Ta-Nehisi Coates The Case For Reparations Rhetorical Analysis

In Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “The Case for Reparations”, he describes the adversities African Americans faced during and prior to the Jim Crow law era to obtain housing. Coates argues that because of the challenges faced, America should find a way to prioritize reparations. He uses the disparity between white and African Americans to hone in on the issues of why African Americans deserve amends for the discrimination and abuse of power when African Americans were purchasing homes. The loss and dehumanizing treatment that African Americans suffered should be restituted. Conveying a powerful message to the audience provides a deeper understanding of the issue being discussed. The intended audience for this article is Americans regardless of race

Coates uses the rhetorical appeal of both pathos and ethos. Ta-Nehisi Coates is an African American man that has first-hand dealt with racism therefore, he is educated and a witness to the harmful treatment of these Americans. He also uses ethos as a way to appeal to the audience by providing gruesome details and examples of what African Americans have faced as a whole but gets as specific as detailing the disparities between white and African Americans in the housing market. By providing this information to the audience, he asserts a purpose for writing the

In this article, Coates provides great examples of the strengths of his writing. He uses profound language and vocabulary to further explain the claims he makes while providing a detailed picture for the audience. He uses the primary source of the racism that Clyde Ross experienced. Coates focuses on sharing Ross’s story in this article displaying the true horror African Americans endured during this time. Because Coates does a great job of describing the situation Clyde Ross found himself in, it is difficult to argue against his point that reparations should be made. Also, Coates provides many examples of different people and the stories they have concerning dangerous situations they have found themselves in. Recognizing an article’s weakness allows the audience to educate themselves based on the information in the article. A weakness of Coates’s writing in “The Case for Reparations” However, Coates’s article is well written however, it was poorly composed. The information and stories he shared were groundbreaking but the way in which the information is shared could have been revised before publishing the article. The article jumped from one topic to another after thoroughly explaining the information but the article was difficult to