Links to rhetorical tools:

Here are links to the rhetorical tools used in this class:

Schemes & Tropes -- Perelman & Olbrechts-Tyteca -- Fallacies -- Burke -- Rhetorical Toolbox -- Conspiracy Rhetorics

Thursday, May 11, 2017

The Anti-model of Blackness in a White World

Sarah Hairston
Dr. Vrooman
                               The Anti-model of Blackness in a White World
Abstract: The BLM movement pushes the narrative of white supremacy infecting the justice system, and therefore putting black lives at a disadvantage. The claim is that blackness is the Anti-model of whiteness, and therefore blacks are denied the universal truth of justice equivalent to those who are white. By asserting auxeis, and calling shootings murder or execution, the BLM movement is affirming their narrative, and trying to bring attention to the injustices they’re feeling. While the BLM opposition continues to label the auxeis as hyperbole, and rejects their narrative as “victimization”.
            The use of the trope Auxeis in BLM rhetoric was the most consistent trope among the three forms of media. The Auxeis is interesting because it substitutes a word for another word, and the BLM movement uses this word substitution to evoke emotion and make a claim about the injustices black people face. In the media I analyzed the most common word switch was substituting “killed” or “shot” for “murdered” or “executed”. In the article, the word “executed” is used five times. Which makes it one of the most common words used in the article next to “justice”, which was used eight times. The article analyzed, “Alton Sterling and When Black Lives Stop Mattering” is an opinion article written for the New York Times by Roxanne Gay. After the video of Alton Sterling’s death was released for the public eye, many formed opinions as to whether his death looked like it was a product of racist profiling. Gay frames her article on the belief that it was racist profiling, and refers to history as evidence of racial profiling. She substitutes the word execution to imply not only that the killing was unethical, but illegal. As to suggest that he was executed without a fair trial. Her goal is also to evoke emotion, to feel sorrow not only for the mistreatment of black lives, but the Sterling family’s loss.
“Mr. Sterling leaves behind family and children who will forever know that their father was executed, that the image of their father’s execution is now a permanent part of the American memory, that the image of their father’s execution may not bring them justice.” (Gay)
Gay also refers the officers involved in the shooting under the title “executioner”:
“Mr. Sterling’s past will be laid bare, every misdeed brought to light and used as justification for police officers choosing to act as judge, jury and executioner — due process in a parking lot.” (Gay)
Gay is reproducing the scene of his death, and replacing the title of the police to “judge”, “executioner”, and “jury” to further her argument that what occurred was unconstitutional.
What is interesting about this argument is that the use of auxeis, depending on whether or not you buy her argument is going to either put you for or against it. If you’re against it, you will probably call the use of “executioner” a hyperbole.  
On Twitter under the “#Philando Castile” auxeis was also very present, making up 6 out of the 50 “Tweets” I analyzed, making up at a little over 10% of the data. On Twitter, the use of the word “Murdered” instead of “kill” was prevalent.  @ Delo_Taylor posted “Minnesota police officer who murdered #philandocastile pleads not guilty.” (Twitter). @SJWOnTime posted, “#injusticesystem Justice for #PhilandoCastile- Murdered- Black Man- LEGAL GUN OWNER”
These posts continue the trend of Gay’s argument by using Auxeis. The trade of words serve as a contrast between legal and illegal. Accidental shooting Vs. Murder, the latter being the argument the movement is making. It also puts the cops that participate in these shootings in an “Anti-model” (Perelman, the opposite of model behavior). The duty of the cop is to protect and serve their community, and are part of the justice system. Therefore, the use of the auxeis “murderer” and “executioner” tarnishes the model of the cop, and therefore triggers the argument that black people are being deprived of justice as a universal truth (Perelman).
The video footage of a panel discussion held with Angela Davis upholds these killings as unjustified and murder, but also asserts this is all just a part of “White Supremacy” by asserting that argument, one is claiming the police killings are connected to the essence (Perelman) of white superiority. During the panel Kymone Freeman makes the argument that “You have to be a white billionaire to enjoy Americaness.”  Therefore, Freeman is asserting that blackness is separate from that of being American because “Americaness” is biased and favors those who are white. This affirms that the narrative of the BLM movement pushes that black identity is separate from the American identity, and that the American identity is shroud with whiteness. “The white billionare” is therefore the model (Perelman) of the American, and that puts blackness as the anti-model, and therefore is subject of biased treatment by the justice system.

The BLM movement attempts to push their narrative of being denied justice in a white world by using auxeis, arguments of essense, and model V. anti-model arguments where they are viewed as the anti-model of “Americanness”. Meanwhile, the opposition to BLM rejects this narrative and claims the term “Murder” is exaggerating (hyperbole), and that the BLM movement is the product of victimization.

