Madeline Stewart

Assignment One

W.E.B. DuBois, author of “Strivings of the Negro People”, was an educated black scholar and author that had attended Harvard University. At Harvard, he was the first African American individual to earn a doctorate degree, guiding him to be a professor of history, sociology and economics. In many of DuBois’ movements and essays, including “Strivings of the Negro People”, he targets racism, focusing on the Jim Crow laws and discrimination within education and employment systems. W.E.B. DuBois aims to cause his audience to understand what it is like to live as a black man, even if well-educated, in the United States from his perspective during his time. The purpose of his essay was to show that blacks can be seen as equals to whites and contribute positively to society if granted rights.

DuBois elaborates how he feels as if he is seen as a “problem” because of his race. Even if you were well-educated, you were still considered inferior if you were black. DuBois style of writing seems as if it would be beneficial to readers of the African American race as well and those that have opposing views. The readers that hold different views than DuBois, could see from a black person’s point of view what it was like to live during this time. The author uses a lot of emotion to get his point across, and he uses this emotion to convey his message in a way that would not offend or bother the opposing readers, members of the white race that favored segregation and discrimination. Also, since DuBois uses a lot of emotion and does not use factual evidence to get his point across, it allows his readers to gain their own opinions, beliefs and ideas based off of his point of view.

DuBois goes into detail on what it was like to live during the time of the Reconstruction movement, which was a time when all blacks were denied equality. He believes that if blacks were ever seen as equals to whites, that their voting rights shall be protected by the law. DuBois writes hopefully and positively, that blacks can beneficially fit into society. He also hopes that the black race can be seen as equal to the white race one day, and it is possible for blacks to be very intellectual and be used as an advantage to society if so.

DuBois writes with a strong sense of emotion, he uses a lot of past and personal experiences to project to his audience how these experiences affected him. With his “soft” style of writing and emotion, I believe DuBois hopes to persuade his readers to share similar ideas, beliefs and opinions as him and also hopefully cause them to seek for equality within the United States.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._E._B._Du_Bois

DuBois’ context of writing during this time would be advantageous to himself and to those readers that also agree with his point of view. Since his work could be seen as dense with references and allusions to esoteric texts, DuBois has to be able to convey his message in a particular way to benefit him and make a point to his readers. It would be useful to those readers that had the same morals and values as DuBois, but would be troubling to those who do not. It is helpful in the way he expresses his message though, in such a perplex method that it could possibly result in not a strong opposing audience. It would also cause his audience to think and be able to gain their own opinions, beliefs and ideas in result to him providing his message in a somewhat confusing and difficult way.

Rhetorical Appeal

I believe that DuBois uses emotion to target the audience’s emotions. He uses his emotions and ideas, expressing them to the readers to cause them to use their emotions and ideas to come up with their own beliefs. DuBois does this in such a way, hoping that his readers will feel his emotion and possibly end up sharing similar ideas and beliefs. He finishes with a result to what could be done to support his claim.

The Strivings of the Negro People

Rhetorical Triangle

1. The writer is W.E.B. DuBois, an educated black scholar and author that had gone to Harvard.
2. The issue DuBois elaborated on how it felt to be a “problem” of society and how members of the black race were viewed in the past and then viewed during his time.
3. The gap would be that the intended audience would have opposing views, and DuBois is attempting to have this audience see from his perspective.
4. The intended readers would be whites that do not hold similar values to him, which is why DuBois writes in a “soft” way, so he does not force his beliefs on others but hopefully uses his emotions in a reasonable way to hopefully persuade those readers to see from his point of view.

Toulmin Method

Claim – DuBois elaborates on how blacks were viewed as a “problem” and he is attempting to show how they are not a threat and can fit into society in a positive way. He also claims that if blacks were ever viewed as equals to the white race, their voting rights shall be protected.

Reasons – DuBois details on how even if members of the black race were well-educated, they were still viewed differently due to the one reason of being black.

Evidence – DuBois describes the time of the Reconstruction movement, where all blacks were denied equality and blacks were seen as a “problem” to society. DuBois is hopeful that blacks can be seen as equals one day to whites and can be beneficial to society.

Warrant – DuBois currently believes during this time that the majority of people believed blacks were still inferior to whites, even if well-educated. He attempts to show them that they can be very intellectual and beneficial to society, even if black.

Counterargument – Those that believe that blacks will always be seen as inferior.

