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1. What was your process for approaching / building the Essay 3? Talk about specifics of your reading/ writing process?
1a. since this was more research i had to narrow down what i wanted to really talk about and picked the strongest topics to speak on
2. What did you end up focusing on the most for your revision for Essay 3 ?
2a. Quote integration
3.At the end of this class, what is your final understanding of integrated reading and writing? What 3 skills or processes will you take with you to other classes?
3a. My final understanding is being able to connect topics and to understand what you read to be able to explain your point of view easily

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Born Ororo Munroe to a tribal princess of Kenya and an American photojournalist father, Storm is raised in Harlem and Cairo. She was made an orphan after her parents were killed in the midst of an Arab–Israeli conflict. An incident at this time also traumatized Munroe, leaving her with claustrophobia that she would struggle with for life. Storm is a member of the X-Men, a group of mutant heroes fighting for peace and equal rights between mutants and humans.

Fig 1. . Young storm. Marvel fan base“Ororo munroe (earth 616)” 2016, http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Ororo_Munroe_(Earth-616)

Under the tutelage of a master thief an adolescent Munroe became a skilled pickpocket, the means of which she meets through coincidence the powerful mutant Professor X. Professor X later convinces Munroe to join the X-Men and use her abilities for a greater cause and purpose. Possessing natural leadership skills and formidable powers of her own, Storm has led the X-Men at times and has been a member of teams such as the Avengers and the Fantastic Four as well.

Sexualization of women
In comics, there is a lot of sexualization of women from the beginning of superhero creation women have been sexualized to further explain “ Wonder Woman’s body as a cultural artifact represents specifically gendered nationalism” (Mitra Ahmad) Wonder Woman

Fig 2. Andy Sowards.”X-Men Apocalypse”.80 X-Men Art,Andy Sowards Blog 2013, http://www.andysowards.com/blog/2013/80-epic-x-men-art/

represents an unrealistic body image for American women if she is supposed to be an icon there sending the wrong image to consumers. Her body is supposed to be a “cultural artifacts but instead, its misrepresented to nationalist  . and not only is it with dc characters it's the same for Marvel. Just look at the picture of Storm, shes half dressed and showing a lot of skin. This photo makes her look in powered but really she is sexulized her skin is out and shes halfed dressed. This is the norm for many women in comics

Our Beloved Superheroes
Why do we love superheros? Super heros make us feel like we can express ourselves differently then we would, that's why most superheroes wear masks. Women in television have

Fig 3.World Anvil. “Weather Manipulation.World Anvil 2018, https://www.worldanvil.com/w/omniverse-jmtyranny/a/weather-manipulation-power-article

always needed men to save them, instead of just being able to defend themselves. But most comic book and movie makers have been changing these female portrayals to fit a more modernized story.  ” Change the conventional portrayal of female victims (Gladys L Knight)  In action movies and tv females, have been portrayed as helpless. a lot of films females are just supporting male leads. Females only role is a support role for men a lot of times they're played as the love interest, mothers or sisters never really main characters. But in the new age, many females have been looked at as the protagonist and been the main leads. Like in Mulan she didn't have a love interest and she didn't need a mans help to rescue her. This movie along with a handful of others have been deemed to change the portrayal of females as the victims. Strom shows how females can be strong a lead on there own by taking leadership of X-Men often times.

Black Superheroes
In comics we love how characters have powers and amazing backstories.

Fig 4. “Hentai Images.”“Weather Manipulation”.The splendor of storm,Hentai Images 2016, https://zh.hentai-image.com/image/the-splendor-of-storm/page/6/

. In comics, there wasn't a lot of representation for people of color. Kids were being exposed to prejudice media. And many parents wanted more “black superheroes”.expose children's minds to an endless stream of prejudice-producing images” For many years now children have been exposed to comics and many comics have handsome white superheroes and every time and black superhero is mentioned there not as “done up” as their superhero white counterpart a lot of times there subhuman. In other cases black superheroes are created for only for “diversity purposes” and most times they won't have a proper story i.e Black lighting and Black Panther. Putting black into their superhero name only emphasizes why this character was created. kids never had a genuine hero with a proper back story to look up to. Comic book lover of color have to look at so many white heroes with backstories and are handsome while people who look like they are left behind. Why are we subjected to endless streams of prejudice-producing images
We give superheroes an extension of ourselves and make them aspire to be something we're not and that's why we make these characters. I personally love the aspect of heroes. They make me feel like I can be like them and comics tale to a place I never been before. So many powerful characters are created. Their backstories give you a deep glimpse into what they go through and how different they are. Storm is a very powerful character and needs to have her own movie to tell comic lovers her story and make everyone fall in love with this divine being.

