I am aware of how different my life during is the 21st century to those who live in the late 20th century. I might learn how people had different lives based on their socio-economic status, but most importantly based on the color of their skin. That’s the only thing I do not share with African Americans, of how much they had to endure in the United States, where at that time they were not considered human. At that time where there was a social difference between White Americans and people of color, such as Native Americans, African Americans, Latinos, Asians, anyone that is not from Europe, well even Irish people were treated different.
The point is that America changed so much from the introduction of Slavery, A civil war, the emancipation of Slavery, Segregation, Civil rights movement, but after the end of the segregation there was not much that changed in the deep south, such as the hostility against black people. That’s how the question was born, Is the American Dream at the expense of the American Negro?
The debate between two figures Baldwin vs Buckley, Baldwin who comes to an audience to talk about his experience as a African American in the United States, and Buckley a white American who did not took the debate seriously to the point that he is making fun of the things Baldwin said, as a way to reject his point of view, and the majority of the audience seems to agree with Buckley.
This rhetorical essay is trying to find the uses of Logos, Ethos and Pathos used during the debate between Baldwin vs Buckley. Logos means to build up logical arguments, in which Baldwin is clearly making strong points based on his experience as an African American, the hostility against his community, and more importantly the American government in favor for segregationist and racist policies against people of color.
Buckley at the other hand does not consider this a problem, What about Ethos which in other word in the speaker’ authority and its audience’s trust. Baldwin who is talking about his experience and pointing out every aspect of America, but also interacting with them by asking them rhetorical questions, to make the audience not to solely listen to his speech but to think or reflect about the situation. In the other hand Buckley decides to use comedy to distract the audience, to not take his opponent seriously. At the end, the uses of Pathos appeal to emotion. Baldwin wants to make sure that his audience learn not only how African Americans suffer, but to feel it, to sympathize with stories of many people of color were treated, wrongly accused, lynched, attacked, separated from others based on their color of their skin, but also pointing out that America was not developed solely by brave Americans that fought wars against their enemies and one another, that they were not only ones that help for the American economy growth, but also that African slaves for the early days of the colonization of the United States, from the death of not thousands but millions of African who came to America not by choice but by force, I think that this is the way he is trying to make the audience be more sympathetic and understating of where is Baldwin coming from, but what Buckley does is just make all his points seem as a joke