Good morning listeners, I’m your host, Gage Carrillo, and today we are going to be analyzing Jonathan Capehart’s article, “White Privilege in America: The Blissful Ignorance of Ralph Northam.” To start off with I’m going to give you guys a little background on the article. Just recently a picture was surfaced of the governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, in his college yearbook wearing blackface while standing next to a friend of his who is dressed up as a Ku Klux Klan member. Blackface is a notorious racial slur that has been used for many years to belittle African-Americans. Governor Northam obviously received major backlash for this and many want him to resign. However, he has stated in a CBS interview with Gayle King that he will not resign and that he is not the same person he used to be. He has stated that he will begin to focus more on racial problems in the country as a sort of apology for his past actions. Whether he will follow through on these promises is still a question. Capehart harshly criticizes Northam for these actions and says that this sort of behavior does not belong in today’s society let alone in politics. So that’s the summary of the controversy at hand so now let’s get started on the topic for today’s podcast.
Like I said before, we are going to be analyzing the rhetorical devices used by Capehart in his article for the Washington Post. He supports his opinion using logos to establish logic and reasoning, pathos to access the reader’s emotions, and ethos to give credibility and make the reader question the ethics and morals of our society.
Throughout the article Capehart alludes to credible sources to support his opinion. He takes a quote from blues musician Daryl Davis where he says “It wasn’t about trying to look black, but trying to look black in a way that portrays blacks negatively.” The use of this quote supports Capehart’s opinion by giving the reader an example of how blackface personally affects the African American community. Capehart also quotes an interview he had with Brian Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, where Stevenson describes the danger and fear the KKK instilled into African-Americans saying, “It basically communicated to African Americans: You will not be safe here. You are not secure here. Law enforcement can’t protect you. Courts can’t protect you. Congress can’t protect you. You are at risk all the time. And if you do not comply, without wavering, to white supremacy to racial hierarchy then [you will be lynched].” Because Stevenson is a well-known activist, it makes the reader feel like they can trust Capehart because he was able to interview someone like Stevenson .This really plays a significant role in developing the use of ethos to make Capehart’s article more trustworthy.
Next we’re gonna look at his use of logos. When Capehart uses the actual picture of governor Northam, it makes the reader realize that there is really no way to sugarcoat what he did. Capehart describes the costumes as “symbols of a system of oppression that far too many white Americans (like Northam, until this month) are content to ignore.” The startling image makes you think what kind of people are in control of political power. It causes the reader to question whether or not they should be concerned about having a man with a racist past in control of government. Northam did something very serious and the use of the picture by Capehart blatantly let’s the reader know exactly what Northam did.
Now we’re gonna look at Capehart’s use of pathos. One of the ways he accesses the readers’ emotion is when he uses an instance of a brutal lynching of an African-American man by a group of white men in 1889, “Four shots were fired into his body. On his breast was pinned a paper bearing the words, ‘We will protect our wives and daughters.’” This exemplifies the stereotypes given to African-American men and the harsh things they would do to the African-American community and that the KKK is not something that should ever be glorified. This shows that dressing as a Ku Klux Klan member is never a joke as they discriminated and murdered countless African-American just because they have a darker skin color, which should access almost every reader’s emotions.
Now these are just a few of the many rhetorical devices he uses to develop his argument. Personally, I thought he was very successful in grabbing the audience’s attention and supporting his opinion. Capehart was able to give a biased opinion without sounding so biased that he lost his credibility. He was very organized and gave background information on the racist actions of Northam so the reader was able to understand exactly how controversial the governor’s actions were. Also, the way he offers positive actions Northam should take to make up for his past behavior makes his article sound like he wants Northam to use this negative spotlight to bring change in racial equality. He uses a little bit of everything to make a very opinionated sounding article sound credible and trustworthy. Once again I’m Gage Carrillo and thank you all for tuning and have a great rest of the day.