In conclusion i would say i personally love comic book characters i like the wole idea of superheroes and them representing different moments in time, and expressing americas issues through media and entertainment. Alot kids this day and age have many different superheroes to lookup to like storm or black panther , black lightings whole family and many other amazing heroes. But what i will say is that these characters like storm deserves to be showcaesd to a wider audience. They need to have there own film. With a film storm can be centralized and put in a spotlight to be adored. Alot of people may not even know who storm is or even what she represents. This may come from lack of exposure and lack of a proper story line but, if the right film makers get the ownership of storm they can really capilized this characters and make her known.

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Reflection 2
ACLT 053
Tyrone McQueen
1. Reflect on Essay 2. What did you learn doing Essay 2? (Both in terms of content, what we talked about, and writing skills.
1a.  I learned about quote integration and capitalization

2. Give yourself a progress note. What did you do well in Essay 2? What did you revise and focus on improving? Did you accomplish this?
2a. I did well in explaining my topic and using evidence to enhance my piont of view. However, I could work on quote integration and punctuation

3. What is your view now of the reading and writing process?  What will you take from Unit 2 and apply to other classes moving forward (be specific).
3a. I will now read and connect different media together and look at the whole piece  to better analyze text.

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3 strengths and 3 things to work on for essay 2

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3 strengths and 3 things to work on for essay 2

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3 strengths.topics,analysis,quote integration
3 Improvements. punctuation,spacing out ideas, capitalization

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Is this America?

Being a black cisgender gay man in today's society is like asking to struggle and this is something I cannot change about myself.  For 18 years of my life, I've gone wondering why gay people get so much hate and go through so much just because of sexual orientation/preference. Why is this such a big deal you ask?. Well for sometime now the world believes that men should not show feelings and a man loving another man intimately is forbidden. Men need to be the muscle. Men need to be dominant and show no weakness. But in reality who sets these rules and why do we enforce them so heavily. Women are also the ones who struggle because of today's standard of beauty. But whos to say what's beautiful? Woman have spent centuries recreating the standard of beauty and people follow this. Many women feel unworthy of a man's attention because they don't have an hourglass figure and no one to uplift their spirits. We say to girls you can have ambition but too much because you will threaten the man. Woman have cuddled men's egos for far too long and not standing up for what they believe will leave them far behind. But that I can say is changing and many feminist have come out and spoken about women's rights. yet America doesn't change but so much.

There is so much I want to say about America let's start with our president Donald Trump. our president has been so much of a tyrant and is running America into the ground and we are letting him get away with it. he's gone and taxed low-income homes and even is starting to deny gay couple foreigners also all foreigners the right to a visa to enter the united states. Yet his plan is to make America great again but see America was never great, to begin with. In our day right now social media is killing the future, from dangerous challenges to people committing suicide because they don't fit the standard statistics of beauty. America this is my home. A home where people care more about how much money you have instead of the person you are. A place where killing innocent people with no reasoning is okay. Yet no one cares to see this point of view.  Everyone that hears Donald Trump's slogan of “make America great again” takes so much offense to it because America was never great. He's trying to make people conform back to segregation and zero rights for women. He's trying to make a white straight man be on top of the food chain with no competition standing in his way. Hopefully, society will see this and act on this instead of feeding into facades. There are so many distractions that blinds us from the truth and what is taking place right now that we don't see. The killings, the shootings, the taxes, all are red flags that some evil is really at work but only half of us understand this or even want to understand this.

The Body

In America, we have this constant reminder of how the world is not equal, and the police having control over your body. The body can be literal or figurative. The government controls everything including something that we think belongs to us. By doing this it makes Americans feel enslaved, tortured and stolen from all which are specimens of sin. Coates talks a lot about the body and how the police have a lot of control over your body. According to Coates, “America’s heresies—torture, theft, enslavement—are specimens of sin, so common among individuals and nations that none can declare themselves immune.” (Coates) . America does a good job with hiding the truth and presenting things without knowing that people will soon figure out what is going on and want to stand up against it. Even though coats says America has heresies and there is no way to fix it, khan-cullors insist that we as black people can come together with a movement to change our outcome. Coates states   “And you know now, if you did not before, that the police departments of your country have been endowed with the authority to destroy your body.”(Coates). In America, police brutality is so overlooked in a sense that it's almost taboo to speak about because yea people will be upset and want justice but many individuals don't fight for the justice they deserve. Coates uses the body as a pawn to show the readers how much control police have over us, he also uses different mediums to further explain his argument. What Childish Gambino uses in his “This is America” video is how social media is a distraction. Even though Coates gets his info from social media Gambino still sticks behind the fact that the government only lets you see what they want you to see and not what's really there.

