Narrative 2 " Land of equal opportunity" and " Land of difference"

Our group discussed narrative number two “The land of equal opportunity" and "Land of difference” from the article written by Cynthia Selfe called “Lest we think the revolution is a revolution”. In this narrative, Selfe starts off by talking about how it has been said that everyone can use a computer and that there is no discrimination when it comes to using or owning a computer. A story that Americans tell themselves is that in order to have opportunities today,they need to have access to a computer. Selfe directs the reader’s concentration to a few ads that she has come across and examines them very closely and pays particular attention to what the advertisers use in order to sell their computer. In the first ad (figure 7) we see a man with his dog, with a pipe in front of a fire, this ad clearly has a fifties feel to it (303). Selfe talks about the ad and about the fact that when people remember the fifties they think of a time when citizens were optimistic about the future and that they were in high spirits after their success in World War II along with that, it was at this time that Americans overcame so many obstacles and many people today recall this moment as being the peaceful years in the past, a time when things were just peachy. The advertisers rely on Americas knowledge of this myth, and engage on a recreation on this time in order to sell their product; the advertisers are saying that people today need a computer to have the same optimism that Americans had in the fifties to be able to live this peaceful life. Selfe refers to this as” The land of equal opportunity”. In the other ad’s the advertisers also use the fifties theme again relying on the knowledge of what people have of that time in order to sell their product. Selfe states “These ads are what my grandmother would call mighty white” (304). In making this comment Selfe argues that there are no people of color in these ads or poor people, the advertisers do not show unemployed people or single parents or gay or foreign people. They leave a big part of the population out. The advertisers only concentrate on one group. Selfe wants the reader to pay particular attention to what they are not being shown in these ads. She wants the readers to aware of what they do miss out on and the fact that there are no equal opportunities being shown in these advertisements which completely contradicts the fact that computers do not discriminate when why are they only advertising to the white folk. Selfe believes that the reason the advertisers are leaving so many groups of people out is because they only want to sell this product to the privileged few. Selfe believes that the real story lies in the gap of the advertisements and refers to this as “The land of difference”. In order for the computer to not discriminate, we need to include other people in the advertisements and not just the white people.