Reading Response 6-HGowen.

In the article, “Lest we Think the Revolution is a Revolution”, Cynthia Selfe discusses how advertisements try to paint a picture in people’s minds, that is that America is a land of ‘Equal Opportunity’ for everyone of things such as gender, color, and social rankings, and that everyone who is willing to go along with the American way is welcome here. Cynthia Selfe argues this in her essay saying, “America is the land of opportunity only for some people. The history of slavery in this country, the history of deaf education, women’s suffrage, and immigration remind us of this fact; as do our current experiences with poverty, the differential school graduation rate for blacks and whites and Hispanics, and the face that we have never had a woman president. All these things remind us that opportunity is a commodity generally limited to privileged groups within this country.” This long passage stated by Selfe made me think about how our history and also today’s issues and problems are put together to state that these advertisements are what we want to see instead of what we know is actually happening and what is there. People do not want to see advertisements of ugly people or poor people or anything unhappy. Things like that doesn’t make us happy or make us think good thoughts. People want to see positive advertisements and positive people and people who look attractive because attractiveness is what makes advertisements. It catches people’s attention, rather than non-attractive things people see. In America, people have so many opportunities and options for them in life. In other countries, when they are born, their life is already set in stone for them. They cannot make their own choices like us Americans can. America has so many options for people and what they want to do with their lives and also second chances. If people are willing to work hard for something, anyone can achieve it.

I used countering according to Joe Harris. I argued the other side of how America is not equal and used examples of how Selfe argued that as well. I explained myself by arguing and disagreeing about what the word ‘opportunity’ really is in this essay.