When composing my Composition in Two Genres it was different from previous essay assignments. In this essay, I was allowed to be more creative since I chose a visual genre. My composition rationale was based on my poster and political cartoon creation so I was able to express more of what I wanted to say in this essay compared to the other essays we’ve written. When explaining my visual genres, I was also allowed to be more informal when explaining it.

For this essay, I chose to do a visual genre because it was convenient. I could express what I wanted to express by dedicating a small amount of time to create the visual genre rather than doing hours of research on an article or a website. Furthermore, since my audience is the US government and black Americans, I chose to create a political cartoon and a poster. The US government can conveniently have access to political cartoons because it can be published through newspapers or articles. Politicians would read these mediums to keep up to date with current news. Black Americans who are experiencing the disadvantages of the racial wealth gap wouldn’t have access to technological devices, so I chose a visual genre that would be accessible to the public without using money. Posters can be posted in shops, on the walls of the streets or in public transportations. Overall, I considered the state of my audiences and what genres would they have access to in order to have my message about the problem of the racial wealth gap spread.

The type of rhetorical strategy I used to engage my audience was the use of logos and primarily pathos. In my political cartoon, I used logos by having each brick labeled as a policy that the US government passed or didn’t prevent throughout American history. I also used pathos by having the black man restricted from climbing the stairs by being chained to the floor and having bricks fall on top of him. Climbing the steps would symbolize wealth accumulation. In my poster, I appealed to pathos by using the image of a fist and the word “fight” to give a sense of power and unity among the black American community. I also wrote “march for equal wealth” to demand black Americans to march for equal wealth so that they can gain the attention of US politicians so that they can make changes.

For my composition in two genre essays, my intended audience is the US government. The primary characteristics of the US government are that they are their ones who can make and pass laws to make a change in today’s society and economy. I want them to understand that one of the main contributions to the current racial wealth gap between black and white Americans is from the numerous policies that they’ve passed and did not prevent, since the beginning of American history. I want them to bring more awareness to the issue and that they need to do something about it because the racial wealth gap limits opportunities such as medical needs, quality education, and career opportunities among the American public based on their race.

The genre that would make my ideas more accessible is a political cartoon. Political cartoons are generally published through newspaper and online magazine and newspaper articles; therefore, this type of genre is accessible to the public. Politicians would be able to see the political cartoon because they probably read a newspaper or the internet to keep up to date on current issues.

The rhetorical strategies I intend on using is pathos and logos. Since I am using a political cartoon as my genre, I’m going to demonstrate how the black American population had suffered from the laws and policies that the government has implemented, and how this country was able to grow through the suffrage of black Americans. I also plan on using logos by writing the specific policies on each white man’s torso. I would try to draw what each of those policies did.

Since my inquiry-based research essay was on the topic of the racial wealth gap, and this time I want my audience to be the US government, the genre that I am considering using is a political cartoon. I want this cartoon to show how much laws and policies that the US government has passed since the beginning of American history that oppressed black Americans in accumulating their wealth. I intend on using the rhetorical strategy of pathos so I feel like the genre of a political cartoon is the best way to approach my audience because a visual representation of the racial wealth gap is a powerful form of impacting the audience. They can see how much of the policies they’ve pasted have contributed to the racial wealth gap without them just reading pages of historical policies, which can be boring. It is also a way to capture everything in history in one picture/drawing. In my political cartoon, I want to have white men (representing the government), labeled with the different policies such as redlining, slavery, etc., somehow asserting their dominance over a black man, and it could be them just sitting on top of him or pushing him down.

Another type of genre I would use if the political cartoon genre doesn’t work out is a poster. In the poster, I can include a visual aid, bullet points the laws and policies that the government passed, and directly raise questions to my audience. Overall, I hope that whichever visual genre I intend on using will let the US government be aware of the negative impact they’ve had on the current racial wealth gap and that the issue needs to be resolved.

The way I came up with my research question was, I thought about my interests and during that time, I was interested in poverty in the US. However, I was also interested in racism so I combined the two topics together. However, the question I created was too broad, and with the help of Professor Harris, I was able to narrow down my question to the political aspects, specifically the historical and present laws and policies that contribute to the racial wealth gap.

