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Fear Of A Black President Analysis

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A study of anecdotal evidence in Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Fear of a Black President raised this question: is the use of arguments based on narrative a principle all writers can use? To improve my understanding, we looked for emotionally charged accounts in other assigned essays. Our results suggest that ____ works best when the author has established his or her ethos. Within Fear of a Black President by Coates, there are two main examples of anecdotal evidence. At the beginning of the piece, Coates describes President Obama’s response to the Zimmerman shooting. Although he is piecing together a narrative, Coates’s description reads as fact. The story he relates is explicitly linked to his main argument. Coates states that Obama’s speech after the Zimmerman shooting politicalized the matter because up until that point, “he ha[d] become the most successful black politician in American history by avoiding the radioactive racial issues of yesteryear, by being ‘clean.’” This directly …show more content…

He lays out the story very differently than he lays out the earlier anecdote. He seeks to humanize the victim, adding that he was killed,”near the home of his girlfriend and 11-month-old daughter.” In doing so, he enables us to imagine ourselves or our friends in such a situation. His narrative, however, can only succeed in moving the reader if he has successfully conveyed ethos. The turning point in Coates’s description of Jones is the sentence “he was also my friend.” To have the emotional resonance Coates intends, we must accept that as an educated and intelligent black man, Coates embodies the idea of twice as good. If we do, we can assume that Jones also worked twice as hard, yet died anyway. This anecdote resonates emotionally, giving the piece pathos and kairos, in the sense that the fear of more deaths can spur us to

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213 Words | 1 Pages

As Coates departs from Dr. Jones house he thought over the loss of his dear friend. He thinks of the protesters and how perhaps their bodies was abused because they knew that it was not theirs, to begin with. Coates informs his son that it is unlikely that the dreamers will never come to their consciousness. It is clear that racial justice and the dream does not seem to be going away anytime soon, that the black will suffer from inequality and injustice for a very long time. Despite, our society having a former black American president, the media focusing on the protest against police killings Coates sees no prospect of much change.

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1684 Words | 7 Pages

This altercation started when Coates became bored and disruptive in the class where it led to law enforcement being present to have more control of the situation (Coates 2008, pg. 141). Although Coates was a very bright intellectual, it is obvious to see that he was not present when in class but was very engaged with the world of books and music, outside of the classroom. Young Coates was not aware of the power of “knowledge” alone. He did not understand that without “conscious” of what is to be fought for. His mind was more focus on the lust for making his mark that he had not considered society’s view of a black male and where the origin of fear

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258 Words | 2 Pages

Coat’s perspective on the incident of the death of Trayvon Martin is explained in a sarcastic way, showing that Obama is avoiding the racial conflict. “Part of Obama’s genius is a remarkable ability

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532 Words | 3 Pages

Even just by reading pages 5-12, I can tell that Ta-Nehisi Coates is a good writer because his essay is highly thoughtful and provocative, and the well-written narrative provides lots of powerful examples to depicts the racial struggle in the U.S. He told his son, “You must always remember that the sociology, the history, the economics, the graphs, the charts, the regression all land, with great violence, upon the body.” The concept of violence upon the body appears on every important point of my reading. This is more powerful than the examples of law enforcement and black Americans because it leads the reader to truly see the the fears provoked.

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323 Words | 2 Pages

This article written by Christine William for the Gatestone Institute was an eye opener, on the way we look at race crimes and the way the government deals with such events. She begins by talking about the George Zimmerman case. The case that dealt with a man (not of color) killing a young African American teenager. She stated that people have, “intrinsically portrayed the tragedy of Trayvon Martin's death as the fight for black equality”. She than went on to say that although Trayvon had been suspended a month before and had text messages that showed his affiliation with fire arms and drugs, he was even compared to Jesus Christ being crucified.

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199 Words | 1 Pages

Jerrione Mosley In the book Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates writes a letter to his son revealing the reality of life, growing up as a black man. Coates mostly focused on how black lives and bodies lacked value in America and could be possibly destroyed or taken away at any time. He also talked about “The Dream”, which is the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. The lack of values and importance for the black race is highly in effect.

