...The Great Debaters The Great Debaters is a very nice movie, and also inspiring. The movie The Great Debaters, thought me a lot about debating, from The Great Debaters; I have learned that debating is not only about talking or throwing arguments. Debating is essentially about passing a message across, feeding your audience or opponents with valid argumentative statements. Strong researches for the selected topic are the main keys and also a primary requirement for a successful debate. With a well conducted research on your topic, you will be more familiar, thus comfortable arguing. Another critical element on debating is how to choose your topic, you have to be very careful with the choice of you topic because your audience or opponents needs to be involve as much as you are, involve means directly touch by the topic. For instance you cannot argue about how it is important to have a High Definition TV in front of a blind audience, eventually it will be a lost of efforts because your audience would careless due to their handicap. A High Definition TV by the way is a feature that comes with some of the flat screen TV and with that feature; it enables you to see every details on the screen. However, confident is another great skill for debating, you need to be confident, convince yourself that you are right about what you debating. Once you are convinced enough, it will be easier to convince your audience. With The Great Debaters, I had a better understanding of debating, and...
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...The Great Debaters was a very powerful and inspirational movie. Watching Denzel, known as Mr. Tolson, lead his debate team to such high success in a time and place where black success was so heavily denied inspired my own academic success. The ability for a group of young children to be victimized by such racism and such denial of basic freedoms and have the capability to rise above and succeed against not only fellow black colleges, but white colleges as well. It was truly a movie of motivation to show how desire, dedication, and perseverance can prevail even in the toughest of times and the toughest of circumstances. During the time, Negro hate and racism was heavily practiced particularly in the state of Texas where Wiley College existed. Not only was the government enforcing unjust laws, they were denying any sort of freedom of speech which all Americans have the right of. In a country where we are all born as free men and are all granted rights as citizens, Blacks were an exception. Is this not unjust? Is this not a crime violating the constitution of this country? In the state of Texas, negroes were being lynched and tortured because of the rise against the status quo, and here we had a group of college students civilly disobeying the law. How can a man born in the U.S by law being given rights granted by the constitution be lynched and burned on the stake with no justice? These men have the same rights as any other white man and this group of students that joined together...
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...THE GREAT DEBATERS Based on a true story, the plot revolves around the efforts of debate coach Melvin B. Tolson (Denzel Washington) at historically black Wiley College to place his team on equal footing with whites in the American South during the 1930s, when Jim Crow laws were common and lynch mobs were a pervasive fear for blacks. In the movie, the Wiley team eventually succeeds to the point where they are able to debate Harvard University. This was their 47th annual debate team. Released in 2007, Denzel Washington’s The Great Debaters was presented to the world in order to tell the story of Wiley College’s debate triumphs. While certain facts were altered for the sake of creating the film, such as the final debate being between Wiley College and Harvard rather than USC, the story of the Wiley College debate team has been a model of and for the Urban Debate League (UDL) Movement. The movie begins with a scene following Henry Lowe that is simultaneously overlaid with a speech given by Dr. James Farmer. The speech is directed at incoming students and covers topics such as maturity and discipline, preaching that “you must do what you have to do so you can do what you want to do” (4:08) Henry is attending a party at a barn where he finds himself in a fight with another man at the party. He threatens to kill the man when he pins him to the ground. At the last moment, Melvin Tolson, a professor and director of the Wiley College debate team, stops Henry from harming the man...
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...Aaliyah Perry The Great Debaters The Great Debaters is a true story of the Debate Team consisting of four students and their professor from Wiley College, in Marshall, Texas. As an all-black school, Wiley College during the 1930’s trained young minds to believe in themselves and to use their educated minds to change the hearts and minds of society, to establish peace, and maintain human dignity, tolerance and acceptance for all people. No matter the color of their skin, origin of their birth, language they speak, or their occupational role in society. The story of The Great Debaters takes place at a time in America’s history when things were starting to change for both Whites and African Americans. The moral call for freedom, equality, and justice for all was beginning to resonate throughout the country. The students, James Farmer, Jr who was only 14 years old, Henry Lowe, and Samantha Booke, learn to lead through civil discussions using their minds as weapons and not violence. Under the direction of English Professor Melvin B. Tolson, these three students become the Wiley College Debate Team of 1935-36. This film also shows an understanding of how Professor Tolson sees these students potential as individuals and as a team. Progress is made one victory at a time. Under the intense and encouraging guidance of Professor Tolson, the students learn to speak with clarity and confidence. They learn to evaluate their own limitations. Defeat becomes an opportunity by which they...
