In both “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and “Nonviolence as Compliance” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, the authors use emotional, ethical and logical appeals, in order to promote their desire for nonviolent acts of civil disobedience when justice is not served. In Martin Luther King Jr’s letter, the reverend addresses clergymen that believe King’s actions were unwise. King was in the Birmingham jail because of his protest of nonviolence and organizational ties in Alabama. In the speech, King states “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” meaning that whatever affects one individual directly, affects all people indirectly. Dr. King firmly believed non-violent aggression was the only way to protest the horrible state of the Union at the time; Coates, author of “Nonviolence as Compliance” would most likely strongly agree with MLK’s statements on non-violence. In the online article, the author explains that he is from the same neighborhood projects that Freddie Grey was abused at in Baltimore, Maryland. Grey, a black man, armed with only a switchblade, ran from police and was injured in the process and later died in the hospital. Instances like this push activists like Dr. King and Ta-Nehisi Coates to speak out. Both men understand that fighting oppression and violence with more violence would never solve anything in America. Instead, the two authors push the idea of protesting peacefully, in order to show the Majority that African-Americans still realize they are being oppressed in a nonviolent, more effective manner. While Coates throws hard statistics and facts at his audience, King uses moral and religious sentiment to reach his intended Christian audience. However, both authors use sound logic and pathological techniques to help the readers understand the extensive significance and immorality of racism in the United States.
In reading " Nonviolence as a Compliance" the author uses emotion and the feelings of people who were beaten by the police force. They first talk about the death of a man named Freddie Gray and how he died not on some street corner but in the custody of the police. They then to give the accounts of people who were hurt by police and had unnecessary force used on them giving account their experiences on how they were treated. In “Letter from Birmingham Jail" the author uses a intellectual approach in his essay. He states all the reasons on how what was going on at the present time not only hurt the people it was directed at but also the people around in the area. He goes on to ask questions that seem difficult to answer to the reader but in reality the answer was easy to find based on who the reader was. They go on to talk about how instead of rushing into a situation they postponed and waited to see the outcome of game changer to see how it would change the situation. The article that gives the strongest argument would have to be the one used in " “Letter from Birmingham Jail" it uses logic instead of emotion. Emotions are a strong thing and can lead to unintended responses when not translated the right way. Logic gives sound reasons that people can understand without their heart or feelings getting in the way.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to me that “Letter from Birmingham jail” was written by Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1963, while “Nonviolence as Compliance”, by Ta-Nehisi Coates, was written in 2015. This just goes to show that the issue of racism is still widely prevalent in the country today, and though activists like MLK have done so much for the movement and we must continue and complete their work. In terms of appeals I noticed that MLK uses emotional and logical appeal, tying them together continually. King mentions the questions his children ask him, in a world where children grow up without the same opportunities as white children he is struck by these thoughts. He questions the morality and humanity of the American people. The brutality towards African Americans during this time was blatantly unacceptable. King is disappointed in the white community’s lack of support and the awful acceptance of this evil subjection. Coates article appeals to logic and emotion as well. He recognizes the death of Freddie Gray in his hometown of Baltimore due to police brutality, exposing the injustice of this case along with so many others that have gone unnoticed. The money from Gray’s case went not to improve the infrastructure of the city, but to the culprit themselves, the Baltimore Police station. This proves that in many cases the police are protected above the rights of citizens and it is time we do something about it. Coates reiterates the unbelievably of this incident. Gray simply made eye contact with a police officer and reacted the wrong way. Is eye contact enough reason to be beaten and dead in a week. No, that is simply illogical and it is inexcusable that we have allowed this behavior to go on within the police community for so long.
ReplyDeleteBoth reading, I believe, appeal to the readers logic and emotion. Many aspects of Coates article have strong uses of emotion, but when he questions Freddie Gray's death it appeals to the more logical side, therefore i think his article is more logical than emotional. He talks about the people rioting and those who were using non-violent approaches and describing the logical reasons behind it. Coates brings back the emotional aspect when he starts talking about personal experiences with police brutality. Martin Luther King, Jr. also uses logic and emotion in his letter. He uses emotional aspects when talking about racism towards black people and why he wants equality. MLK then uses logic with describing why he is in Birmingham and how he makes his decisions for any nonviolent campaign.
