The movie, “The Great Debaters” (2007), was both directed and starred by, Denzel Washington who acted as Melvin Tolson, English and Speech Professor of Wiley College. Prior to this film’s production, many were not knowledgeable of Wiley College or its debating team. However, transformation took place when Melvin coached a four (4) member debate team of Wiley College into victory. One of the most memorable event was the moment Wiley College argued their opponent Oklahoma City College in scene two (2) of the film. During this debate, Wiley College was represented by the first female debater ever been on the school’s debating team, Samantha Booke along with her other team members. They argued in support of the moot, “Negro’s should be admitted to State Universities.”
The main idea in the argument focused on the fact that Negroes were still forced to live in the past, back when Southern
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Is it going to come tomorrow? Is it going to come next week? In a hundred years? Never? to which she responded, “No, the time for justice, the time for equality is always, is always right now.” Here she used repetition in the word “always” to emphasized her point. Samantha’s speech also shows repetition when she stuttered as an indication to highlight her nervousness in presenting her speech amongst the audience. The persuasive techniques were necessary and effective as it relates to facts which were solid information and proof that Wiley debaters arguments were real. Some people may not be persuaded by appeals from the heart, but it is more difficult for them to argue when real, genuine evidence that supports the points were made. Wiley was better able to convince the judges that “Negroes should be admitted in State
Jonathan Kozol revealed the early period’s situation of education in American schools in his article Savage Inequalities. It seems like during that period, the inequality existed everywhere and no one had the ability to change it; however, Kozol tried his best to turn around this situation and keep track of all he saw. In the article, he used rhetorical strategies effectively to describe what he saw in that situation, such as pathos, logos and ethos.
During the four decades following reconstruction, the position of the Negro in America steadily deteriorated. The hopes and aspirations of the freedmen for full citizenship rights were shattered after the federal government betrayed the Negro and restored white supremacist control to the South. Blacks were left at the mercy of ex-slaveholders and former Confederates, as the United States government adopted a laissez-faire policy regarding the “Negro problem” in the South. The era of Jim Crow brought to the American Negro disfranchisement, social, educational, and occupational discrimination, mass mob violence, murder, and lynching. Under a sort of peonage, black people were deprived of their civil and human rights and reduced to a status of quasi-slavery or “second-class” citizenship. Strict legal segregation of public facilities in the southern states was strengthened in 1896 by the Supreme Court’s decision in the Plessy vs. Ferguson case. Racists, northern and southern, proclaimed that the Negro was subhuman, barbaric, immoral, and innately inferior, physically and intellectually, to whites—totally incapable of functioning as an equal in white civilization.
In 102 Minutes, Chapter 7, authors Dwyer and Flynn use ethos, logos, and pathos to appeal to the readers’ consciences, minds and hearts regarding what happened to the people inside the Twin Towers on 9/11. Of particular interest are the following uses of the three appeals.
In the book Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer wrote about Christopher McCandless, a nature lover in search for independence, in a mysterious and hopeful experience. Even though Krakauer tells us McCandless was going to die from the beginning, he still gave him a chance for survival. As a reader I wanted McCandless to survive. In Into the Wild, Krakauer gave McCandless a unique perspective. He was a smart and unique person that wanted to be completely free from society. Krakauer included comments from people that said McCandless was crazy, and his death was his own mistake. However, Krakauer is able to make him seem like a brave person. The connections between other hikers and himself helped in the explanation of McCandless’s rational actions. Krakauer is able to make McCandless look like a normal person, but unique from this generation. In order for Krakauer to make Christopher McCandless not look like a crazy person, but a special person, I will analyze the persuading style that Krakauer used in Into the Wild that made us believe McCandless was a regular young adult.
"Violence against African-Americans occurred from the first days of the Reconstruction…klansmen rode to frustrate Reconstruction and keep the freedman in subjection.
Slavery was an issue in early America that plagued the African Americans who were forced into the position. It was believed, in the beginning, that the African Americans were happy to be enslaved, that it was their natural place. Many of the slaves that were taken from Africa couldn’t be more distraught with being sold into slavery but overtime as the older generation that had memories of freedom were replaced by the generation that only knew servitude. This generation was socialized into their position of enslavement, a lack of self-worth, and no access to education gave the illusion of happiness. Luckily around this time white Americans, mostly Northern, saw how wrong these inequalities were and began demanding the abolition of slavery. This
The next few paragraphs will compare blacks in the north to blacks in the south in the 1800’s. In either location blacks were thought of as incompetent and inferior. The next few paragraphs will explain each group’s lifestyle and manner of living.