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...“The Great Debaters” Communication is the activity of conveying information through the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, visuals, writing, or behavior. The ability to communicate effectively is necessary in all aspects of life, especially when debating a subject. In the film “The Great Debater”, speech preparation, delivery, verbal messages and interpersonal communication played a vital role. Through the use of these skills, the Wiley College debate team achieved success. Speech preparation and organization were essential to the characters debates. Preparation began with a resolve and which side of the argument they stood. Once established, the students began their speech research, gathering facts, primary and secondary sources, examples and quotes. Organization of the topic was analyzing both sides of the argument in order to be prepared for their rebuttals. Organization also helps to analyze the information and make sure all points are supported. Practicing delivery and how the speech would flow, whether in chronological order, using past events, or quotes from famous people to prove their point was also part of their organization. Delivery, verbal messages, and facial expression were important for the students to appear credible. Through volume, tone, clarity, pace, and word choice, they were able to articulate their points effectively. Word choice was kept simple, clear, and relative to the topic. They were taught clarity...
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...After watching The Great Debaters based on a true story which was inspired in 1935 by Mr. Melvin B. Tolson. The Great Debaters is a very powerful movie, not only thru the words and speeches that were given but thru the context and storyline of history the movie allocated. Public speakers have the ability to change the world and others aspect on the world itself with the key essentials such as being credible to what they are supporting, stating official facts and showing interest and being dedicated to the change they hope to see in society. The Great Debaters portrayed each essential with certainty. Samantha Hall, Henry Lowe, and James Farmer Jr. all presented exceptional debating skills and superb speeches in which Mr. Tolson instilled into...
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...The Great Debaters Based on a true story set in Marshall, Texas, in 1935, The movie captures the degradation of racial segregation. Using the example of segregated Wiley College's debate team, the script shows how African-Americans had to claw their way inch by inch toward social inclusion. The team struggled for the opportunity to debate white schools and, finally, based on their incredible string of victories, to debate and to defeat Harvard while a national radio audience listened in. “The Great Debaters” is also a morality tale (an archetypal narrative that is fundamentally didactic or prescriptive and relies heavily on both a morality (a conception of what is good or right), which is usually implicit, and a didactic moral, which is usually explicit.), Yet it is very different. Its message is that there is another way; that hard work, enterprise, preparation and perseverance pays off. It shows how “the system” can be changed without resorting to Mafia methods. The inspiration of Mahatma Gandhi is cited. The film’s script speaks eloquently against violence in the scene where the motoring Wiley College debaters accidently come upon a lynching and are lucky to escape from the mob with their lives. The movie portrays the poverty and ignorance of many dirt poor white folk that had nothing of their own except the mistaken belief the color of their skin elevated them to superior status. There’s an electric scene in which James Farmer Sr. runs over a white farmer’s pig and...
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...are portrayed through two different movies of two different eras of American history. Remember the Titans centers around an integrated high school football team in Virginia in the 1970’s. The team has to figure out how to bond together as one in order to overcome racial adversity of the south in the 1970’s. The Great Debaters takes place in Texas during the Great Depression of the 1930’s. Three black college students on a debate team, along with their coach Professor Tolson, travel the road debating more and more prestigious colleges, while developing as young educated black men (and women) in the racist 1930’s south. Character development is both films plays a vital role. In Remember the Titans, the relationship formed between Gary and Julius, and Boone and Yost symbolizes the White/Black differences coming together and actually forming stronger friendships then that of two of the same races. There were also the supporting roles of characters that helped integrate the football team such as Louie, Rev, and Blue who were the very first players who were able to set color aside as it has nothing to do with neither football nor the quality of a man. In The Great Debaters, the growth of Henry Lowe and the relationship between James Farmer Jr. and his father are crucial to watch. Henry Lowe starts off as a misguided young man who responds to conflicts with walking away and surrounds himself with alcohol and women. By the end of the film Lowe has matured, taken the reigns of his life...
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...Remember the Titans vs. the Great Debaters Modern Urban World Torrence The differences Whites and Blacks, as well as their comparisons, are portrayed through two different movies of two different eras of American history. Remember the Titans centers around an integrated high school football team in Virginia in the 1970’s. The team has to figure out how to bond together as one in order to overcome racial adversity of the south in the 1970’s. The Great Debaters takes place in Texas during the Great Depression of the 1930’s. Three black college students on a debate team, along with their coach Professor Tolson, travel the road debating more and more prestigious colleges, while developing as young educated black men (and women) in the racist 1930’s south. Character development is both films plays a vital role. In Remember the Titans, the relationship formed between Gary and Julius, and Boone and Yost symbolizes the White/Black differences coming together and actually forming stronger friendships then that of two of the same races. There were also the supporting roles of characters that helped integrate the football team such as Louie, Rev, and Blue who were the very first players who were able to set color aside as it has nothing to do with neither football nor the quality of a man. In The Great Debaters, the growth of Henry Lowe and the relationship between James Farmer Jr. and his father are crucial to watch. Henry Lowe starts off as a misguided young man who responds to...