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383 Words | 2 Pages

In early parts of the memoir, Coates discusses how he was jumped by some boys because he was on the wrong side of town. People in the ghettos tend to take territory very

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749 Words | 3 Pages

In the article, “From Trayvon Martin to Andries Tatane - Cognitive Dissonance and the Black Male Body [analysis],” author Gillian Schutte reflects on the ongoing issues of racial profiling and how many blacks are viewed as skin and surface level human beings. To connect this main point to a real life scenario, Schutte notes the shooting of Trayvon Martin, an innocent 17-year old boy who was walking home from a cafe, unarmed and posed no threat. Zimmerman, the gunman, viewed Martin as a threat, and proceeded to call the police five times to express his concern. Schutte addresses the issue that no matter where blacks are in society, they face danger from whites. Schutte describes how the people think the color of their skin determines their

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992 Words | 4 Pages

Analyzing “The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates The past is the past, but sometimes the past comes back and bites us on the butt. In Ta-Nehisi Coates’s article, “The Case for Reparations”, Coates describes the wrongful acts done by white supremacists towards African-Americans. Throughout his article, Coates provides strong logos and pathos to his argument. The one issue that he fails to discuss is ethos or credibility towards his argument.

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676 Words | 3 Pages

In a blog from Project Implicit, Jordan Axt communicates the results of a study he conducted from the Project Implicit website. He hypothesized that most people were to change their responses when asked a question about race because it was the “socially acceptable” response. Axt noted that the “[r]esults showed that more direct items, like comfort with having Black neighbors, were thought to produce more socially desirable responding.” The additional tests he included into his experiment “suggest[ed] that some participants likely altered their responses when asked about more socially sensitive issues.” In the 1980’s Brent Staples wrote about the same “socially acceptable” standards; however, they were to be afraid or against African Americans.

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494 Words | 2 Pages

Many people forget that African Americans in this country have been enslaved for longer than they have been free. Coates reminds his son to not forget their important history and that they will continuously struggle for freedom over their own bodies. They must learn to live within a black body. These struggles can be seen in the racial profiling and brutality among police officers in cases such as Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and countless of others. He goes on to describe his childhood and how fear was the root of black existence.

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1515 Words | 7 Pages

Coate's parents did not only have the role to provide for their child, but it was also their responsibility to protect their son's body from the criminal justice system and the danger of their geographical location. Coates (2015) explains the danger of Baltimore when he states, "To be black in the Baltimore of my youth was to be naked before the elements of the world, before all the guns, fists, knives, crack, rape and diseases" (pg.17). The synergy of the family system was fear which is a mechanism they have developed to survive since they had no laws to protect them. Everyone in the system of Baltimore had lost a child to drugs, violence or jail. Therefore, Coates faced physical punishment constantly from his dad whenever he made any mistakes, and this was a form or a way to create boundaries between him and the criminal justice system.

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1254 Words | 6 Pages

Overall, his bold and passionate language appropriately delivers his message on life in America as a black boy and man. This book tells the truth and nothing less. Coates keeps it real with his son at all times. He even tells his son that tough love is needed between him and son.

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316 Words | 2 Pages

As a black person in America, I have come to realize that there are many other people that see my race as inferior. It is often difficult to consider this thought in my everyday life and after reading Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates has demonstrated that I am not the only black person in America who feels this way. The most powerful message that I encountered in this story is the fact that I come into this world with the world already against me and I am constantly trying to find who I am versus what others perceive of me. Being black in America forces individuals to change their natural being to try and live up to the standards of others. The American standard or the “American Dream” is described by Coates as a goal that cannot

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650 Words | 3 Pages

Although he believes that this question is unanswerable, Coates’ purpose is to express his deepest concerns for his son and to help him understand his personal experiences as a black man. He achieves his purpose by incorporating rhetorical skills such as ethos, pathos, and logos. Coates has been a successful journalist and writer for several years. He previously worked for The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and O

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