BLM Final Paper

Austin Colon
#BLM
So here’s the deal we have a country run by the White’s and everyone else gets little to no rights because of the color of their skin. Abraham Lincoln abolished discrimination in the U.S. after the civil war in hopes that everything would change. It didn’t, it snuck away in hiding like the Rambo did after number one. Then came out and destroyed everything in sight like he did in every movie because Rambo honestly could take terminator in a 1 on 1 battle and honestly could probably beat Rocky. Okay were getting off track, but not really because Rocky beat Drago, but Drago killed Apollo which means Rocky would’ve made Apollo disintegrate, right? But what I’m seeing is a form a racism in the Rocky movies, why couldn’t be Black? Why did Rocky have to fight 3 black guys in 6 Rocky movies? Why are half the boxers in the Rocky series Black? There’s a trend here isn’t there? Why does the Black guy always lose? From Master Windu, to Apollo, to Finn in the New Star Wars movie, it just doesn’t end and probably never will. Honestly Dr. Vrooman, if you got this far I applaud you because I would’ve already put it down, but hear me out. Social movements are made famous by controversy and not peaceful protest.
I’m just like everyone else, I believe black lives matter, but everyone’s going at it the wrong way. Discrimination has always been an issue, but it wasn’t this big until social media made it this big. It’s made it so big that people now know what Kanye West meant in all his lyrics, or when he said “George Bush hates black people” during the hurricane Katrina relief commercial. He said this statement because Katrina destroyed many homes on the Gulf of Mexico, predominately those of African-Americans. Or that the movement was so big in Baltimore, Maryland that they didn’t allow anyone inside of a Baltimore Orioles game. A violent social movement was happening in the streets outside the stadium so police were required on sight. Discrimination and racism is still something that we see every day. Just recently two occurrences where a racial slur was supposedly said has come about. One being from the Baltimore Orioles Adam Jones who claims he was a called a racial slur at their recent series in Boston. Another being the Houston Rockets basketball player Patrick Beverley, who claims he was, called a racial slur in Oklahoma City the last playoff series there. So obviously discrimination is not just with the police of the United States, but also with anyone who populates the world. It’s not just blacks being discriminated against, but it seems as if it’s the biggest and toughest on them.
In the video, there is a movement for Kevin Keri outside of a building in Cincinnati. This gathering starts off with Kevin Keri’s sister talking about how great of a person he was, which is an appeal to emotion, because the whole time his sister is talking she’s crying. During the first segment of this rally, Keri’s sister talks about how much Kevin’s life impacted others on how he brightened their day up and so on. Continuous appeal to emotion throughout out Keri’s sisters segment. Kevin Keri was an African American Male who was dating his murderers ex-girlfriend. This adds a large loop hole to the story because he was not shot just because he was black, but his girlfriend was the mother to Earl Jones kid. Earl Jones was accused of sending racial slurs and offensive language to Kevin Keri and his girlfriend who is unnamed. “Kevin’s girlfriend was the mother of Earl Jones child.” Which seemed to be left out at the time and other opions were said following the statement.  “Earl Jones never referred to my brother by his name only as the N-word or that N-word.” Explicit language to bring out how much of a bad person Earl Jones was to Kevin, which is an example of profanity to strengthen her argument to the people. “He could crack a joke so fast to make your day better, with another appeal to emotion in her speech. In the video, 6 people stand behind Keri’s sister with pictures of Kevin. Three of them being snapchat selfies, one being a graduation picture, and 2 being pictures people took of Kevin. All these pictures are “goofy” or “silly” selfies taken by himself to bring out the happiness that Kevin was full of that backs up half of Keri’s sisters speech about how positive and full of life Kevin was. There are also 4 different colors of balloons, them being Black, orange, baby blue, white, purple and red. All of these colors are bright, except for black, the reason they probably chose these colors is because they’re bright and vibrant, “happy colors” to once again bring out the happiness Kevin brought out in the people that surrounded him. “My brother won’t get to come in 15 years so why should Earl Jones?” This is an example of transitivity, since her brother getting shot equals consequences for Earl Jones. The beginning of the speech made by Keri’s sister is SAWFT. No attitude with it just and emotional girl standing in front of all these people crying and reading off a notebook. Now we want to say this is working, but whose attention is this grabbing? Nobodies, this is the typical one of my family members was shot sort of thing where someone is trying to preach about how everyone should feel sorry for them because someone close to them died and they could do nothing to control it. At 3:55 the video pans over to a white kid standing and holding a picture of Kevin Keri, and he gives a soft clap against his leg. This kid obviously doesn’t want to be there, this resembles the video of Brett Favre clapping for Kaitlyn Jenner after her speech at the ESPYS. Favre didn’t care about that and this kid looks like he was forced to be here by his mom. Now we look at all the people holding the pictures, they’re all white except one person who is black who just happens to be standing to the far left with the whites in the center. I sure hope he said he was going to stand there or did the white people but him on the end? Who put together this rally, A white person too? Honestly there’s too many things wrong with this rally up to this point. One being white people shouldn’t put together a rally for a African-American individual and two being that this rally has no momentum behind it. This rally has no controversy behind it so it’s not getting any attention, now I’m not saying peaceful