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Malik Baldwin

Professor Maple

ENG 101-03

3 October 2018

Rhetorical Analysis

In “How to Deal With Awkward Questions About Being Trans” the speaker showcases

the invasive questions that trans people get asked daily and how people who are trans, their

audience, should answer them. Whereas in “Color Struck”, which shows how colorism is

embedded through the author's personal experience. People who experience colorism and

anti-blackness, black people, would be their audience. While both of the texts are successful

through their credibility, such as their identity, the text “Color Struck” is more successful to their

audience due to it being more of a personal narrative and its emotional appeal.

In “How to Deal With Awkward Questions About Being Trans”, the rhetor relies on

ethos and pathos. The ethos can be found within the rhetor since they identify as being trans

themselves. It’s clear that the rhetor is a credible source due to their own identity which shows

that they actually have knowledge and personal experience to match what they’re talking about.

The audience will be more likely to believe the text because the rhetor is apart of the same

community that they’re writing about and towards.

Within the article and in the picture on the side of it, there are questions that are invasive

when it comes to the trans community such as “Are you trans?”, “What’s your REAL name?”,

“Which bathroom do you use?”, “What’s down there?”, etc (Ori). All these questions

emotionally appeal to their audience because these are all very triggering and intrusive questions
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that majority of their audience has been asked before. The relatable emotional appeals used add

to the success by making the audience feel something which means that their message is being

conveyed.

The rhetor relies on trying to appeal emotionally to their audience the most throughout

“How to Deal With Awkward Questions About Being Trans”. The very personal questions that

their audience gets asked on the daily made it more effective because it was something that their

audience can relate back to at one point in their life. On the other hand, the rhetor does not

appeal to their audience logically. Logos does not need to be applied to the article because it’s

already effective but if they were trying to appeal to their audience logically, some statistics such

as “[insert amount of times] gets asked [insert invasive question] on a daily, weekly, yearly, or

monthly basis” could’ve added to the success of the text. Using this statistic would show that

their some data behind what the rhetor is talking about which would make the rhetor’s message

successful.

Using credibility, emotional appeal, and logic, the rhetor makes “Color Struck” a very

effective text. The rhetor’s credibility is that they’re a black woman. In the article, colorism is

being spoke about and black women are always the women who fall victim to colorism.

Therefore, having a black woman talk about her experiences within her own community makes

her message very credible. Also, it showcases how black people can be anti-black as well and

how the rhetor herself had to check herself on her own bias.

Furthermore, she emotionally appeals to her audience by bringing up things that all black

people have witnessed happen or have been apart of themselves. For example, instead of saying

she was black she would say she would identify as Ethiopian because “allowed me to play up my
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“exoticism”” (Mekonnen). Or she would also say that in her high school environment she could

“sense that blackness was undesirable was all too obvious at school” (Mekonnen). These are all

things that black people go through on the daily whether it’s not being preferred because of their

skin tone or just being frowned down upon for same thing that someone of a lighter complexion

does and is either praised for it or suffers no consequences from it. The rhetor talking about these

problems in depth really appeals to the emotions, worthlessness, unloved, rejected, of the

audience which makes it effective.

The logic behind the text is when she includes the definition of colorism and hyperlinks

some things for the audience to check out. The rhetor includes the meaning of what Colorism is

just incase some people in the audience don’t know or don’t want to believe that it is a real thing.

Her defining colorism adds to the effectiveness of the text. She also writes that she did her

research only to find out that colorism stemmed back during times of “European colonialism,

slavery, and the racist ideologies and stereotypes that were used to justify those practices”

(Mekonnen). The rhetor appeals to their audience through logic by being informative.

Pathos and ethos were both most relied on in “Color Struck”, it’s important for the rhetor

to emotionally appeal since colorism is such a sensitive topic to those who’ve have experienced

it such as their audience. Secondly, the rhetor talking about her experience, how colorism

became embedded in her mind, and how others who fell victim to the anti-blackness all are

things that the audience can emotionally connect with. Without the author’s credibility such as

her being a black woman, the article wouldn’t have been effective because there is no one more

credible than someone who talks about issues in their community that they’re actually apart of.

Logos was relied on the least throughout “Color Struck”. Although, the logic that was presented
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in the text was needed, it informed the audience on colorism and the roots behind it so they could

get a better sense of what they were reading about.

The two texts “How to Deal With Awkward Questions About Being Trans” and “Color

Struck” have similarities and differences. They both relied heavily on emotionally appealing to

their audience throughout their text. The texts deal with things that are relevant in our culture

today such as colorism and things regarding the LGBT+ community. Marginalized groups such

as trans people and black people are their audiences. The differences that they have show which

text, such as Color Struck, is more effective. “Color Struck” included logos, pathos, and ethos

within the text whereas in “How to Deal With Awkward Questions About Being Trans”, they

only appealed to their audience through emotion and credibility. Also, “Color Struck” is more of

a personal narrative which made it really effective because the rhetor puts you in their position

and how their environment was around them. Therefore, it gave the audience a better connection

with the text. Meanwhile, the other text just gave advice to the reader without giving their reader

anything to connect to such as a feel for the rhetor personally other than the fact that they

identify as being transgender.

Texts that both accomplish their purpose to their audiences whether it be through

emotion, logic, or their credibility, are “Color Struck” and “How to Deal With Awkward

Questions About Being Trans”. The articles both have share similarities and differences whether

it be through what they relied on most, their audiences, or even the topics discussed within the

two articles. Although the article that was more effective was “Color Struck” due to the rhetors

use of ethos, the rhetors identity, and pathos, both of the articles are effective within their own

ways.
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Works Cited

1. Mekonnen, Malaya. “Color Struck” ​Rookie Mag​, Rookie, 30 Mar 2015,

www.rookiemag.com/2015/03/anti-blackness/2/​.

2. Ori. “How to Deal With Awkward Questions About Being Trans.” ​Rookie Mag​, Rookie,

4 May 2016, ​www.rookiemag.com/2016/05/awkward-questions/​.