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...wrong when pragmatic implicatures are not used/understood—pragmatics/morphology) • Kenneth Branaugh’s Much Ado About Nothing (comedy: a sample of Shakespearean English—pay attention to the ways in which language has changed in the past 400 years—history of the English language/diachronic linguistics /phonology/lexicon/syntax/semantics) • Kenneth Branaugh’s Hamlet (tragedy: as above—history of the English language/diachronic linguistics/phonology/lexicon/syntax/semantics) • Driving Miss Daisy (comedy/drama: class differences in language use and pragmatic implicature—sociolinguistics/pragmatics) • Bridge on the River Kwai (drama: learning to communicate across a language/culture/power barrier—sociolinguistics/discourse analysis) • The Great Debaters (drama: using language to inform/persuade/manipulate—semantics/pragmatics/discourse analysis/rhetoric) • My Fair Lady (musical: about standard accents and class structure—sociolinguistics/phonetics) 2. Attend class the day the TA is teaching (TA—take attendance!). 3. Working in your small groups (we’ll figure out groups in...
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...Samantha Booke from, The Great Debaters, is a persistent African American Woman with society working against her in every possible way.Three of these challenges are race, gender and education. The reality is that she is more than just a movie character, she is Henrietta Bell Wells and the challenges of society apply greatly to both herself and her movie counterpart. Race has always been a depressing barrier between nations and communities. As an African American in Texas during the 1930s was more than likely the worst time to be that race. Racism was at its peak with lynching, intolerance and high tension between authorities and the people. Henrietta goes through numerous trails such as facing a white audience that doesn't listen because of her race. As well as being chased by a lynch mob in the dead of the night. This is an extremely difficult battle for Henrietta against society and it would be for anyone. However, she is able to prove herself and show the colleges and others that your race doesn't affect what you can do and who you can be. Today, sexism is not as prevalent as it was back in the time of the debaters. Women were expected to achieve nothing more than housework and be wives. Henrietta made it obvious that she was not going to settle for that sort of life, neither was she going to be forced to....
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...university? Explain. 10. What is the vision and mission statement of the college or university? 10. What is the school best known for? 11. What is the schools mascot? LSU: the tigers, UT: the cougars, Wiley: the tars. 12. What are the school colors? LSU: gold and purple, UT: scarlet red and albino white. Wiley: royal blue and pure white. 13. What do you want to major or study in college? LSU: Pre law UT: pre law Wiley: pre law 14. Did any celebrities attend this college? If so who? LSU: No one, UT: lil Wayne Wiley: no one 15. Why would you attend this college or university? LSU: because… I really don’t know I just always wanted to go there. UT: Because it’s Houston c’mon now. Wiley: because off the movie the great...
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...In a scene of the movie The Great Debaters, Dr. Farmer was driving along a road and hit a hog. He steps out of the car and offers his entire monthly salary of about $25, while the hog wasn’t at all worth near that amount. Dr. Farmer had children in the car, he was black and it was the 1930s. At this time, many people were prejudiced against blacks in the South, without even knowing the underlying reason why themselves. The men that owned the hog proceeded to humiliate him after he continues to be apologetic for his mistake and his generous offering of $25. Dr. Farmer acted a certain way because of multiple reasons while he handed over the money: he wanted to act generous and forgiving in front of the kids to set a tone, and he also wanted to act apologetic to...
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...The Great Depression starting in the decades of 1930 – 1939, highlighted Canada’s struggle to rebuild their economy. The Great Depression would alert a “reorganization of capitalism which will take a variety of political forms from the New Deal to Fascism" (Klee). The “depression left the majority of Canadians unemployed” and allowed Mackenzie King’s Liberal government to bring Canada out of the depression. (Bennett and King Attempt to Solve the Problems of the Great Depression, 1930-1939). Unfortunately, his government was unable to respond to the crisis and Richard Bennett's Conservative Party would win the Canadian Federal Election of 1930. After Bennett was inaugurated, he would have a rough road ahead of him as he he would be unaware of the disasters, “nor were his Conservative policies capable of dealing with them”...
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...Week 3 (2) Keynes believed that it was a waste to save money, it only lead to destruction and prevent economic growth. He didn’t agree with private investment. He felt by keeping money in your pocket is senseless because soon we will all be dead. You can’t take the money with you. He also felt that the government should increase spending during times of recessions. In contrast, Hayek believed that you must save money so that you could later invest the money wisely. He felt time would multiply your interest. He felt that time did not matter. He believed the same principles of the economy that applied in the 1920 still applied in 2005. The solution was not to print more money, but to invest the money the money saved. (3) During Great Depression, Keynes concluded in his General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money that government action was needed to stimulate aggregate demand to promote consumption so that the economy could achieve its potential and thereby reduce unemployment. Since 1930, there were two major successes based on Keynesian theory: massive government spending during World War II propelled the United States out of the Depression and the 1964 tax cut stimulated the economy during a period of slow growth. Both public spending and tax cuts promoted consumption and a multiplier effect meant that for every dollar of spending or tax cut, consumers spent even more. In 1971, Keynes’s economic theory was in full ascendency when President Nixon declared in The...
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