Month: February 2022

The way a paper is written, including the types of sentences used in it, has major effects on whether a reader will understand the paper. Repetitively writing one type of sentence in a paragraph will cause the readers to be disengaged and perhaps confused. A writer should always aim to balance the different types of sentences they use in their paper. In the two paragraphs I chose, I utilized all four types of sentences mentioned in the slides and the article. In the paragraphs, I wrote 6 complex sentences, 4 simple sentences, 3 compound sentences, and 2 complex compound sentences. The result reveals that I utilize complex sentences the most in my writing. I was a little surprised that I had 4 simples which I thought would be lower. Another thing I was surprised about was I had 6 complex sentences 3 compound sentences. I thought I would have the most number of compound sentences but it was probably due to that I wrote 4 simple sentences. The count of different sentence types will encourage me to limit the number of simple sentences within my writing. Perhaps I can combine some simple sentences and form compound sentences. These changes will enhance my writing because some simple sentences combined will make the piece of writing easier to read or flow better. In addition, I can also choose to explain more in those simple sentences to make them complexes, compounds, or even compound complexes. For the final paper, I think I will be focusing on explaining the quotes more and making the arguments more clearly for the readers to understand.

To be quite honest, I was not as surprised by the results. The only part that surprised me was there were 2 simple sentences, which I thought would be the least. I know that I’m pretty wordy, especially when it comes to essay writing like analysis, therefore, I did expect there to be fewer simple sentences. I think the overall results do support how I’ve seen my writing, as trying to add a lot of information into each sentence, whether that ends up being the most efficient way varies. It also might have been since it was a draft I was trying to get a lot of my ideas and information on paper, so it might have added to it. I would want to look over what is written and see if the way they are written is truly helpful or maybe rewriting them in a different sentence-style will help improve the overall message. Therefore, it will help me be more conscious of how exactly I’m writing as some sentences might benefit being, for instance, a compound sentence, while others might be better as a simple sentence.  These edits go with how I plan to revise my draft as I want to review it and try to make sense of how to organize the information for it to make the most sense. This goes with the sentence revision as maybe it would make more sense for me to change the order of the information or reword it so that the overall message makes the most sense. 

After marking each sentence in two of my paragraphs, the results showed that I’ve incorporated all 4 writing styles, but I used complex and compound sentence structures more so than any other. This is mostly because of my usage of transition words and prepositions to start my sentences. The least used style within my 2 paragraphs was the complex compound style. . The result wasn’t that surprising to me since, for first drafts, I’m aware that I use these structures more so than any other one. Due to this, I create sentences that are a bit wordier than I would like. This forms a tiresome-to-read sentence, which could lose its value in the grand scheme of things. It also leads to many instances of redundancy. To accommodate for these issues, I’ll work on changing and incorporating more simple style structures. This structure will allow the main point of the sentence to be emphasized and shown in a more clear manner. I can also work on cutting down unnecessary words within these complex and compound sentence structures to make them easier to read and flow better. Sentence structure correlates to the other edits and revisions I plan on making by it brings clarity to the main theme of each paragraph and corresponding sentences. Efficient sentence structure usage is important in creating fluid transitions from sentence to sentence. Ideally, this would make grammatical issues easier to spot, the writing process smoother, and the viewing process more enjoyable.

While reading the “Racial Capitalocene” by Francoise Verges, and “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants” by Sophie Kasakove, one thing that I noticed is that race plays a huge role on what environmental dangers they face. Even though these excerpts share different stories, they explain similar troubles that families of low income can face. For example,  in “Racial Capitalocene” it is mentioned how “race was the single most important factor in determining where toxic waste facilities were sited in the United States and that the siting of these facilities in in communities of color was the intentional result result of local, state, and federal land use policies. This shows how these minority groups have no other choice than to deal with this because in order to get away from these places they would need money which is sometimes a trouble for them. It is also shown that the government has no intentions to help the people of lower class because they will always be victims of radicalized environmental politics.  In addition, the the excerpt “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants” it is mentioned how “a lot of people didn’t have the resources to rebuild. some homes eventually went foreclosure, and other were sold.” Because of natural disasters, people are being forced to leave their homes without any option of looking back simply because they can’t afford to fix things on their own. People who were actually able to fix their homes and prevent them from being ruined by floods took over the neighborhood. Both of these articles have shown that minority groups are unable to afford better living conditions.

