Resources required to complete this assignment:
In Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing:
Conduct some research:
Writing Prompt
Many political commentators often complain that minority families are usually nontraditional and dysfunctional while traditional nuclear families (like the one depicted in Norman Rockwell’s Freedom from Fear) are the only ones capable of supportive relationships and strong family connections. In their essay, “The Color of Family Ties: Race, Class, Gender, and Extended Family Ties,” Naomi Gerstel and Natalia Sarkisian make an effort to offer evidence that nontraditional minority families who rely on extended family members (such as Latina or African single mothers) can actually function quite well and enjoy support and strong emotional ties.
For this essay, do some research and find 3 examples of political commentators critical of minority families. What kinds of criticism do they make about minority families?
Next, try to find more evidence to support Gerstel and Sarkisian’s claim by analyzing the three nontraditional minority families depicted in Jack’s essay and Soto’s essay and Dixon’s poem. Discuss the way these three minority families demonstrate supportive relationships and strong emotional ties. Which one of these three families offers the strongest evidence for Gerstel and Sarkisian’s claim that nontraditional minority families are capable of supportive relationships and strong family ties?
Write an essay that discusses your findings.
Essay Guidelines
Your essay must:
Be 5-7 complete pages in length of analytical expository writing (excluding the Works Cited page)
Offer a clear thesis as last sentence of first paragraph
Start subsequent paragraphs with topic sentences
Directly quote at least once from Gerstel and Sarkisian’s essay
Directly quote sufficient textual evidence from Jack’s essay and from the other selection you have chosen. (You should have about 5-6 quotations from Jack’s essay and 3-4 quotations from the other selections)
Explain how these cited passages work as evidence for your claims
End with a Works Cited page
Have minimal or no errors in punctuation and grammar