In both readings, both of the authors try their best to
appeal to the audience through their use of emotion, logic, and credibility. In
the article Nonviolence as Compliance the
authors use of emotion is not as strong as Martin Luther King Jr.’s in his Letter from Birmingham Jail. In MLK’s
letter, the personal experience he writes about makes the reader feel a strong
emotional attachment to him and the experiences he went through. Martin Luther King writes about the injustice
he has experienced. This connects to readers and shows them that what he went
through really had an important impact. In both of these readings, both authors
have a very good use of logic and reason. They both express why they are
writing and what they are writing about. In Nonviolence
as Compliance, the author writes about the rioting throughout Maryland and
how these riots were a response to the police brutality going on throughout the
country. He explains that police cannot expect people to be complaint if they
are using violence on them to get their point across. In Martin Luther King
Jr.’s letter, he gives reason to his letter by stating he is there because “injustice
is here”. Both authors give great reason as to why they are writing. Lastly,
both authors try to use credibility as a way to appeal to their audiences. In
this case, MLK definitely has a stronger argument because he has credibility to
his name. With him being a civil rights activist and president of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, he is more likeable and more likely to have readers
actually take his writing seriously. Although both authors use facts and
experiences to show credibility, Martin Luther King Jr. is better known than
Coates who is the author of Nonviolence
as Compliance.
Ta-Nehisi Coates article “Nonviolence as Compliance” primarily attempts to use appeals to emotion and a show of credibility to strengthen its argument for the reader. Coates shows his credibility on the subject when he states that he “grew up across the street from Mondawmin Mall, where today's riots began. (his) mother was raised in the same housing project, Gilmor Homes, where Freddie Gray was killed. Everyone (he) knew who lived in that world regarded the police not with admiration and respect but with fear and caution.” This shows that he is not simply a bystander on the subject, but that he has lived the life of those he is talking about. He then appeals to the audience’s emotion by discussing the death of Freddie Grey, which seems to be unexplainable and heartbreaking to the community. Martin Luther King also uses these same appeals in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, but he uses them in slightly different ways. King shows his reader he is credible not by explaining he is from the same place as the issue, but by discussing why he is involved when he shares that he is in Birmingham Jail to stamp out injustice. This shows that King is in it for reasons other than himself and that he is credible. He then grabs the readers emotionally by discussing how long African Americans have waited for the respect that they rightfully deserved as human beings. While both authors use these same appeals, I believe that King’s use of them is stronger. This could be because of the historical significance that King’s name carries, but I also believe it is because he is so eloquently spoken and so well written that it makes the difference between the two in the end. Coates article also came across as more aggressive than King’s at times and I think that ultimately made it more difficult to grab his audience.
ReplyDeleteI agree that both writings appeal to the author's credibility and to the reader's emotion, but I believe the article by Coates’ also strongly appeals to the reader’s intellect. In Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail", he shows credibility firstly because he is sitting in a Birmingham jail cell because of his protests for change. He appeals to his reader’s emotion by discussing the disheartening mistreatment of African Americans, "For more than two centuries our forebears labored in this country without wages; they made cotton king; they built the homes of their masters while suffering gross injustice and shameful humiliation..." King uses references to God and the Bible, and the vision of a time of freedom to appeal to the hope of his readers. In Ta-Nehisi Coates’ article about the confusing and devastating death of Freddie Gray, he establishes credibility by telling the reader his mother grew up in the same neighborhood as Gray and listing past situations where settlements were made for circumstances with police brutality, “Over the past four years, more than 100 people have won court judgments or settlements related to allegations of brutality and civil rights violations.” I believe he appeals more to the reader’s rationality because he uses words like “brutal acts” to describe what is occurring between the police force and the members of the community it is supposed to be protecting. He also does this by asking questions that can directly engage the reader in questioning the tragic events that have occurred.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the 2 readings appeal to the readers emotion and logic. In the article by Coates , I feel that it attacks more logically than emotionally. There are many components where emotion is used effectively. However, it is when the author starts to talk about the questions of Greys death where we see the most logical appeals. The author offers the logic to why the people are rioting and also the logic to which the officials are asking for “non-violence “. The emotional appeals the author does show is that of personal accounts from police brutality cases “ The blow was so heavy. My eyes swelled up. Blood was dripping down my nose and out my eye.”. But in MLK’s letter , he offers the strongest appea1ls in logic and emotion. He states his reasoning for which he is in Birmingham and even states the exact process by which he makes his decisions regarding any nonviolent campaign. The emotional appeal is softly dug underneath in the beginning of the letter , but later on in the letter he gives examples of the racism cursing his people and the reasons as to why he chases equality and the end of despair to his people.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that both Martin Luther King Jr. "letter from Birmingham jail" and Ta-Nehisi "Nonviolence as Compliance" have good logic and reason. Both of these writers are also credited writers. Martin Luther King Jr. does in fact have/use more emotion in his letter than Ta-Nehsisi does in his/her article/blog. I also agree that the way Martin Luther King Jr. writes its like your actually their because it tells a story of what MLK went through. Ta-Nehsisi article/blog is more strongly towards the readers intellect. In Ta-Nehsisi article/blog he does make a great point that how do cops expect others to listen to them when they decide to settle things with violence. Overall both of these readers are giving insight on a topic that they witnessed and are explaining it to us with the best of their abilities. They both also have good emotion just MLK seems better at it. However, they both try to his different topics of readers.
ReplyDelete"Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King Jr. and "Nonviolence as Compliance" by Tai Nahisi Coates each explain the emotions and mentality held during two different civil rights era's. On one hand you have "Letter from Birmingham Jail," which is a letter from Dr. King that opened the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism. It initiated the responsibility to break laws that were unjustified and took direct action, instead of taking the approach of waiting on the courts to make a final decision. On the other hand there's "Nonviolence as Compliance," which discusses the problems that took place in Baltimore during the riots in 2015. Coates was able to describe the situation in a personal aspect, due to the fact that he was raised in Baltimore and holds a lot of knowledge of how the people feel when it comes to the police. Coates mentions how people in the area actually felt about the police when he says, "Everyone I knew who lived in that world regarded the police not with admiration and respect but with fear and caution." Coates goes on to explain how nonviolence was not the choice of the Baltimore people, due to the fact that, "When nonviolence is preached by the representatives of the state, while the state doles out heaps of violence to its citizens, it reveals itself to be a con." Coates point was to input the fact that nonviolence was being preached around representatives, yet the states (Police) were still causing violence on their citizens. In the end however, both articles depict nonviolence in different terms and different times, but the central idea of each article is the process of peace and nonviolence among the people. In Dr. King's closing comments, he states, "It is true that the police have exercised a degree of discipline in handling the demonstrators. In this sense they have conducted themselves rather "nonviolently" in public. But for what purpose? To preserve the evil system of segregation. Over the past few years I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek."
ReplyDelete