Textbooks

• Online access to They Say/I Say: the Moves that Matter in Academic Discourse, and the Little Seagull Reader
  (you will need your email address and login for the Norton site). 
• The free RWS100 Digital Textbook Reading, Writing, and Evaluating Argument 

Short texts to introduce Rhetorical Analysis

The RWS textbook uses many of the short texts in this collection, and the syllabus and homework described below also uses these
same texts. We have a bigger collection of short texts on a range of topics that are often used to introduce rhetorical concepts
and argument analysis. There are teaching materials for many of those texts. 

If you wish to use some short texts that address racial (in)justice, and aspects of the current moment, we could also consider 
using some of the texts below. 

• May's “The Stories We Tell Ourselves.”   

• The video and transcript of rapper Killer Mike’s Atlanta speech at the Atlanta mayor’s press conference. (There is
  also his interview with Stephen Colbert).

• President Obama’s Medium article – “How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change” and president
  Bush’s: “Statement by President George W Bush” Margaret Renkl, "An Open Letter to my Fellow White Christians."

• Some recent short texts on racial justice that could be used as supplements or alternatives to the texts bove. 

• An assortment of texts from the writings and social media accounts of people involved in the recent protests.

Unit 1 and Hari's "The Likely Cause of Addiction"

•  Hari's "The Likely Cause of Addiction Has Been Discovered"  There is also the video of Hari's TED talk. 

Related texts include

• Another text, Seagal’s “Tales from the Cutting Room Floor,” suggests the stories found in reality TV shows like Cops and American Detective cultivate distorted, racist understandings of crime.
• Colin Stokes, “How Movies Teach Manhood” is a 20 minute TED talk. Stokes claims the stories that surround us in popular culture have a subtle but powerful persuasive force, influencing the way we think about gender roles and identity.
• Finally, Joaquin Castro’s “Latinos Love Hollywood, but Hollywood Hates Latinos,” claims Hollywood movies tell stories that distort, demonize, or ignore Latinx people.

UNITS 2 AND 3

The Codes of Gender 

The Codes of Gender: Identity and Performance in Pop Culture. This documentary provides viewers with a "lens" for understanding
patterns in advertisements. It argues that advertisements use a small set of cultural "codes" to represent men and women, and this 
shapes the way we think about gender. The documentary suggests male and female bodies are portrayed very differently, and 
these differences reveal important cultural norms.

The documentary is from 2009, and looks at traditional broadcast and print media. It does not consider recent online media or online 
advertisements.  But since 2009 we have seen huge changes in the way people consume media. This video could be used as a 
"lens" to look at online media - for example, at male and female instagram stars, or at the ads in online men's/women's magazines
(Students could examine the poses of Instagram model and celebrity Alahna Ly, and compare these to the poses shown in Gentleman
Quarterly's "20 hottest male models on Instagram") At the same time, students could see if today's advertisements have changed in 
ways that challenge the framework, and suggest the analysis needs to be updated or revised.

Students could also draw on some recent research to help with their projects. For example, "Advertising Stereotypes and Gender 
Representation in Social Networking Sites" might be a helpful text. 

There are 2 versions of the video, the full version, which is 1 hour and 13 minutes, and the abridged version which is 46 minutes.

A pdf transcript of the video is available for students to use. 

Race and Representation   

• Race: A study by Darnell Hunt, Dean of Social Sciences at UCLA, called “Race in The Writers’ Room: How Hollywood Whitewashes the Stories that Shape America,” could be used by students to examine how race is represented in the popular texts they consume. Similarly,
  the activist group “Color of Change” just published a study called “Normalizing Injustice: The Misrepresentations that Define Televisions Scripted Crime Genre.” The categories and concepts from this study could be used by students to investigate how crime and race are represented in the TV and movies they watch. There is a study titled “Latinos in Film: Erasure On Screen & Behind the Camera Across 1,200 Popular Movies,” that could be used as a lens to explore Latinx representation in pop culture. The following could also be used: “How Latinos Can Win The Culture War,” Some other texts on Latinx representation can be found in this folder.
  
  
• ·       Class and Inequality: in spring 2014 we did a unit on class and inequality. You can view some of the materials on this web page.