Rebuttal – DuBois attempts to show these readers that blacks can be useful to society, even if given the rights to vote and given equality.

Rhetorical Appeal – DuBois uses a strong sense of emotion, considering he talks about a lot of past experiences and how they personally affected him. He uses these experiences and emotions to hopefully persuade his readers to share his ideas and beliefs of blacks not being useless to society. This is very different to Frederick L. Hoffman, who spread the idea of scientific racism. He attempted to use reason and evidence to get his point across to his readers.

Strivings of the Negro People

PvF

W.E.B. DuBois was an educated black scholar and author that had attended Harvard. He explains his feelings as being a “problem” because of his race. Even if you were well-educated, you would still be viewed differently due to being black.

DuBois describes the time of the Reconstruction movement, which was when all blacks were denied equality. He also goes into explaining that all blacks’ voting rights shall be protected if considered as equals to the white race.

Race Amalgamation

Frederick L. Hoffman, a German-American scientist, spread the idea of scientific racism. Hoffman believed that children of white men and black women were considered more physically lesser to normal blacks, but more intellectually higher-up. He compared bodily measurements between members of the white race, black race, and mulattos.

Hoffman had many different beliefs. He believed that Christians and Jews should not intermarry because it would result in having fewer children. He obtained data on mixed marriages, attempting to relate the results to people having less children. Hoffman also believed that to maintain the “purity” of race, there should be no race-mixing or inter-marriages.

The Mismeasure of Man

Morton believed that he could identify both races and subgroups between races from characteristics of the skull. Sizes of brains are related to the sizes of bodies that carry them, therefor larger people would be expected to have larger brains than smaller individuals.

From Egyptian skulls, there were mummified remains from their possessors that allowed for the sex to be identified. If Morton’s designations and separate averages for males and females would be able to be recognized, which Morton never did. The correlation of brain and body can be affirmed easily.

After Morton changed his method of cranial measurement from mustard seed to lead shot, there was a rise of the black mean. The method of seed allowed a lot of error and variability, which with the lead shot the results never varied by more than a cubic inch.

All of the Hottentots skulls were all female, and very small. The author claims that Morton’s conventional ranking reveals no significant differences between races.

Morton’s finagling was categorized into four different classifications. First, favorable inconsistencies and shifting criteria: Morton often chose to include or delete large subsamples in order to match group averages with prior expectations. Second, subjectivity directed toward prior prejudice: Morton’s measures with seed were sufficiently imprecise to permit a wide range or influence by subjective bias; later measures with shot, on the other hand, were repeatable, and presumably objective. Third, procedural omissions that seem obvious: Morton was convinced that variation in skull size recorded differential, innate mental ability. Fourth and finally, Miscalculations and convenient omissions: All miscalculations and omissions that were detected by the author were in Morton’s favor.

The polygenist argument did not occupy a primary place in the ideology of slavery in mid-nineteenth-century America. Polygenists forced defenders of slavery into a quandary, if they should accept a strong argument from science at the cost of limiting religion’s sphere.

Among nonpolygenist, “scientific” defenses of slavery, no arguments every matched in absurdity the doctrines of S.A. Cartwright. He traced the problems of black people to inadequate decarbonization of blood in the lungs. Cartwright reerred to this as dysesthesia, a disease of inadequate breathing. He also wondered why slaves often tried to escape, and identified the cause as a mental disease called drapetomania, or the insane desire to run away.

Religion stood above science as a primary source for rationalization of social order.

The Mismeasure of Man

Stephen Jay Gould believes that Samuel Morton’s work was not a case of conscious fraud for a few reasons. Morton had published his work on the largest collection of skulls in the world so openly for everyone to see. Morton had accurately measured the capacity of skulls, and although his work is not considered a case of conscious fraud, it could be considered bias and somewhat prejudice. Conscious fraud tells people little about the nature of scientific activity, and Morton offered very objective data based on his measurements.

The Race Question in the United States

Rhetorical Triangle

1. The writer is John Tyler Morgan, son of a preacher. He was a former CSA officer and senator of Alabama. Morgain aimed to reclaim the South.
2. The issue is racism and segregation in the United States. For instance, voting rights for the blacks in the United States, particularly the South.
3. The gap could be considered how the issue is taken from a bias perspective, so the reading is missing opposing views. The views and ideas of members of the black race were not taken into account.
4. The intended readers would be those that share the same point of views and morals as John Tyler Morgan. His audience could also be targeted at other politicians and those that would be voting on his policies.

