Impact of Slave Trade essays

Impact of Slave Trade essays The slave trade of the 14th through 19th centuries had many impacts on the U.S. and Latin America. In my opinion, though there may have been less slaves shipped there, the overall impact on the U.S. was greater than on Latin America. In many ways these impacts are still being felt today. Some people would say that the greatest impact of the slave trade was the United Stated Civil War. I suppose that this would be an obvious and correct statement, but I believe that the consequences extend far beyond that. In my opinion, the most important consequence of the slave trade is seen in todays American society. Our culture is very concerned with political correctness, and a lot of it is a result of the poor treatment of minorities by our country in the past. It is obvious that the slave trade brought on hundreds of years of racism toward the black race. During the civil rights movement of the 1960s, there was a struggle between the oppressors and the oppressed, ending with the oppressed finally receiving full rights as human beings. Ever since then, there has been an increased level of awareness in the way our culture acts toward minorities, African Americans in particular. I notice people taking extra care in not offending anyone. It is now practically taboo to call someone black, whereas forty years ago it would not be unusual to hear that same person being called the n-word in normal conversation. There are many other examples of the hyper-awareness of American society. Affirmative action illustrated what I believe is the height of the P.C. craze. Though it was later ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, affirmative action established a quota of minorities for businesses and schools. Essentially, if two people, one black and one white, had the same qualifications for a job, or the same GPA and SAT score on a college application, the slot would go to the black ...

Definition and Examples of Persiflage in English

Definition and Examples of Persiflage in English Definition Persiflage is a light, flippant, and/or mocking manner of speech or writing. Also called banter, idle chatter, or small talk. Philip Gooden describes persiflage as a variant on banter. It doesnt add much to that word or other English equivalents and has a slightly twee or over-literary quality (Faux Pas: A No-nonsense Guide to Words and Phrases, 2006) See Examples and Observations below. Also see: ConversationParodySarcasmSnarkVerbal Irony EtymologyFrom the Latin, whistle talk   Examples and Observations Persiflage is speech or writing with tongue in cheek. It combines irony, levity, and paradox, treating trifles as serious matters and serious matters as trifles.(Willard R. Espy, The Garden of Eloquence: A Rhetorical Bestiary. Harper Row, 1983) Lord Chesterfield on Persiflage- There is a certain jargon, which, in French, I should call un Persiflage dAffaires, that a foreign Minister ought to be perfectly master of, and may be used very advantageously at great entertainments, in mixed companies, and in all occasions where he must speak, and should say nothing. Well turned and well spoken, it seems to mean something, though in truth it means nothing. It is a kind of political badinage, which prevents or removes a thousand difficulties, to which a foreign Minister is exposed in mixed conversations.(Philip Dormer Stanhope, Lord Chesterfield, letter to his son, January 15, 1753)- Persiflage. Lord Chesterfield, in a letter of 1757, was the first to use this word in English. Upon these del icate occasions you must practice the ministerial shrugs and persiflage. Hannah More in 1779 presented the feminine attitude toward the cold compound of irony, irreligion, selfishness, and sneer, which make up what the French . . . so well express by the word persiflage. Carlyle, in Heroes and Hero-Worship (1840), said of Voltaire: They felt that, if persiflage be the great thing, there never was such a persifleur.(Joseph T. Shipley, The Origins of English Words: A Discursive Dictionary of Indo-European Roots. John Hopkins University Press, 1984) Persiflage in Women in LoveI think you are very silly. I think you want to tell me you love me, and you go all this way round to do it.All right, he said, looking up with sudden exasperation. Now go away then, and leave me alone. I dont want any more of your meretricious persiflage.Is it really persiflage? she mocked, her face really relaxing into laughter. She interpreted it, that he had made a deep confession of love to her. But he was so absurd in his words, also.(D.H. Lawrence, Women in Love, 1920) The Persiflage of Bruce WillisI remember when they told Sylvia Plath, Hey, Syl, cheer up! I remember when they told e. e. cummings, e, baby; use caps! But did ol e listen? No. Little n. Little o.(Bruce Willis as David Addison in Moonlighting, 1985)Hans Gruber: I thought I told all of you, I want radio silence until further . . .John McClane: Ooooh, Im very sorry, Hans. I didnt get that message. Maybe you shouldve put it on the bulletin board. Since Ive waxed Tony and Marco and his fri end here, I figured you and Karl and Franco might be a little lonely, so I wanted to give you a call.Karl: How does he know so much about . . .Hans Gruber: Thats very kind of you. I assume you are our mysterious party crasher. You are most troublesome, for a security guard.John McClane: Eeeh! Sorry Hans, wrong guess. Would you like to go for Double Jeopardy where the scores can really change?Hans Gruber: Who are you then?John McClane: Just a fly in the ointment, Hans. The monkey in the wrench. The pain in the ass.(Alan Rickman, Bruce Willis, and Alexander Godunov in Die Hard, 1988) Barbershop PersiflageBuddy Litethe barbershop barfly who’s still lounging in his porkpie hat and violating the rule posted on a sign stating No jibber jabberpauses the persiflage to become sentimental.You see, what John doesn’t tell you is that all this is the sideshow, he says. The real museum here is the people.(Luke Jerod Kummer, In Pennsylvania, a Haircut to Remember. The Washington Post, February 25, 2011) Persiflage in FilmExcessive stylistic devices offer possibilities for shifting the status of the film narrative when the plot becomes secondary to persiflage, parody, and/or self-reflexive commentary. Only by recognizing the possibility of such a shift can stylistic devices such as excessive use of voice-over or pompous referencingwhich seem annoying because they hamper the progress of the storybe properly evaluated.(Peter Verstraten, Film Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative. Trans. by Stefan Van Der Lecq. University of Toronto Press, 2009) Pronunciation: PUR-si-flahz