While typing this essay, I did have some trouble finding scholarly sources. I overcame this challenge by being more strategic in gathering my sources. First, I searched on JSTOR, Gale Academics, and Google Scholar. If I didn’t find the source, I would later search it up under the popular media source. I just knew that I needed to find at least 3 scholarly sources for my essay. Furthermore, the video, “How to improve your search terms” that Professor Harris provided allowed me to find sources that I wasn’t able to find previously.

When analyzing my text, most of my sources were extremely long. However, I overcame this by reading the section headings. This allowed me to find certain quotes that would be beneficial to my essay much more efficiently. Another problem I had when analyzing my text was, one of my sources was complex and difficult to understand. They threw several terms that I didn’t understand and the source did not provide any definitions or background to the terms. For example, when my source mentioned the NRA and how it affected black and white Americans, I had to go through my own APUSH study guide to understand the purpose of the NRA.

The audience was a factor in the way I presented the information in my essay. The intended audience of my essay was the American public who are interested in the political and historical perspective of the racial wealth gap. Because this is my intended audience, I wanted my essay to go in chronological order, that way it would be easier for them to understand as time progresses, how the laws and policies continued to discriminate and suppress Black economic success and growth.

Writing this essay has taught me many things such as, in order to be an effective writer, I should add more of my own thoughts into an essay rather than having several sources do the speaking for my essay. I shouldn’t let my sources guide my essay. I should also break down each source one by one and explain them, instead of rushing.

Each of my sources was found when I found an article stating the different reasons (policy reasons) why there is a significant wealth gap between white and black Americans. They stated key words such as, “The New Deal”, “GI Bill”, “Slavery”, “Discrimination”, etc. Using these keywords, I connected them to something along the lines of, “how it influenced the racial wealth gap”. I first searched on JSTOR, Gale Academics, and Google Scholar. If I couldn’t find a source, I would search it up under the popular media source category. The sources are going to come together to support my idea of how there are policies that the US government passed that hindered black American’s growth in wealth. Starting from the beginning of American history, my sources explain the impact of slavery and discrimination and how it hindered black American’s growth. There is also the GI Bill and how it was not beneficial to black Americans and they weren’t able to pursue a good or higher education, which is another factor that prevents them to go higher in their socioeconomic status. Another source explains how the New Deal was discriminating and it helped white Americans more than black Americans during the Great Depression. There was also redlining which was when the banks would avoid investments and it impacted the dominant black American neighborhoods. There are also sources about current policies where there is racial unequal taxation. My source about the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) would be my counterargument. It explains how there are current policies that are implemented to prevent the racial wealth gap. Medical care is not available to the lower socioeconomic group (which is mainly black Americans) because medical care is expensive. If the people in this socioeconomic class were to receive medical treatment, they would be in enormous debt, thus, preventing them from doing well economically. All my sources are going to be in chronological order and the historical and current policies are going to connect together to support the idea of why there is a wealth gap between the 2 races.

The sources that I have compiled so far are credible, the scholarly sources are from Gale Academics and JSTOR, they are also peer-reviewed. As for my popular media sources, they all have secondary sources to back up their article. Furthermore, one of them discusses how the New Deal and how it impacted African Americans in a historical way, Therefore, I believe they are credible.

When I was typing my research proposal, I wanted to have all my sources ready, therefore, I’ve completed my research for my sources. While researching, the sources that I have discarded any sources that don’t go in-depth with the historical and current policies that influence the racial wealth gap, because it wouldn’t be beneficial for my essay that needs to go more in-depth with the reason why and how these policies cause the wealth gap.  There is still, however, one source that I am still debating about, whether or not I should utilize it. The article, “Examining the Black-white wealth gap” by Kriston Mcintosh, Emily Moss, Ryan Nunn, and Jay Shambaugh (URL: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/02/27/examining-the-black-white-wealth-gap/), although it briefly discusses the reason why there is a racial wealth gap by referencing the historical policies that contribute to it. They also give several statistics about the current racial wealth gap, however, they do not discuss in-depth about the policies. I was debating if I should use this source as an introduction to my research essay as a way to give background by giving statistics.

Bibliography:

Popular media Sources: 

Schermerhorn, Calvin. “Why the Racial Wealth Gap Persists, More than 150 Years after Emancipation.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 19 June 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/06/19/why-racial-wealth-gap-persists-more-than-years-after-emancipation/.

“African Americans and the New Deal.” Digital History, www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=2.

