April 26th. AKA THE LAST BLOG!

Barak Obamas speech and means of persuasion are similar because in the means of persuasion talks about using ethos, logos and pathos. Barak Obama uses a lot of pathos to play with our emotions as a listener or reader. He wants us to feel the anger he has over racism and he also wants us to feel a sense of guilt because of all of our negativity in society. This guilt is because we are all letting racism happen when we could be putting an end to this. He also uses logos in the form of almost educating us with a history lesson of how our country started and how we as humans turned something good into evil. There is also ethos within his speech that the means of persuasion talks about because it takes an authoritative figure to get the attention needed to get shit done. I feel like with all of the racial tensions and issues we have today it would be hard to just live in a perfect world. Even though I’m tired of all the hate and just mind my own business doesn’t mean other people do the same otherwise we wouldn’t have near the problems we have today.

April 17th Blog

TA-NEHISI COATES, THE AUTHOR OF THE NONVIOLENCE AS COMPLIANCE TAKES A SIMILAR STANCE AS MARTIN LUTHER KING'S ICONIC "LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM JAIL" BACK IN THE 1960'S. IN THE "NONVIOLENCE AS COMPLIANCE" THE MAIN ISSUE IS HOW OFFICIALS ARE CALLING FOR CALMNESS WITH THE MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF FREDDIE GREY IN POLICE CUSTODY. TA-NEHISI COATES USES THE EMOTIONAL APPEALS ETHOS PATHOS AND LOGOS SIMILAR TO HOW MARTIN KING JR. USED IT IN HIS OWN LETTER. THE AUTHOR USED HIS OWN PAST EXPERIENCE WITH POLICE OFFICERS IN HIS OWN NEIGHBORHOOD AND HOW YOUR SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO TALK TO THE POLICE AND NOT Be afraid of them. But in the authors case its the complete opposite. the author used statistical data of how the police has abused their power throughout the past years and have not helped the community but predominately hurt it. Martin Luther King jr. uses the apeals in his own way. He talks about the PREDICAMENT he is in, and by being unjustly placed in police custody and unlawfully not given a lawyer in the 24 hour period he was held. He also talks about how it is effecting the rest of his colored brothers in Birmingham. In my opinion, I belive that MArtin Luther King jr's argument is more POWERFUL and holds more weight. Ta-nehisi Coates did a very good job at presenting his point and then defending it with ethos, pathos, and logos, but ultimately Martin Luther king jr's has stood the test of time and is still powerful to this day. 

April 17th Post

"A From Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King Jr is a very emotional appeal to readers. He talks a lot about the experiences that the black people faced from the policemen and their dogs. This approach is the best one he could've taken because it got peoples attention by helping them to feel empathy. he goes into detail throughout the letter that appeals to the readers emotions. the other reading, "Nonviolence as Compliance" also appeals to the emotions of the readers. the author talks about the police brutalities against the black people and especially right now this is going to get peoples emotions all round up. Martin luther uses the logical appeal because he talks a lot about how the white people have a lot of rights and how it is only logical for the black people to have a protest because they haven't received these same rights. Coates uses this appeal to tell the readers that it is illogical for the government to try to cover up the fact that policemen are committing these crimes. I think that because Martin Luther was a great civil rights activist leader and he overall had the best argument because of his use of the three appeals. he appealed to the reader in the best ways.

April 17th

"A Letter from Birmingham Jail", written by Martin Luther King Jr., heavily appeals to the readers intellect, reason, and rationality. Most of King's argument is him putting things in perspective for the opposition, where the opposition often feels King is acting extremely and unwisely. He encourages the reader to put themselves in the shoes of an African American during the times of civil rights movements. He invites the opposition into the hardships that African Americans faced everyday, hardships that the opposition never had to face, and hardships that the opposition may have not known existed. He appeals to intellect, reason, and rationality by saying, if you were in this position, would you act how you expect me to act, or would you act how I am currently acting? Ta-Nehisi Coates' "Nonviolence as Compliance" attacks the same issue of black oppression, but at a different angle. King's arguments were based solely on a nonviolent approach to peace and mutual respect with the opposition. Coates' argument relies heavily on emotions, feelings, and empathy, and does not necessarily advocate a violent approach for African American equality, but he argues that there is no other option left for blacks. He compares using nonviolent approaches to black equality in this day and age to using non violent approaches in the middle of a war. He uses examples of several horrible incidents where innocent blacks were unjustly hurt or persecuted to appeal to the readers emotions. He asks rhetorical questions to the readers, asking if it is just that the african american people are mistreated with no proper representation. Both authors have valid arguments that help shine light on an issue that is misunderstood by outsiders. Both authors allowed outsiders to see the inside perspective more clearly and argue their cause reasonably and with dignity.