rallies aren’t the way to go, I’m saying that to get attention you have to do something that will get you attention. This video has 49 views and 5 of them are me, there are two more videos of the same rally and if they pan into the crowd it’s a bunch of white people. Yeah, they’re trying to get the white people’s attention for the rally, but you need some black folks too. “Justice for Kevin” is a popular phrase at this rally used between when they bring on other people who talk at the rally. Repetition is a popular device in this rally, along with a bunch of white people being soft on how they’re going to change things for the better. Honestly who has even looked at this video? No one, 49 views each for 4 videos and their all probably by the same person and me. Hey look, just got to the 4:30 mark on the video and it’s 8 white people singing AT THE RALLY  FOR THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN. Come on guys you could have at least got some support from some black people, but it looks like almost none is there. Let’s be honest the only time white people are noticed is when a little white kid says something cute on TV or social media. These guys are not helping out the cause and definitely not getting noticed. These 8 ladies singing about injustice and freedom and “turn me round” brings light into something their fighting for, but again no momentum behind them to back up what they are fighting for. After the ladies sing, a man with a light skin complexion (not black again) comes up to talk to the crowd with a very strong accent. Unfortunately for me, and probably most of the crowd, his accent is very hard to understand. He proposes that “the same thing killed Kevin that killed Trayvon Martin” which was a completely different case in the aspect of what happened and how everything happened. Martin was killed by George Zimmerman after looking suspicious and seeming like he himself had a gun. While Keri was killed in front of his home. No record on the internet could be found by extensive research by myself which also doesn’t help out this cause. When you make a comparison like that you have to have evidence to back it up, but this seems like a hasty generalization, since not only does he not know about the real reason Keri died, but there are also no police reports about it. Now how can we help the cause if there’s no info to back it up with? No one can make a decision on what happened and if it was because of racism or not. Trayvon Martin got social Media attention and all different kinds of attention because of people making a big deal about it. There is nothing on social media about Kevin Keri because the social movement wasn’t big enough or controversial enough. Is there a leader of this movement? Does not look like it to me which is another problem to this social movement. If anything this movement is run by a couple of white women who probably never been discriminated against in their entire life. Philando Castile is one of the main victims and subjects of the Black Lives matter movements and protests being held around the United States. Now back to what was said about Trayvon Martin, what made him popular? Controversey and social media, these two things created large social movements in more than 100 U.S. cities. These weren’t just normal protests, back to Baltimore where the baseball game was closed because of the protests, think about it. Not only do you have the attention of people because of your violent protests closing down a baseball game which then gets even more attention. So here’s what we’re looking at now. The protests of Philando Castile which almost matched up to the Trayvon Martin protests in attention. What made the Castile case so popular is that it was streamed on social media, which had not too long before that had been added into facebook. This gave evidence for police to see and for everyone around the world to see. It creates controversy and gets the attention of the people. A lot of the tweets use abbreviations probably to get within character count on twitter. People also used appeal to emotion, like a tweet of a picture with a kid holding a sign saying “Phil took time to help a kid with a disability get from breakfast to class-regularly. I didn’t realize why twitter loves hashtags so much, but it definitely has a purpose behind it. So when I do this paper, I can type in one key phrase and get everything I need, now this twitter feed also brings in a lot of extra revenue with the things they have to say. So, when one named is used in the hashtag like Philando Castile, others are used such as Alton Sterling and Trayvon Martin. Trayvon Martin was a case that did not go in the favor of the black community considering there was little to no evidence and whatever evidence there was against Zimmerman could have been completely altered since Zimmerman and Martin were the only two at the crime scene, but Alton Sterling was a fugitive on the run and I’m not saying he should have been shot on sight but some affirmative measure had to have been used against him than what other black males went through. I also used some of the twitter feed from TrayVon Martins twitter feed which was a lot of the same.
The press release has to do with how the Black Lives Matter movement started, it starts with a black person in a bar along with other people who were also black, seeing the verdict to the George Zimmerman trial. They say that everyone in the bar where they were sitting got up and left, there was this silence of depression as if they were cheated out of what was rightfully the verdict. After this they started their protests in every city they found someone pissed off in and this started what we see now as the #blacklivesmatter movement.  
In the mash-up Biesecker talks about tokenism with feminism and one must move on from it. Much like Black Lives matter, after a black person is murdered by the cops it becomes an uproar, but then everyone just moves on but instead of moving on to something else they wait for another black person to be killed or abused by the police force and do the same repetitive thing over and over again. The tokenism she uses about feminism Isnt the same as tokenism with the black population but it’s close. Mainly because tokenism started with the blacks and putting them into films just to say they were in the films.    
 


