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Week 4 Assignment 1: Conversation Writing

Tonya Carline

AWS100: Academic Writing Prep

11-27-16

Miguel Franco
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Each of the sources I found had a very similar stance that supports my topic on Diversity: the

importance of embracing diversity, culture, different lifestyles, and the importance of

interactions with one another as human beings. Although the sources have similar perspectives,

they all say something exclusively designed to start a conversation about its importance, either,

over other sources of research, or in conjunction with another source information.

On the one hand, J. Mena-Gonzalez, Diversity in Early Care and Education: Honoring

Differences (2008), on the other hand you have, The House on Mango Street S.Cisneros (1994).

In Diversity in Early Care, she argues that there are problem resolutions between teachers and

families of diverse cultures, that with a balance of understanding, and respect for each other

culturally we can find honor in our differences and be able to work with one another, teachers

with parents, and community relations as well.

In contrast, the House on Mango street, she makes a point that culture and poverty have its

own place in the world, and people overcome those life situations, and that identity and culture

can become a crisis for some people, that may lead them to other negative outcomes. Some

would argue that both sources, although they clearly deal with diversity, the contrast is that

maybe J. Mena-Gonzalez argument is more solution based and offers more strategies as to how

to reach levels of inclusion and celebration of diversity and culture as opposed to S. Cisneros

argument that tells a story of poverty. In hopes that it would generate a spark of hope that will

enable people to be more sympathetic when considering what some cultures experience when

trying to survive.

In our course reading “They Say/I Say” by: Gerald Graff & Cathy Birkenstein, they say: “It

is what others are saying and thinking that motivates our writing and gives it a reason for being.
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I agree with that, with regards to the two sources that I just briefly discussed, If the topics that

they have written motivates and inspires the reader, then the writing has served its purpose.

In Tatum Daniel, B. Writing “Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria”

The issue being: the complexity of identity, as it relates to identifying one’s culture, She argues

that the topic of race and identity is such a sensitive topic, Americans tend to believe that racism

is no longer an issue, because many are uncomfortable with the conversation- so we culturally

navigate to what is familiar to us, while the issue continues to become an even greater problem.

In discussions of the rout to racial divides and diversity, one controversial issue has been

How to bring an end to what divides us all as human beings. J. Erikson (1991) “Wisdom and the

Senses: The Way of Creativity, she says, in collaboration with the other sources demanding

strategies, acceptance, and inclusion, as a means to bridging the divide to cultural issues, that we

must celebrate life cycles within itself, dealing with the starting point of our intellectual,

emotional, interactions with one another, she argues that basically- the information that we

receive while we are babies, or young can be shifted into positive stimuli that will later in our

adult lives help us to receive each other in a more accepting way.

If I were to compare all of the source up to this point, my own view is that what is similar, is

that each source is communicating formulae to assist in dealing with some sort of solution to as

to what separates us as human beings. In Lisa Delpit’s, “Multiplication is for White People” Her

argument about racial disparities within our education system, is supported by Academic

Performance Index scores in many school districts, it is a conventional wisdom that if one sub-

group continues to decline in academic standardized test, the entire school is affected by the

score. She argues that racial disparities are disparities for us all as human beings. The idea that
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what happens to one culturally, in the long run may influence all is a theme that each of my

sources collaborate, the idea of being “my brother’s keeper” Finding was to understand our

stories and bridge them collaboratively to find ways that create understanding.

In our course read “They Say/I Say” It stated: “When entering a conversation, you need to

start off with “what others are saying.” In this conversation of my sources, the collaboration of

how each source connects, has to do with each of the sources interpretation of Diversity and

inclusion, although they may have a different stance on each of the sources I chose, their

perspective is what’s similar, the perspective that the conversation of culture, diversity and

humanity is important enough to create literature that engages the conscious and invokes change.

Just as J.Erikson depicts the child as a blank slate from birth, able to receive programing that

will shape who they become as a productive human being, Lisa Delpit depicts the same argument

that there is no achievement gap when a child is born, both arguments reflect how there are

elements that conspire against a human beings natural ability to be an accepting individual

without bias, and racism.

In Cisnero’s “The House on mango Street” the story depicts a girl who’s relationship with

her family provides her with a sense of belonging, much like Daniel Tatum’s “Why Are All The

Black Kids Sitting Together” The similarity is the sense of cultural belonging that one finds in

what is familiar- the contrast is that, one source depicts the same principal , but on a very

different scale. Tatum’s depiction deals with an entire sub-group of people, where Cisneros, is

more from the perspective of one family, but with a larger audience in mind.

To Conclude, the sources that I chose was because of a conversation that I saw taking place

between the authors- on humanity, culture, race, and inclusion.

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Bibliography

Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, They Say/I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic

Writing (New York: Norton. 2006).

Gonzalez -Mena, J. (2008). Diversity in early care and education:honoring differences.

University of Michigan: McGraw Hill.

Cisneros, S. (1984). The house on mango street. Arte Publico Press.

Tatum Daniel, B. (1999). Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?

New York : Basic Books.

Erikson, J. (1991). Wisdom and the senses: the way of creativity. San Francisco: WW.

Norton Company.

Delpit, L. (2012). Multiplication is for white people; raising expectations for other people’s

children. New York: New Press.

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