Personal Narrative - Race :: Personal Narrative Essays

Personal Narrative- Race Wait. Be still. Don't go over the line. Don't let go. Wait for it. "BANG!" My reactions were precise as I sprung out of the blocks. The sun was beating down on my back as my feet clawed at the blistering, red turf. With every step I took, my toes sunk into the squishy, foul smelling surface, as my lungs grasped for air. Everything felt the way it should as I plunged toward my destination. I clutched the baton in my sweaty palms, promising myself not to let go. My long legs moved me as fast as I could go as I hugged the corner of the line like a little girl hugging her favorite teddy bear. The steps were just like I had practiced. As I came closer to my final steps, my stomach started twisting and my heart beat began to rise. The different colors of arrows started to pass under my feet, and I knew it was time. "Reach," I yelled to Susan, whom had seemed unusually far away. Yelling, "Slow down, slow down," turned into "Stop!" Susan halted to a stop as the gold baton fell into her hands and she took off into a dead sprint. The devil colored flag rose. We were disqualified from something that we all dreaded; going out of the exchange zone. I had never really been a part of a team that had a chance to win something, but the potential was always there. I finally got my chance to be a part of such a team my sophomore year of track. Mr. Jones, the head track coach, had decided to experiment with some different races to gain more team points. Since the girls' team lacked a medley relay, he placed Cindy, Kim, Susan and I in those spots. Cindy would run the 400, Kim would run the 200, and Susan and I would start the race off by each running the 100. We all had worked viciously to earn those spots by running off against our teammates. Going into the first race we had not expected much since Susan and I had never run this type of race. There were so many crucial things that we had to remember. It wasn't just to get out of the blocks and burn up the track; there was a baton involved, a certain amount of steps to take, and even a certain way to hold the baton.

Legal, Safety, and Regulatory Requirements Essay

Abstract The workplace can be a very dynamic place; there are so many different people with all kinds of personalities. Because there are so many different personalities, there are different needs of safety which can create obstacles in the organization. This is where the Human Resource Department comes into play, they make sure that the needs of all employees are met and that they are working in a safe environment. Litigation has taken the place of common sense and compassion within organizations over the past years. Litigation has become a main priority and the Department of Labor, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and also the Department of Homeland Security all have been regulating this. Although some may disagree that litigation has created a more structured work environment, there are a lot that would say it has. Litigation has balanced out the differences in the workplace. U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission There once was a time when common sense and compassion were used to decide what to do with issues, but now that there are laws put in place to ensure that legal, safety, and regulatory requirements are obeyed there are less issues. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is one of those regulations. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission enforces federal laws which make it illegal for any organization to discriminate against someone applying for the position or someone who is already an employee for reasons like their race, gender, color of skin, age, disability, or religion. (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2011) This also ensures that a person who is claiming that they were discriminated against is not discriminated for that. These laws are applied to any type of work situations, like harassments, wages/benefits, hiring/firing, promotions, or any type of training. If a company discriminates based on any of these assumptions they will be investigated and possibly prosecuted if found guilty. (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2011) Department of Labor Department of Labor is another one that focuses on employee-related regulations. The Department of Labor  enforces well over 180 laws; these laws regulate many activities that go on in the work environment. The Fair Labor Standards Act is one of these laws and it ensures that employees that are working overtime are paid fairly. (United States Department of Labor, 2011) Another federal law that the Department of Labor regulates is the Occupational Safety and Health Act which ensures that private industries are regulated on a regular basis and they must be approved by the Occupational Safety and Health Act state programs. This is only two acts that ensure litigation for the Department of Labor, but there are many more. (United States Department of Labor, 2011) American with Disabilities Act Another law that was passed to regulate legal and safety requirements was the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. This law was passed by congress to ensure that nobody with a disability regardless of what kind of disability it may be cannot be discriminated against simply for that reason. The disability has to be further evaluated before any decisions are made. (U.S. Department of Justice, 2011) If the applicant has a disability such as abuse form a substance or their vision is impaired, but can be corrected with prescribed lenses than they cannot be discriminated against. In 2008 former President George W. Bush passed the American Disability Act of 2008 which made the protection of disabled workers a little broader. (U.S. Department of Justice, 2011) U.S. Department of Homeland Security The U.S. Department of Homeland Security regulates our nation and makes sure that all threats are taken seriously and handled properly. They have a goal which entails that the federal agency must make sure that environmental justice is a top priority. (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2011) Conclusion I personally feel that all of these laws are set in place to ensure that all work related issues are handled without any favor. Before any of these laws it was he said she said, there was a lot of discrimination against people, so most of the time decisions were not made fairly. Human Resources have to regulate all of these laws, they deal with all of the issues in an organization and they handle them all based on federal laws. All problems  are evaluated and decided based on litigation, not by common sense or compassion because one person’s view on common sense or compassion may not be fair or just. References: United States Department of Labor, (2011). Rulemaking and Regulations. Retrieved February 14, 2012 from http://www.dol.gov/asp/regs/rulemaking.htm U.S. Department of Homeland Security, (2011). About. Retrieved February 14, 2012 from http://www.dhs.gov/files/prepresprecovery.shtm U.S. Department of Justice, (2011). ADA Regulations and Technical Assistance Materials. Retrieved February 15, 2012 from http://www.ada.gov/publicat.htm#Anchor-14210 U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, (2011). Overview. Retrieved February 14, 2012 from http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/index.cfm