JaKayla's Final Paper

JaKayla DaBera
The Great Divide
            I was tasked with analyzing a portion of the Black Lives Matter Movement. I first began my analysis by picking three different data sets to analyze. I analyzed one video related to the movement, an article critical of the movement, as well as a piece of social media that was relevant to the movement. The first thing that I chose was the article. The article was written by Barbara Reynolds and was entitled, “I was a civil rights activist in the 1960s. But it’s hard for me to get behind Black Lives Matter. I support BLM’s cause, but not its approach.”
            I chose this article because it immediately caught my eye. I was interested in researching and analyzing what a former member of the Civil Rights Movement had to say about Black Lives Matter. Before I read the article that I chose, I largely assumed that it would mostly be about an older woman who was reluctant to get behind Black Lives Matter because of how things were done. After reading the article, I quickly realized that the author’s sole goal was to bash the Black Lives Matter Movement while simultaneously comparing it to the Civil Rights Movement. She was very critical of the approach that young activists were taking. She was even more critical of the company they kept arguing that it was hard to differentiate between the rioters and those that are true activists. She blamed the actions of the Black Lives Matter protestors to help explain the lack of involvement from other elders like herself and critiqued them for being too narrow on their focus on black lives.
After I was content with my article choice I began to look for a fitting video in the links provided by Dr. Vrooman. The video that I chose was a YouTube video. The video was a Black Lives Matter panel discussion with Angela Davis and some local leaders of the Black Lives Matter Movement in Washington D.C. I was drawn to this video because Angela Davis was a member of the panel.
Angela Davis is a pioneer in the area of Civil Rights. She is a renowned author, speaker, and she has been fighting for Civil Rights since the 1960s. She is a true legend and I thought it would be interesting to listen to her viewpoint, guided by wisdom that only she can have, in conjunction with the words and wisdom of the other young panelists present. My article and my video already set me on the path to try and uncover what I felt to be a great generational divide. One of the questions that an audience member asked the panel was about seeking counsel from elders. The answers the panelists provided as well as the passion behind the initial question made it clear to me that some of the organizers wanted to reach out to elders and Civil Rights pioneers like Angela Davis. Although that was true, they were reluctant to do so, because they were concerned about encountering an elder like Barbara Reynolds who invalidated their movement because it rejected the framework set by the original Civil Rights Movements.
My video and article drove me in a direction that was opposite the original hashtag that I chose to analyze. Because of this, I had to change my original approach to social media. I was curious as to whether or not this generational divide was present on social media. I thought that the best way for me to answer this question would be for me to look at the Twitter page of the co-founders of the Black Lives Matter Movement (Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, Opal Tometi) and compare the way they use their platform to someone who is closely aligned with the Civil Rights Movement. I chose to look at Reverend Al Sharpton’s Twitter because he was very active on Social Media as opposed to someone like Reverend Jesse Jackson.
            The first thing that I did was reread my article so that I could try to determine all of the different types of arguments she was making. Most of the arguments made were fallacious ones. For example, the article featured a lot of quasilogical arguments, weak analogies, and red herrings. An example of a type of quasilogical argument she uses a lot is the Golden Age argument. In fact, the Golden Age argument is the essence of this entire article in that the author seeks to prove the claim that the original Civil Rights Movement was the ideal model to follow and that the new movement should seek to follow in the framework that the provided. In other words, if it’s not broke don’t fix it. The author does acknowledge the benefits of modifications that Black Lives Matters organizers made by deliberately including women. But that is it.
            She still firmly believes that the Black Lives Matter Movement lacks organization, clear demands and goals, as well as a clear leader. The author also finds their slogan to be divisive stating, “In a sense, even the slogan “Black Lives Matter” is too broad because the movement overlooks black-on-black homicides, the leading cause of death for black males between the ages of 15 and 34. That horrific fact remains off the movement’s radar, for fear that it puts black men in a negative light. So which black lives really matter?” This quote is a Straw Man fallacy (Red Herring family) because the premise of black on black crime is unrelated to the claim that the movement is too broad in claiming black lives matter.
            The author also makes a hasty generalization based on an unrepresentative sample. “The 1960s movement also had an innate respectability because our leaders often were heads of the black church, as well. Unfortunately, church and spirituality are not high priorities for Black Lives Matter, and the ethics of love, forgiveness and reconciliation that empowered black leaders such as King and Nelson Mandela in their successful quests to win over their oppressors are missing from this movement. The power of the spiritual approach was evident recently in the way relatives of the nine victims in the Charleston church shooting responded at the bond hearing for Dylan Roof, the young white man who reportedly confessed to killing the church members “to start a race war.” One by one, the relatives stood in the courtroom, forgave the accused racist killer and prayed for mercy on his soul. As a result, in the wake of that horrific tragedy, not a single building was burned down. There was no riot or looting.”
Reynolds is drawing a lot of conclusions about Black Lives Matter from a small sample of rioters that she has seen. She then begins to use that very same small sample of rioters to draw conclusions as she attempts to relate the entire BLM mvmt to the CRM. The rioters that she is talking about is not representative of the entire movement
