Paper #2 assignment: due Thursday by 5pm

Paper #2: The Cultural Conversation

“We cannot escape our history. All of our solutions to the great problems of health care, education, housing, and economic inequality are troubled by what must go unspoken.” (Coates, “The Case for Reparations”)

The three essays we’ve read for class deal with very difficult, divisive topics in our culture: health care, rape, and race. Once you start listening to the conversation, you realize how deeply each one is rooted in history—a history that spans millions of lives and twice as many discussions and conversations. Below, I’ve given you three naysayer responses to each of the three essays in class. I want you to choose ONE of them as the basis for your Second Paper. You can either (a) use the argument as your general thesis, and write a paper supporting it, or (b) spend your essay refuting it, and trying to prove the opposite side. Either way, you need to employ your own naysayer arguments to show both sides of the conversation, and suggest that whatever you believe, the argument is hardly cut and dry.

THE NAYSAYER RESPONSES (pick one):

N1: I feel that with the limited time and funds dedicated to fighting diseases, Alzheimer’s has to rank low on the totem pole. Since this is an “end of life” disease, it’s better to spend the money on those who are just starting their lives, who have more hope and promise rather than those who have already fulfilled it.

N2: It’s better to define rape as broadly as possible, since the more cases we prosecute, the more rapists we are likely to catch. Since so many rapes go unreported anyway, it’s better to risk being wrong rather than let thousands of women go without justice. Besides, as rape allegations become more commonplace, it will drive the serial rapists from campus and eventually stop the epidemic altogether.

N3: The past is the past. We can’t make up for it, we can’t pay money to it, and we can’t move forward by looking backward. While some believe that reparations will heal financial and psychological wounds, the only real way to do that is simply to work hard and stay strong. We’ve come a long way, and reparations are a step backward for everyone, including the victims.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Use the corresponding essay in your paper significantly: quote from it and use it as a way “in” to the conversation.
• 2-3 secondary sources: these should be articles from EBSCO or another trustworthy source (articles/websites with authors). Use these in your paper as support or as naysayers. Be sure to quote and respond to them in your paper.
• See Quotation Handout: Introduce quotes, cite them properly, and respond to each one. Include a Works Cited page.
• At least 4-5 pages, double spaced
• DUE Thursday, October 6 by 5pm