In the debate, we find that James Baldwin effectively confirms the presence of racial discrimination by providing his own stories. In his argument, Baldwin addresses the skeptics of racial discrimination and goes on to dispute them by providing his own lived and shared experiences. This is an effective structure, because Baldwin was in a room filled with skeptics, so It was only right for him to gauge his audience, understand their thinking, but at the same time revert their belief by providing a personal experience to change their perspective.
As for Buckley, his approach is different. He first denounces Baldwin’s approach and then leads into what he believes the black people in America should be doing instead of reaching for “radical solutions.” Again, the reasoning behind this structure is Buckley’s attentiveness to the audience. Buckley wants to rid positive sentiments towards Baldwin’s argument in order to make his own argument sound better in comparison. There isn’t much Buckley can speak about on the Black experience in America, so he can’t provide personal anecdotes. But, he can make people believe Baldwin is ungrateful, and there are other ways to go about improving his experience than denouncing the US.
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In his argument, Baldwin utilizes pathos in the following sentence: ““It comes as a great shock to discover that the country which is your birthplace and to which you owe your life and identity has not, in its whole system of reality, evolved any place for you.” The word choice of “whole system” and “any place for you” is significant because it emphasizes how black people in America are utterly excluded, and this emphasis helps evoke shock and sympathy from the audience. As for Buckley, he uses pathos in the following line: “We must acknowledge that problem, but we must also reach through to the Negro people and tell them that their best chances are in a mobile society and the most mobile city in the world today is the Unites States.’ The intentional continued use of the phrase “We” helped Buckley effectively evoke feelings of community and motivation among the audience; “we” as a community must enlighten black people is essentially what Buckley seems to be saying.
Baldwin utilizes ethos in the following statement, “ I am speaking very seriously, and this is not an overstatement: I picked cotton, I carried it to the market, I built the railroads under someone else’s whip for nothing.” In these lines, Baldwin manages to enhance his credibility by capitalizing on his identity as a black individual; he has a perspective on the debate Buckley can never achieve and he uses his identity to help the audience understand his point. As for Buckley, he uses ethos in the following statement, “ I am treating you as a fellow American, as a man whose indictments of our civilization are unjustified…” In these lines, Buckley tries to promote his credibility by capitalizing on his identity as an American. Buckley cannot speak about the black experience, but he tries to diminish Baldwin’s identity by emphasizing how they are both American.
Lastly, logos is used by both Baldwin and Buckley in the following lines respectively, “We had the 15th Amendment nearly 100 years ago. If it was not honored then, I have no reason to believe that the civil rights bill will be honored now” and “It is the case that seven-tenths of the average white’s income in the United States is equal to the entire income of the average Negro. But my great-grandparents worked hard.” In his argument, Baldwin utilized logos by providing reasons as to why the American dream does not apply to black people; he lets his audience know the continuous pattern in history which shows no progress being made to the lives of black people in America. As for Buckley, he uses logos to undermine Baldwin’s arguments; in response to Baldwin’s comment about how the black experience is full of mistreatment and unfairness, Buckley tries to reason with the audience and explain how Baldwin’s fate is tied to his lack of effort towards providing a better life for himself. Buckley provides an example about how his great-grandparents had to work hard, but this argument lacks self awareness about other factors that restricted black people from succeeding in history.