Both of these tactics are detrimental to her own claims if they are presented to someone who believes in the purpose of the movement. This is because she is condemning a movement without recognizing the explicit connection that Black Lives Matter had in protesting the acts that occurred at the Charleston church. It is almost as if she is trying to give credit for the church members response to the Civil Rights Movement but they really had nothing to do with it (unless of course Al Sharpton was chasing ambulances again).
Looking at all of this made me realize that Barbara Reynolds was making a lot of “us” versus “them” statements. She would acknowledge the counterarguments and make some concessions like saying Baby boomers are too judgmental. However, acknowledging some of the counterarguments that Millennials may make was just another tactic she employed. Although she does this, she follows through with criticizing the movement and its tactics even more, as well as citing people who belong to Black Lives Matter verbally attacking elders like Oprah for a reason for their lack of support.
She also recognizes that the Black Lives Matter Movement does take into account the voices that the Civil Rights Movement largely left out (women, undocumented individuals, folks with disabilities, etc.) but she claims that they still have too narrow of a focus because they only focus on black lives. Reynolds is especially critical of this because they are leaving out sympathizers who want to recognize and say all lives matter.
The next thing that I did was to look at the social media profiles of Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi, and Al Sharpton. I wanted to know if they were making any larger argumenta about the generational divide characterized by Baby boomers and Millennials. I chose my tweets by scrolling and then screenshotting at random. I chose to peruse Al Sharpton’s profile first. Sharpton has a very edited-political style twitter profile. There wasn’t much to analyze argument wise because he didn’t really make any arguments all. His profile is mostly used for advertising him, his organizations, or the work he is doing via the radio or on television. He also posted a lot of pictures with him and other people or just him.
Sharpton does make a few tweets about police brutality but most of his tweets are retweets about him or something he is directly mentioned in. He did make one tweet that referenced Martin Luther King Jr. The tweet said “Justice delayed is justice denied! It’s a slap in the face of fairness and accountability. Time to gear up for a tough battle. MLK style.” This tweet indicates that Sharpton sees himself as someone who follows in the footsteps of Martin Luther King Jr. when it comes to approaching social issues. In doing so, he sets himself a part from the Black Lives Matter movement and leadership as he does not reference them on his Twitter.
Patrisse Cullors is the most outspoken of the three co-founders. She speaks on a variety of issues and is unfiltered. She currently identifies as an abolitionist and talks about what that entails the most on her feed. She is not really interested in making any arguments or commenting on the generational issues within the movement. Although this is true, she obviously aligns herself with a Millennials in the way she tweets as well as the content of her tweets.
Both Opal Tometi and Alicia Garza have more retweets than Patrisse but they aren’t about themselves or what they are doing. They both are retweeting other people, allowing those individuals access to their platform giving them an effective voice. They are more politically correct than Patrisse and don’t frequent Twitter as much. Alicia Garza posts to Twitter the least out of the three. Neither of these women make explicit statements concerning the generational gulf between Baby boomers and Millennials but they, like Patrisse, show passion when discussing certain issues and ideas that Millennials would understand.
From Twitter I moved on to examining the video. After watching the video once, I broke it down into important sections. I didn’t focus on arguments that were being created according to Perelman or any of the other charts we were given but I did select sections that related to different chapters and aspects of the Persuasion and Social Movements book. Before I go into that I would like to provide a brief summary of what I found in the video. The first 12 minutes were focused on leadership. Erica, one of the panelists was quick to point out that there are some elders who affirm the way they disrupt. This means that they agree with their leadership style and organizational tactics i.e. the purposeful release of respectability politics and misogyny that organizers see as barriers to getting stuff done
Minutes 13-15 and 18-21 center around the use of the slogan. Namely the word black. One of the panelists said that the word black is unsettling to a lot of people. As such, they are seeking to reaffirm that word. Doing so means that Black Lives Matter is calling into question different hegemonic structures and traditional assumptions about a society into question.
Minutes 29-38 were dedicated to a question about the lack of support from elders. The person asking the question wanted to know how she could position herself to ask for counsel from elders who are not positioning themselves in the community? The young lady saw elders as rejecting her and not affirming the way she goes about doing things. In turn, this lack of support or available counsel would make it harder for her to successfully navigate her own movement.
Angela Davis suggested that instead of hierarchical relationships between the young and the old, intergenerational relationships should become the center and focus of the movement. Doing this would allow learning on both sides of the spectrum. Old people can learn from the experiences of young people just as well as young people learning from the experiences of the old. This approach will be difficult because the youth are moving into unexplored terrain acquiring new ideas about what it will take to bring radical change i.e. intersectional issues. This goes against what these elders have known for most of their lives and it can be kind of hard for them to change that.
Erica, one of the panelists, says that she is careful about the elders she seeks counsel from because oftentimes elders are romanticized and many of the elders have been unable to deconstruct their internalized white supremacy. As such, they are only able to teach out of that framework. That framework does not allow for some elders to understand therefore they can’t affirm the movement and its seemingly radical approach.
