An Argument

What is an argument? 

Well, an argument can be a lot of different things; it's in the conversation that you have with your parents over the choice of your major, it happens when talking about your March Madness bracket, and it it's also in the 11 AP Language and Composition test. Arguments are everywhere and they happen all the time, whether we know it or not; they’re a part of everyday speech. Persuasion is how we make our arguments seem credible; it’s what you use whilst asking for ice cream, it’s what you use when begging to stay up late, or even what you have to use when asking to stay home from school.  The point is arguments and persuasion are everywhere and there is no escaping them. We, as a society, have to learn how to structure them to help us succeed. Some may say that argumentative and persuasive people show us the greediness of society, but that is wrong. It is natural for someone to want something and if a person can get what he/she want with just words, isn’t that impressive? Arguments have been taking place since the Stone Age, proving that this is in fact human nature and that arguments are natural and happen normally.

The Unspoken Truth

We always notice how society makes women appear, but generally we never notice how it treats men (which is horrible too).  Men are depicted as having 6-packs and muscles, but how accurate is all of this? Do all teenage guys look like Abercrombie models? What about middle-aged men, do they look like the Eddie Bauer models? 

The answer is no. Not every guy has a perfectly chiseled jaw, a 6-pack, a "rugged" appearance, and of course, not every male is white. Ok, there is some African-American representation, but still it's not a lot and when they use someone that isn't white, the person that companies use always have Anglican features. One of the most prevalent problems is ethnicity when it comes to male models, because most of them are white.  The lack of racial diversity is appalling; America is supposed to be a melting pot, but without diversity in ads how is this shown? Female models are starting to come from multiple ethnicities and are starting to look different from each other, but every single male model is white and has either blonde, brown, or a mixture hair. When was the last time that you saw an advertisement to Abercrombie or a PacSun that had an Asian or an Indian guy in it? At least American Eagle made an "effort" and threw one Asian guy into the mix, but what about the rest of them?

Labor Laws

Let me tell you a horror story about the past that is also in the present. Many people do not believe in this, but I promise that it's real, even today in these changing times. Without further ado, I'll start.

Once upon a time, in a land not much different than ours, a couple of children were at work, not at play. These children had been working for 9 hours straight, with not a single break. These children, aged at just 6 years and above had been sowing the fluff into your toys for the past 9 hours. Until their frail, little fingers had fallen off, they were at work.  While the rest of the world slept, they were pulling apart the fluff that goes into making pink elephant dolls.  Just imagine, all of your friends, your parents, and your sibling, everyone that you care about working in a small and moldy factory to produce pink elephants to be sold to privileged kids in a different country.  Everything about the factory puts intense fear into their souls; the room without windows, the smell of hundreds of kids cramped together, the clock that seemed to not change time. At times, the only break these children had was death.

This horror story happens every single day.  Today, about 150 million kids aged 5-14 will be working to help support their families; 90% of these kids are girls.  I've realized that without a specific rhetoric, similar to Frances Kelley, you will not get a proactive response from a crowd. It's astonishing that in countries like: Bangladesh, Thailand, Malawi, China, and Mexico, children work form the time they are able to reach the machines.  This is so different from the US, where even at 16, the legal age to work, kids still have restrictions.  Oh Jesus! There is still so much to fix as an international community.  We must put a stop to the injustice that is child labor, but the first question is what can we as teenagers do?

Public Space and Race

Each decade in the history of the US inspired a major theme that has left a lasting impact on future generations. The 20's was the age of the flappers, the 70's being the Disco era, and the rock age of the 80's.  Although each decade had a distinct style, there was one thing that did not go away once a new decade came about- racism. 

Staples wrote Black Men and Public Space in the 1980's, when the US had claimed to be tolerant, but this essay proved that most people believed stereotypes.  To stereotype someone is to give a certain person traits based on the idea that all people who share a certain characteristic are the same.  Most Americans are guilty of stereotyping, and the people that are stereotyped the worst are African-American men, which is exactly what Staples proves in his essay.  He says that he is the exact opposite of the stereotype, but the first thing that people notice about him is his race.  Is America still as racist as it was in the 1980's or has it changed and become more accepting? 

Although the US isn't the perfect country, it is changing and becoming better and better each day. Americans are able to fight for their rights without having to overthrow the government to be heard, which is happening to a lot of people in other countries right now.  Racism is slowly disappearing throughout the US and we see more people of color in power, which is for the better.  In the 80's, Staples was treated unfairly by complete strangers for being black, but hopefully he doesn't have to be as we advance as a country to become a place without racism.