TE - Thoughts on Race

Introduction Hello readers, welcome back to my blog. In this post, I'll be talking about the last portion of the book Race , and how it relates to some recent events all over the world. Keeping up with the chronological theme of the book, the last 70 or so pages I have read covered events from around 1904 to more recent times. Having the book allows me to relate recent events to some events that most of you will already be familiar with. ----- Needless to say, there has been a relatively recent surge in the broadcasting of racial justice speech. Following the deaths of numerous African American people in 2020, the United States erupted into protests and demonstrations throughout its borders. Admittedly, I was not as caught up on the happening of last year as I, and a lot of us should have been. But reading my book has encouraged me to revisit some of the stories and media from the events of 2020. The conversations and problems brought up last year relate directly to a lot of the st...

Introduction Hi readers, today I want to talk about how the author of my book, Marc Aronson develops an argument in his writing. To date, I have read up to page 201, and I think I have a pretty clear idea of how he likes to structure and defend his arguments at this point. I touched a bit on argumentative style in my last blog post, but I'll go more in-depth into his viewpoint development in this post. ----- For the most part, Aronson is very clear with what his big arguments and viewpoints are. At the start of the book, he lays out exactly how he thinks the idea of race is defined. His four "pillars" of race are laid out early on: "Physical differences matter", "These differences in our bodies cannot change", "That is because they are inherited", and "Each group has a distinct level of brain power and moral refinement, thus they are naturally and unchangeably ranked."(2,3) By saying his points so early on in the book, Aronson can g...

Introduction Hello readers, welcome back to my blog on Marc Aronson's "Race." I have read up to page 134 as of writing this, and am still enjoying the book. I would like to dedicate this post to the rhetorical choices that Aronson makes in this book. Stories First of all, I'd like to point out how good of a storyteller Aronson is. Not only does he tell them compellingly, but he also decides on the perfect stories for the right time in the book. A book primarily focused on history and facts it can often feel like reading a textbook. But Aronson somehow finds the right stories that always keep you completely plugged into the story.  Aronson has a very interesting way of finding examples of history that directly relate to current happenings, and in doing so, he points out the oddities of the situation. One such example is found on page 121 where he recounts the reign of King Fredrick II. He speaks of how his society in Prussia was run effectively by breaking down barrier...

Introduction While I would not define myself as an avid reader, I will say that I am very interested in historical accounts and analytical texts on important topics. I find that pieces like that are vital for people to read not only to gain and retain new knowledge but also to educate themselves on issues in the world they may not be familiar with. Perhaps it is for these reasons that I had been looking forward to reading the non-fiction piece "Race" by Marc Aronson. To date, I have read up to page 67 of "Race." While this is not a book to be "enjoyed," exactly, I have really appreciated the storytelling that makes these hard topics easier to follow.  The portion of this book I have read so far has focused primarily on the roots of the very idea of race we see in the modern-day world. Personally, I had no idea that the idea of division based on certain characteristics began so early on in human history. Aronson begins to explain this by telling stories abo...