Exhibit of 1-minute Elevator Speeches in Cornerstone 102, taught by Dada Docot at Purdue University
By Safeer Ahmed
This elevator speech is based on Response 2. Essentially, the entire focus of the piece is on the quote from page 55 of Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong, “Oh it’s all in your head“. The speech highlights evidence from two other readings from this semester, The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas and The Wretched of the Earth, to imply that the bottled-up ‘minor’ feelings that minorities in America and around the world illustrated are not imaginary — they are real.
by Haroone Mutlek
My elevator speech, focuses on my main takeaways from SCLA102. My views have shifted as a minority growing up in America. Cathy Park Hong and mainly Frantz Fanon have affected my views on racism and issues in the United States and the world. By definition I myself have been a racist and an advocate for racism. But I continually ask myself what is behind racism? One minute is unfortunately not nearly enough for me to express my experiences and what I’ve learned. I’ve grown as a person over this semester and whilst reading and sharing my thoughts have found the same bigotry and hatred I disdained from racists in myself.
by Varun Raghupathy
My speech was based on my answer to Response 7: Would you walk away from the Omelas? In this speech, I explain my reasoning and compare it to another course material we read, Wretched of the Earth. Using these two sources, I provide backup to my answer; that happiness based off the pain and suffering of others is not true happiness.
by Albaraa Jadallah
The works featured in my video are responses to Minor Feelings and The Metamorphosis. In this speech, the main focus is the impacts of alienation on one’s mental state. I wish I had more time so that I could use more evidence and discuss other works read in this class. If I had more time, I would use Reel Injun and Heart Berries.
by Shria Kondragunta
My speech was based on Response 7 on whether I would leave Omelas and Response 6 on what my scenario from the Heart Berries reading was. I chose to talk about how if I were to stay in Omelas I would miss out on many opportunities to grow as a person.
By Ji Qi
I focus on the story of Omelas and Heart Berries. I find utilitarianism existing in many aspects of society. Too often, utilitarianism sacrifices the interests of the few. But is this sacrifice really necessary? Is the disaster of utilitarianism limited to a few people? These are questions worth thinking about. In my speech, I argue that utilitarianism does not just hurt a child. Utilitarianism is likely to hurt an entire nation.
by Andrea Zhang
My elevator speech focus on the feeling we have to ourselves and an appropriate attitude to it when it conflicts with the feeling of others to yourself, which corresponds to the Minor Feelings and Heart Berries for which we have written responses.
by Kevin Nettey
My speech focuses on the text Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong and the film Reel Injuns, both of which focus on the effects of stereotypes, although to varying degrees. As I mention in my speech, my experiences this semester granted me an insight on the adverse effects that stereotyping has on people and our relationships with them.
by Ishaan Bajpai
In this speech, I try to explain how societal and mental “restraints” can be broken. Using an illustration of a person breaking away from their restraints using their mental strength, I try to show that stereotypes can be restraints to a person’s success. I use an adapted example from Minor Feelings to explain the impacts of stereotypes. While offering a solution, I use Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s idea of false narratives and how you can break away from stereotypes by understanding your roots and culture.
by David Kim
In my speech, I connected two-course contents, the book Minor Feelings and AAA Statement on Race, into my elevator speech, to depict the ambiguity of the social status of Asian-Americans in the society of America. As a minority, Asian-Americans are being mistreated in American society and this is not only the problem of people who are mistreating Asian-Americans, but also the problem of the whole society. This is the problem that everyone should work on in order to make equal society.
by Harrison Han
In my elevator pitch, I used my Discussion 3 response as the background and focused on my growth from purposely ignoring and losing my identity to finding and appreciating it again. I referred my growth to America Ferrera’s TED talk, My identity is a Superpower, as well as Catha Park Hong’s book, Minor Feelings. In the end, I learned that as an Asian, I should be very proud of my identity and accept any differences there might be between cultures.
by Kalyan Salkar
In my speech, I focused on the Omelas question and how it acts as a mirror for modern society, while bringing in elements of Minor Feelings. In turn, I posed another question, one that in my opinion, needs to be answered. I also explored themes of elitism, ignorance and how well society knows how to cover its darker underbelly.