Blumberg, Yoni. “Obamacare Helps Save Low-Income People from Losing Their Homes, Study Shows.” CNBC, CNBC, 29 Jan. 2019, www.cnbc.com/2019/01/29/obamacare-helps-save-low-income-people-from-losing-homes-study-shows.html.

Austin, Algernon. “Obamacare Reduces Racial Disparities in Health Coverage.” Center for Global Policy Solutions, globalpolicysolutions.org/resources/obamacare-reduces-racial-disparities-in-health-coverage/.

Scholarly Sources:

Herbold, Hilary. “Never a Level Playing Field: Blacks and the GI Bill.” The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, no. 6, 1994, pp. 104–108. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2962479. Accessed 19 Oct. 2020.

Scheper, Jeanne. “Mortgaged minds: faculty-in-debt and redlining higher education.” Radical Teacher, no. 107, Winter 2017, p. 32+. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A496085867/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=e5f883c0. Accessed 19 Oct. 2020.

O’Connell, Heather A. “The impact of slavery on racial inequality in poverty in the contemporary U.S. South.” Social Forces, vol. 90, no. 3, 2012, p. 713+. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A294505509/AONE u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=24b33315. Accessed 19 Oct. 2020.

 Palma Joy Strand and Nicholas A. Mirkay, Racialized Tax Inequity: Wealth, Racism, And The U.S. System of Taxation, 15 Nw. J. L. & Soc. Pol’y. 265 (2020). https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/njlsp/vol15/iss3/1

RESEARCH QUESTION: How do the laws and policies of the United States government contribute to the wealth gap between black and white Americans?

My initial research question combined the two topics of racism and poverty, which resulted in the topic question, “How does racial inequality and poverty correlate with one another?”. However, because this is too broad, I needed to decide whether or not I should analyze the economic, social, or political aspects of this question. Taking into consideration the number of sources that are available to me, I’ve decided to focus on the political aspect of this question. Therefore, my final research question is: “How do the laws and policies of the United States government contribute to the wealth gap between black and white Americans?”. I will be analyzing both historical and present policies that may influence the current racial wealth gap. There are many ways to examine wealth inequality, and by examining education and housing opportunities, and incomes, it is one of the many ways of approaching this topic question. The historical policies that will be in my research essay are the GI Bill and how it was not beneficial to African Americans because they had to accommodate to the Jim Crow Laws. Another is the New Deal, how it is discriminate against black Americans, the practice of Redlining. The current policies I will be examining is how the tax system is an indirect form of racism and how it promotes the racial wealth gap. One of my counter-arguments is going to be about how there are government programs such as Obamacare, which helps racial disparities in health coverage. Medical fees are expensive, and those in poverty and with low income (mainly Black Americans) are unable to afford it. Medical fees/debt prevent them from doing well and going up in socioeconomic status.

What interests me about this question is, I’ve always wanted to know more about the reason why there is a racial wealth gap and the root behind this social issue. This is relevant to social justice or social action because people of color’s opportunity are limited due to their identity. Since the beginning of America’s history, black people were enslaved, and when they were emancipated, they were still discriminated against because of their color. These prevented Black Americans to do financially well and to have the opportunity to seek education or a good career that will allow them to be well off. Furthermore, the American government also passed laws and policies such as the Jim Crow law, that limit their ability to grow and prosper in America. The struggle to be economically and socially equal is still a problem today. This topic doesn’t just discuss the wealth gap—as it is prevalent in almost every country, but this is about how racism and discrimination are related to the wealth gap in the United States.

To write this essay, my model essay will be The Washington Post article, “Why the racial wealth gap persists more than 150 years after emancipation” by Calvin Schermerhorn. Since I will be examining the political factors that contribute to the racial wealth gap between black and white Americans, the audience is to the American public who are specifically interested in the political and historical side of the racial wealth gap, that way those who are interested can educate themselves on what are the causes of the wealth gap and they can fight to make a change. As for my timeline, I hope that I would have completed my research for secondary sources right when I have completed this research proposal paper.

Model Essay URL: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/06/19/why-racial-wealth-gap-persists-more-than-years-after-emancipation/).

Popular media Sources: 

Schermerhorn, Calvin. “Why the Racial Wealth Gap Persists, More than 150 Years after Emancipation.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 19 June 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/06/19/why-racial-wealth-gap-persists-more-than-years-after-emancipation/.

“African Americans and the New Deal.” Digital History, www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=2.

