Many Americans believe we live in a post-racial society. However, given the numerous recent episodes of police brutality against black people and subsequent riots, it is apparent that racism persists. Ta-Nehisi Coates’ article entitled “Letter To My Son” published in The Atlantic this past September attempts to engage the intellectual readers of this magazine in an emotional review of what it is like to grow up black in the United States. His letter, addressed to his fifteen year old son, is actually a sophisticated rhetorical piece of literature that attempts to get the readers to really see and feel first hand what the black experience is like in this country and thereby prove that racism exists and is the fault of the white majority. By using personal accounts of his life that expose this profound problem of racism in our country, the essay effectively uses the literary tool of pathos to make the reader deeply feel, for just a brief moment, the devastation racism has done and still is doing to our country. However, the angry, accusatory tone throughout his article ultimately leaves the non-black reader to feel guilty and detached from Coates’ arguments. Coates tone does not appeal to someone who is making an effort to understand the race issue in this country. Ultimately, Coates groups himself as a radical, thus limiting his audience to a very small group A more effective essay on racism, entitled “School Must Face Its Racial Realities” by Darius Williams was posted this past September to the Old Gold and Black. In this article, Darius also writes about the recent police brutalities. Darius, an African American college student, uses a tone that actually invites a conversation with the reader and gives an opportunity to open up further conversation on racism. For me, this is a more effective approach, and is far from the approach Coates takes. Although Coates letter is a well written, persuasive piece with good use of rhetorical literary tools such as pathos, ethos and logos, Coates’ tone and militant stance on race relations makes his essay difficult to relate to by the non-black reader whereas the piece by Darius, due to its tone, is more relatable and better opens up a reasoned conversation on racism– a conversation that Coates effectively shuts down with his anger, blame and vitriol.
On its face, Coates has written a letter to Samori Toure, Coates 15 year old son, telling him what it means to be an African American growing up in this country. The title “Letter to My Son” quite literally represents the ostensible motive that Coates had to write this essay. “I write you in your 15th year. I am writing you because this was the year you saw Eric Garner choked to death for selling cigarettes; because you know now that Renisha McBride was shot for seeking help, that John Crawford was shot down for browsing in a department store.” Coates makes it clear from the beginning of the letter that he is writing because of the recent events of police brutality towards African Americans in the United States. He wants to give his son his side of the story; however, it is also clear that he wants the reader to understand the recent events as well, from his perspective. Coates recounts different times in his own life that have chipped away at his innocence, engendered fear inside of him, and created a wall of anger and resentment he seems to have built up around him. Coates grew up in a predominately all-black neighborhood. His childhood neighborhood, a primary focus in the essay, instilled fear inside Coates at a young age. “Fear ruled everything around me, and I knew, as all black people do, that this fear was connected to the world out there.” He concludes the essay with a more recent event that solidified Coates’ fear, and the fear he has for his son: the continual struggle growing up as a black man in this country. Coates describes how a white woman pushed Coates’ son. Coates’ initial reaction was to protect his son, like any parent. The white woman threatened to have Coates arrested, and it was in that moment he realized what it would be like for his son. “You are called to struggle, not because it assures you victory but because it assures you an honorable and sane life.” The “struggle” that Coates refers to is that white people have the power to take his body, his son’s body. This connects to the introduction of the essay when Coates was asked about his body by a news host. As the essay concludes, it is clear the one purpose for writing this essay was to prepare his son for what it will be like to grow up in this world: a world that Coates views is rife with racism, and the trials he will have to endure as a result. This is the stated purpose that Coates wants his audience to see; however by publishing this essay in The Atlantic, Coates suggests another intended and very sophisticated, purpose to this essay.
Coates’ article is not merely a letter to his son; it is actually a rhetorically sophisticated article that attempts to persuade the reader that his arguments on racism are correct. Coates uses the literary tool of pathos to make the reader really see and understand the struggle of racism in our country, and how it is a present problem. However, Coates does not just rely on the rhetorical literary tool of pathos in his essay, but he also uses the rhetorical literary tools of ethos and logos as well, although pathos is his primary means of communicating his message. Coates’ use of his experiences as a black person growing up in a racist America as an example of ethos: Coates’s status as a black person in America does confer status on him as far as having a valid opinion on racism. He talks about growing up in Baltimore and one instance when he saw a group of older African American boys who he described as wearing ski jackets and one pulled out a gun “with the gun brandished, which he slowly untucked, tucked, then untucked once more.” Coates having been only in sixth grade at the time shows the harsh reality of growing up in these African American neighborhoods, and that Coates’ innocence was torn from him very early on in his childhood. This is both an example of effective use of ethos, using Coates own experiences to tell the story of what it is like to grow up black in America, and pathos, because it makes the reader see how hard it was for Coates when he was growing up and makes the reader more empathetic to his arguments about racism.