Analyzing the Pandemic

1. Alexander, Aaliyah. “There’s No Returning Back to Normal after COVID-19.” The Daily Aztec, 12 May 2020, 
2. “The America We Need.”  By the editors of the New York Times. Describes the problems the pandemic has revealed/emphasized, and
   argues for reforms. 
3. National and international data on Covid 19 https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/total-covid-deaths-per-million  
4. Charles Duhigg, “Seattle’s Leaders let scientists take the lead. New York’s did not.” The New Yorker, April 26, 2020. This is about
   how much language and persuasion matter when responding to pandemic. 
5. "The Unique US Failure to Control the Virus," David Leonhardt, NYTimes August 6, 2020. Examines why the US response was so different from other 
   countries. George Packer, We Are Living in a Failed State. The coronavirus didn’t break America. It revealed what was already broken.
   Atlantic Monthly, June 2020.
6. Why America Resists Learning From Other Countries. "The pandemic may pose the greatest threat yet to the belief that America has little
   to learn from the rest of the world." 
7. Masks: "Seriously, Just Wear Your Mask" (NYTimes editorial board, July 2, 2020).  How to Actually Talk to Anti-Maskers. You cannot force public trust;
   you have to earn it. Charlie Warzel, July 22, 2020. 

Using Stevenson and Hannah-Jones to Discuss our Current Crises

• Bryan Stevenson and John Lewis in conversation, "The Fight for Civil Rights and Freedom. TED talk. 
• How 50 years of racial progress fuelled a global movement against racism. Nesrine Malik, The Correspondant. 
• Sal Khan of Khan Academy Interviews Nikole Hannah Jones. July 30, 2020. Video, 40 minutes. Wide ranging discussion that explains 
  the purpose of the 1619 project and how it connects to many aspects of contemporary life. 
• Hannah-Jones interviewed by Terry Gross on radio show Fresh Air (there is a transcript). "A Call For Reparations: How America Might Narrow The
  Racial Wealth Gap June." 24, 2020
• CBS News - 16 minute video with Nikole Hannah-Jones. "Nikole Hannah-Jones on protests and the roots of racism in the U.S."
• Nikole Hannah-Jones and and New Yorker staff writer Jelani Cobb on protests: Black Americans are ‘demanding their full citizenship’
• Oprah Winfrey's "Where do we go from here?" site has video clips that include Nikole Hannah Jones and many other writers
  and scholars who examine race and racism.  

Debating Police Reform

• Defund the police? Here’s what that really means. The Washington Post, June 07, 2020.
• The Path to Better Policing. Verbruggen, National Review, June 18, 2020.
• Kaba, "Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police." NYTimes, June 12, 2020.
• After this crisis, policing should never be the same. Washington Post
• Why Black America Fears the Police Nikole Hannah Jones, PS Mag, May 8. 2018. 
• Opinion | Don’t Defund the Police. Re-Fund Them, Smarter.
• Alex S. Vitale 'The End Of Policing' After Floyd Death : Code Switch : NPR. June 3, 2020.
• Addressing Law Enforcement Violence as a Public Health Issue. American Public Health Association Report, Nov 13 2018
• On The Path Toward Police Abolition | by DeRay Mckesson | Medium
• Hannah Jones, "Black America Fears the Police. Here's Why" PS Mag, May 18, 2018.

Monuments, Memorials, Team Names: Debating History, Identity, Values

• What the Redskins Name and Confederate Statues Have in Common By PHILIP DELORIA, Politico, 07/15/2020
• The Boston Tea Party was a Riot, and Statues were Toppled.  Stacy Schiff.
• Why are Army Bases Named After Confederates? Alex Horton, Washington Post, June 11, 2020
• Its Statue Topling a Monumental Error? Stephens and Collins debate the issue.
• Yes, Even George Washington. Charles Blow, NYTimes, June 28, 2020.

Supplementary Texts

General  

• Darrick Hamilton and Trevon Logan, "Why the Wealth Gap between Black and White Americans Persists." Fast Company, August 2, 2020. 

• Ibram X. Kendi, “The Difference between being “Not Racist” and Antiracist.” TED talk, June 13, 2020. 