“Why are black people always the first to be racially profiled”

Black people have always been police targets. Every time a black person walks into an establishment eye follow them around because they “seem suspicious”. Many store owners racially profile black folks in fear that they may steal or rob the store. This particularly relates to black men. Khan-cullors speaks about this personally concerning her brothers. “You cannot readily imagine how someone can be doing no harm and yet be harassed by police.” (Cullors 8) It's been so many cases of police brutality done to black folks who aren't even breaking the law. this repeated abuse of authority is very uncalled for and downright intrusive. Many innocent people of color have lost their life due to either being falsely profiled or just plain harassed. However, these police officers don't face any consequences. We say that America is the land of the free but who is really free?. Is this the America we all have dreamed about? Yes this America, and yes this is how it is always been. White people or people who identify as white don't know what it is to struggle. According to Coates  “the elevation of the belief in being white was not achieved through wine tastings and ice-cream socials, but rather through the pillaging of life, liberty, labor, and land.” (Coates)White people back in the colonizing days use their knowledge to take over land and almost enslave native Americans to do labor. From gathering supplies to planting crops the colonizers knew how to take over. Way back before proper civilization white pilgrims used their knowledge of language to overthrow the native Americans. They use them to crop and gather supplies, thus putting the white man on top. It remained that way for many centuries resulting in America have this idea that people of color are helpers and not citizens. This has always been us. Coates speaks more in-depth about white privilege “This legacy aspires to the shackling of black bodies.” (Coates) The old world in which blacks were slaves is slowly being revealed in today's society starting with the police department and their brutality against citizens of color. Khan-Cullors talks about starting the black lives matter movement to enforce the fact that black lives matter too. Which is what many politicians and police officers fail to realize.

Black lives matter too!

