Rylee Kay

Professor Sue Briggs

English 1050
February 4, 2016
Part One: Othering
While studying in Reading Culture it talks about the term othering and how it is a
continuous problem for how our society is treat. Now days in our society we go to work, school,
and other actives you see others of another race. Even though America is mainly white it has
become very diverse and many come from different backgrounds and cultures. Has our society
really changed and is there still hope for us to change? I will be sharing four reading from
Reading Culture that show that othering is still a problem today. It will talk about how other
is still a problem in different languages and regarding discrimination with different groups of
people.
An example with where language was used for othering in an essay was How to Tame
a Wild Tongue by Gloria Anzaldua. Anzaldua is from a Mexican background and is bilingual.
She writes about what it was like to live in the United States and being bilingual. It was hard for
her to go out in the public, like school because she was not accepted since she could speak
Spanish and would speak it in public. She told about a time in her article when she was punished
for speaking Spanish at school. In the essay she states I remember being caught speaking
Spanish at recess-that was good for three licks on the knuckles with a sharp ruler. (521) When
this happened to her she became very wary of what language she spoke around people. It is sad
when others cant speak the main language they know and that shows their cultural backgrounds.
Telling someone that they cant speak their language is like taking away who they are and where

they come from. In the article she tells how they tried to get rid of their accents and made any
students that had an accent to take speech class to get rid of it. This is an example of
discriminating against minority groups in the school she went to.
In What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? by Frederick Douglass, a famous AntiSlavery writer, is an example of discrimination and othering that he went through when he was
growing up. Douglass group as a Black slave and had to face unequal treatment from others. He
had to do hard physically labor and would be physically disciplined if he didnt to it correctly or
fast enough. When he finally was able to escape from slavery he became a great leader for the
movement that wanted to get rid of slavery. Douglass gives a very powerful speech slavery and
how angry he was at all that practice and supported it. In his speech he tell how the greatest
shame for America is that they supported Slavery. (466). Being treated differently as a slave and
not equal to everyone really changed Douglass. It was not until slavery was abolished was when
Douglass forgave. For minorities in America being treated as been a problem because they have
different skin color and speak a different language. I think people in American are afraid to let in
new things and like the way things are. They dont want to see what others from different
backgrounds have to offer. We should not be quick to judge others we dont know because of
their different background.
When reading about Angel and Ellis Island we learned about what it was like to be on
both of the islands, the similarities and the difference of both. Jazmyn Davidson for her week 2
discussion gave a great comparison on Ellis and Angel Island and what it was like to have to get
processed for both of the Islands. She says Reading about both Ellis Island and Angel Island
there definitely similarities, but within those similarities there were differences. Ellis Island
being of the east was more of a portal of immigration for the European/American immigrants.

Although it was process of going through immigration, it seemed through my reading as if the
Ellis Island was a more quick process, they were just passed through to and examined. While
Angel being of the west was not so friendly, this port of immigration was dominant for the Asian
culture. Not being able to just "pass" through the process and get examined the Asian immigrants
were detained for as long years on the island. They were questioned for every little thing. With
the events at that time there was what seemed like racism against the Asian immigrants. Both of
the Islands were implemented for the same reason and based on Islands to help immigrants gain
citizenship. They both required the immigrants to have examination and tests to know American
standards. For me the immigrants on Angle Island immigrants were treated like prisoners and
had to stay for long period of times till they were seen as fit to be an American, but on Ellis
Island they could just pass though and became citizens easier.
From Silence to Words: Writing as a Struggle written by Min-Zhan Lu tells about her
experience as young girl and what she had to go through with language and lifestyle difference at
home and school. When growing up she felt confused with having to grow up between two
different worlds and how hard it was for her. They wanted her to be success for and they believed
that in order for her to be successful she had to know English, so that is why they forced her to
learn it. They would tell about how it was so hard for her grandfather to find a job and when he
did find one that was good he would lose it because he didnt speak English. (148) When at
home Lu had to us English and was taught about it but at school she spoke standard Chinese. In
school she would learn about new languages and how to speak, write, and read in them. She
would get so confused about how the same words can have different meanings in other
languages. She felt that she had to be in two different worlds. It wasnt till Lus teacher spoke in
English when she became proud of being able to speak English. Lu states in her article that it