Toulmin Method

Claim – Members of the black race are inferior and shall not be seen as citizens. That blacks are less intelligent than whites that they should not participate in American government.

Reasons – The author provides that this thesis statement is true or at least valid based on the fact that members of the black race are prohibited to vote.

Evidence – Giving the blacks the right to vote would cause extreme danger to the white race. Giving them the right to vote would allow them to humiliate the white race. Also, the whites and blacks both understand the impossibility of raising the negro race to the social level of the white race.

Warrant – It seems as if the audience are those that share the same point of view as Morgan, which would mean most of the readers would agree that it is more beneficial to them if blacks were not given rights to vote.

Counterargument – There were those believed the solution would be to raise the negro race to the same social level as the white race.

Rebuttal – Morgan states that this would never be possible due to giving the blacks the right to vote and an opportunity at self government would be threatening to the white race.

Rhetorical Appeal – Morgan uses pathos, in a sense that he gives off the emotion of fear of the black race gaining some form of power to have the ability to violate the white race.

PvF

John Tyler Morgan aimed to redeem the South from Northern control, and being a member of senate, he was able to claim that the Northeast sought to colonize the South and make it become Ireland.

The Blair Bill committed federal education funds to states to combat illiteracy. This was opposed because of thoughts that this would overeducate the blacks and unwarranted federal intrusion into state affairs. The Force Bill responded to efforts to deny blacks from voting through intimidation and fraud. The 14th and 15th Amendments came off as protection for the black race from the white race.

Indians with similar color to the blacks were labeled as independent and were to never enslave their own race. If faced with slavery, they would result to committing suicide.

Race hostility within the United States had increased due to the abolishing of slavery. The first negro movement in the South, their white leaders, and Congress was to protect equality between races, and social and political privileges enforced by the law. Although, in Northern states, members of the black race were unable to hold office under State or federal rule. The blacks were also not able to be made homogenous with the whites.

TMM

Morton did not gather skulls for the dilettante’s motive of abstract interest or taxonomist”s zeal for complete representation. He wanted to test that the ranking of races could be established objectively through physical characteristics of the brain, specifically by its size. Combe believed that Morton’s collection would only acquire true scientific value if mental and moral worth could be read from brains.

Morton wrote many articles to defend the status of human races as separate, created species. Human races must have been separate from the start. The supreme court believed that although separate, need not mean unequal.

Morton’s theory of separate creations matched every prejudice- whites on top, Indians in the middle, and blacks on the bottom. Status and access to power in Morton’s America faithfully reflected biological merit. He had provided clean, objective data based on the largest collection of skulls in the world.

Morton’s 144 skulls belong to many group of Indians, that differed significantly in cranial capacity. Morton’s sample was strongly biased by a major overrepresentation of an extreme group- the small-brained Inca Peruvians. Large-brained Iroquois contributed only 3 skulls to the total sample.

Morton calculated his high Caucasian mean by consciously eliminating small-brained Hindus from his sample. Morton included a large subsample of small-brained people to pull down the Indian average, but excluded just as many small Caucasian skulls to raise the mean of his own group. Morton’s Caucasian sample contained skulls from four subgroups, so Hindus should have contributed one-fourth of all skulls to the sample.

The Mismeasure of Man

Prompt One:

In the Mismeasure of Man, the author brings recognition to more than one discourse community during this time. In the simple sense, there are two major discourse communities, the communities of those that saw possible equality between races, then there are those that will always see isolation between races. For both discourse communities, they all seemed to match Swales’ benchmarks for a discourse community.

Some individuals believed that with proper education and standard of life, blacks were able to be “raised” to a white level. These individuals represent a discourse community in the sense especially that they had a broadly agreed set of common public goals, to find a sense of equality between the black and white races. During this time, individuals were ranked among race, sex, and class, resulting in the fact that most of those that were highly ranked did not search for equality as much. Some of the members of this discourse community could be referred to as “soft-liners” that also agreed blacks were inferior, but believed a person’s right to freedom did not depend upon their level of intelligence. Thomas Jefferson believed that no matter their degree of talents, it should be no measure of their rights.

