the desert species are even more so.
We are a proud people, for our ancestors passed down these famous delicacies over a period of five thousand years.
The exception to rule 1 is when the two independent clauses are short:
The plane took off and we were on our way.
Comma Rule 2: Use a comma after an introductory clause or phrase.
When Jeff Henderson was in prison, he developed an appetite for reading.
In the nearby room, the TV is blaring full blast.
Tanning in the hot Hermosa Beach sun for over two hours, I realized I had better call it a day.
The exception is when the short adverb clause or phrase is short and doesn’t create the possibility of a misreading:
In no time we were at 2,800 feet.
Comma Rule 3: Use a comma between all items in a series.
Jeff Henderson found redemption through hard work, self-reinvention, and social altruism.
Finding his passion, mastering his craft, and giving back to the community were all part of Jeff Henderson’s self-reinvention.
Comma Rule 4: Use a comma between coordinate adjectives not joined with “and.” Do not use a comma between cumulative adjectives.
The adjectives below are called coordinate because they modify the noun separately:
Jeff Henderson is a passionate, articulate, wise speaker.
The adjectives above are coordinate because they can be joined with “and.” Jeff Henderson is passionate and articulate and wise.
Adjectives that do not modify the noun separately are cumulative.
Three large gray shapes moved slowly toward us.
Chocolate fudge peanut butter swirl coconut cake is divine.
Comma Rule 5: Use commas to set off nonrestrictive (nonessential) elements.
Restrictive or essential information doesn’t have a comma:
For school the students need notebooks that are college-ruled.
Jeff’s cat that just had kittens became very aggressive.
Nonrestrictive:
For school the students need college-ruled notebooks, which are on sale at the bookstore.
Jeff Henderson’s mansion, which is located in Las Vegas, has a state-of-the-art kitchen.
My youngest sister, who plays left wing on the soccer team, now lives at The Sands, a beach house near Los Angeles.
Grammar: Dangling Modifiers
Rewrite the following sentences to correct the dangling modifiers:
1. Larded with greasy fries, the waiter served me a burnt steak.
2. Mr. McMahon returned her essay with a wide grin.
3. To finish by the 4 P.M. deadline, the computer keyboard blazed with the student's fast typing fingers.
4. Chocolate frosted with caramel sauce, John devoured the cupcakes.
5. Tapping the desk with his fingers, the school clock's hands moved too slowly before recess.
6. Showering the onion rings with garlic salt, his sodium count spiked.
7. The girl walked her poodle in high heels.
8. Struggling with the tight jeans, the fabric ripped and made an embarrassing sound.
9. Turning off the bedroom lights, the long, hard day finally came to an end.
10. Piled high above the wash machine, I decided I had better do a load of laundry.
11. Standing on the hotel balcony, the ocean view was stunning.
12. Running across the floor, the rug slipped and I collapsed.
13. Writing anxiously, the essay looked littered with errors.
14. Mortified by my loss to my opponents, my baseball uniform sagged.
15. Hungry after a day of football, the stack of peanut butter sandwiches on the table quickly disappeared.
McMahon Grammar Exercises: Pronoun Errors
Pronoun Errors
Vague Pronoun Reference
Possible reference to more than one word
Transmitting radio signals by satellite is a way of overcoming the problem of scarce airwaves and limiting how they are used.
In the original sentence, they could refer to the signals or to the airwaves.
Reference implied but not stated
The company prohibited smoking, which many employees resented.
What does which refer to? The editing clarifies what employees resented.
A pronoun should refer clearly to the word or words it replaces (called the antecedent) elsewhere in the sentence or in a previous sentence. If more than one word could be the antecedent, or if no specific antecedent is present, edit to make the meaning clear.
Lack of pronoun/antecedent agreement
Every student must provide their own uniform.
Pronouns must agree with their antecedents in gender (male or female) and in number (singular or plural). Many indefinite pronouns, such as everyone and each, are always singular. When a singular antecedent can refer to a man or woman, either rewrite the sentence to make the antecedent plural or to eliminate the pronoun, or use his or her, he or she, and so on. When antecedents are joined by or or nor, the pronoun must agree with the closer antecedent. A collection noun such as team can be either singular or plural, depending on whether the members are seen as a group or individuals.
Incorrect pronoun case
Determine whether the pronoun is being used as a subject, or an object, or a possessive in the sentence, and select the pronoun form to match.
Incorrect:
Castro's communist principles inevitably led to an ideological conflict between he and President Kennedy.
Correct:
Castro's communist principles inevitably led to an ideological conflict between him and President Kennedy.
Incorrect:
Because strict constructionists recommend fidelity to the Constitution as written, no one objects more than them to judicial reinterpretation.
Correct:
Because strict constructionists recommend fidelity to the Constitution as written, no one objects more than they [do] to judicial reinterpretation.
Confusing subject with object
Please give the chocolate to Randy and (I, me).
Between you and (I, me), the fat cats have all the cheese while the rest of us fight for the crumbs.
Rewrite each sentence below so that you’ve corrected the pronoun errors.
One. Between you and I, there are too many all-you-can-eat buffets mushrooming over southern California because a person thinks they’re getting a good deal when we can eat endless plates of food for a mere ten dollars.
Two. When children grow up eating at buffets, they expand their bellies and sometimes you find you cannot get “full” no matter how much we eat.
Three. As thousands of children gorged on pastrami at HomeTown Buffet, you could tell we would have to address the needs of a lot of sick children.
Four. Although I like the idea of eating all I want, you can sense that there is danger in this unlimited eating mentality that can escort us down the path of gluttony and predispose you to diabetes.
Five. When a customer feels he’s getting all the food they want, you know we can increase your business.
Six. If a student studies the correct MLA format, you can expect academic success.
Seven. It’s not easy for instructors to keep their students’ attention for a three-hour lecture. He or she must mix up the class-time with lecture, discussion, and in-class exercises.
Eight. It is good for a student to read the assigned text at least three times. When they do, they develop better reading comprehension.
Nine. The instructor gave the essays back to Bob and I.
Ten. We must find meaning to overcome the existential vacuum. Otherwise, you will descend into a rabbit hole of despair and they will find themselves behaving in all manners of self-destruction.
Subject-pronoun agreement
A person who doesn't plan ahead finds they cannot go to the big party.
Consistent point of view
When one ponders the state of education, we can't help wonder why you are lagging in critical thinking skills and one has to ask if there need to be improvements in this regard. Therefore, a person taking a critical thinking class should be prepared when they are asked to identify logical fallacies and other elements of critical thinking.
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