Blumberg, Yoni. “Obamacare Helps Save Low-Income People from Losing Their Homes, Study Shows.” CNBC, CNBC, 29 Jan. 2019, www.cnbc.com/2019/01/29/obamacare-helps-save-low-income-people-from-losing-homes-study-shows.html.

Austin, Algernon. “Obamacare Reduces Racial Disparities in Health Coverage.” Center for Global Policy Solutions, globalpolicysolutions.org/resources/obamacare-reduces-racial-disparities-in-health-coverage/.

Scholarly Sources:

Herbold, Hilary. “Never a Level Playing Field: Blacks and the GI Bill.” The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, no. 6, 1994, pp. 104–108. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2962479. Accessed 19 Oct. 2020.

Scheper, Jeanne. “Mortgaged minds: faculty-in-debt and redlining higher education.” Radical Teacher, no. 107, Winter 2017, p. 32+. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A496085867/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=e5f883c0. Accessed 19 Oct. 2020.

O’Connell, Heather A. “The impact of slavery on racial inequality in poverty in the contemporary U.S. South.” Social Forces, vol. 90, no. 3, 2012, p. 713+. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A294505509/AONE u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=24b33315. Accessed 19 Oct. 2020.

 Palma Joy Strand and Nicholas A. Mirkay, Racialized Tax Inequity: Wealth, Racism, And The U.S. System of Taxation, 15 Nw. J. L. & Soc. Pol’y. 265 (2020). https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/njlsp/vol15/iss3/1

The question that my research paper will be based on is “How does racial inequality and poverty correlate with one another?” I started off wanting to analyze the topic of poverty, especially because many people were losing their jobs and the poor are struggling even more than they already are when the pandemic impacted the US economy. But I was also interested in exploring the topic of racism, therefore, I decided to combine both topics by analyzing how racial inequality would be related to poverty. I would also consider this a learning experience because I don’t really know much about poverty in America and how race could be connected to it, therefore, I created this question. I hope to learn why most lower socio-economic people are made up of Hispanics and black people and what factors make up these statistics. Also, I want to know if there are any solutions to this social issue and how these racial and ethnic groups could rise in their socio-economic status. This is an important topic to dive into because racial inequality and poverty—especially racial inequality—is already a problem in America. If racial inequality was a factor in those who are in poverty, it would mean that their opportunities in education, career, food, and access to medicine are hindered because of their ethnic and racial background, and that’s not right. I plan to explore the question by reading research articles, historical articles, and statistics that analyze the correlation between race and poverty and to give me a historical and/or present background that explains why it is the way it is.

I believe that writing is a very complicated process. It was not easy making a good essay that would help me get an A in this assignment. I also felt like researching the articles was also an intricate process because I had to make sure the articles fit the criteria of the type of source. Some involved thinking and analyzing than just reading. What I learned that fits into what I know are that when writing a rhetorical analysis, it can be difficult to find the author’s stance towards the topic that they are writing. Some of my articles involved more analysis and thinking of their quotes in order to discover what the author’s stance is. This further proves that writing is a very complicated process, especially in a rhetorical analysis.

The strategy that I used to approach this writing assignment is to analyze the articles ad highlight any significant quotes that I would use to support my statements of the author’s genre, audience, rhetorical situations, exigence, purpose, and stance. By finding the similarities in the ideas the quote is trying to express or convey, I used it to connect some of the concepts together. For example, by discovering the author’s stance in abortion as pro-choice and their identity as a director in a pro-choice organization, I was able to connect them together with the audience and the genre. The genre was a persuasive essay and I was able to connect the author’s stance to who she was trying to persuade, the audience of this article. This strategy was successful because I was able to save some word count and hopefully it made the essay flow better without separating it into, “The stance is…The genre is…”.

#1: Open Web Source

https://www.vox.com/2020/4/1/21200247/coronavirus-texas-abortion-ban-pandemic-covid-19

This article discusses the difficulties of receiving an abortion during the Covid-19 pandemic since abortion is not considered essential health care. Due to this, 5 states have already banned abortion during this pandemic, making another obstacle for women to get an abortion. Furthermore, when a woman is planning to abort, it requires several visits to the doctor and these multiple visits mean multiple exposures to the outside world, causing the increase in contracting the Coronavirus. Moreover, due to the pandemic, many people around the world were laid off from their jobs, making it more difficult for those from a low socio-economic background to afford an abortion.