Analysis Of The Slave Mother - 1176 Words

Harper, Frances Ellen Watkins. â€Å"The Slave Mother.† Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51977/the-slave-mother-56d23017ceaad. Accessed 4 Sept. 2017. Frances Harper is a respected American figure who wrote works regarding abolition and educational equality. As the child of two free black parents, she had a passionate view on racial equality. After seeing her help slaves escape through the Underground Railroad and publish a myriad of anti-slavery newspapers, people began to deem her as the mother of African American journalism. Her poem The Slave Mother depicts the relationship between an enslaved mother and her child. The mother’s servitude restricts the encounters that she is able to have with her son. This†¦show more content†¦2017. Born in Salem, Massachusetts, Nathaniel Hawthorne was a part of a deep Puritan family. His ancestors, William and John Hawthorne, were harsh judges in the Puritan society of the 17th century, so Nathaniel Hawthorne decided to add a â€Å"w† to his family name to distance himself from their notoriety. In order to create a legacy for himself, Hawthorne began to write fiction. His fame arose from his mastery of the art of allegories and symbolism within his works. Besides The Scarlet Letter, another famous work by Hawthorne is â€Å"The Birthmark.† â€Å"The Birthmark† is a short story that implores people to be grateful for the achievements they have obtained. In the short story, Hawthorne depicts Aylmer, the main character, as a man completely intrigued by science. However, he finds time to marry a beautiful woman named Georgiana. One peculiar characteristic of Georgiana is a birthmark in the shape of a hand that is imprinted upon her face. Aylmer tries to remove it from her to perfect her beauty, but in the process, he ends up killing her. The death of Georgiana represents Hawthorne’s take on the American dream. The American dream is the idea that every American has the opportunity to achieve success through hard work. â€Å"The Birthmark† has an unique way of discussing the American Dream by focusing on the death that the ambition of a character inflicts instead of focusing on the happiness that a character obtains through perseverance. This peculiarity allows Hawthorne toShow MoreRelatedResponses to Our Nig; or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, in a Two Story White House, North884 Words   |  4 Pageswhich is the name given to a free black slave, even though this name was given to a slave that was free did not mean you were free. This story exposes how the racial dynamics of slavery are replicated in the interracial encounters outside slavery. Our Nig was a story of a slave that fit under this category of not being f ree when freedom existed. 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Although Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, an American Slave is not the first of its genre, it is the best-selling eighteenth-century fugitive slave narrative, surpassing classic white autobiographies as Henry David Thoreau’sRead MoreAlienation within Beloved Essay1209 Words   |  5 Pagesthe same outcome in every instance. Put quite simply, the institution of slavery forms concrete and seemingly immovable walls between slave and master. Within this practice, members of these societies became locked into their respective roles. Erikson defines identity as â€Å"the conception of who one is and what one is over time and across situations†, (Day 3). Yet slaves in this day did not live through any variety of â€Å"situations†. 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The time period where racial slurs had been widely and slavery was very popular. She had not know she was a slave girl until the solid age of six years after her childhood had been demolished. The main idea for publishing this book was to show the hardshipRead More Comparing Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Our Time1278 Words   |  6 PagesSoul Writing in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Our Time      Ã‚  Ã‚  Real writing, soul writing is dangerous; there is an intrinsic, gut-churning element of risk within the process of telling the truth, a risk that yields an adrenaline rush that parallels skydiving and skinny-dipping. The thrill of ones own truth displayed nakedly in little black letters on a white page is scary and beautiful, both chaining and freeing. The issue for authors, like skydivers, is that after they jump out