Then, there was opposite community of individuals that believed that blacks would always remain at a lower level compared to whites. These members were also considered to be part of a discourse community because they also had a broadly agreed set of common public goals, had mechanisms of intercommunication among its members, had acquired some specific lexis, and had a threshold level of members with a suitable degree or relevant content and discoursal expertise. Many “important” people during this time saw whites as superior. There were those referred to as “hard-liners” that believed blacks were inferior and that their biological status justified enslavement and colonization. The author states that the three greatest naturalists of the nineteenth century did not hold blacks in high esteem.

Prompt Two:

Focusing on the second discourse community, may members of this community did not hesitate to express their beliefs on this idea that blacks were incredibly inferior to whites and that it should always remain that way. Although some of them had different beliefs as to why blacks were inferior and why it would remain that way, they all had a level of communication within the community.

How these individuals expressed their beliefs and opinions, a lot of them wrote about it, allowing for large audiences to be able to read an identical text. The author also says that all leading scientists followed social conventions and compared the anatomy between races, allowing for large audiences to complete this comparison as well. This also allows for members of other discourse communities in the world to relate to them on a discourse level. For instance, Benjamin Franklin had hoped that America would become a domain of whites. Charles Darwin wrote about the future where the gap between human and ape would increase by the anticipated extinction of such intermediate as chimpanzees and Hottentots. Although these two individuals expressed their beliefs differently, they were both relating to a common outcome, that blacks would always be inferior to whites and whites would always be at the highest ranking.

This allows for members of other discourse communities to find themselves as members of one big discourse community. Although they all may have different forms of communication between one another, they all share a common belief, opinion or goal. The author states that he does not cite the statements in order to release skeletons from ancient closets, but to bring recognition to the statements made by the men who have justly earned our highest respect in order to show that white leaders of Western nations did not question the propriety of racial ranking during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The author does not seem to find himself as a member of this discourse community, but instead bringing acknowledgement to those who spread the “knowledge” of what this discourse community was responsible for creating.

Prompt Three:

As mentioned above, the author brings acknowledgement to the statements made by men who have justly earned our highest respect in order to show that White leaders of Western nations did not question the propriety of racial ranking during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Having no internet access or form of communication in that sense, the opinions and beliefs of those few individuals that were highly respected at this time were valued. These scientists, naturalists, etc. believed in racial ranking and that whites were at the highest ranking, contributing the American Jim Crow laws.

The American Jim Crow laws represent all of the laws that enforced racial segregation in the South in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The leaders and those that were admired during this time all had beliefs that blacks were not held in high esteem, encouraging the American Jim Crow laws. Since all of these individuals were favored, it caused people of society to also value their morals and beliefs. Many people at this time had similar beliefs and opinions, and since society was ran by whites, it was uncomplicated to create these laws against blacks that most members of society would agree on. Also, since these people wrote and talked about these ideas, as mentioned before, large audiences were able to be aware of identical texts and ideas.

PvF

The 14th Amendment prohibited other forms of involuntary servitude as in peonage and coolie labor. It was argued that the 14th amendment was not necessary because the 13th Amendment protected the African American race. William J. Cruikshank was a member of a group called White League that murdered more than 100 blacks. He appealed to David Dudley Field, who was a brother to the Supreme Court, Justice Stephen Field, stating that the second sentence in the 14th Amendment protected rights of citizens and persons against only state action.

Summer’s death and major losses of 1874 made the Republication-controlled Congress pass Summer’s civil right bill of full and equal enjoyment by all people of the United States for public transportation on land and water, theaters, and any other public amusement.

Bradley thinks that most rights of private citizens should remain as social rights. The 14th Amendment did not protect civil rights, and the appeal was dismissed based on the 13th Amendment, and the blacks that are freed from slavery are still not free from discrimination. Harlan brought recognition to the Court that the amendment gives Congress the power to enact legislation enforcement. The Prigg vs. Pennsylvania offered federal government the power to enforce fugitive slave law. The 14th Amendment established a new form of national citizenship but also provided power to Congress to enforce constitutional provision.

Radical Reconstruction was revolutionized in three steps to the South from the North while control of the government after the Civil War. The first step being, to establish equal economic rights for African Americans by abolishing slavery. Second, to work for equal political rights by eliminating race as a barrier. The third and final step, through the Civil Rights Act, to try to guarantee equal social and civil rights.