The answer served to the explanation of the establishment of the Jim Crow law, which is segregation in the Southern
White southerners believed that black people should keep to themselves, socialize and go to church in different locations and work for white people in servile jobs and for low wages. After slavery was abolished Africans lost their shelters and white southerners lost their work force. In response to this, the white men became landlords that charged high rent to slave families who did not have the ability to pay with cash. The former slaves turned into indentured servants as they tried to pay off their debt through services, which was ultimately an unattainable task due to the high interest that was tacked on (Wiener). Due to the Fifteenth Amendment the Redeemers, who were southerners who wanted to prevent equality for slaves, had to sneak around to disfranchise blacks. The Redeemers developed voting rules for each state called “literacy tests,” even though they were impossible to pass and just created to get rid of African American voters. They also required a poll tax to be paid because they knew that most blacks would not have earned enough money to pay for voting. Proponents of the “New South” promoted the “Separate but Equal” motto and under this, segregation of blacks and whites became normal as long as each race had “equal” facilities (Literacy Test and Poll Tax). Even though blacks and whites
Pollan’s article provides a solid base to the conversation, defining what to do in order to eat healthy. Holding this concept of eating healthy, Joe Pinsker in “Why So Many Rich Kids Come to Enjoy the Taste of Healthier Foods” enters into the conversation and questions the connection of difference in families’ income and how healthy children eat (129-132). He argues that how much families earn largely affect how healthy children eat — income is one of the most important factors preventing people from eating healthy (129-132). In his article, Pinsker utilizes a study done by Caitlin Daniel to illustrate that level of income does affect children’s diet (130). In Daniel’s research, among 75 Boston-area parents, those rich families value children’s healthy diet more than food wasted when children refused to accept those healthier but
African Americans could not get the simple rights such as qualified education and health care. For example, North Carolina schools were racially segregated because the Jim Crow system say’s that, African American and white students should study in separate and equal schools. In fact, schools in North Carolina are separate, but not equal. By 1875, “public education in North Carolina was a legally ordained system” (Kenion, 1912). Everything was separate, such as facilities, teachers, resources, and students.
The debate team of Wiley College faced many colleges to be recognized and finally in the end winning a debate against the reigning debating champions, Harvard University. One of the debaters who caught my attention was James Farmer Jr., the youngest on the team that started out as an alternative. James Farmer sought recognition from adults and wanted to show everyone he was capable of debating. James Farmer incorporates a lot of Ethos and Pathos into his speech making, allowing him to leave his audience filled with emotions and in awe. Although James Farmer interested me, especially the way he presented his final speech, James Farmer and I are very different in the way we deliver our speeches.
The movie trailer “Rio 2”, shows a great deal of pathos, ethos, and logos. These rhetorical appeals are hidden throughout the movie trailer; however, they can be recognized if paying attention to the details and montage of the video. I am attracted to this type of movies due to the positive life messages and the innocent, but funny personifications from the characters; therefore, the following rhetorical analysis will give a brief explanation of the scenes, point out the characteristics of persuasive appeals and how people can be easily persuaded by using this technique, and my own interpretation of the message presented in the trailer.
The Great Debaters - Negroes should be admitted to the same college as whites. Denzel Washington. MGM, 2007. YouTube. Web. 11 July 2010.
In 1729, Jonathan Swift published a pamphlet called “A Modest Proposal”. It is a satirical piece that described a radical and humorous proposal to a very serious problem. The problem Swift was attacking was the poverty and state of destitution that Ireland was in at the time. Swift wanted to bring attention to the seriousness of the problem and does so by satirically proposing to eat the babies of poor families in order to rid Ireland of poverty. Clearly, this proposal is not to be taken seriously, but merely to prompt others to work to better the state of the nation. Swift hoped to reach not only the people of Ireland who he was calling to action, but the British, who were oppressing the poor. He writes with contempt for those who are oppressing the Irish and also dissatisfaction with the people in Ireland themselves to be oppressed.