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Section 1 Identification Questions
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Section 1: Identification Questions
“Bread, Land, and Liberty” was a slogan for Puerto Rico’s Newly formed party, the Popular Democratic Party (PPD). Led by Marin, the slogan symbolized three symbols that galvanized the military-political struggle.
Luis Muñoz Marin was a journalist, statesman and politician. In 1948, he became the first Governor of Puerto Rico to be elected democratically.
Rio Piedras Massacre was a peaceful massacre in Ponce, Puerto Rico, that led to the killing of over 19 Puerto Ricans and wounding of more than 200 others.
Jose Campeche y Jordan was a Puerto Rican painter that is known for his painting and religious imagery.
Julia de Burgos was a renowned celebrated literary icon whose themes of feminism, love, migration, blackness, nationalism, and nature helped birth the Nuyorican movement of 1960.
Nuyorican is a term used to refer to an individual of Puerto Rican descent that is a former or current resident of New York City.
A gag law prevents the public disclosure of information on a specific issue.
Downes v. Bidwell was a 1901 case in which the Supreme Court made the decision as to whether the territories of the United States were subject to the protections and provisions of the U.S constitution.
Pedro Albizu Campos was the leading figure in the independence movement of Puerto Rico.
Operation Bootstrap is the name that was given to numerous projects that transformed the Puerto Rican economy into a more developed and industrial one.
Section 2: Short Answer Questions
What attracted Puerto Ricans to Hartford after World War II was that they had an opportunity to apply their skills and intellect to their economy. Back home, the Puerto Rican economy was shifting from a mono-cultural economy to a platform of export factory production.
The United States became involved with Puerto Rico in a bid to liberate the inhabitants from the Spanish colonial rule that had recently imposed limited autonomy on its government.
The PPD party advocates that the United States should continue as a commonwealth but with self-governance. The Nationalist Party, on the other hand, had the primary goals to liberate Puerto Rico and attain independence.
The Foraker Act made it possible for Puerto Rico to have a civil government leading to free travel between the United States and Puerto Rico.
Operation Bootstrap was a policy for development that was enacted after World War II in Puerto Rico to attain rapid industrialization of the economic structure of the island.
Essay Question 3:
How Puerto Rico Attained Self Government
Puerto Rico has been under the colonial rule of the Spanish empire for more than 400 years. The island became a sovereign nation in 1897 after signing the Charter of Autonomy by the-then Spanish Prime Minister, Praxades Mateo Sagasta. However, it was not until 1948 that Puerto Rico attained self-government. This was after Congress instructed the people of Puerto Rico to choose their governor in the general election of 1948. Around the same time, Congress came up with a line of succession in the event of the governor’s temporary absence or disability. This essay details the United States’ takeover of Puerto Rico, including the conditions and events that led to the takeover.
Illiteracy, poverty, disease, and malnutrition pervaded the Puerto Rican population at the time. These social stresses ignited a wave of low-income workers to move to the United States in the 1930s. At the time, the rate of unemployment was about 65%. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Puerto Rico’s strategic value for the United States centered around military and economic interests. The island was valuable to the United States policymakers as it served as an outlet for extra manufactured goods. It also served as a key naval station for the Caribbean.
In July 1898, towards the end of the American-Spanish war, the United States invaded Puerto Rico. The island was Spain’s possession. Without much resistance, the U.S. troops managed to secure the land. After signing an armistice with Spain, the island was handed over to the U.S forces on October 18, 1898 (Duany, 47). General John R. Brooke was appointed military governor. In December, the war between America and Spain came to an end following the signing of the Treaty of Paris. This officially marked the cession of the island to the United States.
During the first 30 years of its rule, the United States government had made efforts to Americanize the island. This included granting Puerto Ricans full United States citizenship in 1917. They had also taken steps to make English the island’s national language. But in the 1930s, the Popular Democratic Party started a nationalist movement across the island, further opposing the United States’ assimilation. Starting in 1948, Puerto Ricans started electing a governor. In 1952 the United States Congress approved the island’s Constitution. The constitution qualified Puerto Rico to be an independent United States commonwealth, and its inhabitants retained American citizenship. Puerto Rico’s constitution was formally adopted on July 25, 1952. After gaining support across the island, movements for Puerto Rican statehood and other movements have gained popularity. In a recent referendum held in 2020 to decide Puerto Rico’s status, the majority of the people voted for its statehood.
