RUNNING HEAD: POLICE BRUTALITY A RACIST ACT

Police brutality a racist act: Genre Analysis

Prissilla Navarro
ID#80525081
University Of Texas at El Paso

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Introduction

I cant breathe is a very strategic brought upon society by

Michael Brown an African American that assessed police brutality. Police Brutality has affected
our society as a whole as we know. Knowing the wrong doings of the police officials really
sparked a dramatic tension between minorities and police officers. From riots and retreats this
takes a tremendous toll on those families who has experienced police brutality first hand.
Throughout analyzing my two genres, they both propose the same message, on why police
brutality is a racist act. Therefore using Ethos, Pathos, and Logos I will be discussing some of the
analysis made in these two genres. First, an article Imagining racial justice in America, by
Troutt, David Dante, and second a book, by Malcolm D. Holmes and Brad W. Smith, Race and
Police Brutality.
Ethos
The Article Imagining racial justice in America, by Troutt,
David Dante, uses ethos in a way that it uses the appropriate language. David uses the
appropriate terms for describing the issues associated with police brutality and how it is
considered a racist act. He has a great grammar and he In the article David also uses color to
attract attention and to point out pictures and his issues, for example at the beginning of his
article, before the writing, David uses images to illustrate few people who have been killed due
to police brutality towards a certain race ;African Americans. David also uses a big red A at
the beginning of the text to start of his writing, this is a big attention grabber and the color red
informs us that what will be discussed in the text will be highly important. Many small details

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throughout this article by David demonstrates to us examples of Ethos. In the book Race and
Police Brutality, by Malcolm D. Holmes and Brad W. Smith, examples of Ethos are shown too.
In the book the authors use excellent grammar and the appropriate language just like the article
and has an image in the cover of the book that catches attention because it looks blurry so it
gives you a mystical illusion. The book also uses for example page numbers, titles and has
chapters and a table of contents to indicate and give the reader feedback on what he/she is about
to read.
Pathos
Next, the article uses stories and again the images to provoke
emotions and grab the readers attention. David Troutt uses various images to cause emotion and
sympathy for example; he uses an image that says, Justice for Oscar Grant which expresses an
emotion of injustice and sorrow, as well as the other pictures. The article uses actual phrases that
were exchanged in a police and civilian encounter, like with Michel Brown. The book is very
similar, it uses examples of words being exchanged by the civilians or civilians and the police
officers. The book also gives the reader dates and names of people and police officers who were
involved in brutal police encounters, and how they were racist. It speaks about teenagers who
have been killed in brutal racist police aggressions towards them, giving the reader the feeling of
sympathy towards the teens because they were so young and innocent and were unarmed. The
book also speaks about how police brutality is seen directly towards Hispanics, African
Americans, and other minority groups like Native Americans. The book unlike the article speaks
more in depth about other incidents occurring dealing with racist brutal assaults coming from the
police. The books gives the years they occurred in and unlike the article it speaks about times
that police brutality occurred in older years like the 1900s while the article speaks about more

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recent incidents like in 2013 or 2014 even 2015. The thing is they both successfully are able to
communicate the feeling of sympathy and different emotions to the reader or the audience.
Pathos
Last, the article Imagining racial justice in America, showcases
the use of pathos by showing us it is a credible site because it is approved by the universitys
library and even shows us were it comes from how the facts were obtained by giving us cited
sources at the end. The article gives us historical background from past events dealing with
police brutality against minority groups. The article even brings up facts on how many African
Americans feel that if they are not mistreated by the police in America then they dont feel so
black. In the book the same thing, the same message is brought across when the book brings
facts like those by families of the ones who were attacked by the police. They both show acts of
pathos by being credible sources and allowing the audience to see where those facts are coming
from.

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Conclusion
In conclusion, the genre that best offered the issue in my opinion
was the book it showed more emotions it had better facts, in, my opinion it was more credible
and it illustrated the events it was trying to come across better. They were both great and Id
recommend anyone who wants to know more about this to read those two genres but the book
just had a better flow of ethos, pathos and logos. They both had a great impact on my thoughts on
police brutality.

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REFERENCES
TROUTT, D. D. (2014). IMAGINING RACIAL JUSTICE IN AMERICA. (Cover story). Nation,
299(26), 17-19
Malcolm D. Holmes and Brad W. Smith (2008) Race and Police Brutality State University of
New York Press, Albany