Coates’ writing about recent instances of police brutalities against African Americans is an effective use of pathos by playing to human emotions, but it is also an effective use of logos, because Coates uses current events to make his claims about racism against blacks in America today. There was one moment when his son went into his room and cried about the Michael Brown case. “You stayed up that night, waiting for the announcement of an indictment, and when instead it was announced that there was none, you said ‘I’ve got to go,’ and you went into your room, and I heard you crying.” This was a moment in the essay that gives an honest view of what it is like for African Americans to see all this police brutality and, therefore, a very effective use of pathos to make his point on the injustice of racism in the United States. It was also an excellent use of factual evidence, or logos, to make his arguments claiming continued and ongoing racism.
Describing this intimate scene is a powerful use of pathos. The moment that Coates hears his son crying pulls at the heartstrings of the reader. What was going through his son’s mind at this time? This moment of the essay appeals to every parent who may be reading it: the moment when parents see their children first exposed to the violence of our world. Throughout the essay Coates talks directly to his son and includes photographs of him and his son. In one of the pictures his son is just a child, still innocent, and Coates is holding him and has a very arrogant look on his face. This picture represents a lot of the emotion Coates is trying to portray in this essay: the before and after of an African American growing up in America. The child is pure, while the man has a wall up– a wall of fear. Seeing this in the picture allows the reader to almost feel the helplessness of Coates. The fear he has for his child, the fear he has for himself. “Fear ruled everything around me,” Coates stated at one point when he talked about growing up on the streets of Baltimore. Overall, this essay is very emotionally charged and allows readers to see the discrimination many African Americans face while growing up in our country.
Although Coates successfully gives the reader an honest view about the issues of racism in America he does so in a way that is angry and accusatory and thus, results in a disconnect between him and the reader. By making it a letter to his son and addressing his son directly, the reader already feels as if they are intruding in on a personal conversation. For example, when he says, “You and I, my son, are that ‘below’,” or when he refers to them as “we” it feels as if he is narrowing his audience down to just him and his son. At some points his tone comes off as very angry towards whites and refers to whites as “they” inferring separateness and blame, such as, “they made their riches off our stolen bodies”. This use of “they” and “our” causes an immediate detachment between black and white. He makes no attempt to relate to the white person, and the majority of the time puts them in a very harsh light. “Here is what I would like for you to know: in America, it is traditional to destroy the black body-it is heritage.” This leaves many people who cannot relate to this feeling extremely guilty, and at fault for the police brutality, loss of innocence of his son, and that they are the specific reason Coates is writing this letter to his son.
After reading this essay by Coates, I, as a white person, immediately felt I was being blamed, indirectly, for everything Coates and his son had been through, and my first reaction was to get defensive. I am extremely fortunate to be where I am, but my parents worked hard, I have worked hard and I felt Coates was trying to diminish that by saying I am well off because I am white. Coates tone was argumentative and it could have been more relatable to a wider audience. The tone that Darius Williams uses in his recent article “School Must Face its Racial Realities” posted in the Old Gold and Black is much more effective in opening up a real conversation on racism in this country. Darius also uses personal accounts to give the reader his experience of being an African American surrounded by all this police brutality. Darius details a time when he was pulled over by the police. He states, “The officer, cool and blue, strolled up to my door, looked inside my window and … he wept. He cried. He cried at what he saw. What he saw was me: my hands at 10 and two, my eyes on the ceiling, my license in plain sight.” This story not only made me really think about what Darius was feeling at that moment, but also accounted for the side of the cop. The white cop that Coates managed to portray as violent and cruel in his essay, Darius managed to portray as understanding and emotional. Rather than lay blame, Darius attempts to open up a conversation with others; he writes, “let’s find time to share a cup of coffee and chat this semester.” Overall Darius has a much more open, and conversational tone compared to Coates who does not even try to understand or have an open discussion with the other side.
Coates’ essay is full of emotion and his use of pathos, with some ethos and logos, is both effective and ineffective, due to his argumentative and accusatory tone. His personal narrative and use of current events of police brutality is effective in showing his son, and the reader, that the world he lives in is sometimes brutal and violent and is a world that may treat him differently because of his skin color. Coates does make a strong argument that racism is alive and well in the United States today. Coates use of personal narrative makes the reader have empathy for him and the racism he, as a black man, has personally experienced and witnessed. However, Coates’ angry tone and use of broad accusations of guilt of all white Americans diminishes the effectiveness of his arguments. This leads the reader to question his extreme views and makes this essay’s ultimate message less effective as a result. Coates could have been a more effective and persuasive writer if he had removed some of the vitriol from his message and attempted to pull at the reader’s heartstrings more, rather than point fingers and make the reader feel to blame. On the other hand, Darius in his essay uses a tone that is less angry and accusatory and actually invites a conversation with others on the topic of race. This essay is more effective in that it actually attempts to solve the problem of racism through open and honest discussion, rather than fan the fires of anger and hate like Coates does in his letter, which ultimately shuts down any open discussion on this very important topic.