In closing, before Puerto Rico became a self-governing state, it used to be a possession of the United States. However, Spanish colonizers had claimed the land for over three decades before the U.S troops invaded the island and seized power. Puerto Rico did not elect its first governor until 1948, although its constitution became formally adopted after a few years.
Works Cited
Duany, Jorge. Puerto Rico: What everyone needs to know. Oxford University Press, 2017.
Crown Cork and Seal Company
Introduction
Crown Cork and Seal Company is a very popular manufacturing organization known for the production of high quality cans either for food or beverage packaging. Its high profile has over the years been attributed to good management and skill among the workers. Generally, in business, a company’s success is mostly reliant on the commitment of the managers, the level of competence among the employees/workers and most importantly, the ability to make timely decisions and to use skill and due care in cases of emergency. These are qualities that were evidently observed in the manufacturing firm. It is also worth noting that the success of the firm which backdates to 1982 has seen it grow and establish many branches in different regions, thus, increasing their capacity. Though it is based in the United States, financial analysts have also established that its popularity has grown tremendously in other countries as well. This is evident from the economic fact that it earns a greater percentage of its income/returns from outside than within. Due to these factors, the firm has been subject to massive competition from rivals trying to break even in the same field. Similarly, we realize the application of the Porter’s Five Forces in the management of the firm which it partly owes to its success. Thus, this paper is aimed at discussing the Porter concepts and their application in the business which has clearly led to its success in the field.
The ‘Porter’s Five Forces’ is basically used for industry analysis, the study of common and different trends in the particular industry and how they affect other firms in the same field. This is because for a field to qualify to be an industry, it must have enough firms that deal in the same kind of production and engage in healthy competition. This concept breaks down the operations of an industry into very fine details that enable a person understand the mystery behind success or failure in business. We realize that most companies, like humans, form a time plan and set targets regarding their operations and where they wish to be in a number of years from a particular time. This is almost unachievable without considering the actual environment which they are dealing with and the competition. Most importantly, when an organization especially a manufacturing firm is not well aware of the its strengths and weaknesses and those of the competing firms, chances that it will reach its target in the industry are limited. However, knowing the above mentioned factors will be a step forward towards making a boom in the market. When the firms are competing on the same level, it will be right to define it as healthy competition with a balance, thus, any advantage over another will be due to unique skills exhibited.
The different Porter Five Forces that analyze industries and their competitive capabilities in the field include:
Buyer Power
Basically, this is an application of the influence of the buyers in the industry and their capability of controlling the existing prices. This comes down to the demand and supply forces that are attributed to the control of market prices. In an industry, buyers may be ranked in different categories depending on the frequency of usage and the contribution to a firm’s general revenue. Similarly, the loss likely to be suffered should the ‘important’ buyers decide to switch should be considered since in most cases, they determine the stability of the manufacturing firm. All these factors are dependent on the number of buyers, if many, they are controlled by the firm, if few, they can easily determine the prices of the goods or services sold.
The metal cans industry that Crown Cork and Seal competed in 1989 was aced by similar circumstances that distinguished one firm’s ability from another. A detailed analysis by (Bradley, 2005) reveals that the many firms in the industry had not achieved the full capacity of controlling their products and were not able to distinguish their goods as well. The choices that were made available to the buyers were limited due to inability to differentiate which product belonged to which firm specifically. Consequently, buyers would prefer the ones with lower prices without much consideration of the manufacturer. This gave them the power over the prices that were set for them in the market, thus they had to be lowered to their expectations or better still standardized to ensure healthy competition. (Bradley, 2005) also noted that where the buyers purchased the cans, they did not use them as a final commodity. Instead, they were used by food companies to package their product to ready market. As has been proved by business, this kind of transacting would be done at the lowest prices possible, thus, the prices were dropped to almost the cost prices to ensure survival of the firms.
Supplier Power
Under this force, an analysis of the behavior of the suppliers of input is required. The study of economics has proved that there are different factors that drive the demand and supply forces, thus, they may be elastic, inelastic or unitary. These can be derived by the consideration of the uniqueness of the inputs used and the readiness in availability of the suppliers. It can also be determined by the level of control the supplier has over the client which in this case is the Crown Cork and Seal Company. In a case where the company at hand needs the suppliers less than they need them, they will find it easier to manage the cost of production since they are partially in control of the products used as input. When the firm is aware of these issues, the management can plan ahead and be aware of the issues to expect.
