RA #2

Title: "From Fly Girl's to Bitches and Ho's

Author: Joan Morgan

Date: 1999

Topic: Sexism in the hip-hop industry

Analysis of Argument

Intended Audience: People who listen to hip-hop/rap and want to understand why women are put down again and again in their songs.

Exigence: To understand why there is sexism in the hip-hop industry.

Purpose: To inform women and all the like about the truth behind sexism in modern day hip-hop/rap music and to help them understand the reasons behind it.

Claim: Morgan claims that Sexism in the Hip-Hop is caused from the roots of oppression upon the African-American Community.

Evidence: "The Leading cause of death of black males from the ages of 15-24 is homicide. the majority of them will die at the hands of other black men." (604)

“We have come to a point in our history, however, when black-on-black love- a love that’s survived slavery, lynching, segregation, poverty, and racism- is in serious danger.”(602) 

Notorious B.I.G.'s album "Ready to Die" concentrates and reflects on his own past life experiences, with runs ins with robbery, jail, murder, drug dealing, money, sex, parties, and sex which seemed to him as an amazing life.

Rhetorical Analysis

Writing strategy #1 Pathos

Writing strategy #2 Description as evidence

Writing strategy #3 Cause and effect

Reader Effect #1 Morgan uses quotes from song lyrics to help readers understand what is really said.

Reader Effect #2 Morgan uses facts and reasoning to help readers understand how much violence is endured in these people's lives 

Reader Effect #3 Morgan uses her own personal experience as a black woman to give a different point of view on how these issues affected her life.

Response:  Although rappers express their lives and thoughts throughout their songs, we will truly never understand what each rapper has endured throughout their life or what they have carry through it, because everyone's experience is different. Many of their views on life, women, belongings are acquired through the hardships they have faced like racism and poverty, and they see it happening throughout their life and feel obligated to do the same against their own people especially towards women, which they look at as sex objects and nothing more than that. But that is how the hip-hop culture has become nowadays and it will always be for an unknown reason.

Final Draft

Lukas Miller

Instructor Knapp

English 1A                                                                                               

October 14, 2012

Proposition 30: A Fight for Education

            During the span over the last several years, California and its people have endured a great recession. We Californians have seen Governor Jerry Brown been forced to make vital and drastic cuts to California’s state budget, from public safety to state jobs and all the way to public transportation. But one department has seen the worst and has been on the chopping block the longest, education. And to make matters worse, Jerry Brown has already signed off $6 Billion worth of trigger cuts to education state-wide from grades k-12 and Community College, which is approximately 3 week’s worth of school if either Proposition 30 or 38 do not pass in the November polls. Jerry Brown’s devised plan of Proposition 30 to help out public education and the public safety departments, if passed, will result in an increase in sales tax of ¼ cent per dollar spent for 4 years, and also an increase in personal income tax to those earning over $250,000 in a fiscal year for 7 years. Although taxing the rich in our state might seem harsh, it is truly the only way to get our state back on track and to help create a better future for our state's youth by giving them a better education.

            Passing Prop 30 will be deeply beneficial to our states already declining education system which has endured bad budget cuts in recent years. If prop 30 does not pass, we will see extreme trigger cuts to the education system. Grades K-12 and community colleges will be losing approximately $5.4 billion annually, and the UC/CSU system will be enduring a loss of its own at approximately $250 million each per year. Except that this is not all that our state will endure; $50 million will be cut from public safety department which includes the police, fire, prison, development, and wildlife departments. With all of these budget cuts in our near future if prop 30 does not pass, this will cause unrest and a decline in our already declining state’s economic system.

            Some arguments against prop 30 are that in recent history politicians have raised taxes so "they can have extra money in their wallets" because we saw no increase in budget to any state department but there was increases in income to politicians. Because that has happened the opposition believes that this measure is all just a scam and education will not be seeing any new money because there is no guarantee that the money will actually go to those departments in dire need. But to accredit Jerry brown and to affirm that this is not true; all revenue prop 30 acquires will be placed into the Education Protection Account, and therefore be dispersed among our state’s schools. Another argument against prop 30 is said that it is unfair to raise taxes to just our states highest earning tax payers because it looks like the government is just picking on them for earning more, but according to Thomas Piketty from an nytimes.com article, he states: “In a way, the United States is becoming like Old Europe, which is very strange in historical perspective,’...‘The United States used to be very egalitarian, not just in spirit but in actuality. Inequality of wealth and income used to be much larger in France. And very high taxes on the very rich — that was invented in the United States[.]” This quote symbolizes the actual inequality of the wealthy people in the US, so higher taxation on the rich will actually show that everybody in this country is equal because everybody deserves the same chance to succeed that a millionaire holds.

            Not only does prop 30 hold control of our states education system's future but it also holds control of our youth, because without a proper education they will not even have a fighting chance to be successful in life. Because in a recent poll done by nytimes.com about what employers, that at least hire 25% of their workforce, look for in somebody that wants to work for them; the employers response was this: “89 percent said they wanted more emphasis on ‘the ability to effectively communicate orally and in writing,’ 81 percent asked for better ‘critical thinking and analytical reasoning skills’ and 70 percent were looking for ‘the ability to innovate and be creative.” This Quote not only explains what corporate jobs are looking for, but it explains that they need a properly educated person to fill the spot, and without the support of prop 30, properly educated people will be even more scarce because they simply cannot even pay their way through school. So not only is prop 30 essential to our education, it is essential to our economy.