            After examining the arguments made within my article, twitter profiles, as well as the video, I applied all three to the Persuasion and Social Movements book. In the article, Reynolds speaks to the charismatic leadership position spoken of in the book. She criticizes the Black Lives Matter Movement for not having a clear charismatic leader. She also is critical of it being difficult to differentiate between the activists from the normal rioters. Most of Reynolds’ arguments are based on the idea that you need to have a face to the movement. Instead of the leadership style portrayed in the Persuasion and Social Movement book, BLM has creators that are well known as well as local organizers. This leadership and organizational style allows for them to customize the movement to best fit the needs of those in the area that they are in.
            The video also speaks on this idea of effective leadership. The panel members discussed the benefits of not having a movement with one figurehead. It allows the opportunity for more people to identify with the movement in its entirety. It also allows the disenfranchised to definitely have a voice. Black Lives Matter is centered on this notion of a collective leadership or organizers. There is no room for a single black male charismatic leader because Black Lives Matter is intent on deconstructing the framework that was built on misogyny and respectability politics. They are insistent that new, intersectional approaches be taken.
Unlike the image portrayed in the article, Black Lives Matter would like to allow the elders to get involved. They will only allow this to happen if the elders understand that they must also deconstruct their internalized white supremacy and reject the same framework that was proven effective to them in the past.
The next thing that I discussed related to the Social Movements book was the use of slogans. The author of my article attacks the slogan used because it excludes other people from identifying with that. Because of this, she claims that Black Lives Matter is contradicting their claims of total inclusivity. The article also points out that the movement loses sympathy because Black Lives Matter activists and organizers are consistently shutting down sympathizers who say all lives matter.
When the video discussed the problem with the slogan it was done in a way that centered all of the points of contention on the word black. This is because of how the word black was used in the past as well as the history behind that term.  Black Lives Matter, in reclaiming the title black in an affirmative manner, is calling into question different hierarchies that are already a part of society’s framework. People take this the wrong way because they are forced to face the truth about a system they thought was normal and functional.
The last things I discussed in terms of the Social Movements book is Perceptions of the past, the present, and the future. I chose these three because they indicate a historical or generational presence. I felt like this would help me make an argument on the generational divide. In considering perceptions of the past, the article specifically criticizes the Black Lives Matter Movement for not hearkening back to the past. The author idealizes the past and the Civil Rights Movements tactics and motives. The Civil Rights Movement took the approach of seeing the past as generally unknown by everyone else. This led them to civilly disrupt things. The video points out that the Black Lives Matter Movement is not really trying to change the perceptions of the past or act like individuals did not know. They are very in your face about what everyone should know has happened and is still happening.
Next I looked at perceptions of the present. The article admitted that the Black Lives Matter Movement does center a new intersectional approach but the author argues that this approach is largely ineffective without the framework implemented by the Civil Rights Movement. The current movement has less tolerance for ignorance. They’re main focus is on the present as they are trying to change people’s perception about unequal treatment and what that looks like. They spend a large part of their time trying to get ppl, especially elders, to see that racism is still racism but the racism that blacks and others experience today is not the same as the type experienced by the elders in the 60s.
Lastly, I looked at perceptions of the future. The article portrays the future as being worse in that inequality will become more prevalent if issues are not fixed now. The video doesn’t see it that way and describes Black Lives Matter’s approach to the future as one that seeks to abolish hierarchical systems. This, being the ultimate goal of Black Lives Matter is hard to reach. This is because they have no idea what a new system could look like. This furthers the generational divide between the elders and the organizers because the elders see the organizers as being incapable of knowing what they want.
            In concluding this paper, I will attempt to make a broader argument about the generational divide that is keeping Black Lives Matter from reaching their ultimate goal/perception of the future. In doing so, I considered the different analyses I made concerning the three data pools and their relation to argument types, fallacies, and the social movement book. I will now take those analyses and combine that with a larger methodological approach to build my argument.
            The generational divide between Baby boomers and Millennials are indicative of a failed rhetoric of community as described by Karenga’s work. There is no communal deliberation or discourse causing the young organizers and they feel abandoned by the wise elders. This divide is widened by the elders focusing on this idea of nommo as expressed by Karenga’s work in that older generations think that the current generation should build from the framework that they created even though millennials see that work as flawed. Millennials are appreciative of the strides made but are no longer interested in continuing in that same pattern.
            In other words, organizers are practicing a rhetoric of resistance that Black Lives Matter chooses to center itself in. Black Lives Matter actively resist the existing power structures, as such, they are resisting any elders that still internalize them. Even though they are resisting many elders that have been unable to deconstruct their internalized power structures they are seeking counsel and reaffirmation from elders that have proven themselves to have a mestiza consciousness, while they are also seeking to reaffirm the notion of blackness.
             I think that the bigger issue here is that there is a lot of back and forth between the two generational groups. It is almost as if they are struggling within a hierarchy of age instead of just taking an intergenerational approach like Angela Davis suggested. I think that this intergenerational approach could help Black Lives Matter reach their ultimate goal of a new system that is not oppressive and is more understanding. It would also allow them more resources to pull from, allowing them to keep the demands of the movement in the public eye.