According to Bradley, (2005), “The metal container industry, representing 61% of all packaged products in the United States in 1989, produced metal cans … industrial goods.” We realize that the industry was quite competitive when it came to the inputs supplied for production. Similarly, suppliers of the metals that were later on manufactured and transformed into finished packaging cans were diverse and did not necessarily concentrate on one field. Thus, we realize that the organization’s assurance for ready market gave them an upper hand over the suppliers. Where the metal providers had large numbers that needed ready market, the manufacturing firm in question controlled the prices since they could offer the ready market. Thus, unexpected increase in prices was avoidable which gave the Crown Cork and Seal a competitive advantage over the other firms in the same production.
Competitor Power
It is worth noting that in most business set ups, competition is what leads to innovation and coming up with new ideas that will enable each firm survive in the market and maintain its clients. An industry without competition is likely to lack innovation, maintain the same level of profits and under certain circumstances, operate at break even point with no profits to show. Researchers have in most cases compared the concept of competition as a case of survival for the fittest and only the strong ones survive. In business, a firm which cannot use innovation and creativity to improve its products and boost its performance is likely to be kicked out and considered unable to cope with the existing situation.
In the metal can industry where Crown Cork and Seal Company belonged, (Bradley, 2005) states/argues that the level of competition was not satisfactory. Though the mentioned firm stood out, it may have been attributed to the competence and unique abilities of their management team that made decisions and worked towards distinguishing the firm. The industry was there fore characterized with dropping profits that in almost all the cases moved towards break even. Had there been competition and desire to get ranked higher, different and much more improved cans could have been seen which would be a good step forward for the industry and the buyers who would appreciate them more. According to Bradley, (2005), “competing cans ere made of identical materials to identical specifications on practically identical machinery…. in a given market.” This goes as far to show the lack of advancement and uniqueness. To distinguish themselves from this industry trend, the new management team headed by John Connelly worked towards the fact that not only efficiency was needed for improvement but rather, quality was key. The creation of uniqueness and consistent improvement of the quality offered would give competitive advantage and ensure healthy competition.
Threat of Substitutes
Substitutes are generally products from different manufacturers, different kind but serve the same purpose as the product in question. Buyers of the commodity could therefore decide on which product to buy and incase of extreme prices or reduction in quality of the other, they could easily shift. In this kind of circumstances, they are forced to ensure the quality is very high and that the services offered to their clients are too good to easily let go. This goes as far as affecting the price elasticity of the commodity. It is relatively higher where there are readily available substitutes for the product.
In the case of the metal can industry, the substitutes were not as much as would be expected. Since the production was of metal cans, possible substitutes would be glass or even plastic. Though not as much, Bradley, (2005) stated that, “… the 1980s, plastics were … with its share growing from 9% to 18% in nine years. This was a substitute that would have easily been taken care of by the metal industry. We realize that most soft drinks at the time were also packed in glass bottles, for instance, coca cola. Thus, due to the reasons discussed regarding competition, the metal industry was not as willing to make sure they ruled the market, thus, gave substitutes a relatively higher competitive advantage. It was more likely for them to grow because of the obvious innovation and most organizations that needed cans resolve to use the substitutes rather than the metal. The Crown Cork and Seal Company competed in this kind of industry where the substitutes were an actual threat to the growth of the metal industry. These are all economically proven and with the technological changes and innovation in today’s industry, consistent growth is unavoidable.
Threat of New Entry
The power and ability of the existing firms in a specific industry to control their operations is highly reliant on the ease of new firms to enter the industry and adopt similar kind of production. To ensure this does not happen easily, he industry must set its standards high and make it very difficult for other firms likely to create competition to join. This is usually in terms of costs, technology, quality and economies of scale. Where the costs of joining are high, most firms will shy away from joining since they will find it very difficult to raise the capital or risk on a very high priced investment. (Bradley, 2005) argues that the ease with which one could join the metal industry was quite high due to their inability o make the standards high. As discussed in competition, where there is little competition prices tend to go very low. With low prices, the entry of new firms became very affordable, thus, control of the industry became quite difficult.
