Thanksgiving in the Menchl House

I wake up groggy; I shouldn't have stayed up so late the night before, but college has destroyed my sleep schedule.  I trudge downstairs, trying to avoid my heavily caffeinated parents for as long as possible, but as soon as my feet hit the kitchen floor I'm slapped with sarcastic comments about "college kids these days" and my terrible sleep habits.  They have a point, I didn't emerge from my hibernation until one.  PM.  I reach the coffee and the day begins.

We spend the hours before our relatives arrive making the house look as presentable as possible.  My mom gets this wonderful idea to make place cards for the table out of actual dead leaves, so my sister and I spend a good amount of time picking out 16 leaves that fit her rigid standards.  We're midway through the drawing and taping process when I hear the door slam and confused voices ring out.  I go downstairs and all of our relatives are wandering around the house calling out to see if anyone is actually home.  As my parents are both getting ready for dinner, I have to entertain all of our guests.  "Brad?  Could you make me some coffee?"  "Where do I put this casserole?"  My parents appear to save me from host responsibilities and I escape to the basement where all of my cousins have already made themselves at home.  I spend the rest of the time before dinner playing with the little ones, cooking, and making boring conversation with my aunts and uncles.

The food is ready.  We sit down and take turns saying what each of is thankful for.  My grandma, who had a stroke a few years ago, goes first and gives thanks for her good mind.  We do too.  After thanks giving, we set in and a happy silence fills the room.

It's late at night and I'm playing piano music with the little ones crawling over my body like little monkeys.  Their dad comes in to warn that they have to leave, and everyone, me include starts to whine. "Aw no!  You can't leave yet!  We rarely get to see all of you" I complain.  Nevertheless, it's time to go and slowly the house empties.  Another Thanksgiving is over, but the love that I got from my family, like the leftovers, will last forever.

Plans for my arguments on racial inequality in the movies

America has made great strides in racial equality in the past decades.  The gap between races socially and economically has quickly shrunk and essentially all opportunities are available to members of all races.  However, there are some areas of American society that have not improve as much as the others, namely the film market.Theatre itself has come under fire for being one of the only businesses that openly chooses employees based on what they look like and what race they are.  Actors are chosen based on what directors and producers believe will best match a character and bring in audiences.  Opportunities for black actors have grown over the years, but after examining the white audience reaction to black characters and the lack of successful black lead actors, it's obvious that the film world still holds some racial prejudice.

I'll be using several different kinds of evidence to support my argument:
IMDB might be my main source.  Although it is an open-edited source, it has accurate facts on big-name actors and the movies they were in.  I'll use the data from this to examine success of certain actors.
A study, "The Role of Actors' Race in White Audiences' Selective Exposure to Movies" is in the Journal of Communication, associated with the International Communication Association.  It describes black characters in movies and the way that white audiences react to them.  I will use results from the study to support my claim and provide potential reasoning behind why certain races don't have as much success in movies due to audience opinions.
My third source will be a newspaper article discussing the growth of the "urban" film market.  This article discusses the growing black family movie genre.  This might seem like an opposing view to my argument, as it shows that there are more opportunities for black actors, but it does support my claim.  While the "urban" film market - films catering to black audiences - is growing rapidly with stars such as Ice Cube, Chris Rock, and Tyler Perry, this separate genre is still segregated, with small percentages of white viewers.  Because of this, racial inequality is still present.

People like to think that the world is mostly good.  The virtues of mankind outweigh any problems.  However, the concept of altruism - doing good for no personal benefit - becomes unachievable due to ulterior motives that most would not consider.
Bill Gates has been lauded over his philanthropy and altruism.  After starting the multinational corporation Microsoft, Gates stepped down from his position of CEO in 2000 and devoted his life to philanthropic endeavors.  His Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donates large sums of money every year to charities and scientific research programs.  Although his actions seem almost entirely based on the benefit of others, is Bill Gates really an altruist?  When Gates does good for others, he could have several motives.  If the situation arose that he could help someone else, he could be persuaded to act based on the good feelings that gets from helping others.  The pride that comes from this could be reason enough to continue helping people.  In this case, Gates would be, for the most part, acting purely for his own self-interest.  Also, in the case that he decided not to help, he could be haunted with regret for not acting.  The fear of guilt is also reason enough to continue helping others.  Bill Gate's philanthropy, therefore, cannot be described as altruistic, because it benefits him, helping him avoid guilt, and rewarding him with pride.
Another reason for seemingly altruistic behavior comes from an evolutionary standpoint.  If someone saves a child from an oncoming car, they could be acting altruistically, but evolutionarily, they are acting to preserve their species.  Saving a child will keep their genes in the gene pool.  In order for a species to be successful, every member should be protected.  In this case, saving the child would not be just a good deed, it would be done to better humankind.
Overall, in situations where one's actions could be described as "altruistic", there is always another beneficial product that comes with the act.  Because of this, no act can truly altruistic, because the word implies that no personal benefit comes to the individual.