African-American culture Essay Example for Free

African-American culture Essay â€Å"Everyday Use† by Alice Walker centers in the story between a Mother and her children with conflicting ideas on cultural and ancestral preservation (Mohr). The mother who was described in the story as an uneducated, â€Å"big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands who lived in a rural locality depicted a typical black woman during the 1950s-1960s. The story opens as she waited for her two daughters, Dee and Maggie, as they arrived home from the city studying in a university. Upon their arrival at home, they had a quarrel over the possession of an heirloom quilt. The piece illustrates several levels of meaning. There were various symbolism employed by the writer. The possession of the â€Å"quilt† which the whole story revolved around symbolizes the traditional history and the art of the African-American culture, and to their woman to be specific. Their traditional art gives emphasis on abstract designs as shown by the quilt (Mohr). Moreover, it beautifully creates a transition where something as unimportant and as invaluable as a quilt contained a rich and valued importance such as a cultural representation as the story unfolded. The use of Mrs. Johnson as the point of view in this story has a vital role in how the author contrasted the love for culture as opposed to Mrs. Johnson’s daughter Dee’s who showed less worth towards their Black heritage. Her description as a mother symbolizes the general older generation of the African-American culture while on the other hand her daughters who were then educated in college was a representation of the current (new breed) generation. The dispute over the quilt reflects the two sides of the Black societies. Because of the hidden meanings in the story, there will be several ways one can use in order to explain and interpret the story. The mother experienced a lot of confusions and at the same time the incident revealed to her, her daughters’ contradictory understanding towards their lineage. She described her daughter Maggie like a dog run over by some careless person rich enough to own a car†, that is, she recognized her daughter as unsophisticated but loyal (like a dog), as opposed to Dee who see saw as â€Å"burned us with a lot of knowledge†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . This description mirrored Dee’s central role in the story which is a representation of the materialistic and complicated modern Black who was caught in the confusing web between acknowledging her culture and the â€Å"fitting in trend† that was prevalent after the Black Power Movement (Ogbar). Even with the contrasted description, Mrs. Johnson decided to give the quilt to Maggie; she thus confirmed and affirmed her younger daughter’s idea of self-worth and at the same time revealed her own concept through Maggie’s personality. Another important highlight in the story is the similarity between the names of Dee and to that of their Grandmother Dee and this ultimately set the comparison between Dee and her grandmother. The similarity in the name suggests that they came from the same race but the obvious distinction in their characters showed the degree of the influence of the white’s culture to Dee and the preservation efforts by Grandmother Dee as exemplified by doing traditional quilting. The story â€Å"Everyday Use† is a reflection of the author’s early life. Alice Walker who was involved in the efforts of cultural preservation used literature as a device to convey her position and opinion as a Black African American in their turbulent period of struggle for equality. This short story took place in a setting almost the same as the place where she grew up in Georgia. More striking parallelism is on the character of Maggie Johnson, like Maggie, Alice Walker is also disfigured due to a gunshot wound. On the other hand, her similarities with Dee are reflected in their exemplary intelligence which both gained them scholarships in universities. As observed in this story, Alive Walker blatantly expressed her views and judgments towards this racial discrimination and this story was as effective as it is since this is reflective of her life, therefore the feelings associated with it has deep connection to her. Art, for example writing, as I stressed in the introduction is one of the effective vessel that carries your thoughts when you don’t want to deliberately express an unaccepted idea and also, it is a helpful tool for conveying a strong message at the same time entertaining.

I Have Cancer and My Brother has Cerebral Palsy :: Personal Narrative, Autobiographical Essay