Conclusion
It is worth noting that the Porter’s Five Forces are very important factors to consider when trying penetrating a market. To ensure stability of an individual firm, they have to ensure that the five are considered so that the way forward can also be determined. It would be challenging, as has been seen for Crown Cork and Seal, to succeed in a relaxed industry. However, though the industry was not as active, the management of the firm is credited with the ability to improve the situation and make the company competitive.
References:
Bradley, S. (2005). Crown Cork and Seal in 1989. Harvard Business School.
The ballad of black Tom
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The ballad of black Tom
The Ballad of Black Tom is a fantasy story written by Victor Lavelle giving his story from the view of a black man. The book is appealing because of the characters and how historical fiction is expressed. The book uses a line of dialogue to give a one on one view for the reader to understand better. The book is inspired by Lovecraft and rebukes racism at the same time. The author does a great job of transporting readers to New York. The city plays in character where everything that he does in New York is expressed vividly. The author makes the reader connect with the main character and even end up getting attached. The Ballad of Black addresses the concerns of the black people in America through the use of empathy and showing the triumphs that the people in the community go through.
The book was set in Harlem in 1924 during the renaissance where the book stars a 20 years old Tommy who is a hustler in the streets and lives with his sick father. The story uses a third person with the first part using Tommy’s perspective and the second part uses the detective’s perspective. The first part starts with Tommy delivering a yellow book to a woman in Queens. One month later two police officers question Tommy about the wealthy white man who had offered him a large amount of money to allow him to play his guitar. Tommy becomes ignorant and as they leave one of the detectives says that he suspects Tommy had stolen a page from Ma Att’s book to ensure it does not use its magic. Tommy goes back to Harlem the following day and realizes that Mr. Howard had shot and killed his father while searching for the page of Ma Att’s book. Tommy ends up joining Suydam in his mission. The second part is expressed in Malone’s view.
The book is associated with great complex entities that way beyond human understanding. Ballad says that malice is the order and he explains how he does not like crafty people. The inversion is a structural means to bring out the story in an interesting manner. When reading the book, it is easier to think that as much as we have an issue with discrimination of color; people also play part in identifying colors with a specific meaning. Growing up children know that pink represents girls and blue boys (Horwitz-White, par1). The color spectrum begins from childhood. The choice of words by the author during the narration is needed not to want. New York is expressed as a country full of injustice, exploitation, and police brutality.
Injustice is the main theme in most African American narratives in the United States. The narratives talk about issues ranging from slavery to segregation explaining the struggles of the blacks’ population (Greyirish, par8). The black population has struggled with getting a place in the community is the minority population facing prejudice. The black community is misrepresented and inequality is quite evident. The narrative expresses injustice which makes Tommy transform into black Tom. The cruelty of the world drives him to the darkest times of his life. When Tommy first moves to New York, he is not sure of what to find. The author says that many people who go to New York make the same mistake because they cannot see it. They go looking for the magic whether good or bad (LaValle, 9).
When talking of black entitlement, racism plays a key issue. For years African Americans did not enjoy what most African Americans enjoy. In this decade that we live in with all the struggle that African Americans went through then entitlement is not bad. They state that socialism of racism refers to the study of the connection between racism, racial inequality and discrimination. Racial inequality deals with inequitable outcomes of races in sectors such as education, health and income. During the Jim Crow era, African Americans were being treated in hospitals that were in deplorable state. They could not vote and when they were allowed to vote then one needed to know how to read and write. After the struggle African Americans have attained a certain level of equality although so much still needs to be done. The entitlement that most refer to is that when African Americans air their grievances even when it is not about race issue people will find a way to make it about race. With racial inequality and racial discrimination being key there are very many injustices that African Americans have gone through and are still going through. In the current decade one may still find people of color earning less than whites. Police brutality is also a scenario that paints a picture of racial inequality and racial discrimination. The book looks at the various racial struggles that African American go through the lens of several characters from the text.
