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Kylee Rountree

Professor Granillo

English 101

26 September 2018

How Effective Can Rhetorical Device Be When It Comes to Racial Injustice?

Rhetorical devices such as ethos, pathos, and logos are used when the author wants to

effectively persuade the audience into believing their side of the topic without directly stating it.

Some use their own personal values or they appeal to the readers emotions. Others like to use

actual facts to support their argument. In the article “The New Jim Crow Laws” by Michelle

Alexander, explains the many ways of how black men are being discriminated and deprived of

their voting rights as American citizens. Alexander uses rhetorical devices such as ethos, pathos,

and logos equally to help the readers understand each point she presents and express her

motivation of her long family chain of mistreatment.

For many generations’ minorities have been held back from choosing their own paths in

life, black men especially have not been provided the opportunities to do so. Alexanders

motivation to write this paper falls back from her long family chain, “Cotton’s family tree tells

us the story of several generations of black men who were born in the united states but who were

denied the most basic freedom that democracy promises-the freedom to vote for those who will

make the rules and laws that govern one’s life” (Alexander 230). Her background and family

history helps her introduce these rhetorical devices throughout the article. For many decades and

generations, her and others ancestors/ family have been deprived of their freedom to choose who

will best fit the role of presidency, governors, mayors, etc. From early on in the United States
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history, black men have been deprived the right to vote but how credible is the author, Michelle

Alexander, to speak about this topic?

Speaking on the topic of civil rights and race in general is a very difficult topic to discuss

in a way that is effective. You have to be educated and have some sort of experience to support

your premises about the argument. The author of the article “The New Jim Crow Laws”

explains, “I was headed to my new job, director of Racial Justice Project of the American Civil

Liberties Union (ACLU) in Northern California” (Alexander 233). As the director of a union that

supports racial justice, the author has experience with how black men are being deprived of their

rights. It is her job to know how the law is working against black men. Alexander is also a

lawyer for the protection of civil rights and organizes the study of race and ethnicity. If she used

too much of one appeal it wouldn’t necessarily debunk her argument because of her background

knowledge on this topic. A lot of writers who are not as credible as Alexander run into a lot of

problems when writing a piece with a great majority of one appeal. Although Michelle

Alexander seems credible enough to speak on these sorts of issues, people still may not find it

convincing.

When Alexander uses ethos in her article it helps us get a better understanding of her

knowledge and view point on the topic that she is discussing. All writers want their audience to

trust their opinion because it is reliable but very few times are they actually credible. Alexander

continues to apply ethos, “As a lawyer who had litigated numerous class-action employment

discrimination cases, I understand well the many ways in which racial stereotyping can permeate

subjective decision-making processes at all levels of an organization, with devastating

consequence” (Alexander 234). Alexander put this in her article to basically let the readers know

that she is credible when it comes to race and legal issues. Bringing this type of ethos in her
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article was crucial to having the audience understand the seriousness of discrimination that has

been occurring. Recognizing the author’s values and knowledge helps the audience recognize

what her views are in this article. When the readers fully understand the authors values, they also

have to see what her emotional feelings are towards the topic.

People may still have the belief that the author is biased and is using her emotions too

much, on the contrary Alexander is credible enough to do so. Pathos is one of the three appeals,

evoking emotion and sympathy from the audience. People like to act on their emotions, so

personally I believe this is one of the most important appeals. The author goes on to use pathos,

“Cotton’s great-great-grandfather could not vote as a slave. His great-grandfather was beaten to

death by the Ku Klux Klan for attempting to vote. His grandfather was prevented from voting by

Klan intimidation. His father was barred from voting by poll taxes and literacy test” (Alexander

230). The author is using her long family chain of mistreatment and abuse to show the readers

how long the deprivation of minority rights has been gone. She has seen cases like these as well

from hundreds of other black men, so it is not necessarily biased when it is continuously

happening in real life. Although bringing pathos into this article was important to humanize these

victims of discrimination, providing facts and number pushes us to be able to recognize the

severity of the discrimination.

When Michelle Alexander uses logical reasoning in her article it makes everything seem

more real and less debatable because it is real life facts. Making it more likely for the audience to

believe her and trust her opinions. She includes this statistic about the growth of prison

population to give a better understanding,” ...U.S penal population exploded from around

300,000 to more than 2 million, with drug convictions accounting for the majority of the

increase. The United States now has the highest rate of incarceration in the world…” (Alexander
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239). Michelle’s point in showing these numbers is to show what has happened in the time frame

of just 30 years. This makes other countries look like saints compared to us. We have almost

surpassed every other country in the number of people in jail per person. Logos or logical

reasoning is a crucial appeal to your article, it can either help your argument or disprove it.

Bringing up these facts has brought it more to the audience's attention that a great amount of

minority felons are taken away their rights by the discrimination of their record title. If

Alexander did not include as much logos as she did, her article wouldn’t have been taken as

serious as it is right now.

The criminal system has found their way to legally deprive black men from their

constitutional rights just because of past mistakes that they have learned from and have been

already punished for. Although things are constantly changing, it mostly remains the same. The

discrimination that black men have received in the past is still around in the legal system. Things

may not change overnight however, we have to make a stand for every American citizen

constitutional rights because what is stopping the legal system from only using it on black men

and not others with different viewpoints than those in charge. This issue is one that everyone

should be concerned with not just black men. Without these rhetorical devices being used the

article would not be as effective as it was. These 3 appeals that were shown previously had its

own crucial part to persuade the reader or audience about the injustice criminal system.

Alexanders motivation for writing this piece was this piece all started from her family history

and continuing on in her career as a civil rights defender. She is a credible enough to speak on

this topic and does so effectively.

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Works Cited

Alexander, Michelle. “The New Jim Crow Laws”. “They Say I Say”, 4th Edition, The New

Press,

05 January 2010.