Booker T. Washington addressed the Atlanta Exposition and argued for mutual dependence of the black race and white race in the South by using a metaphor of a hand in relation to segregation. Tourgee argued what defines a person’s race if there are mixed races, in relation to the reality of those other than the white people not having the ability to own property without the law to support.

A segregation school in Washington D.C. was ruled by the same members of Congress that passed the 13th Amendment and 14th Amendment. Brown insisted that the 14th Amendment direct the separate and equal facilities, and that social prejudices may be overcome by legislation and that equal rights may not be secured to the blacks unless both races were in mutual agreement. Brown’s rule was done in fashion that was going for the law of nature.

Harlan ruled in a fashion that sticks to words that were established for reasons. Harlan blamed the Jim Crow acts for not offering the blacks equal rights and enjoyments of being a United States citizen. Harlan claims that the act goes against the Civil War amendment and that the laws of Louisiana were unconstitutional.

TMM

Appeals to Reason or to the nature of the universe have been used throughout history to enshrine existing hierarchies as proper and inevitable. The catalogue of justifications based on nature traverses a range of possibilities: elaborate analogies between rulers and a hierarchy of subordinate classes with the central earth of Ptolemaic astronomy and a ranked order of heavenly bodies circling around it; or appeals to the universal order of a “great chain of being,” ranging in a single series from amoebae to God, and including near its apex a graded series of human races and classes.

This book treats an argument that biological determinism, the notion that people at the bottom are constructed of intrinsically inferior material. Racial prejudice’s biological justification imposed the burden of intrinsic inferiority upon despised groups, and precluded redemption by conversion or assimilation.

In assessing the impact of science upon the eighteenth-century and nineteenth-century views of race, the cultural milieu of a society whose leaders and intellectuals did not doubt the propriety of racial-ranking was recognized. Some soft-liners argued that proper education and standard of life could “raise” blacks to a white level, while others believed that blacks would always remain at a lower level. Benjamin Franklin expressed his hope that America would become a domain of whites.

The three greatest naturalists of the nineteenth century did not hold blacks in high esteem. Charles Darwin wrote about a future time when the gap between human and ape will increase by the anticipated extinction of such intermediate as chimpanzees and Hottentots. Even more instructive are the beliefs of those few scientists often cited in retrospect as cultural relativists and defenders of equality.

Alexander von Humboldt could be considered the hero of all modern egalitarians who seek antecedents in history. He invoked innate mental difference to resolve some dilemmas of human history. He did find some cultural differences- greater contact of Arabs with surrounding urbanized cultures.

Preevolutionary justifications for racial ranking proceeded in two modes. The “softer” argument- again using inappropriate definitions from modern perspectives- upheld the scriptural unity of all peoples in the single creation of Adam and Eve, called monogenism. The “harder” argument abandoned scripture as an allegorical and held that human races were separate biological species, the descendants of the different Adams.

Ettienne Serres wrote that the perfectability of lower races distinguished humans as the only species subject to improvement by its own efforts. He worked to document the signs of inferiority among lower races. He settled on the theory of recapitulation- the idea that higher creatures repeat the adult stages of lower animals during their own growth.

Charles White wrote the strongest defense of polygeny. He rejected any extension of polygeny to “countenance the pernicious practice of enslaving mankind.” His criteria of ranking tended toward the aesthetic.

Ralph Waldo Emerson argued that intellectual emancipation should follow political independence. In the early to mid-nineteenth century, the budding profession of American science organized itself to follow Emerson’s advice.

Louis Agassiz won his reputation in Europe, primarily as Cuvier’s disciple and a student of fossil fishes. His predisposition to polygeny arose primarily from two aspects of his personal theories and methods: in studying the geographic distribution of animals and plants, developing a theory about “centers of creation.” He also was an extreme splitter in his taxonomic practice.

The Mismeasure of Man

1. Gould defines biological determination as shared behavioral norms, and the social and economic differences between human groups- primarily races, classes, and sexes- arise from inherited, inborn distinctions and that society, in this sense, is an accurate reflection of biology.
2. The major sources of data to support this theme are craniometry and certain styles of psychological testing.
3. Determinists have invoked the traditional prestige of science as objective knowledge, free from social and political taint.
4. Biological determinism is useful for groups in power.
5. For the adherents of biological determinism, changes to a social and political system based on a race caste system seen as an extension of nature is an enormous cost for individuals psychologically.
6. Gould’s arguments against biological determinism begin by attacking reification and ranking.
7. Gould writes his book about the abstraction of intelligence as a single entity, its location within the brain, its quantification as one number each individual, and the use of these numbers to rank people in a single serious of worthiness, invariably to find that oppressed and disadvantaged groups- races, classes, or sexes – are innately inferior and deserve their status.
8. In most cases discussed in this book, we can be fairly certain that biases- though often expressed as egregiously as in cases of conscious fraud- were unknowingly influential and that scientists believed they were pursuing unsullied truth.
9. Gould describes biological determinism as a theory of limits. It takes the current status of groups as a measure of where they should and must be, even while it allows some rare individuals to rise as a consequence of their fortunate biology.