            As a student, a 19 year old, in their 2^nd year of community college, this prop affects me directly because I have to pay for my education. And if prop 30 does not pass that means I have to struggle even more. Because with the trigger cuts to education that means teachers are getting laid off, there is going to be fewer classes to choose from, more students in each class, more students on wait-lists, and also increase in unit cost for each class. I’m already on student aid and because of all the budget cuts Cabrillo will receive that means it will be harder for me to take all the necessary units I need to even qualify for aid. And because of that, the dream that every community college student has of staying 2 years then leaving to a university will be nearly impossible simply because they cannot take all the units they need to graduate and transfer within the 2 years.

            So why would we want it to make it harder for our future generation to succeed? If prop 30 does not pass that means generations of students will not get the proper education that everyone deserves, and therefore will struggle in life because they could not get a great paying job simply because they could not afford college. California’s education system used to be the epitome of all education everywhere in the US and now it is becoming a joke because of budget cuts therefore deteriorating California's once prized possesion, and if prop 30 does not pass then California will face an educational Armageddon. So let’s take a stand and get it back on track. Vote yes on Prop 30. 

Rough Draft

Lukas Miller

Instructor Stacey Knapp

English 1A                                                                                               

October 7, 2012

Proposition 30 Rough Draft

            During the span over the last several years, California and its people have endured a great recession. We Californians have seen Governor Jerry Brown been forced to make vital and drastic cuts to California’s state budget, from public safety to state jobs and all the way to public transportation, but one department has seen the worst and has been on the chopping block the longest, education. And to make matters worse, Jerry Brown has already signed off $6 Billion worth of trigger cuts to education state-wide from grades k-12 and Community College, which is approximately 3 week’s worth of school, if either Proposition 30 or 38 do not pass in the November polls. Jerry Brown’s devised plan of Proposition 30 to help out public education and the public safety departments if passed will result in an increase in sales tax of ¼ cent per dollar spent for 4 years, and also an increase in personal income tax to those earning over $250,000 in a fiscal year for 7 years. Although taxing the rich in our state might seem harsh, it is truly the only way to get our state back on track and to help create a better future for you states youth giving them a better education.

            Passing Prop 30 will be deeply beneficial to our states already declining education system which has endured bad budget cuts in recent years. And if prop 30 does not pass, we will see extreme trigger cuts to the education system. Grades K-12 and also community colleges will be losing approximately $5.4 billion, and also the UC/CSU system will be enduring a loss of its own at approximately $250 million each. Except that is not all that our state will endure, $50 million will be cut from public safety department including police, fire, prison, development, and wildlife departments. With all of these budget cuts in our near future if prop 30 does not pass, this will cause unrest and a decline in our already declining state’s economic system.

            Some arguments against prop 30 are that because in recent history politicians have rasied taxes to they can have extra money in their wallets because we saw no increase in budget to any state department but we saw increases in income. And because that has happened the opposition believes that this measure is all just a scam and education will not be seeing any new money because there is no guarantee that the money will actually go to those departments in dire need. But to accredit Jerry brown and to affirm that this is not true; all revenue that prop 30 acquires will be placed into the Education Protection Account, and therefore be dispersed among our state’s schools. And another argument against prop 30 is said that it is unfair to raise taxes to just our states highest earning tax payers because it looks like the government is just picking on them for earning more but according to Thomas Piketty from an nytimes.com article, he states: “In a way, the United States is becoming like Old Europe, which is very strange in historical perspective,’...‘The United States used to be very egalitarian, not just in spirit but in actuality. Inequality of wealth and income used to be much larger in France. And very high taxes on the very rich — that was invented in the United States[.]” This quote symbolizes the actual inequality of the wealthy people in the US, so higer taxation on the rich will actually show that everybody in this country is equal because everybody deserves the same chance to succeed that a millionaire holds.

            Not only does prop 30 hold control of our states education system but it also holds control of our youth because without a proper education, they will not even have a fighting chance to be successful in life. Because in a recent poll done by nytimes.com about what employers, that at least hire 25% of their workforce, look for in somebody that wants to work for them, the employers response was this: “89 percent said they wanted more emphasis on ‘the ability to effectively communicate orally and in writing,’ 81 percent asked for better ‘critical thinking and analytical reasoning skills’ and 70 percent were looking for ‘the ability to innovate and be creative.” This Quote not only explains what corporate jobs are looking for it explains that they need a properly educated person to fill the spot, and without the support of prop 30, properly educated people will be even more scarce because they simply cannot even pay their way through school. So not only is prop 30 essential to our education, it is essential to our economy.

            As a student, a 19 year old, in their 2^nd year of community college, this prop affects me directly because I have to pay for my education. And if prop 30 does not pass that means I have to struggle even more. Because with the trigger cuts to education that means teachers are getting laid off, there is going to be fewer classes to choose from, more students in each class, more students on waitlists, and also increase in unit cost for each class. I’m already on student aid, and because of all the budget cuts Cabrillo will receive that means it will be harder for me to take all the necessary units I need to even qualify for aid. And because of that, the dream that every community college student has of staying 2 years then leaving to a university will be nearly impossible simply because they cannot take all the units they need to graduate and transfer within the 2 years.

            So why would we want it to make it harder for our future generation to succeed? If prop 30 does not pass that means generations of students will not get the proper education that everyone deserves, and therefore will struggle in life because they could not get a great paying job simply because they could not afford college. California’s education system used to be the epitome of all Education everywhere in the US and now it is becoming a joke because of budget cuts, and if prop 30 does not pass then California will face an educational Armageddon. So let’s take a stand and get it back on track. Vote yes on Prop 30.