by Andrej Damjanov
In my speech, I discussed my illustration analysis from week 2 for Minor Feelings and my commentary on Reel Injun from week 9. I discuss my analysis for Minor Feelings, where societal characteristics have resulted in minority groups being forced into conforming with societal expectations and stereotypes, which has caused cultural conflict and hostilities. I also explain my commentary on Reel Injun, where I discussed how Native American stereotypes in cinematography have worked to destroy the perspectives of generations, as well as obscure the culture of Native Americans and dehumanize them.
by Zachary Chen
In my speech, I discuss the way how the people of Omelas enjoy their utopia at the expense of the suffering of one child much like how colonizers enjoy their economic growths at the expense of the colonized. I end by presenting a third option to the Omelas dilemma.
by Max Chen
In my speech, I have chosen the concept of racial profiling and Asian Suppression. The submission that supplements the concepts are chosen from Week 2 and 4 submissions, when we responded to the book Minor Feelings. I’ve briefly introduced both of these works and the connection that I feel between myself and the two particular submissions I have made this semester.
By Ben Kagey
For my speech I chose to talk about my discussion response to Would you walk away from Omelas and the hypocrisy behind the people claiming they would walk away. I also discussed the danger of a single story.
by Tomer Salomon
In my speech, I discuss how important maintaining one’s cultural identity is and how trying to take away someone’s cultural identity (forcibly or voluntarily) can lead to a disconnect within their own families and with their friends. I use the films “Minari” and “Reel Injun” as well as the book “Minor Feelings” as examples of finding their own cultural identities.
In this elevator speech, I discuss the small portion of people in the society, which is connected to Would You Walk Away from Omelas and Minari. Their lives are not as easy as we have, but are also necessary.
by Guillaume Hu
My speech focus on the search for identity that has been an important theme throughout the semester. I use my answer from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s The Danger of a Single Story as well as my illustration from Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong. In my speech, I emphasize the importance of getting rid of prejudices because of its role in people’s struggle to identity themselves.
by Brandon Hsia
For my elevator speech, I decided to focus on my weekly response number 3 due to recent events in the Asian American community. It focuses on the book Minor Feelings written by Cathy Park Hong and the book Heart Berries written by Terese Marie Mailhot. In my speech, I talk about racism and discrimination minorities face in America.
by Jerry Lee
This speech connects the book Minor feelings by Cathy Park Hong with Asian discrimination in the U.S., explaining how Asian hate crimes have increased in the time of COVID-19. The speech suggests that how people should educate themselves with supporting evidence from the AAA statement on race.
by Juhee Lee
My best output is the “Father and The Drawings” response, an illustration for Minor Feelings. The main theme of the video is that once a grown-up person mentions and illustrates his/her childhood experiences into a flat, silent sense of words, it proves that the person had positively changed a lot after a life-changing difficulty or new lessons, and becomes able to view their his/her childhood memories in an objective perspective. I related to Chimamanda Ngozi Achidie’s “The Danger of a Single Story”, and Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”, which the latter actually shows the opposite example of people who have not taken to change.
by Mingdi Shang
My elevator speech links my response to ‘Would you walk away from Omelas’ to the book ‘The Wretched of the Earth’ by the point where part of the world and the society we live in are required to work for the wellness of the others. If there are still people required to work for others–not voluntarily–we, the human race as a whole can not reach our unification and progress as a whole.
by Kaylyn Cherry
My elevator speech is a quick introduction to a response I wrote when asked to compare a current event to a topic in the book “The Wretched of the Earth”. It connects inequality, diversity, and disparity in Africa, the United States, and the history of Native Americans in the film industry.
by Gayatri Joshi
This introduces a poem I wrote to interpret the theme of “minor feelings”. The minor feelings or feelings of negativity faced by people from minority communities is a recurring theme found in two enlightening books covered in this class- “Minor Feelings” by Cathy Park Hong as well as “Heart Berries” by Terese Marie Mailhot. The poem revolves around the topics of minorities and discrimination explored in these books.
by Elise Marsicek
This elevator speech introduces the illustration I created for response 2 surrounding central themes depicted in Minor Feelings. This response stood out to me because it showcases how ideas from authors like Cathy Park Hong or Terese Marie Mailhot can be translated into many different mediums of narration, such as a drawing. The pain that Hong or Mailhot describe in their own texts is not easy to personify, but instead can be depicted in storytelling and understood in our own pictures of such ideas.
Cornerstone 102 
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