#elijahwalker

Introduction- The topic for my rhetorical intervention assignment are stereotypes. Specifically, I focus on the stereotypes about hoodies. People should care about this topic because why should a piece of clothing create such a negative connotation in today’s society. It is only a piece of clothing. Articles of clothing shouldn’t allow people to make assumptions of other people. That is the reason that I have decided to reach out to the ACLU. Because they deal with social injustices such as this.

            Section one- The purpose for my campaign is to bring a bigger awareness of how people judge and wrongly accuse someone based off of what they are wearing only. The ACLU is a global corporation but it should have some type of bases for them to continue to fight against this injustice. For example, two people walk in a store and one is wearing a hoodie and the other is wearing a white T-shirt the person with the hoodie will be given the most attention even though he is walking in at the exact same time as the person with the T-shirt. This has been scientifically proven in “Students Wearing Police Uniforms Exhibit Biased Attention towards Individuals Wearing Hoodies”. The example above shows how an officer is trained to respond upon looking at certain individuals based upon their appearance. The social injustice stated above is a perfect example of how most people view hoodies. The audience that I would like to reach out for is the people who are affected most by this stereotype. Such as the young kids who wear hoods idolizing some of their favorite artist. These can sometimes be the people who are affected most because they are targeted because of what they wear.

            Section two- The conversation that I have researched for my problem is mostly about why the hoodie holds such a negative meaning. For example in “Give The Hoodie A Whole New Meaning” it was stated by members of society that the hood can never be changed and it can never mean anything different because of how everyone else interoperates the hoodie as a sign for gangs, thugs and crime.  The people in the article before said that the clothing is what makes someone a thug not their actions that’s the problem with society because in the person’s eyes who said that the person who wears a hood is always wrong. No matter the circumstance. This is provoking some type of emotion either anger, confusion or even frustration. (“Tragedy Gives A Hoodie A Whole New Meaning”). This article should be noticed by the ACLU because this is evidence of how certain people feel about wearing a hood. The ACLU should focus in on this article or articles like this so that it can be brought to more people’s attention.   

Section three- the media I am using is the ACLU. They are a global company with millions of followers and supporters. The reason that I am choosing them is because of the amount of followers and I would like for the hood injustice to be recognized more by people with in the society. Another reason that I am choosing to use them is because they deal with the social injustices. They have the resources to make a change as well.  

Section four- I believe that for a topic such as this that people are scared to talk about situations such as the Treyvon Martin incident. The reason that I am turning this into the ACLU is because the ACLU is used to dealing with problems such as stereotypes and injustice for certain people. Another reason why I am turning this into the ACLU is because I believe that the ACLU wouldn’t be afraid of bad publicity or backlash from certain people.

Conclusion why is my problem important? The reason it’s important is because I believe in real justice I believe that everyone should be treated fair. Nobody should be put in the position where they are punished or treated unjustly because of what they wear.

    Weeks, Linton. “Tragedy Gives The Hoodie A Whole New Meaning.” NPR, NPR, 24 Mar. 2012, www.npr.org/2012/03/24/149245834/tragedy-gives-the-hoodie-a-whole-new-meaning.

People N Hoods  

Elijah Walker

Professor Lewis

10/25/17

English 112

The reason that I have begun researching the stereotypes in hoodies is because in my eyes I do not understand how a piece of clothing can lead people to determine how a person behaves or how a person acts. How can a piece of clothing determine if a person is representing a gang or if they are criminals?

 http://www.npr.org/2012/03/24/149245834/tragedy-gives-the-hoodie-a-whole-new-meaning

The article “Tragedy Gives The Hoodie A Whole New Meaning,” written by Linton Weeks shows how people can make assumptions of the world and make a clothing piece have a whole new meaning. The hoodie has become a negative concept in the society today. In the article it is recognized in saying that, the hoodie as of right now cannot be redeemed. Some people would even go as far to say that if people do not want to be labeled for wearing the hoodie then they should stop wearing them (Linton Weeks). This is an example of logos based off of the facts and opinions that are being presented within the article. He broke each part of his topic down in the article by listing both sides of the argument in varying substances. In the society it is believed that in some families wearing the hoodie is a type of symbol or a type of stand against all the events that has happened due to the labeling that certain families. The way that this affects me is because being a young male who grew up during the time where hoodies are at its most popular and most controversial, it became a struggle to deal with because my mother would often tell me that I couldn’t have my hoodie up even though it’s the style. I was upset with this but it’s because in the society its unknown how people react when they see people dressed a certain way and she didn’t want me to be classified with negative activities.

   http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=T002&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&currentPosition=1&docId=GALE%7CA480246560&docType=Report&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=&prodId=AONE&contentSet=GALE%7CA480246560&searchId=R3&userGroupName=lom_deltacoll&inPS=true

The next article “Students wearing Police uniforms exhibit biased attention towards individuals wearing hoodies” written by Ciro Civile, Sukhvinder Obhi. In this article it was being researched on the polices reaction time to people based off of what they were wearing. There were four groups of people that the police interacted with and only one group of people the reaction time increase by. It was the people wearing a hoodie that the police were cautious about proving that they were profiling the individuals based off of what they were wearing. This article shows the way that the society feels about people who wear hoodies. This proves that this would be Ethos based off of peoples personal opinion of the hoodie giving the article a deeper meaning. Even if they are simply walking down the street our society feels as if they need to be watching out for that person. I feel like there is nothing that anyone can do to change society’s opinion over the hoodie. People will always associate negativity with the hoodie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0ghNxkW9iI

In the video “One Million Hoodie March” aaronjround1 it’s an interview about how certain civilians feel about what has happened in the event of Trayvon Martyn incident. Provoking and emotional appeal out of the audience making it ethos. For example, a person being interviewed in the video claims that as a society people have made a racial separation in clothes and the way that people behave. People believed that there is a divide among people who see a hoodie as a symbol for negativity and nothing else. The video is made in a interview type of format that is asking different people questions getting their opinion on things happening within the society. For certain people they are trying to erase that thought by doing a march of thousands and possibly a million people to represent a positive idea of a hoodie does not determine who a person is. I one hundred percent agree with this video. I think that this won’t change people’s minds over the stereotype but I do think that it is a start to change people’s mind set about what clothing mean.    

