Communication English assignment PDF

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This was a speech assignment for my speech course at CMU...

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Shaniah Bridgeforth ENG101 Dr. Payne

Why America is Self Segregating Danah Boyd

In the article titled “Why America is Self Segregating” and written by Danah Boyd she talks about the evolution of self- segregation and emphasizes the importance of diversity, specifically in America. The author's purpose for writing this article is to bring awareness to the impact oppression and segregation has had on America. Throughout the passage Donah appeals to ethos and pathos to better support her argument. While discussing the issue of dediversification Donah appeals to ethos by explaining her reason for credibility. Danah Boyd makes it known that she is a principal researcher at Microsoft Research and a visiting professor in New York University’s interactive telecommunications program. She is also an author and the founder of a research institute called Data & Society. Donah starts the article off with discussing the history of segregation in America and introduces the idea that technology is the main cause of de-diversification. She emphasizes the development of technology and how it has contributed to societies comfortability with self segregating. “Many in the tech world imagined that the internet would connect people in unprecedented ways, allow for divisions to be bridged and wounds to heal. It was the kumbaya dream. Today, those same dreamers find it quite unsettling to watch as the tools that were designed to bring people together are used by people to magnify divisions and undermine social solidarity.(220)” This quote stated by Donah is significant because it emphasizes the fact that

the internet has had a major contribution to the development of de-diversification in society. Although technologies evolvement was encouraged without the intent of creating more social issues, with the help of social media this issue has intensified. The example used by Donah that helped support this idea was with Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook creation. Mark created Facebook with the intent to make the world a better place by bringing people closer together and allowing us to create relationships with those around us. Although his intentions were genuinely to better the world, he still receives backlash and constantly gets attacked by people all over the world. The attacks aimed towards Mark are because some feel he is the cause for magnifying social divisions because of his Facebook invention. Donah not only exposes the history of segregation in America, but she also talks about the recurring trend that has been around for the last 20 years. The trend Donah identifies is known as “Self Segregation” which has expanded to job opportunities, economic opportunities, and religious institutions. Throughout the passage Donah includes examples and personal experiences that help develop her argument. She uses these points to help structure her argument in a problemsolution format. In the beginning of the passage she gives the history of segregation, then goes to talk about technology being the cause and the effect this issue has had on America. Towards the middle and end of the passage she then introduces effective implications that can be put into place that could help remedy this worldwide issue moving forward. One solution Donah presents includes the Military and their selection process within the Military system. She first points out how prevalent segregation is within the Military which, according to Donah is the reason for the shortage in people serving in the Military since the 1990’s. The reason for the lack of diversity in the Military is because of their unwillingness to accept change within their environment. “Private vendors are not engaged in the same social engi-neering project as the military and, as a result, tend to hire and fire people based on their ability to work effectively as a team. Like many companies, they have little incentive to invest in helping diverse teams learn

to work together as effectively as possible. Building diverse teams—especially ones in which members depend on each other for their survival—is extremely hard, time-consuming, and emotionally exhausting.(223)” Working with people that have diverse demographics, values, politics, and ideologies was an issue for many which is why positions were limited. One other example Donah used to support her argument of self segregation impacting the world was with College Universities. With this topic Donah focused specifically on College Freshman and their housing process. Random roommate assignments were designed by Universities to encourage diversity and to also help create relationships within the residence. Although random selection was created with good intentions in 2006 Donah noticed the trend of self segregation recurring. Donah witneessed students going online to get on Facebook so they could quickly find others from their Freshman class. While going on Facebook to network, Donah noticed that students were using this as an opportunity to find out information about their roommates. After going through their pages some were requesting new roommates based on what they found online. This is an example of self segregating because of their unwillingness to live with someone that is different from them. “By self segregating on campus, students undermine their own potential while also helping fragment the diversity of the broader social fabric.(225)” This quote is beneficial to her overall argument because it acknowledges the way students are limiting themselves because of their inability to accept diversity. According to Donah many are self segregating without actually knowing what they are doing. Self-segregating can be as little as not wanting to participate because of different beliefs, race, political views, etc. One reason why this issue is recurring is because some are genuinely unaware of the benefits of diversity. According to Donah’s article diversity increases cognitive development intellectually and socially. She also states that interacting with a diverse group helps people learn how to work through diverse viewpoints in an appropriate manner. According to Donah’s research, homogeneous environments are typically produced because of “self space”. “Self space” in this context is referred to as feeling more comfortable with those that

share the same beliefs, race, etc. Donah’s also concludes that most people don't intentionally plan to self segregate, but they do it anyway. While using this as an example Donah appealed to pathos because she emphasized the feeling of being comfortable which is something the audience can relate to. Using pathos helped her support her argument because it was used to make the readers more understanding on how self segregating can be unintentional....