• Dr. Phillip Atiba Goff, Rashad Robinson, Dr. Bernice King and Anthony D. Romero. “The path to ending systemic racism in the US.” TED, June 3, 2020 

• TED radio hour “Ingrained Injustice.” Four short talks that explore different aspects of how racism became embedded in our lives.

• Video of Interview with the founders of Black Lives Matter, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi.

• Baratunde Thurston, “How to deconstruct racism, one headline at a time” 

Stevenson on the Protests and how we can Move Forward.

• “Bryan Stevenson: From the Courtroom to Hollywood.” 18 minute video from BookTube in which Stevenson discusses his work with young people. Stevenson discusses his book Just Mercy, which was made into a major Hollywood movie. The segment also covers some of the same ground as the TED talk, but updates it in a way that brings his work more squarely into conversation with more recent events. Could be used to think about how Stevenson’s work connects to our current moment.
• Stevenson on the George Floyd killing and our summer of protest. From the New Yorker, June 1, 2020. If you are interested in Stevenson, the protest movement, and the issue of racial justice, you could used this text to explore these issues further in unit 3.
• Bryan Stevenson on how America can heal. A conversation about truth and reconciliation in the US. Vox, Jul 20, 2020. Ezra Klein interviews Stevenson about the protests, race in America, and how we can move forward.
• Stevenson:  How we arrived at this moment and where we go from here. 4 minute video. A livestream event assembling artists and activists to listen, learn, and take action in support of the Equal Justice Initiative.
• Bryan Stevenson: There’s a Direct Line from Lynching to George Floyd. Jun 2, 2020. Stevenson  talks with Walter Isaacson about solutions, from a change in the culture of policing to an embrace of truth and reconciliation. 18 minute video.
• Nationwide unrest is about a history of racial inequality. Stevenson interviewed by Lester Holt about the response to the death of George Floyd.

Stevenson Videos

• A three minute video introducing Stevenson and some of his main ideas about racism and the criminal justice system. PBS Newshour.
• Bryan Stevenson:  How we arrived at this moment and where we go from here. 4 minute video. A livestream event assembling artists and activists to listen, learn, and take action in support of the Equal Justice Initiative.
• Bryan Stevenson: There’s a Direct Line from Lynching to George Floyd. Jun 2, 2020. Stevenson  talks with Walter Isaacson about solutions, from a change in the culture of policing to an embrace of truth and reconciliation. 18 minute video. 
• Nationwide unrest is about a history of racial inequality. Stevenson interviewed by Lester Holt about the response to the death of George Floyd. 

Texts with Connections to Hannah Jones and Landrieu

• Sal Khan of Khan Academy Interviews Nikole Hannah Jones. July 30, 2020. Video, 40 minutes. Wide ranging discussion that explains 
  the purpose of the 1619 project and how it connects to many aspects of contemporary life. 
• Hannah-Jones interviewed by Terry Gross on radio show Fresh Air (there is a transcript). "A Call For Reparations: How America Might Narrow The
  Racial Wealth Gap June." 24, 2020
• CBS News - 16 minute video with Nikole Hannah-Jones. "Nikole Hannah-Jones on protests and the roots of racism in the U.S."
• Nikole Hannah-Jones and and New Yorker staff writer Jelani Cobb on protests: Black Americans are ‘demanding their full citizenship’
• Oprah Winfrey's "Where do we go from here?" site has video clips that include Nikole Hannah Jones and many other writers
  and scholars who examine race and racism. 
• Podcasts on the 1619 project.
  The Search for Racial Equity | The 1619 Project | Nikole Hannah-Jones & Dr. Kamau Bobb. Google Talks series, July 10, 2020.  This is a 
  fascinating 55 minute video that explains the 1619 project, goes into how it came to be, and why she led the project. It also connects to 
  many unfolding events. This video could be used instead of the written text, or it could be used as part of unit 3, to think about how 
  Hannah-Jones work extends into other conversations.  

The Question of Systemic Racism 

• Toluse Olorunnipa and Griff Witte, How Systemic Racism Shaped Goerge Floyd's Life and Death. Washington Post, Oct. 8, 2020