Introduction
Racial injustice is a topical controversial issue, and today it is almost impossible to not be involved in the discourse regarding its influences in modern society. The problem is not limited to individual cases and recognized as systemic, concerning all societal spheres from the legal system to the sports industry (Jenkins). The analysis of two articles on racial injustice has shown that they differ in their kairos, pathos, and visual rhetoric, while being similar in logos and ethos, because of the audiences’ expectations.
Article 1
The first text chosen for the analysis is an op-ed by Barry Creamer called “Our Faith and Ethics Must Challenge Our Norms on Race.” In his work, the author addresses racial injustice and the ways white people, the primary stakeholders, can follow to resolve it. Its kairos is justified by the topical issue he is discussing and his intended audience, which is the conservative population of Dallas since the article is published in the Dallas Morning News, a conservative newspaper. He says that systemic racial disparities are caused by the centuries of oppression of black people and offers several steps to tackle the problem. The text is organized according to a traditional structure: first, he presents the introduction, then follows his main ideas, and finishes with the conclusion.
The first rhetorical feature is the article’s logos, which constitutes itself in the form of logical arguments made by Creamer and his explanation of the current situation’s causes. Speaking of the problem of racial discrimination, he refers to historical events, saying that black people were “enslaved during the first 250 years of American history and oppressed under Jim Crow” (Creamer). The author refers to historical events that are well-known to his audience since southern conservatives are mostly older people. Some of them may have witnessed the Jim Crow atrocities themselves, which helps the author evoke readers’ feelings.
The conservative audience is accustomed to a more reserved style of writing; this explains the moderate level of pathos present in Creamer’s article. Yet there are instances where the author turns to literary devices to add emotion to the text, for example, “I already have to nudge, cajole, persuade or compel people” (Creamer). Here, he uses climax, aiming at impacting readers and stress his efforts in trying to bring racial justice.
The author’s situated ethos is established through his credentials listed below the article and his statements at the beginning of the text. He starts the article by presenting his identity, “I am a 57-year-old white man with a long history and some influence in Southern, conservative Christianity” (Creamer). Targeting other white southerners, he invites them to follow his own example, and the fact that he is a professor makes his words sound reasonable and gives him credibility. Creamer’s invented ethos is built with the help of the steps to minimize racial injustice and their general acceptability among the intended audience.
The article’s visual rhetoric lies in the illustration that pictures minorities’ faces against seemingly lost in the crowd of white people who are painted in toneless, dull colors. This highlights the topic and corresponds to its kairos, stressing that black people are often neglected in the white-majority society. The picture does not contain any violent imagery, for example, of lynching, that would be unpopular with the conservative audience.
Article 2
The second article, called “All People of Color Should Fight Anti-Blackness,” is written by Grace Pai, and its kairos is based on the topical problem of racial prejudice among other people of color. The author argues that all ethnic minorities have to overcome their own negative attitude towards black people and promote their interests instead. The article’s intended audience is liberal minorities living in New York since it is published in the New York Daily News, a left-leaning publication. The topic’s stakeholders are the aforementioned readers who are willing to change the current status quo. The text is organized according to the standard layout of the introduction, body, and conclusion, and its message is clear.
The article’s logos consists of various data, statistics and can be explained by the liberal readers’ need for trusted sources. For example, speaking of black students’ racial discrimination in schools, Pai presents precise figures, “only 1% out of over 3,300 students at a specialized high school like Stuyvesant are black” (Pai). This shows the intended readers that the author has thoroughly studied her topic and can support her claims.
Pai’s text contains a significant pathos level since she employs different literary devices and primarily appeals to emotions. The author writes that racial justice will not emerge “if we don’t first do our part to fight the anti-black racism that is ingrained in our families and communities” (Pai). This kind of claim is extremely emphatic and is chosen specifically for the liberal audience, which is predisposed to being highly responsive to emotions (Rotenberg).
The situated ethos of the author is created by the examples of how she was subjected to discrimination. Pai tells about her experiences as a victim of racism, “has been racially profiled by police in Oregon” (Pai). Her identity and background justify her ability to say that her racial group is racist towards black people in liberal readers’ eyes. The invented ethos of the article, based on the author’s suggestion, is also appropriate for the audience.
The visual rhetoric is expressed through a picture of a building on fire shot during the 1992 riots in Los Angeles, the events referenced in the article. Pai demonstrates a photo of the events that occurred relatively recently and are known to the generally young liberal audience. It also reminds the intended readers of the riots that, according to them, were a respective response to injustice.
Synthesis
In the first article, the kairos concerns the current moment when white people need to address their privilege, while Pai’s kairos concerns the high time for other racial minorities to discard anti-blackness. The same can be said about the pathos, Creamer’s article is reserved in its style, matching the conservative audience’s expectations. Pai’s article is emphatic, which is dictated by the liberal readers’ penchant for emotional responsiveness. The first article references the Jim Crow times, the topic which many southerners have strong feelings about. The second article refers to the 1992 riots in Los Angeles, which the liberal public considered to be a reaction to injustice. Also, the violent visual rhetoric of the second article would not be approved by conservative readers. As a white man, Cramer presents himself to his readers as an example of what his group can do to bring racial justice. The liberal audience is concerned with people’s identity, so, as an Asian woman, Pai strictly addresses the readers of her own ethnicity.
Conclusion
Racial justice is a topical issue that affects different spheres of society, which inevitably leads to its extensive coverage in the media. Both authors referenced the events which were known to the intended readers and evoked an emotional response. They proposed actions that would be well regarded by their audiences and used language that would be most suitable for their readers. The authors also integrated their personal experiences and backgrounds to add credibility to their words among their readers.
Works Cited
Creamer, Barry. “Our Faith and Ethics Must Challenge Our Norms on Race.” The Dallas Morning News, 2020.
Jenkins, Malcolm. “What Protesting NFL Players Like Me Want to Do Next.” The Washington Post, 2017.
Pai, Grace. “All People of Color Should Fight Anti-Blackness.” The New York Daily News, 2020. Web.
Rotenberg, Becca. “Liberal and Conservative Brains Handle Emotions Differently.” Axios, 2017.