The constant slogan black lives matter too is a reminder to America and the world. The black lives matter movement has been very vocal about police brutality. Finally, we have started a movement for black people. Yes, black lives matter too is the main slogan we want to say to the world. Police brutality has gone on far too long. It has gotten so bad that it leaves us with this constant reminder to America that black lives matter too. With this intention, Coates writes “What should be our aim beyond meager survival of constant, generational, ongoing battery and assault?” (Coates) I feel as though we've been asking ourselves this question but we're not taking the steps into solving this, instead we ignore it and try and pretend that it doesn't exist. In America, the conversation about race is so carefully cultivated it is almost taboo to speak on. Every time something happens to people of color, whether it's them not getting the job they applied for or maybe them getting pulled over by police. People always seem to track this back to race. We say black lives matter too but continue to take the lives of our own fellow black counterparts. Coates speaks in depth about this topic. “Everyone had lost a child, somehow, to the streets, to jail, to drugs, to guns.”(Coates) A Lot of black people know this feeling to lose a friend or a brother to street violence or even police brutality. Our society has this constant reminder that at anytime our black men and women can lose their lives to violence in our own neighborhood yet we do nothing to change it. As Americans, we need to stop killing our own people and start helping and supporting each other. We can't scream black lives matter and expect people in America to listen while simultaneously killing each other. Growing up black is a struggle in itself many black people aren't even uplifted or encourage to survive. With that being said we use prayer and different coping tactics to help us get through the pain. Khan cullors speaks about this.” I was not expected or encouraged to survive”(khan-cullors) a lot of times black folks come from struggle so it's very difficult to obtain “worldly” things like a big house and a nice car. Khan-cullors knows this and talks about how she was embarrassed about her family not being wealthy like the kids at her school. I remember when I was in middle school out of about 50 kids I was the only one who didn't have an iPhone, and I wasn't getting an allowance every week for doing my chores. Instead, I had an android that didn't have service and was a hand me down from my mom. I would always ask for an iPhone and money but my mom didn't have as much money at this time so I had to make do with what I got.
Who does the gov/state really protect?
The police in America are set in place to protect us, but if they are killing black people, who are they really protecting? For Many years we kept having this feeling that the gov. Wasn't really protecting their citizens. It seems as if the police kills blacks for petty crimes or arrest them because they “look suspicious” . in reality the laws and rules set in place aren't to protect all citizens only the ones they want. America has always had this discrimination against people of color and instead of helping, they cause more conflict. Vargas talks about how the gov treats foreigners. ”This book at its core is not about immigration at all, this book is about homelessness...the unsettled, unmoored psychological state that all immigrants like me find ourselves in”.(Vargas). It's a lot of things immigrants have to go through to become American citizens. What we don't know is that thousands of families are separated at borders due to laws set in place by our president. most of these laws are violating rights set in place, therefore, leaving immigrants helpless. Many asylum seekers have to undergo a very cruel and difficult process to gain access to the US. but what's really unsettling is that the process can take weeks before the people are even interviewed! Some asylum seekers are running from something which is in most cases are life or death situations. Families who want to have a better life travel to the us in hopes of starting over. In recent years it has been so difficult to acquire this “American lifestyle” Vargas goes more into depth about separating from his family. ”Separation not only divides families; separation buries emotions” (Vargas pg 13). When kids are separated from their family many times they feel disconnected and finally end up losing those feelings they once had. Vargas started to get older and busier in life so the letters he wrote his mom began to lack emotion as time went on. When kids grow up without their parents they start to leave them behind. When children grow up they change,  whether it's what they’re into or even something as little as their favorite color. Kids grow up and some parents can't really just hop back into kids lives and expect them to remain the same. This goes to show how many families of immigrants have to sacrifice in order to give themselves and their children a good life in America. This has always been us. Not wanting to open our doors to help one another, instead, we make it difficult for people who are in need. Khan-calls talk about how the police/gov does not support foreigners or people of color. ”it is clear that not only are they not our friends but that they do not like us very much”.(khan-cullors 14) Many colored people know it's true. the odds of life are already set against us, without any intervening being done. We cannot change the feelings racist cops have against us. However, we can take the steps to stop this masquerade of cops being “the good guys” and start getting justice for the people who lose their lives every day. crooked cops are using their authority as a crutch to kill innocent people. For as long as I can remember cops have never been on our side. Black people fear for their life every time we have to face a cop. This has always been America.
Race is Tangible
The discussion of race in America is very scarce; it is so taboo that race has become tangible. Race is something that society has made up to categorize people, almost like a social class. If you were white or appeared to be white you were more favorable by the government. If you were colored your life was automatically difficult. Vargas speaks about his experience with race. ”Race was a tangible, tortuous black or white thing in a country where conversations about how you identify and whom you represent largely fall into two extremes.(Vargas) A Lot of times people don't discuss race but, when we do it's always a side we must choose to enhance our argument. Many people choose a side because they want to feel more empowered. Society puts pressure on people who don't identify as a black or white to pick a side without any reasoning. In America, if there is no in between you have to choose a side and stay on that side. No one should be able to choose when he or she wants to be black and they don't. Also with race comes social class. In America, white people in many cases are more fortunate than other races. Khan cullors talk about how she felt when arriving at middle school every morning.  ” Kids pour out these cars, and Lexus and run from waving parents onto the campus….. I realize we are poor” (khan-cullors) khan-cullor was embarrassed by her family and didn't want anyone who she was around to see how poor she was because many kids at her school had nice homes and lavish cars. In America what you have can say a lot about you. Having a nice home, nice car and fancy clothes make you superior in people's eyes. It almost makes you royalty. But when you don't have these things you looked down upon.
I say this is us because over decades America has enslaved blacks. Then when that stopped they turned to segregate us. Now they're taking our rights away. The same rights in which every American citizen is entitled to. But yet its nothing we can do. All the marching and the chanting won't change the higher legislature mind. To them, we are just senseless black folks with no education of politics and no knowledge of how society should be run. A question that I have to the government would be why are so many people in prison for crimes they did not commit? Why continue to punish the innocent? If keeping a young black man from his family isn't hard on them enough, Now u in prison these children for crimes they did not commit. Plea bargain? Like who comes up with this. Or is just another way to enslave blacks once again. Companies like JC penny use prisoners to manufacture their clothes. Yet that's not called slavery. Or are we just not gonna use such harsh words. Prisons take up 25% of the world's population but America only takes up 5%. Is it me or are they shipping criminals from a different part of the world for labor? The dehumanization of people is ridiculous. Locking humans in cages with a sink and toilet without a window is god awful. Also giving them food with maggots in them isn't so pleasant either, even though half of these people are innocent. In the documentary 13th, a young man was beaten almost every day for 2 years by other prisoners and also prison guards for no reason. This young black man tried to commit suicide, after the 2 years he served he was released from prison with all charges dropped but later committed suicide in his Brooklyn home. The question is, Is this America? And  my answer is hell yea