April 17th

In both writings of the “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and “ Nonviolence as Compliance”  the authors both greatly display their claim in exclusive detail that touches the reader on a deeper scale. Using all the components of ethos, pathos, and logos which makes their argument ten times stronger so the reader has a better understanding from many perspectives. Incorporating sympathetic value, logical evidence, and credibility to back for the evidence provided.

“Letter from a Birmingham Jail” was well written by civil rights activist Martin Luther King incorporating on his position of power and implying on the tact of the people that they need to condon things as modest as if he was still in the front of the marching line. He also went well into detail of the political status that were either supporting or negating the action of the civil right movement keeping everyone update on the current status of things that were happening. Furthermore he love to incorporate the personal stories of how black people in america are mistreated to the extent that the details of abuse stick into your head to feel grief and disguise.

On the other hand “Nonviolence as Compliance” used majority logos informing the audience on the current event of police abuse and how it affected society. Not to much ethos on the author's side but towards other people well in power upon the movement that was being carried by african americans. In conclusion I believe that Martin Luther King had a better argument on his behalf because of his status and experience and personal in depth of knowledge which he got for having a certain status in the civil rights movement. Also he was easily able to sway the audience with heart breaking stories of what went on all the through the south dealing with discouragement of race  and how it could resolved within a matter of time.

April 17th

I believe that both authors both very constructively used all three appeals, logic, emotion, and also authorial character. In the article, ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Martin Luther King starts off using authorial character by stating how he is the president if the Southern Christian Leadership Conference then goes into the significance of the group. He then moves into using more so logical appeals by begging to state things like how a lot of the thing Hitler did was “illegal” by bringing up the fact that it was “illegal” to aid & comfort a Jew in Hitler’s Germany. He then slowly but surely moves into the more emotional appeal by trying to use the fact that certain principles dear to Christian faith are suppressed. This catches the emotional attention of Christians especially, because it threatens their beliefs, something that they love. In the article, “Nonviolence as Compliance”, he takes on more of role of using emotional appeals. One instance he does this is stating what happened to Freddie Gray, a man who was “mysteriously” killed while in police custody. He also does this by then stating multiple others who were also victims of police brutality such as Jerriel Lyles who was assaults, or Venus Brown, even Starr Brown. He then also begins to use a logical standpoint where he says that in the past four year over 100 people have one court judgments related to allegation of brutality and civil right allegations and given a settlement. In most cases the charges on the victim are dismissed. I think he uses sort an overall appeal of likability due to the fact that article predominantly faces the problems of the African- American community, so I’m sure this was a huge interest to all African- Americans. I know it was for me, especially being the fact that my cousin was killed back in 2015 due to excessive force of a police officer. The police officer shot him 6 time, hitting him in three places, his calf, his rib cage, and the one that killed him, his head. The officer decides he was going to shoot a him instead of doing what he was trained to do, which is use his tazer. When an officer is trained to shot, he is trained to kill. Til this day we have gotten no justice, and the officer was placed on temporary leave.

April 17th Blog

Martin Luther King Jr. and Ta-Nehisi Coates both use strong senses of emotion to appeal to their audiences although they use the authors do it very differently. Ta-Nehisi Coastes’ article uses emotion to verify his evidence of statements people in the community gave towards the police brutality charges, whereas Martin Luther King Jr. uses emotion to tell of his injustice from being arrested and thrown into the Birmingham city jail. Both authors use logic and reason to explain why they were writing. The article uses logic to talk about the police brutality that has been occurring in Maryland, while Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter from Birmingham city jail uses logic to talk about not only the injustice he has experienced but also the injustice that every African American person has experienced. As far as the authorial character goes Martin Luther King Jr. has way more authority than Ta-Nehisi Coates because he is the face of the African American Civil Rights Movement. Although Ta-Nehisi Coates presents a fairly strong argument against police brutality but Martin Luther King Jr. is a national known hero and civil rights activist, which is why he has more authority and presents a much stronger argument.