Category: Baldwin v Buckley Debates

James Baldwin

For ethos, Baldwin talked about his own experiences as a black man, making him believable and making his arguments more personable to the audience, and people trusted him because he was a well-known writer and thinker.

For pathos, Baldwin made people feel by describing the pain of racism and how he inspired hope for change, appealing to people’s sense of fairness.

For logos, Baldwin used facts and history to show how racism is built into American society and pointed out flaws in Buckley’s arguments to show racism was still a big problem.

William F. Buckley Jr.

For ethos, Buckley was respected in conservative groups, making his views credible and he emphasized traditional American values to win people over.

For pathos, Buckley made people feel proud of America’s achievements and stressed personal responsibility to appeal to people’s sense of self-reliance.

For logos, Buckley used facts and history to argue that America had made progress. He criticized Baldwin’s ideas with logic, by saying that there are other reasons for the problems faced by African Americans.

In the Baldwin v Buckley debates, they both have different ways of making their points. For example, Baldwin likes to tell personal stories and get people feeling emotional, by talking about real-life situations in which people face unfairness. The reason behind this is that he wants the listeners to feel like they need to act to make society better. On the other hand, Buckley uses more of facts and history instead of personal stories. For example, he uses numbers, laws, and old ideas to back up his conservative views, such as saying that we should stick to what we’ve always done in the past. Baldwin wants people to care and make changes, while Buckley wants to keep things stable and follow the rules.