English 11.67
Group Exercise: Outlining & Organization (#2)

Select one piece of information from each of the following four categories and arrange them into a persuasive, effectively structured argument:

1) look over the various ideas below and, with your peers, choose a central idea to pursue
2) establish/choose UNC students in the Pit as your intended audience
3) choose 4 bits
4) organize these bits into an effective, logical grouping
5) create an arguable thesis statement for the projected oral presentation

Irish historical events informing race relations (links)
--Poyning's Law
--Penal Laws
--Act of Union of 1801
--Potato Famine
--Easter Rebellion of 1916
--Ulster Plantation
--Race Relations Amendment Act (1976)
--your choice

Current race relations reported in the Irish news
--incident in which house of Chinese couple is egged, their car "keyed," and their pet dog spray painted
--British fans in town for football game are hospitalized after being beat up Irish gang in parking lot
--a group of Irish women cast racial slurs at two pregnant Nigerian immigrants in an OB/GYN office
--an Afghani immigrant waiting outside an employment commission buildling in Dublin has rocks thrown at him by passing, jobless Irish men.
--a crowd of rural Irish men and women burn down the barn of a wealthy, English-born landowner in western Ireland.
--your choice

American historical events informing race relations
--the Emancipation Proclamation declaring all American slaves to be free (Jan. 1, 1863)
--Plessy vs. Ferguson declares "separate but equal" facilities to be legal in the realm of public education
--Brown vs. Board of Education declared "separate but equal" practice to be illegal
--Twin Towers and Pentagon struck on Sept 11, 2001
--Japanese Americans placed in internment camps after Japan strikes Pearl Harbor
--your choice

Current race relations in America
--well-qualified Iraqi-American's job application is rejected by five separate locations in a grocery chain; he takes the case to court
--three Indian immigrants, mistaken for Iraqis in a small town in South Carolina, are tied up in a forest and left. They are found three days later, severely dehydrated
--an Afghani film, highly praised by80% of film critics around the world as the year's best international film, receives only a limited release in the United States, and is not even nominated for an Academy Award.
--four white students sue a university for discrimination when four Hispanic students with lower standardized test scores are admitted due to an affirmative action policy at the university
--a small liberal arts college which has seen its share of racial tensions on campus enacts a policy proscribing racist speech at public events. As part of a sorority's hazing during their pledge period, five girls are required to briefly flash racially insensitive signs at a baseball game. They are subsequently suspended from school
--your choice

Paul Marchbanks
marchban@email.unc.edu