The struggles of the black community are seen through the main character who lives with his sick father. He struggles to take care of his father by every means possible. In the beginning, there is a rich old woman who claims to be looking for a book with black magic powers. Tommy convinces the woman that he has found the book. He dresses elegantly to fit in with the whites. When he is asked where he got the book he comes up with a story making it look like that he went through a lot of struggle to get the book. He tells her how he trades books like the one he acquired for her. (LaValle, 15). the novel expresses Victoria’s society as a world where the immigrants live giving it an atmosphere of crime. The book he delivers to her is old with yellow front and back cover. He did not know the meaning of the words written on the cover but did not care (LaValle, 15).
Among the main issue that Tommy experiences just like all blacks are trying to fit in His way of dressing gives him an advantage by pretending to be a musician. The author jokes that he probably did not know anything about Jazz yet he was pretending to be a jazz musician. A few days later in Brooklyn, he is offered a large amount of money to play guitar at a party that Suydam would be holding.
The black community is the victim’s first suspicion in case of a crime. That is among the issues that many black people experience. After Tommy gets paid to play guitar at Suydam’s party, he is approached by two police officers who were following Suydam. They assault Tommy while one of them claims that he suspects that he tore a page from the book with powers. On the way home, he also gets harassed by white kids playing in their area and they only leave him when he nears Suydam estate. The approach by the police looks at themes of alienation and otherness. It looks at how black men are often alienated because of the stereotype that has been developed about them. The believe that he is a suspect for the crime simply because of his skin color. Thus is what most African Americans go through as they are profiled for crimes just because of their skin color.
The author tries to express the dangers of crossing segregation lines. The main character Tommy faces danger every time he leaves Harlem and crosses into the area dominated by the whites. During the 19th century, urban planning in American cities was based on segregation. Jim Crow laws formalized segregation in the South where such laws were not there. The laws ensured that the black people and the whites did not live in the same place (Lavalle, par1). Although the Jim Crows era are not existent and there are no longer restrictions on schools or offices that the African Americans should attend, the issue on segregation can still be felt may years later. There are still neighborhoods that are dominantly white and when a black is seen, they are suspected to be criminals. There are African Americans that have been gunned down as being mistaken to being criminals for just being in a different neighborhood.
Loss of authentic self is another theme in the story due to the loss of identity by Tommy Tester. There is a great risk of losing sight of oneself as a black person in a white community. Tommy creates a new image where he is known as Black Tom and the rage that he had created in him makes him a threat to everyone. The suffering that Tommy goes through makes him angry at the world and decides to become a bad person.
The themes in the ballad of the black Tom correspond with the genre of the American literature because they express the issues that the black community faces. The themes range from society racism, imbalance of power and injustice. African-American Literature is as a result of the African heritage coming from different countries. It is easy to think that African American literature is similar to postcolonial literature although the difference comes in because African American literature is written for the minority groups. African-American genre is rich in poetry. It incorporates all the forms of poetry ranging from songs. Some of the writers ensure that they do not use the Western literary theory because they feel it betrays the lines of African-American literature.
The genre traces the origin of the black community. Most African-American literature has the theme of showing the role of African Americans in a society where the major people are whites. In the story of The Ballad of Black Tom, it starts with a white old woman who purchases a book from Tommy. The lady had been searching for the book for a long time and when Tommy overhears, he tells her that he could the book for her. He explains the hustle that he had to go through to get the book showing how the black community indulges in dangerous activities to fend for themselves (Clark, par3). In an area where only the white people dominate, the black people end up doing manual jobs to fend themselves (Ziabari, par1). This is still the case in the modern world as African Americans seem to take on odd jobs while the whites take on white collar jobs. This has been contributed by inequality which subjects African American to insufficient resources such as schools which lead them eventually not being as qualified as whites. In many cases, black people are the first suspects in case of a crime. It is evident in the story where Tommy is approached by two policemen. The policemen harass him and even end up claiming that they suspect him for the stolen page of the book. This also brings the idea of police brutality towards African Americans. For the longest time, African Americans have often been oppressed by criminal justice system with laws such as stop and frisk by police used to undermine them.
