ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Goldberg, Natalie. Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within. Boston: Shambhala,
1986. Print.
A book dedicated to strengthening the writing of a novice writer. The book covers everything
from technical detail, creative expression, and the processes of writing in a more holistic-styled
approach that strays from academic takes on writing.
Pipher, Mary. Writing To Change the World. New York: Riverhead, 2006. Print.
Pipher introduces her concept of Change Writing, to describe a type of writing that connects
people together by using empathy and understanding. Pipher encourages the reader to use their
personal experiences, inner thoughts, and passions to further develop their change writing and
ability to connect to other people.
Block, Melissa. "The Racially Charged Meaning Behind the Word Thug,"" NPR. 2015.
Web.
Melissa Black from NPR sits down with an associate professor of English from Columbia
University, John McWorter to examine the usage of the word thug, in the media today. The
conversation takes a closer analysis of the word used to describe the protesters from the recent
Baltimore and Ferguson protests, and takes a further look into the history of the word and how it
developed over time to carry its modern day racial implications.
Silverstein, Jason. "Why White People Don't Feel Black Peoples Pain." Slate. 2010. Web.
Jason Silverstein examines the results of a survey that suggested that white people, when
presented with images of people being in pain, responded less sympathetically to the pain
observed if the person was black as opposed to being white. Silverstein attaches this lack of
empathy to an over-arching issue where failing to understand the feelings and pain of black
people leads to harmful results of varying levels of discrimination.
Bouie, Jamelle. "Michael Brown Wasn't a Superhuman Demon to Anyone but Darren
Wilson." Slate. Nov. 2014. Web.
Jamelle Bouie discusses the nature of Darren Wilsons testimony after his shooting incident that
led to the death of 18 year-old African-American Michael Brown of Ferguson, suggesting how
the language Wilson chose to describe Brown dangerously correlates with century-old
stereotypes and portrayals of black people.
Smith, Jamil. "What Does Seeing Black Men Die Do To You." Newrepublic. 24 Apr.
2015.Web.
Jamil Smith discusses the increasing phenomenon of public accessibility to taped shootings and
killings of unarmed black men and makes the argument that these occurrences have numbed
America to the sight of these killings. Though the goal of these videos may have originally been
to spread awareness, they have ultimately lead to desensitization to the sight of violence and
killing, which allows these shootings to continue increasingly and in more extreme ways.
Jefferson, Thomas. Notes on the State of Virginia. 1785. Print.A compilation of writings by
Thomas Jefferson covering the issues facing the state of Virgina during the late 18th century. The
book also covers Jeffersons stances on a variety of topics, such as individual liberties, separation

of church and state, miscegenation, the natural differences between whites and blacks, and how
these differences made it impossible for the two groups to live equally in a perfect society.
Krulwich, Robert. "Words." Radiolab. N.p., 08 Aug. 2010. Web.
Robert Krulwich invites British psychologist from Durham University, Charles Fernyhough and
Harvard psychologist Elizabeth Selke onto his internet podcast Radiolab, to discuss the results of
an experiment they conducted that resulted in the conclusion that language is the bridge to
connecting concepts together in human thinking.
Darley, John. "A Hypothesis Confirming Bias in Labeling Effects." Journal of Personality
and Social Pyschology 44 (1983): 20-33. Web.
An experiment conducted on two groups of 67 undergraduates on whether confirmation bias of
the participants resulted in the percieved expectations of the test subject. The participants of both
groups were told that the child who they would observe taking an exam, was from an upper-class
or middle-class background respectively. The child was to answer the questions given more or
less the same. The results showed that the group who was informed the child was from an upperclass neighborhood believed her to be more intelligent, while the group that was told she was
from a middle class ranked her as less intelligent. The results reveal that both groups estimated
her intelligence relative to her social class.
Trawalter, Sophie. "Racial Bias in Perception of Others' Pain." Racial Bias in Perceptions
of Others Pain 10.13 (2012). PLoS ONE. Web. 26 Feb. 2016.
A journal article showcasing the results of a study conducted where both white and black people
alike, including medical personnel, responded less severely to seeing images or black people in
pain, as opposed to white people, showing that most people assumed black people naturally felt
less pain than other races. The article also discusses that black patients are more likely to wait
longer to receive medical attention than white counterparts.