#2: Magazine Article

https://go-gale-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=T003&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&hitCount=14659&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=1&docId=GALE%7CA632184071&docType=Article&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=ZNEW-FullText&prodId=STND&pageNum=1&contentSet=GALE%7CA632184071&searchId=R3&userGroupName=cuny_ccny&inPS=true

In this magazine article, it begins with the history of abortion in India. Before 1971, abortion was illegal in India. It wasn’t until other countries made abortion legal, causing India to reexamine the topic of abortion and how there are several deaths caused by unsafe abortions. As a result, India passed the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act (MTP), and it made abortion legal in the country. Although it is legal, there are several restrictions such as, no access to safe and nonjudgmental abortion services, the need to find a doctor who has certified training specifically for abortion, and the need to have a doctor’s opinion to certify the reason for abortion, when the MTP clearly states that woman has the right to consent to an abortion. These limitations result in women turning to unsafe abortions that cause several deaths. Although abortion is legal, it is difficult to access.

#3: Newspaper Article

https://go-gale-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=T004&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&hitCount=450444&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=18&docId=GALE%7CA635588260&docType=Article&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=ZNEW-FullText&prodId=STND&pageNum=1&contentSet=GALE%7CA635588260&searchId=R4&userGroupName=cuny_ccny&inPS=true

In this magazine article, it starts off with a woman of a low socio-economic and uneducated background coming into an emergency room due to complications of unsafe abortion treatment. She passed away. Her family members viewed her as a shame in the family. Although abortion in Nepal is legal, there are still restrictions to allow women to receive an abortion and the mortality rate has not decreased. Poor woman still has no access to safe abortion and is what makes up most of the mortality rate in Nepal. The author introduces the idea from the WHO that the risk of death by abortion in a woman can be decreased if people were educated on sex, access to effective contraceptives, and safe care.

#4: Scholarly Source

https://go-gale-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=T002&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&hitCount=2734&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&currentPosition=12&docId=GALE%7CA54736780&docType=Article&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=ZONE-MOD1&prodId=AONE&pageNum=1&contentSet=GALE%7CA54736780&searchId=R7&userGroupName=cuny_ccny&inPS=true

This article discusses how, before Roe v. Wade, abortion was only accessible to a woman who had wealth and connections to a doctor. Abortion was frowned upon—both in society and religiously. Therefore, abortion operations were done discreetly. Furthermore, obtaining contraceptives was illegal, until the Griswold v. Connecticut case, which sparked the idea of the use of contraceptives can be extended to a woman’s right to choose for an abortion. Then the Roe v. Wade case helped women gain their right to abort. In NYC, abortion clinics opened and charge women for a fair price, unlike other clinics, causing thousands of women to travel to NYC. More woman finally has access to abortion clinics. However, there are dangers to doctors who perform abortions, as they can be a target of those who don’t agree with their actions. The author urges people to not solely focus on the law but to allow woman to have legal protection.

Abortion is currently one of the most controversial topics in the United States. People are divided between pro-choice and pro-life, with no in-between. Between the two groups, there is the debate as to whether or not abortion should be legal or illegal, considering how there is the argument of whether or not the fetus is considered a living being, and whether or not it is morally and religiously right, and if a woman has the right to choose exceeds the rights of the fetus. People who are pro-life believe that the fetus killed in question, is a living being, therefore they have the right to live and when one decides to abort, they are essentially murdering another living person. People who are pro-choice believe that they have the right to decide how to live their life and some of them believe that the fetus is not a living person.

This social issue is a topic of interest for me because it is a dilemma where everybody–regardless of gender, race, and religion, can participate in for a discussion and choose their stance on this topic. Furthermore, and it does make me question myself on what side I choose and if there is a possibility of a middle ground between the two sides, and if that middle ground would be if someone was raped or if the fetus is a product of incest. How would that affect people’s opinions about abortion? I hope to learn more about both sides and I hope to see if science would be the one to end this argument. The major argument for the pro-life side is that a fetus is a living person. But, what is considered a living person? Based on science, a living person is one who not only breathes and is conscious and aware of their surrounding but also has the ability to think. Is a fetus able to do that? There is still no answer to this, but when one looks at the sonogram of a fetus at around the age where abortion can be conducted, the fetus looks a lot like an infant. Only time and research will tell whether abortion is right or not and whether it should be legal or not.