“On being brought from Africa to America” is a poem by Phyllis Wheately that relates to the Ballad of Black Tom. It was published in 1773 describing a story of a young girl who was taken to American colonies and enslaved. The poem is used to show that every person is capable of getting salvation through Christianity. The author of the poem uses the bible to express his point. She expresses the difficulties that African Americans went through although it was different as her main theme was slavery, there is similarity on prejudice that African Americans went through in the hands of the whites. From the beginning of the poem, the author expresses the happiness of Wheatley for leaving Africa. Just like in the Ballad of black, Tommy was also glad to get into New York although he was not sure of what to expect. In the poem, the author pays more attention to how the bigger population consisted of pagans. Mercy plays the role of a slave trader who sells people for their benefit (Wheatley, par3). In the end, her journey to the American colony acts as a calling for her to seek Christ.
The African-American literature expresses the black community as the minority having less freedom among the whites. The blacks are discriminated against and are not treated the same as the rest of the people. Sympathy is a poem that describes a bird caught up in a cage stuck without the freedom to get out. It is the same as being locked in a cell. The same case applies to Tommy who tries to fit in the white community. He goes to the extent of dressing up like a musician so that he can blend in with the rest of the people.
The bird stuck in the cage flaps its wings and starts singing due to the misery that it was going through. The poem is not speaking only about a stuck bird. The bird is a metaphor representing the poor Africans locked up in the misery of oppression, injustice, and segregation (Wheatley). A person can ask themselves why they should care about a bird caught in a cage. However, racism is a form of discrimination where people are discriminated against due to their color. Unlike now, there were times that America was a land of white people. Several changes have taken place since then but one cannot say that everything has changed in favor of the black people. Without knowing everything that transpired during colonial times, it is hard to understand what people felt. They felt like the bird in the cage. Tommy from the story of the Ballad of black goes through the same triumph and ends up in a point that he gets so angry and decides to be a bad influence and danger to society.
“I Too” is a poem by Langston Hughes focusing on African American identity in America. It gives the history of oppression of black people through slavery and injustice. The song starts with the author saying that even the black people are worthy to be American too (Spacey, par3). The fist singer speaks a message of hope that things will change. The issue of black rights is brought up.
The black communities who are the minority in America continue to get discriminated from the people, law enforcement, and employers. Most of them are not lucky enough to get a quality education or decent jobs. According to the ballad of Black Tom, the main character shows the struggles that the black community goes through. The problems that he goes through push him to the extent that he decides to change his identity to black Tom who was a threat to the community. Although things have evolved and racism is not the way it used to be in the old times, equality has not yet been established. If equality is not established completely, the black people will continue to see the white people as their enemy and the white people will keep blaming them for pulling them back.
Work cited
Ziabari, Kourosh, et al. “Being Black in America.” Fair Observer, 9 Jan. 2019, www.fairobserver.com/region/north_america/racism-america-black-african-american-culture-news-latest-world-news-today-20126/.
Spacey, Andrew. “Analysis of Poem ‘I,Too’ by Langston Hughes.” Owlcation, Owlcation, 10 Jan. 2020, owlcation.com/humanities/Analysis-of-Poem-I-Too-by-Langston-Hughes.
“On Being Brought from Africa to America Summary & Analysis by Phillis Wheatley.” LitCharts, www.litcharts.com/poetry/phillis-wheatley/on-being-brought-from-africa-to-america.
Shmoop Editorial Team. “Sympathy Introduction.” Shmoop, Shmoop University, 11 Nov. 2008, www.shmoop.com/study-guides/poetry/sympathy.
Lavalle, Victor. “The Ballad of Black Tom Themes.” SuperSummary, www.supersummary.com/the-ballad-of-black-tom/themes/.
Horwitz-White, Jon. “Docility and Rage: Exploring Performance and Blackness in ‘The Ballad of Black Tom.’” Fiction Unbound, Fiction Unbound, 14 Oct. 2016, www.fictionunbound.com/blog/docility-and-rage-exploring-the-performance-of-blackness-in-the-ballad-of-black-tom.
Greyirish. “‘The Ballad of Black Tom’ (2016) by Victor LaValle.” Deep Cuts in a Lovecraftian Vein, 13 Apr. 2019, deepcuts. blog/2019/04/13/the-ballad-of-black-tom-2016-by-victor-lavalle/.
Clark, Chloe N., and Chloe N. Clark. “Monsters and Men: Empathy in Victor LaValle’s Ballad of Black Tom.” The Ploughshares Blog, blog.pshares.org/index.php/monsters-and-men-empathy-in-victor-lavalles-ballad-of-black-tom/.