In both articles, “Racial Capitalocene” by Francoise Verges and “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants” by Sophie Kasakove share a common theme, in which race plays a huge role on environmental racism and it is mainly targeted on communities of color. As mentioned by the author in “Racial Capitolocene”, “A report was made in which showed that race was the single most important factor in determining where toxic waste facilities were sited in the United States and that the siting of these facilities in communities of color was the intentional result of local, state, and federal land-use policies.” Here this illustrates how unethical these facilities are placed across the U.S and most of these facilities primarily located near communities with more people of color. Another example would be a quote from the “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants” article, which discusses about the effects of natural disasters, like hurricane Sandy, on middle-class families and specifically black families. These families weren’t able to afford to stay in their homes and with the lack of support from the government they were forced to leave their homes. In the text it says, “After Sandy, it became even harder; the government programs designed to help people with recovery costs have been notoriously inadequate. Many people dropped out of Build It Back, New York City’s largest post-Sandy assistance program, because of delays, paperwork issues, and shoddy construction work.” During this time the assistance program backfired on aiding the community in such a effective and efficient way. A lot of communities were affected by the results of Hurricane Sandy however the communities that were filled with people of color were being effected because they were not able to resolve their problems quicker.

While reading the articles “Racial Capitalocene” by Francoise Vergès and “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants” by Sophie Kasakove, It made me realize how race and income level plays a huge role in where you are located geographically. Based on where you are living you are vulnerable to the disasters global warming can cause. Racial Capitalocene stated “It (Toxic Waste and Race in the United States, a report by the Commission for Racial Justice of the United Church of Christ) showed that race was the single most important factor in determining where toxic waste facilities were sited in the United States” Placing these waste facilities in areas that are populated by low income minorities proves that the government thinks of these communities as trash. Throughout the article it states that these climatic changes that were caused by the government have affected black communities the most. From stripping gold, oil, land and other scares resources from other countries through colonialism to slavery, where human beings “were forced to share its social product” meaning themselves. In New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants, Sophie Kasakove expressed how the working, low income residents were kicked out from their homes following hurricane sandy. Programs specifically designed to help victims of the hurricane, were extremely slow and till this day most of those people are still waiting. Because the neighborhood is made up of the working class, they could not afford to live anywhere else because of how high rent has gotten.Those who did leave also left an impact on Jamaica Bay. “The flight of working class homeowners from these neighborhoods accelerated gentrification”. The community did not have the economic status to rebuild their homes and programs did not help them either, this goes to show the government does not care about the minority communities, when it allows capitalism to flourish.

When I read the articles “Racial Capitalocene” by Francoise Vergès and “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants” by Sophie Kasakove, I noticed that they both mention that different races will have different living environments and that low-income races are more vulnerable to climate change or other external factors that make their living environments worse. In Françoise Vergès’ article “Racial Capitalocene,” published in 1987, “Toxic Waste and Race in the United States,” it is stated that “race was the single most important factor in determining where toxic waste facilities were sited in the United States” and that “three out of every five Black and Hispanic Americans lived in communities with uncontrolled toxic waste sites.” This shows that the feelings of black and Hispanic Americans are not taken seriously by the government and that they live in a poor environment where their physical health may suffer as a result. Furthermore, in “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants,” Sophie Kasakove says, “many of those who stayed after Sandy were forced from their homes anyway. In the years following the storm, homeowners in areas affected by Sandy were foreclosed upon at twice the rate of those in similar neighborhoods elsewhere in the U.S. ” It demonstrates that many low-income residents were forced out of their homes due to climate change, but the government did not help them overcome this problem. Overall, race determines the living environment in which one lives. Low-income people have to live in a bad environment because they do not have the funds to improve their lives, and the government chooses to neglect the needs of low-income people.

