Adichie used many great techniques of rhetoric in her TED talk. Adichie gave her TED talk in order to clarify common misconceptions on race for the civilized world. Adichie talked with a great deal of disappointment in her voice. She made it clear that what she has seen in today’s world is not right in her mind, nor should it be consider to be right in our minds.

Adichie utilized many techniques in order to involve the audience, while still making them reflect on themselves. The jokes that Adichie told made the audience much more comfortable with her, which is vital as she is addressing a very sensitive topic. No one wants to feel racist, but we all have some sort of prejudice in our minds against people who are different, whether it be something that we outwardly show or be it something that we keep within ourselves.

Something that appealed to me was Adichie’s use of paradoxes in order to emphasize the lack of logic in the prejudices that we carry. A paradox may be defined as a “figure that employs an apparent contradiction which, nonetheless, evokes some measure of truth.” (American Rhetoric.) Adichie used the strong power of these paradoxes in order to, in a non-aggressive way, show the error in our prejudices.

But Adichie is not without fault herself. She admits that, even as a person who has to live dealing with prejudice, she has some prejudices herself. This empathy is comforting to people who may have felt as if Adichie was talking in an accusatory manner. It is human nature to have prejudices. A prejudice is a “preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.” (Google Source.) The problem with preconceived opinions is the fact that, by our very own nature, it is our tendency to hold on to our first impression of something, though we may have never really had any real experience with it. The hardest thing in our world today is to see people for who they are, regardless of who you may have preconceived them to be. This is Adichie’s goal for us. Her goal is to open our minds.