ReplyDeleteBoth the articles "Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King Jr. and "Nonviolence as Compliance" by Ta-Nehisi Coates use appeals to reach the reader and help them understand the messages the authors wish to display. I personally think they both appeal to emotion, because these articles are about the rights of black lives. King's argument is mainly focused on Americans and their views on race, while Coates discusses modern day violation of rights by police officers. They both center on the emotion that is driven by the series of events happening at the time. They use pathos appeal in order to sway the reader and really show the emotions of the reader while inflicting a small portion of their pain through their excerpts. Another appeal they use is ethos, an appeal to the readers' ethics and beliefs. For example, King's letter mentions his children and how they're going to end up against people of privilege and opportunity. That goes the same for Coates' article standing against the police because of activists and going against racism. The appeals work together in harmony, along with logos appeal to help the reader understand the degree of oppression black people have always faced.
ReplyDeleteBoth the article “Letter From Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr. and “Nonviolence as Compliance” by Tai-Nehisi Coates use Logic and Emotion to help drive home their viewpoints. However Coates’s article calls for doing away with non-violence protests and promoting radical action using emotional quotes from first hand police brutality victims. This strong emotional appeal covers up the lack of a strong logical approach the author even ignores the fact that running from police is against the law and gives them the right to detain. In contrast Martin Luther King Jr. in his letter he explains step by step how it came to non-violent protest and how the lack of action by the officials in charge would be forced to take notice when national media began covering the protests. These two articles take polar positions but want to accomplish the same out come closing the gap of racism and equality while building empathy with the readers.
ReplyDeleteBoth of these articles use methods of persuasion to discuss the proper way to deal with injustice. While Martin Luther King was writing from his jail cell to the white clergymen in Birmingham. He begins with using a lot of credibility noting that he himself is a fellow clergy member and being president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. By doing this he shows respect as well as similarity. He then goes on to use emotional appeal when describing the horrors of segregation that the whites may not understand, he describes the pain and amount of disrespect blacks receive on a daily basis and tries to get the audience to understand the reason for his demand of respect. He also goes on to show his level of intellect by referring to many credible people of the past and clearly defining the difference between just and unjust laws. The article “Nonviolence as Compliance” by Ta-Nehisi Coates is a bit more blunt than King’s letter. Here he uses credibility and experience to show that he is qualified to speak on the topic, being from the city where the riots have occurred. Throughout the rest of the article he speaks very rationally while providing facts and logical opinions on the subject.
ReplyDeleteIn “Nonviolence as Compliance”, Ta-Nehisi Coates demonstrates his frustration towards law enforcements tactics regarding the treatment of African Americans, and more importantly the lack of repercussions that these officers face. Coates grants himself credibility and authority while appealing to the reader’s logic by meticulously detailing many of the injustices that are taking place and then urging them to understand why peaceful protest is at this point somewhat futile. Coates does not instigate or support violence, he instead tries to expose how non-violence can be turned around by the enemy as a mechanism of control. Coates explains that when the minority embraces non-violent protest it takes on the moral high ground and can prevail, whereas when the majority preaches non-violence to the minority, this is essentially just a way of de-escalating the situation. A “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King, Jr., appeals to the reader’s emotion and intellect by bringing up arguments about morality and backing these arguments up with logic that is indisputable. MLK not only argues that the African American community is being treated unjustly and that it is their moral obligation to defend their freedoms, he does so in an un-biased and logical way. He addresses each of the criticisms of his fellow clergymen and defeats them in such a genuine way so completely devoid of hatred or bias that the truth cannot be ignored. Overall, I think that MLK’s text was superior in quality and addressed many more points that Coates, however, Coates writing was more applicable to today.
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