            

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

BLM final Paper

#BLM Final Paper
Introduction
I was exposed to the Black Lives Matter Movement since the beginning of when it first started. When we first talked about breaking the movement into sections in class, I kind of knew I wanted to try something different besides looks at hundreds and hundreds of tweets (I personally don’t even have a Twitter). A side note, I don’t have a Twitter, but I have been exposed to the different hashtags throughout the beginning of the movement. I’m aware of the different aspects that have contributed to the movement, but I never dug deep into the different frameworks. For this final analysis, I chose to look at specific parts of my press and social media to convey a message and an argument. I chose to look at the entire video, for I felt it told a story about people in the moment of the Ferguson, Missouri verdict.
Press
My Press story was title, “Alton Sterling and When Black Lives Stop Mattering,” by Roxane Gay. I first read the entire story before looking for data to compare to my overall argument. As I read the press the first time, I noticed a couple of things that I knew I wanted to address, such as the repetition. Roxane Gay throughout the entire article used the words, “I don’t think.” She uses it in the beginning of certain paragraphs (anaphora), over and over stressing her point and her experiences on what’s going on. Gay stated, “I don’t think any of us could have imagined how tiny cameras would allow us to see, time and again, injustices perpetrated, mostly against black people, by police officers. I don’t think we could have imagined that video of police brutality would not translate into justice, and I don’t think we could have imagined how easy it is to see too much, to become numb.” She also used it again with “I watched,” throughout her article. She stated, “I watched the cellphone video, shot by a bystander and widely available online, of the final moments of a black man’s life. I watched Alton Sterling’s killing, despite my better judgment. I watched even though it was voyeuristic, and in doing so I made myself complicit in the spectacle of black death.” Both of these makes it seems as though the author is frustrated, and fed up with the same events happening. She is speaking for an entire marginalized group. She takes her anger and frustrations out in her article. She also repeats and explains the word “execution.” Roxane Gay talks about Alton Sterling’s death as an execution. She even describes the police officer responsible for this as the executioner. So, a lot of repetition throughout the article with a lot of detail and personal experiences with the repetition. I also looked at the comparison the article makes in reference to the other killings that have happened. For example, she makes a brief comparison with the Alton Sterling case with Michael Brown and brings in when Black Lives Matter movement started.
One of the fallacies I focused on was Appeal to Consequence. Gay states, “Charges might be brought against the two officers involved, but, as history both recent and not shows us, it is rare for police officers to be convicted in such shootings.” I chose to look at this quote for appeal to consequence because X is true and people have accepted it (Charges might be brought against the two officers), so therefore X also have negative consequences (but as history both recent and not shows us, it is rare for police officers to be convicted in such shootings). This is interesting because Roxane hopes to see justice, but in order to gain justice, you need something and someone to blame for the current circumstances you may be facing. She does this by giving us a recent history on law enforcement in connection with personal beliefs.
I also looked at emotional appeal towards the end of the article. There was a detailed story on how Alton Sterling’s son had tears running down his face when the mother read her statement. Roxane Gay spent the last two paragraph’s explaining the details with Alton Sterling’s son sobbing over his father. She included this in her article to give the audience a visual and softer side to everything that’s going on. And deciding to end with this instead of continuing to talk about law enforcement was a wise choice, for it allows us to come to a conclusion of what can we do and what if that was my relative?
For Perelman, I focused first on the premise modifiers, more specifically, space. Space is making something feel close. Going back to the last two paragraphs, the detail with letting the audience know and get a description of a child in grief, it makes those with black children more susceptible to understand what’s going on.
Gloria Anzaldua’s legacy, I feel was important to this press because it defines what identity is and within identity, who are we and what’s the point of us fighting for something the oppressor doesn’t believe in. In Anzaldua’s legacy, she states, “Her own experiences and theories fully embrace the fact that ambivalence is inevitable when dealing with questions of subjectivity.” Roxane Gay is discussing her that the mixed feelings she has on the whole matter is deep rooted way beyond Alton Sterling’s case. She has seen and has heard the different cases that have been brought to the light. It’s the wear and tear on the system that has caused her to speak again on yet another case of “execution.”
I compared the article to chapters one, three, and six in the Persuasion and Social Movements book. Chapter one more specifically had a section on time. Since shootings with law enforcements has been happening on and off, time can be a precedent matter. The article addresses the last shooting that had taken place prior to Alton Sterling (which was about two year prior), which means the movement was brought back to mainstream media with the Alton Sterling case.
Chapter three was over The Persuasive Functions of Social Movements, and in this section I chose to focus on the perceptions of the past. I observed the parts in the article where Roxane Gay spent a little time talking about the years of struggle for black people with regards to brutality. This is the section she discusses the role of law enforcement in relation to how they see black people.
Chapter six is Languaging Strategies and Tactics of Social Movements with the sub section of storytelling. Like I’ve previously mentioned, when I first read the article, I chose to read it before deciding to find an argument and data. The author talks about certain things as if we can visually tell what she’s talking about. It’s a sense of connection between the reader and the audience.