I don’t understand what makes people decide that a piece of clothing can determine who a person is. I don’t think that people can change their opinion on it based off of the articles that I have read and the video that I have watched but I do believe that the severity of the stereotype can be weakened. All the information that I have found all agree on one thing. There is a divide among our society. It seems though that none of these articles states where exactly this stereotype comes from. So that will be something that I may try to research next. As for the larger conversation it almost seems as if articles are afraid to dive in to this conversation. They are careful with what they say but their information is useful but there is so much more that could be discussed.   

 work cited

One Million Hoodies March for Trayvon Martin Minnesota - BROTHER ALI INTERVIEW

aaronjround1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0ghNxkW9iI

              Tragedy Gives The Hoodie A Whole New Meaning

Linton Weeks - http://www.npr.org/2012/03/24/149245834/tragedy-gives-the-hoodie-a-whole-new-meaning

Elijah Walker

Professor Lewis

10/25/17

English 112

The reason that I have begun researching the stereotypes in hoodies is because in my eyes I do not understand how a piece of clothing can lead people to determine how a person behaves or how a person acts. How can a piece of clothing determine if a person is representing a gang or if they are criminals?

 http://www.npr.org/2012/03/24/149245834/tragedy-gives-the-hoodie-a-whole-new-meaning

The article “Tragedy Gives The Hoodie A Whole New Meaning,” written by Linton Weeks shows how people can make assumptions of the world and make a clothing piece have a whole new meaning. The hoodie has become a negative concept in the society today. In the article it is recognized in saying that, the hoodie as of right now cannot be redeemed. Some people would even go as far to say that if people do not want to be labeled for wearing the hoodie then they should stop wearing them (Linton Weeks). In the society it is believed that in some families wearing the hoodie is a type of symbol or a type of stand against all the events that has happened due to the labeling that certain families. The way that this affects me is because being a young male who grew up during the time where hoodies are at its most popular and its most controversial it became a struggle to deal with because my mother would often tell me that I couldn’t have my hoodie up even though it’s the style. I was upset with this but it’s because in the society its unknown how people react when they see people dressed a certain way and she didn’t want me to be classified with negative activities.

   http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=T002&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&currentPosition=1&docId=GALE%7CA480246560&docType=Report&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=&prodId=AONE&contentSet=GALE%7CA480246560&searchId=R3&userGroupName=lom_deltacoll&inPS=true

The next article “Students wearing Police uniforms exhibit biased attention towards individuals wearing hoodies” written by Ciro Civile, Sukhvinder Obhi. In this article it was being researched on the polices reaction time to people based off of what they were wearing. There were four groups of people that the police interacted with and only one group of people the reaction time increase by. It was the people wearing a hoodie that the police were cautious about proving that they were profiling the individuals based off of what they were wearing. This article shows the way that the society feels about people who wear hoodies. Even if they are simply walking down the street our society feels as if they need to be watching out for that person. I feel like there is nothing that anyone can do to change society’s opinion over the hoodie. People will always associate negativity with the hoodie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0ghNxkW9iI

In the video “One Million Hoodie March” aaronjround1 it’s an interview about how certain civilians feel about what has happened in the event of Trayvon Martyn. People believed that there is a divide among people who see a hoodie as a symbol for negativity and nothing else. For certain people they are trying to erase that thought by doing a march of thousands and possibly a million people to represent a positive idea of a hoodie does not determine who a person is. I one hundred percent agree with this video. I think that this won’t change people’s minds over the stereotype but I do think that it is a start to change people’s mind set about what clothing mean.    

The cultural problem analysis assignment that is being written is going to be about building a rhetorical profile. the job of the rhetorical artifact is to influence its readers into thinking a certain way. My job within this assignment is to argue both sides of this argument but not to claim that I’m right about whichever side that I agree with mostly but to analyze the argument in full detail. The way that this assignment will be written is by looking at people who don’t see clothing as a means for judging someone and will deny that any judgment is going on and to look at the people who believe that judgment based off of clothes is occurring.

The reason stereotypes are worth people’s attention is because its deceitful to the people who can become future employees for a company. It’s also worth attention because it becomes a problem for people who have to change themselves. For example, a person who is applying for a job who has piercings and uses other means to express themselves creatively and almost as a way to differentiate themselves among a large group of people.

            The reason that people should care about any type of stereotype referring to appearance such as clothing is because the person applying would be analyzed similar to a reader judging a book by its cover instantly.

The reason that I care about this topic so much is because I want people to look at someone who may be dressed differently and not judge them by appearance alone but by every part of that persons being. I want people to express themselves and not be hated for it. I would like for people to take time to understand that not everyone can be classified as the same. Neither does the reason that a person may dress the way that they do makes them fit into a certain class among society.