There are things in life which none of us can control, in my life there have been many such things. In trying to write this essay I have a difficult time trying to decide what I am going to write about. I have many ideas running through my head,and I am trying to decide what makes me who I am, what makes me special. Soren Kierkegaard said, "Life can only be understood backwards, but must be lived forwards." I have a difficult time understanding my life even as I look back, I am unsure of why things happened and what effect certain events had on my life. I say this because I know nothing else, I have nothing to compare my life to. I am who I am and I have always been this way. There are three major topics that I am considering to include in my essay. The first topic is my medical history, which is quite thick, as shown by my four fat medical files. The problems all started at an early age when E-coli was found in my hip, and it had to be removed. I went in to surgery for the first time, before my first birthday, and had part of my hip scraped out to remove the bacteria. This was the first of about 5 major surgeries and a vast number of visits to the doctors. I could talk about the trauma I went through wondering if I would ever be able to walk, but I was too young to remember any of this. The E-coli was of little importance in my mind except that it was my first surgery, and also that Doctor's told my parents I would always walk with a limp, and be unable to compete in athletics. The condition that everyone believes had the largest effect on who I am is CANCER, I made that big and bold because I want the sympathy vote. I was diagnosed wi th cancer on Feb. 11, 1987 and went into surgery 2 days later. I didn't remember that date, and I had to go ask my parents all of this. They remember it all. I had a stage four Wilms Tumor attached to my left kidney, I know what side because I get to look at the huge scar every day, and that the doctor's gave me about a 50/50 chance of survival.

Forecasting the manpower needs of Ya Kun Essay

Question-1: How would you forecast the manpower needs of Ya Kun? There are few ways by which we can forecast the manpower needs of Ya Kun Kaya. They are: * Trend analysis * Ratio analysis * Scatter plot and * Computerized system Based on trend analysis, we can find new recruit by studying the variation of their past employment levels which means that they can provide an initial estimate of future staffing needs, but employment levels rarely depend just on the passage of time. They looked their past performance of sales, productivity and so on to estimate their employee also because if their performance goes beyond their expectation like Ya kun that have many outlets throughout the world, they may required more employee either full time or part-time. Other forecasting method that we can use to forecast their manpower is ratio analysis. In this method, the forecasting would be based on the historical ratio between some causal factor (like sales volume) and the number of employee required such salespeople. In this case, Ya Kun need more employee because they need more salespeople to run the business in each of their outlets. The sales volume for Ya Kun also one of the factor that Ya Kun need to recruit employee. Compared to trend analysis, ratio analysis assumes that productivity remains about the same. Another method we can use is scatter plot to forecast their manpower. In this method, the personnel may use two related variables to indicate the relation between the two such as sales volume and number of employee. If these two factors are related, then the points will tend to fall along straight line then the personnel can forecast the need of new recruitment. Computerized forecasting also is one way that can be used to forecast their need of manpower. With programs like these, employers can more accurately estimate how many employee that they need to projected productivity and sales. Question-2: What are the advantages and disadvantages of Ya Kun’s hiring part-time workers? Advantages of hiring part-time workers include: * Flexibility in scheduling as they help to fill in the gaps when the full-time workers go on leave or are taken ill. * Part-timers will complement the full-time workers. * Allows Ya Kun to tap into a larger available pool of job applicants as many more people may be willing and able to work part-time as opposed to full-time. * They may be deployed strategically during peak hours. Disadvantages include: * They may be less committed to the company. * It may be more difficult to integrate them as they only work occasionally. * Having too many part-time workers may affect teamwork. Question-3: A good attitude and commitment are two important attributes that Ya Kun looks for in its job applicants. Is a job interview an effective method to assess these two attributes? What else can Ya Kun do to get reliable information on these two attributes? A job interview may not be the most effective method to assess these two attributes as they are not directly observable during the interview process. In order to obtain reliable information on these two attributes, managers of Ya Kun may: * Ask the job applicants for referrals in the application pack, and contact the referrals to obtain information regarding these two attributes. * Use critical incidence interviews to test if the job applicants have past examples of these attributes. * Provide job applicants with a realistic job preview by telling them about all the challenges and worst case scenarios that their staff faces. This allows the applicants to have a better idea of the job and make a better-informed choice of whether to take up the job or not. * Use role-playing exercises where the applicants play the role of the staff, and the managers the customers, so that the managers may observe how the applicants may potentially react when they are actually working for Ya Kun. Question-4: What suggestions would you make to Ya Kun to improve its recruiting processes? Ya Kun’s low turnover rate and large pool of hardworking committed workers indicates that its recruitment processes are working well. However, to improve their recruiting process, Ya Kun’s managers may choose to: * Use more internal referrals as employees know what kinds of applicants will fit well with the prevalent company culture. * Hire a larger ratio of part-timers to full-timers as this allows them greater flexibility in scheduling. * Convert part-timers to full-timers if they perform well and if they are open to the switch. * Maintain contact with those employees who have left the company so that they can be informed of any new positions in the company. Q1. Ya Kun can forecast the manpower needs by using ratio analysis to conduct a quantitative analysis of information in a company’s financial statements. Ratios are calculated from current year numbers and are then compared to previous years, other companies, the industry, or even the economy to judge the performance of the company. Based on the analysis, Ya Kun could increase their salesperson to run the business in their outlet. Ya Kun can even use trend analysis as an aspect of technical analysis that tries to predict the future movement of a stock based on past data. Trend analysis is based on the idea that what has happened in the past gives traders an idea of what will happen in the future. Based on trend analysis, Ya Kun can find new recruit by using their past experienced by estimating the number of staffs needed in future. The organization could either recruit full- timers or part timers. YaKun also can use computerized system to predict the manpower needs for their organization. The employer could estimate the number of staffs needed to increase their sales. Q3. A job interview is not really an effective way to assess these attributes. It is because a job interview is only a process in which a potential employee  is evaluated by an employer. During this process, the employer hopes to determine whether or not the applicant is suitable for the job by looking at their experience and academy level. If Ya Kun is looking for an employee with a good attitude and commitment they could use behavioral interview questions. Through this way the employer could ask questions related on what they did in past jobs or life situations that are relevant to the particular job and skills. The answers given by the applicant can be used to predict their future performance in similar situations. Ya Kun could also use situational interview questions. During the question and answer session the applicant will be ask to imagine a situation and respond base on it. Based on the answers given, the employer could predict the commitment level of the applicant. Ya Kun could use the two weeks training period to study more about the applicant because it is difficult to judge the attitude and commitment level during theinterview. Usually commitment level and attitude will be only revealed after acertain period of time.

