BLM Analysis Table

Press #2: #BlackLivesMatter: The Birth of a New Civil Rights Movement by Elizabeth Day

Rhetorical Device, Fallacy, Perelman Argument	Example	Analysis
Exaggeration: Hyperbole?	“It (the 21st-century civil rights movement) is fueled by grief and fury, by righteous rage against injustice and institutionalized racism and by frustration at the endemic brutality of the state against those it deems unworthy.”	It is difficult to say whether this is more hyperbole or prosopoeia. While the author is not directly giving the concept of police brutality “human-like qualities”, Day is certainly trying to give the impression that it spreads like a disease or a plague, a living organism that wipes out nearly everything in its path.
Question: Aporia	“In almost every area of society, black Americans remain disadvantaged. Education?...Employment?...Housing…Voters’ rights?...”	The paragraph I used as my example is much too long to put in here. However, its purpose remains the same. Day could have simply mentioned each category as she added the statistics. But instead she chose to turn this part of the article into a mock debate with the audience, except she is doing all of the talking.
Emotional Appeal	“Garza logged onto Facebook. She wrote an impassioned online message. ‘essentially a love note to black people’, and posted it on her page. It ended with: ‘Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter.’”	This is most definitely emotional appeal. Garza, Alicia Garza, was apparently one of the first people to start up and spread the use of the hashtag #blacklivesmatter. Therefore, it is not surprising that one of the first things she does, even before she uses the hashtag for the first time, is to send out this message to other black people, most likely in order to strengthen the bond/sense of unity and family.
Comparison: Enthusiastic Present	“Some resent the reverence accorded men such as Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and Harry Belafonte, who, in their eyes, represent a bygone era and who turn up in cities to hold press conferences only after the hard protest work has been done on the ground.”	Here, we see that younger activists believe that African-Americans who grew up during the original civil rights movement are taking advantage of the hard work of their younger “counterparts” in order to make themselves look better in the eyes of the media and the public.
Coexistence: Intention	“Since Brown was killed in the streets of Ferguson, several other unarmed African Americans have been the victims of fatal violence at the hands of the police.”	This quote in and of itself is not necessarily Intention, however, it is the event that leads to the conclusion that, when it comes to black people, the police can’t be trusted, that “black people are not safe in America”.
Succession: Pragmatic

Video #5: Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi: An Interview with the Founders of Black Lives Matter

Rhetorical Device, Fallacy, Perelman Argument	Example	Analysis
Inclusion	In the video, there is emphasis on the Black Lives Matter movement expanding beyond its perceived parameters.	It is mentioned that the BLM movement isn’t just for African Americans, but for everyone, and that when black people are free, everyone will be free.
Exaggeration: Hyperbole	It is mentioned that “America is obsessed with black deaths”.	“Obsessed” does not seem like the right word to use. They are certainly exaggerated, and taken advantage of in order to further or justify protests, marches, and the creation of social movements, such as #BlackLivesMatter.