I pretty much looked at the entire article to see how she wrote it. I didn’t want to just name a bunch of fallacies or rhetorical devices, I wanted to find what I saw stuck out and what kept reoccurring. I looked at the patterns and any other obvious data that I could collect.
Video
The video I analyzed was, “A City Reacts: State of Emergency – Ferguson, Missouri.” I chose to focus on the entire video (which was approximately 12 minutes) because I felt as though this video told a touching story. I first watch the video before connecting any data.
When I collected data, I first looked at the individual interviews between each person and compared each one to the other. I looked to see if there were any patterns with the interviewees and why they chose to support the Ferguson Missouri verdict.
The rhetorical device I looked at was angle- eye level. This is a pretty basic rhetorical device, but I felt it was important because bits and pieces of the video that aren’t showing interviews, are showing the city and walking the audience through the protest/riots. The video allows the audience to be a part of the action. There isn’t any parts of the video that’s angled up high or down low, everything is even. The video also uses a variety of long and medium shots. When conducting interviews, medium shots are used, but when the camera is panning the city, long shots are used. Medium shots allow the audience to focus on the interviewee, drawing attention to what they’re saying, and drawing on the emotions of the audience. The long shots of the city, lets the audience get a glimpse of the city battle (it’s literally a mini battle between law enforcement and the community).
I next focused my attention on the emotional appeal fallacy because the entire video is filled with the community in anger on a pertinent issue. The community is tired of law enforcement officials abusing their powers against black people. From the community sharing the reasons why they’re there to the city going up in flames because of counter violence, it does give a sense of emotional appeal.
For Perelman, I used presence – time, a sense of urgency. The state at whch the video escalated in 12 minutes, captures the audience’s attention on what’s going on. Sometimes we talk about riots and things happening, but don’t really understand the magnitude of it because majority of us never had to be in one. The video just allows the audience to undergo the state emergency a long with the community.
For the Mash-up article I chose to stay with Anzaldua because it talks about coming together. She states, “These theories of subjectivity are also transformational strategies that start with and transcend individual change, creating new communities and worlds if enough people participate. These individual and collective changes may materialize through the power of language to rename and rewrite identities and personal, mythical, and spiritual histories.” Like I said in my presentation, I’m not justifying rioting, or setting a police car on fire, but having to hear the verdict on a serious case, brought together the community. They all became united and one for the sake of Michael Brown. None of them knew him personally, they were there to participate and spread what they consider love to the families. They were acting on previous notions of what they all have either witnessed, or heard stories about.
For the social movements book, I chose to look at chapter’s one, twelve, and thirteen. Chapter one I focused on the subsection “Social Movements as Outsiders.” Although this isn’t a direct video of a Black Lives Matter protest, it’s still part of the overall conception of what’s been going on. The video does show frustrations of people as well as the violence that went on right when the courts found the officer not guilty.
Chapter 12 I focused on counterviolence. There was a woman in the video that said she didn’t necessarily agree with rioting, but for the sake of all that’s been going on, and with everyone frustrated it's necessary to voice their opinions aloud.
Chapter thirteen, I looked at direct violence subsection. Towards the end of the video, when civilians find out the police officer responsible for Michael Brown’ death wasn’t convicted, the city went into an uproar. The video shows burning cars, burning building’s, graffiti with f* the police etc.
Social Media
With Instagram, I decided to first scroll all the way to the very first couple of post to see what where they started the Instagram page. The first couple of post were from Ferguson Missouri and the protest. There were tons of these pictures, but not enough interaction with them, so I decided to stick with the recent years. I noticed there was a ton of paintings, and some with slogans with people holding a sign. I glanced at a few comments, and saw how ruthless some people were, so I chose to not to focus on comments really. I wanted to know what the top three most like pictures on Instagram was.
The top picture:  

I found this interesting because, it allows the viewers to be aware that the movement is deeper than just riots, and law enforcement. It shows the movement does reach out to other marginalized groups.
The second picture was: 

Just because the black lives matter movement started after the Trayvon Martin case, they still show remembrance to him while spreading message of hope and justice.
The last picture is: 

Again, pointing out other problems besides law enforcement.
One of the most recent pictures with the least amount of likes and interactions was:

This picture only had one comment as well. I believe those other pictures had more interactions because they all are pointing at difficult topics that has caused controversy within the black lives matter movement.
Argument
My overall argument is people are tired of listening to excuses as to why justice can’t be served. People want to see and feel change, if not, matters will be taken into their own hands. In order to get their voice heard, sometimes extreme measures have to be taken. But for as Instagram my argument is Although there is a lot going on within the BLM movement, and a lot of outside unplanned riots that doesn’t define what the movement was created for, we still have to remain peaceful and hopeful that better days will come. Patience and hope are key factors in fighting the battle.
Does it Work?
Instagram – Yes to some extinct
Even with negative comments, they still are posting hopeful and out of the box things, which draws attention.