After reading both articles, Racial Capitalocene by Francoise Vergès and New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants by Sophie Kasakove, it made me realize that race has everything to do with the community and environment that someone lives in. Minorities tend to live in communities with worse conditions because of financial problems. 

In the article, “Racial Capitalocene,” by Francoise Vergès, it states, “It showed that race was the single most important factor in determining where toxic waste facilities were sited in the United States and that the siting of these facilities in communities of color was the intentional result of local, state, and federal land-use policies.” This shows that toxic waste facilities are used as another tool for fueling systemic racism and inequality bc it is undesirable to have a toxic waste facility in your neighborhood for obvious reasons which means the burden falls on POC communities local, state, and federal land-use policies directly police POC communities by building toxic waste facilities in their neighborhoods this systemic inequality is also seen in food deserts and quality of grocery stores available to POC communities as well as unequal access to quality education

The article, “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants,” Sophie Kasakove, states, “In the Rockaways, in Queens, and Brooklyn’s Canarsie, the median asking rent is $1,837 and $2,000, respectively, compared with an overall median of $2,199 in Queens and $2,500 in Brooklyn, according to StreetEasy. They are some of the only places where homeownership is attainable for middle-class families, particularly for black families: In 2017, in Canarsie and neighboring Flatlands, 62 percent of the population identified as black and the homeownership rate was 57 percent, the highest of any neighborhood in Brooklyn.” This shows POC residents are typically forced into unsafe, unfavorable neighborhoods bc the rent is lower and therefore more accessible even though it is more dangerous.

Both of these articles continue to show ways of how minorities are forced into bad living environments and communities because they can not afford anything better since it is way out of the price range.

Reading the two articles, it can be concluded that capitalistic practices marginalize already marginalized people of color, especialy the Black community. The article “Racial Capitaloscene” by Francoise Vergès, shows that the climate change movement and the notion of “anthropocene” doesn’t take into account the huge impact of colonialism and capitalism leading to the unsafe environments inhibited by largely Black and Hispanic communities; instead, generalizing the notion and erasing the racist tendencies to explain and promote the movement. The article “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants” by Sophie Kasakove, on the other hand, explains that the impacts of the environmental disaster caused by Hurricane Sandy put the largely Black community living in Canarise at risk for moving, selling their homes, or being forclosed on, not because of the detriment of the hurricane, but because of flood insurance costs and gentrification. Therefore, it can be deduced that the capitalistic world we live in preys off of marginalized groups, especially African-Americans, under disguise.

     It’s stated in “Racial Capitalicene,” that “Sociologist Jason Moore has suggested the notion of a Capitalocene which brings back capitalism ‘as a world-ecology, joining the accumulation of capital, the pursuit of power, and the co-production of nature in dialectical unity.'” Because capitalism benefits from cheap land and resources, factories and chemical plants tend to be placed near housing projects and low-income areas, neglecting and harming already marginalized communities and exploiting the people and the areas in which they live. Similarly, in “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants” it is stated that “Years after Sandy, those who leave the city are unlikely to blame it on climate change. They might instead cite flood insurance costs, gentrification, or lack of affordable housing.” Although government assistance programs were put in place due to the disaster, the proved to be inadequate, while people were forced out of home because of rising insurance costs, foreclosures in Canarise also rose drastically, and the rates of foreclosures were even higher in non-white areas. Again, since Capitalism benefits from preying off of cheaper land and resources, Sandy making it difficult for people to stay in the neighborhood also made it easy for developers to cash in on the area, gentrifying it, and raising the cost of living. This is also making it even harder for people to stay and continue living in Canarise, all while what is causing this trend is capitalism, and not solely the hurricane.

     In closing, we can interpret these articles to come to the conclusion that capitalistic tendencies exploit marginalized groups while hiding behind shadows.