Rhetorical Analysis Paper

 

Daniel Dagnatchew

Department name, City College

Course number: Course name

Instructor’s name

2.13.2021

Rhetorical Analysis

Rhetoric is defined as the art of using communication to persuade others. Rhetoric is used to appeal to people’s emotions in order to motivate them or to sway them into thinking a certain way about a topic. Aristotle defined rhetoric as the “ability to discover the available means of persuasion.” Rhetoric is present in nearly all forms of media like the news, articles, tv shows, or nearly anything that is trying to promote a message. One of the easiest forms of media in which to identify rhetoric is through news articles. One news article in particular that I would like to discuss is the “Racism is killing black people. It’s sickening them, too” which was published by the Washington Post. I will discuss the multiple rhetorical angles that are present throughout the article and how they make the article that much more convincing.

Ethos

Both authors of the piece, Michelle Williams and Jeffrey Sanchez, are faculty members at Harvard University. In addition, it is stated that Michelle Williams is also an epidemiologist.   Epidemiologists are scientists that study diseases within populations of people, so that they can analyze the cause and effect of diseases, and how to prevent them from happening. “Michelle A. Williams is an epidemiologist and dean of the faculty at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.” The stance the authors take is not a neutral tone. They make the case that there is a public health crisis happening with black and brown communities that is happening because of the effects of systemic racism. “To those of us in the public health community, they are also a visceral reminder of a reality we have come to know all too well: Racism is a public health crisis.” 

Pathos

The authors use pathos to illustrate to their audience that this is an urgent situation that needs to be addressed. The authors use the final words of both George Floyd and Eric Garner, which are “I can’t breathe,” three times in the article. The words are used as a bridge every time the authors address a new topic, or area of concern. 

The Washington Post, the newspaper that published the article was purchased by Amazon owner Jeff Bezos in 2013. The audience of the Washington Post is largely educated, and affluent. According to their statistics page of their readers, 54 percent earn household incomes of $75,000 and 35 percent earn household incomes of $100,000. Seventy two percent of readers are college graduates, and 42 percent of their readers have a postgraduate degree.

Logos

The authors use persuasive language to show how the living conditions in black communities contribute to both physical and mental illness within the black community.  “For generations, communities of color have faced vast disparities in job opportunities, income and inherited family wealth. They are less likely to have housing security and access to quality schools, healthy food and green spaces. All these factors undoubtedly undermine mental and physical well-being…Chronic stress caused by discrimination can trigger a cascade of adverse health outcomes, from high blood pressure and heart disease to immunodeficiency and accelerated aging.” In this paragraph the authors are making a case and outlining how racism affects the health of black people. Racism affects every area of black people’s lives, from healthcare to housing to job opportunities.  The authors also show how the mental effects of racism affects black people’s health.    

The genre is the Washington Post newspaper article and the medium used for the article is an online article format. 

Kairos. This article was written on June 4, 2020, almost two weeks after the death of George Floyd. During this time there were multiple protests around the country over the murder of George Floyd.  The first paragraph of the article references both George Floyd, and also mentions Eric Garner who was killed by police in July 2014.  This reminds readers that George Floyd’s death by the hands of police is not an isolated or rare incident.  During the time this article was written there was a national conversation about racism and inequality. Eventually these topics became global topics of discussion.

Exigence is why a topic is important and why readers should care about the issue they’re speaking about. The topic of conversation was about police brutality, but the authors wanted to let readers know that the living conditions for Black Americans were also killing them and leaving them at a disadvantage. There were multiple protests about police brutality but there are hidden killers and stressors in the black community that are not as visible as what happened to George Floyd. 

 

Telos . The tone of the article is very somber and denotes a sense of urgency about the crisis happening in the African-American community. It was written by health professionals but the authors used accessible language so that non-medical readers can understand. 

The purpose of the article was to inform readers of the health crisis that’s happening in the African-American community. The protests were gaining national and international attention and the purpose of this article was to bring attention to how racism affects health outcomes.