Plessy vs. Ferguson

1. The problems with laws designed to keep races separate were that it created racism and segregation through making the white race more dominant than the black race.
2. Albion Tourgee wanted the Supreme Court to enforce education for all races, for the whites the reduce racial prejudice, and for freedom to have the ability to increase economic opportunities and to allow blacks to become citizens.
3. Homer Plessy was chosen as a test case because he was born free and was biracial.
4. Justice John Ferguson ruled in favor of Daniel F. Desdunes because it was an interstate train which made the law unconstitutional because of federal government rule over it.
5. Social rights represent the relationships between human beings within society, political rights are the relationships with political entity that govern over us, and civil rights is in the middle of social and political rights.
6. Congressed passed a civil rights act to enforce protection on the rules that were stated by the act.
7. The 14th Amendment abolished slavery and provided protection for African Americans.
8. White butchers from the Slaughter House Case was the first group to bring a case before the Supreme Court citing a violation of their rights under the 13th and 14th Amendments.

PvF 1-20

In Alabama, it was illegal for African Americans to be on train cars with white people. The purpose of Jim Crow laws were to keep races separated, and in the 1800’s obligatory segregation laws were passed in the South that were based on past laws in the North.

Homer Plessy was arrested in 1892 for riding on a whites-only rail car, when being only an eighth African American. Plessy selected to be arrested to attempt to challenge the law.

Creoles were French speaking individuals of a mixed race.

Albion Winegar Targee was a white lawyer and novelist that was attempting to fight for equality in hope to improve conditions for freedmen. Targee also wanted to improve education for the whites and blacks. He was offered $1,412.70 to help from The New Orleans citizens’ committee but Targee did it for free.

The 15th Amendment was passed in 1870, stating that nobody should have their right to vote rejected or adjusted based on race or previous slave position. “Literacy tests” and poll taxes were used to help prevent African Americans from being able to vote.

The 13th Amendment was passed in 1865, stating that nobody in the United States shall be placed into slavery unless it was for punishment for a crime that the individual had been convicted of. Political rights were secured by the law, but social rights were not, and whomever individuals decided to interact with was considered a social right unless protected by the law.

The 1866 Civil Rights Act added additional protection for African Americans.

The 14th Amendment was passed in 1868, which clarifies what it means to be a citizen of the United States. This amendment states that a United States citizen is an individual who was born in or naturalized under the jurisdiction of the U.S. No state would pass any laws that would remove or change the citizenship, but no state can strip any person of life, liberty or property without the protection of the law.

TMM 51-62

The author states that a stable society demands that all three classes of man be honored, which are rulers, auxiliaries and craftsmen. The justification for ranking of men has been altered throughout the years.

The author also states that this book is about the scientific version of Plato’s tale. It speaks on the social and economic differences between race, gender, and classes. The basic argument has not changed, that social and economic rules correctly reflect the natural structure of people.

This book aims to portray the scientific weaknesses and political contexts of determinist arguments. The author says that it is not his message that biological determinists were bad scientists or that they are always wrong, but that science should be understood as a social phenomenon, not the work of robots set to collect pure information.

The history of many scientific subjects is practically free from constraints of fact for two reasons. First, some topics are invested with a lot of social importance but little reliable information. Second, multiple questions are formulated by scientists in a restricted way that any reasonable answer can only validate a social preference.

Biological determination touches almost every aspect of the interaction between biology and society. Intelligence becomes an entity, and standard procedures of science effectively dictate that a location and physical substrate be sought for it. There are two fallacies the author focuses on during the argument, reification and ranking.

Different arguments for ranking have characterized the last two centuries. Craniometry was the leading numerical science of biological determinism during the nineteenth century. What craniometry was for the nineteenth century, intelligence testing has become for the twentieth, when it assumes that intelligence is a single, innate, heritable, and measurable thing.