Poverty A Study of Town Life Essays - 1051 Words

Poverty: A study of town life INTRODUCTION After reading Booth’s work on The Life and Labour of the People of London led me to construct my own investigation on poverty but in a provincial town so I can then find an applicable general conclusion for a smaller populated area. My objective is to investigate upon the living conditions that the working classes of small towns inhabit as well as the growing problem of poverty. Preparing for my observational research I had to decide on how to collect my information as there are two methods I have found and both could be effective in coming to a general conclusion about poverty in Britain. One method is to gather together and analyse statistics which would include looking through medical†¦show more content†¦So I began short house to house surveys to the whole of the working class in of the city, and with this I decided to obtain my information regarding the housing, occupation, and earnings of every wage-earning family in York. Also together with the number and age of the children in each family. As my investigation progressed I found that likewise to Booth’s research into poverty the lowest wages to the working class is 21 shillings which I have concluded to be 14.5% of the population. Along with this, the image acts as evidence to that the statistic since an average middle or upper class person can afford to spend 60% on food and the rest on clothing or leisure items, whereas a family of 4 live off 21 shillings a day. A primary objective of mine is that I should not only take into consideration the population that is living in poverty but also the nature of the poverty. On the streets of York there are 11,560 families which inhabit 388 of the streets this compromises the population of 46,754. Amongst these families are families of whose total earning are insufficient to obtain the minimum necessaries for the maintenance of merely physical efficiency. After seeing this type of poverty which comes under financial struggle I believe this should be described as ‘primary poverty’. Then in comparison are families whose earnings would be sufficient for the maintenance of fairly physical efficiency were it not that a smallShow MoreRelatedThe First English Poor Law Legislation1453 Words   |  6 Pageswhich made it possible to build sewers. 1870 - The Education Act (1872 in Scotland) provided free compulsory elementary education for all, up to the age of 12 at first, later to 14. 1872 - The Public Health Act defined responsible sanitary authorities (town councils (in urban areas) or Poor Law Boards of Guardians (in rural areas)). 1885 - The law which required people to become paupers before using the infirmaries was abolished. Medical care in 19th century was private or volunteer. Because by then sicknessRead MoreThe Lives Of Rural Poverty823 Words   |  4 PagesFamilies, especially children, who are living in rural poverty are by the very definition isolated from others. Not only are they isolated physically from their peers and resources they are also isolated from the research community. Their very existence is only recognized by those who happen to have direct contact with them: the few hundred people that live in their town, the 50 students in their school or the family members who reside under one-roof (which often is well above the â€Å"traditional† familyRead MoreThe Impact Of Government Poverty In The Economy987 Words   |  4 PagesFinancial Crash of 2008, yet some cities are still in the same recession. High growth cities, like Los Angeles and New York City are creating economic struggles in decaying industrial towns (Sparshott, 2017). How are these correlated? It is human nature to w ant to be where successful people are. Those in small decaying towns see the citizens of Los Angeles prospering, consequently, people who are capable will move to these high growth cities and leave behind their hometowns. The population left behindRead MoreThe Unemployment And Crime Rate Of Detroit1285 Words   |  6 PagesDetroit In early 2014 Detroit became the largest U.S city to ever declare bankruptcy. The City’s current poverty rate is horrendous. It has thousands of vacant or abandoned homes, and communities without the expected municipal services. Detroit even shut off the water to thousands of customers who were late or haven’t on their water bill. Detroit also has the highest murder and violent crime rate of any major city in the country. FBI statistics shows that Detroit logged in 316 murders and non-negligentRead MoreThe Present Outlook Of The American Dream1191 Words   |  5 Pagescitizens for years, leading them to a â€Å"richer and fuller land† until recently. This dream has now become a nightmare. To the men and women living below the poverty line, the American Dream is rarely achievable, and as time progresses, the Dream is furthering away from the grasp of the poor. This difficulty in achieving -- â€Å"a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement† -- is due to one of the growing challenges in AmericaRead MoreA Visit At South Africa Essay1742 Words   |  7 PagesA Visit to Cape Town in South Africa It is unrealistic to visit Africa, obviously, without being distinctly mindful of the test confronting such a large number of nations over the mainland. There is a lot of neediness and too little development and this is unsuitable. The same can be said for some different areas on the planet; and what I need to say today applies to all low salary nations. Be that as it may, the need to gain ground is especially intense in Africa, where meeting a Thousand yearsRead MoreImproving Clean Water And Sanitation1651 Words   |  7 PagesThe specific target of interest is improving clean water and sanitation. The specific country of interest is Ethiopia, the landlocked country located at the horn of Africa. Although Ethiopia has experienced significant economic growth and declining poverty they are still susceptible to issues such as disease, climate related crisis, and drought. High rates of infant and maternal mortality remain as well as limited access to clean water. Ethiopia is the second most populated Sub-Saharan African countryRead MoreThe Social Problem Of The Video Separate And Unequal Is Poverty And Racism982 Words   |  4 PagesThe social problem shown in the video Separate and Unequal is poverty and racism. This video focuses specifically on Jackson, Mississippi. This video takes a look at Lanier High School and some of the student’s experiences and difficulties in this school due to poverty in this town. Jackson Mississippi is 70% black and Lanier High School is 100% black students. Everything started to go downhill for this community after integration occurred. Black students left their school and went to a more diverseRead MoreThe Adverse Effects of Opening a New Walmart Store in a Small Town: An Argumentative Essay1129 Words   |  4 Pagescause civilians discomfort is endless. Wal-Mart, the leading retail company in the world has become a target to public resentment and wariness on part of small businesses. The paper suppo ses a scenario where Wal-Mart is opening a new store in a small town. It will predict the reactions of the residents and the small business owners and prepare a counter argument. Introduction Wal-Mart is a US based Multinational and owner of the largest chain of national, international retail stores. In 2002 it becameRead MoreRural Urban Migration Is An Inevitable Component Of The Development Process1548 Words   |  7 PagesThe phenomenon of rapid urbanization in less developed countries and in the absence of extensive industrialization, led to the emergence of illegal settlements and shanty towns, discuss the relationship between urbanization, poverty and development; and use a case study to illustrate the effects of rapid urbanization in LDC’s. Rural-urban migration occurs at varying rates in every country. This paper focuses on the process of rural-urban migration and its influence on urbanization in developing