Malcolm Gladwell's The Lady Vanishes, By Malcolm Gladwell

1221 Words3 Pages

In Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast, Generous Orthodoxy, he explains what generous orthodoxy is. The generous part of generous orthodoxy amounts to being open to making changes and seeing change as positive, and the orthodoxy points to a more traditional stance on values. Combined, these two concepts are ironic, because generally traditions aren’t changed easily, and the changes made aren’t always accepted by the community that stands behind those traditions. Gladwell also explains that to make a positive change in a tradition, the body that you are trying to change must be respected. The Lady Vanishes, by Malcolm Gladwell, starts off with introducing a painting named Roll Call by an unknown artist in the 19th century, which soon after, the true …show more content…

He wasn’t anywhere near close to being a white elite male, but with being elected, President Obama seemed to demonstrate that our nation 's longstanding problem with race had been put to an end. Some people feel like the tensions have only gotten worse because of Obama’s election win and presidency, we’re all entitled to our own opinions. The election in 2008 and also this year’s election, 8 years later, show exactly what happened in the podcast “The Lady Vanishes” by Malcolm Gladwell. The door was opened for Barack Obama, just as it was for Gillard, and now that his term is ending, and we as a nation chose a new President-Elect, Donald Trump, the door is being slammed shut. I feel that Gladwell would compare the election of Obama and the election of Trump together to show the contradiction and the irony between how racism in the United States has (or has not) stopped since the election of 2008. I feel that since 2008, the racism in our nation has dwindled down to a minimum, but has since started back up with the election of Trump (an “elite” white male). Obama broke the chain of elite white male presidents by becoming the nation’s first African American President, he opened a new door for all races, and genders. But today, in 2016, that door has been slammed shut and the racism is starting up …show more content…

Wilson was one of many who supported things like black codes after slavery was abolished; Gladwell explains in the podcast that the students were uncomfortable and did not feel welcome in their own college because there were portraits and plaques and building all in name of the rich white elites to honor them and what they did. When a student tried to approach the school, Gladwell explains that she did so in a negative way, showing no respect to the school or body, which is ironic in Gladwell’s eyes because before she chose to go to Princeton University, she had more options of colleges to go to, yet she still chose Princeton despite knowing what the campus was like and what type of people were honored and looked up to there. In order to make a change or suggest one, the student should not have acted in a rash negative way, Gladwell suggests a way to do this is to threaten to not to show up to school after the end of a semester or even after a holiday break. By doing this, it would show the school that she wants to be there, because she has spent all her time and money there, and giving up school would be big risk to her; she would be showing that she really did love being at Princeton and she just wanted to make it a

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