was only after my homeroom teacher had sanctified English that I began to connect English to
my education. (149) With all of the struggle that she went thought she found that she would not
have become the person she is now.
From what I have learned from all of these different readings is that we should accept the
fact that there are minorities here in America and they are not going to be leaving. We should
make them feel welcome and let them share about their different backgrounds. Every generation
can change and make a difference, we need to make everyone proud of where they came from!
We all can make a huge difference and make a change. America has had a problem with how
they are treating minorities but America has slowly started to evolve. Discrimination of
othering as seemed to have decreased because of how American has been changing. Everyone
has the right to be who they want and be successful in their life.

Part Two: Rhetorical Analysis

The one I decided to do my rhetorical analysis is What to the Salve is the Fourth of
July? When Douglass was giving his speech he has so much passion in it and power when he
was delivery his speech. He passionately argues that the fourth of July was not a day of rejoice
for salves and even freed slaves. In his speech he uses rhetorical strategies all though out it and
he reaches his audience though his the emotions he uses when giving the speech. He uses the
methods of persuasion with Pathos, Ethos, and Logos really well in his speech, because of the
irony that not everyone was freed, especially the slaves. This allowed him to be able to show the
nature of people and show a very clear picture that not everyone was granted the right to be
freed, so why should celebrate a day that did not allow this to everyone.
In the first part of his speech he tells about the history of this holiday and how it is not a
day that everyone love to celebrate. Not everyone was allowed the freedom that they got epically
slaves, so for them this is not a day they celebrate. In the beginning of his speech he uses pathos
really well. He says in his speech that should I seem at ease, my appearance would much
misrepresent me. (Douglass, 461) With this it shows that he is humble about the words use uses
and about what he is delivering so that everything he is saying makes a difference in everyone.
When using Ethos he separates him form the audience by using words like you and your. He
uses logos in his speech by showing that he knows what he is talking about and the effects it had
on everyone, the good and the bad. He stated at the begging how he did not believe that he was
the right one to be giving the speech but would do his best and get what he has to say out to
everyone.
The second part of his speech was more about the people who agree with slavery and did
not agree that everyone should be freed. In the speech he asks a lot of questions that are

rhetorical to the audience. He ask questions like, Would to God, both for your sakes and ours
that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! (Douglass, 465)
When asking these he starts to cry and then goes on to tell about a poem about the evil doers who
advocate slavery. He tells a lot about how slavery is evil and people who supported it were evil.
He also states how he wants America to change and needs to be awakened and realize all of the
things that is wrong with humanity.
I feel like he did a great job at giving his speech and saying the things he felt needed to be
said. He made the people listening want to be there and hear what he had to say. He was very
passionate about it and had a lot of emotion. When reading it I could really tell how passionate
he was and the emotion he wanted to give. When I was reading it, it made me very sad to read
and to hear about all of the things he had to say.

Work Cited:
-

"Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation." History of Angel Island. 2016 Angel

Island Immigration Station Foundation. Web. 16 Jan. 2016.

Anzaldua, Gloria. How to Tame a Wild Tongue. Reading Culture: Contexts for Critical
Reading and Writing. Diana George and John Trimbur. New York: Longman, 2012. 521-

528. Print.
Douglass, Frederick. What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? Reading Culture:
Contexts for Critical Reading and Writing. Diana George and John Trimbur. New York:

Longman, 2012. 460-475. Print.

George, Diana, and John Trimbur. Reading Culture. 8th ed. White Plains, NY: Longman,

2011. Print.
Liu, Richard. Life on Angel Island. Angel Island. Immigration Station Foundation,
2009. Web. <http://www.aiisf.org/education/station-history/life-on-angel-island (Links to

an external site.)>.
Lu, Min-Zhan. "From Silence to Words, Writing as Struggle" Reading Culture. 8th ed.
White Plains, NY: Longman, 2011. 147-57. Print.