1. Mirabelli describes the purpose of this chapter as his exploration of waiters and waitresses and how they interact with customers. Specifically, how they “read” texts, how they communicate and how they present themselves. Mirabelli aims to aid people in gaining a further understanding of the lives of service workers, and hoping they can earn more respect and recognition for the skill that these workers do actually have and use on a daily basis.

A waiter uses literacy when using the menu because a menu is a genre itself. The waiters and waitresses have to be able to have some knowledge of the menu to be able to help the customers when they have a special request or question. Also, it is helpful to know the process of how the food is prepared to be able to reciprocate to the customers how it is made to be able to answer their questions and assist them when they need to modify something.

Mirabelli describes how waiters “get the jump” in fine dining restaurants by having authority and influence on what the customers can order. The way the menu is portrayed to the customers could impact what they would want to order. How waiters and waitresses describe food and knowing what products will sell can highly encourage what the customers will order.

2. The author, Tony Mirabelli, intends to provide his readers with a better understanding of service workers and how their job does indeed require skill and knowledge, even though people have seen them at times as “mindless”. The author was once a waiter himself, so I believe he is responding to personal events in the sense that he personally knows that the job required literacy. I think Mirabelli is also responding to social events in the fact that waiters and waitresses can be seen in a negative light, when the job really requires a lot of skills to keep a healthy environment.

I believe the intended readers the author is trying to address are fellow servers and people that come into contact with these service workers, so possibly customers. I think he is trying to relate to waiters and waitresses on a personal level and then bring recognition to customers and those that interact with servers so they are aware of the type of work these servers perform. The author uses personal examples of his experience and his fellow workers when working in a restaurant to get his point across to his readers.

Mirabelli appeals to reason by relying on personal experience and to show his truth. He somewhat uses emotion to get his point across by talking about his personal encounters with customers and his fellow employees interactions with customers as well, and he shows how they felt during these interactions. The author does not necessarily rely on his reputation or authority to make his point to the readers, he focuses more on personal experience, opinion and fact.

The text is structured and could be considered as a persuasion text. The author begins his text with talking about how people can look down upon servers, and the purpose of this text is to convince his readers to have a better recognition and appreciation for service workers. I think the author’s use of personal examples really assists with him trying to get his point across to his readers. I have been a server for many years, so I was able to relate to the author and agree with his statements made. I feel as if many of the readers were able to see from the author’s perspective, allowing them to also relate and be convinced of servers having literacy. If this was to fail with any of the audience, I would feel as if it would be someone who has been privileged their whole life and who has never had a service job.

3. The writer is Tony Mirabelli, a former waiter. His intended audience would be fellow waiters or waitresses, or potential customers. The issue that the author is trying to bring a light to, is the negative outlook on servers and he is aiming to bring a sense of recognition and respect to service workers. The gap would be the use of personal experience and clear examples of how service workers are indeed literate.

4. The discourse community that Mirabelli is functioning in could be a community of service workers. The genre expectations would be to offer facts, beliefs and opinions to persuade the readers to share the same beliefs or opinions as the author. The author offered factual evidence, personal beliefs and opinions based on experience to convince his reader of the point that he was attempting to get across.

The method of preferred communication is written communication, providing an identical message to a large amount of people. The stated goal of the discourse community is to provide the readers with a server’s perspective and give them the ability to earn respect from those who interact with service workers.

The lexis Mirabelli uses is simple. He seems to come from an evaluative and informal standpoint. Mirabelli uses a lot of personal experience and did an experimental procedure within his workspace to test his beliefs and get his point across. I believe Mirabelli received feedback in such a way that service workers would appreciate his work, or those that did not see the situation from his perspective now do and can appreciate and respect service workers. There is also a chance of those who do not agree with his opinion and can provide the author with negative feedback. The threshold level of membership that Mirabelli had to achieve to participate was extremely active. Mirabelli had to be able to strongly relate to service workers, to provide his readers with a strong argument, and he was able to do so because of his experience as a service worker.

5. This is discourse, for a server discourse community. This is an example of a discourse community because all of the members of this community are able to relate to each other on a personal level and it has all of the six characteristics Swales provides to define a discourse community. All of the members have to possess a particular form of language that is appropriate for the work space and to maintain a specific atmosphere for all of the other members.