Week 6 Reading Responses, Tasnim Khan

1. What was a moment in Rankine’s excerpt that moved or struck you, and why? Quote from the excerpt and support your response with evidence from the text.

A moment that struck me was when Rankine questioned, “What does a victorious or defeated black woman’s body in a historically white space look like?” (JTC 121). This question draws several controversial issues to the surface and makes the reader think about the deeper topic. Serena and Venus both win and lose all while being surrounded by people that are enraged that they are there in the first place. They have experienced firsthand what the answer to that question might be.”Neither her father nor her mother nor her sister nor Jehovah her God nor NIKE camp could shield her ultimately from people who felt her black body didn’t belong on their court, in their world.” One can imagine how difficult that must have been to still make it out with great success and achievements.

1. Identify two moments in Rankine’s excerpt where she applies lenses you recognize from Blankenship, Graves, and Eickmyer’s list on 102-105. Quote from the excerpt and explain how these lenses serve Rankine’s argument.

One moment where the lens can be applied was Rankine’s use of black artists to metabolize real rage. When applying a lens, this shows an instance in which the term “rhetoric” can be seen as negative. This was described in “What is Rhetoric” by stating that “Often when people think of the term they automatically assume something bad, something overtly corrosive and manipulative or something deliberately incendiary and demeaning” (JTC 95).  They also state, however, “it’s about what we interpret the text to be doing, not “what the author wanted” (JTC 98).  If that is the case when applying a lens, Youngman’s ideas are intended to reveal expectations for blackness rather than provoke anger and display rage. Another instance is when Rankine uses pathos in attempting to encourage the audience to empathize with Serena’s conduct. By illustrating how Serena could be stuck in her body, Rankine seeks to have the audience empathize with her acts.

1. Responding to Graves, Corcoran, and Blankenship, describe a specific moment when you communicated effectively and persuasively without using words. Set the scene for the reader and invite us to feel and see what you and those around you felt and saw. 7-8 sentences.

An instance in which I communicated effectively and persuasively without using words was at work. I work at Sephora and oftentimes customers try on foundation shades at the beauty studio. Sometimes the shades that they try on are completely off from their actual skin tones. When my coworkers and I witness a customer doing this, we signal to each other with our eyes, facial expressions, and hand movements to decide which one of us will help the customer out. I find it cool how we can perform a task and communicate with another individual at the same time without speaking. It does not make the communication any less effective than it would with words. This is because expression plays s huge role in communicating with another person.