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Kinga Mamulska WRD 103 Rhetorical Analysis

On a night in February 2012, an African- American 17 year old named Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by a 28 year old neighborhood watch person named George Zimmerman in Florida. At the trial George Zimmerman was charged with murder and later found not guilty. President Obama gave a speech on the case during a press conference at the White House to a small audience and expressed some of his thoughts about the event and trial of Trayvon Martin. From reading and listening to president Obamas speech I understand he wants to have a more perfect union (3). I think president Obamas thoughts on the case and racism are accurate and Obama is able to be persuasive but Obamas speech is based merely on his emotional thoughts and does not consider the other side of a possible story or explanation of George Zimmermans actions. President Obama uses ethos throughout his speech to relate to the family of Trayvon Martin which makes him be authorized to speak about the Trayvon Martin case. Since Obama is African-American he is able to relate to the different instances he brings up of people not feeling safe around colored individuals And there are very few African-American men who havent had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happens to me, at least before I was a senator (2). Obama relates to the ethnicity of Trayvon Martin quite often and that is a device he uses quite often to project ethos. President Obama, however, does not try to relate to the race of George Zimmerman and of the position Zimmerman must have been in before he chose to shoot Trayvon Martin. I believe Obamas use of ethos did

its work persuading but he excluded relating to George Zimmerman. Obamas choice to avoid speaking about George Zimmermans side seems to make president Obama look like he is avoiding anything he would have to say about George Zimmerman that may show he possibly isnt a murder. Obama uses pathos in his speech to have his audience be affected emotionally by the crime of George Zimmerman. When president Obama speaks about the violent past that AfricanAmericans faced, he gets his audience persuaded emotionally And when you think about why, in the African-American community at least, theres a lot of pain around what happened here, I think its important to recognize that the African-American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesnt go away (1). Often I think Obama is trying to manipulate the audiences emotions because he brings up explanations and reasons for why colored people may act violent. I feel that Obama is trying to convince the audience that African-Americans are more innocent than they are credited to be because of their races history, but every race has some kind of violent history. Obama tries to manipulate emotions by trying to explain why African-Americans act as they tend to So so folks understand the challenges that exist for African-American boys, but they get frustrated, I think, if they feel that theres no context for it or and the context is being denied (2). Emotions do conflict with the logical interpretation of the argument because the emotions that are brought up for African-Americans in a way mask the lack of the other side of the story which is about George Zimmerman and why his actions were the way they were. President Obama uses some logos to convey his thoughts about racism, but not enough of it. When Obama talks about how racism is not as much of a problem as it was in the past I think he is being truthful and is making a good point about the progress the country is making towards

equality Each successive generation seems to be making progress in changing attitudes when it comes to race. It doesnt mean that were in a postracial society. It doesnt mean that racism is eliminated (3). President Obama is making a weak claim when he speaks about what would Travon Martin do if he was armed because predicting someones actions is never a sign of a strong argument and assumptions should not be made when making a claim I just ask people to consider if Trayvon Martin was of age and armed, could he have stood his ground on that sidewalk? And do we actually think that he would have been justified in shooting Mr. Zimmerman (3). Also, there are many possible counter arguments that president Obama does not address or mention. The president does not try to understand or consider what kind of position George Zimmerman could have been in during his encounter with Trayvon Martin. Obama also does not deal with the fact that both individuals, not just Zimmerman, may have made a risky action to cause the trigger to be pulled. I think Obama has left certain other possibilities of what else could have been the cause of the event to favor his own race. Also Im sure Obama sympathizes with a 17-year old as opposed to George Zimmerman because Trayvon was a young individual. President Obamas speech had many good points that led me to consider t he Trayvon deserved to live but after not hearing about a counter argument I was not completely convinced. I think the president makes some honest points when he speaks about African Americans past and how many people feel towards them but Obama does not address the other side of his argument against George Zimmerman. The Trayvon shooting in Florida was a tragedy and I sympathize with the family for their loss but I dont believe either side was completely innocent in the incident, only that a persons life was taken. I agree with Obama about working on a more perfect union but there isnt just one group to target with this goal. President Obamas speech

was based mainly on his emotions and relation with African Americans as opposed to a complete argument with a second side to it.

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