CAS 201: Rhetoric and Civic Discourse

Beauty has been the cause of a lot of discourse in the world, because people really believe in the saying that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Beauty is subjective, beauty is all about what strums the cords of your heart and invokes passion and love. Beauty can be found in anything, because is beauty is about finding yourself in things.

For example, amongst black women there are very few that everyone can agree on as being beautiful and that because women are very critical of their own looks and others women’s looks. However, one women that many, if not all agree on having a worldly and timeless beauty is Phylicia Rashad better known as Clair Huxtable. The only discourse that comes from her is the question  of why she is beautiful. Many women believe her beauty comes from the charter she portrayed as being a stand up women and her being just as honorable in her real life.  Some say that her beauty is purely physical and would be there if she wasn’t “good” representation of a women and then some believe its a combination of both.

And that’s the point exactly even when you agree on something being beautiful, the reasons you find it beautiful comes from your heart and your experience in life.

After reading Behold the Corpse it made me think of many other images and the discourse that it has caused. The one that stood out to me is the photo of  The lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abe Smith in Indiana in 1930

This picture caused so much discourse that song was written and inspired by the violent nature of this photo. This song was peformed by Billie Holiday and Written by Abel Meeropol. He wrote this song in protest to the extreme racism that was going and that is seen in this photo. Seeing pictures of lynching in public papers pushed him over the edge and he wrote a poem about it because the photo haunted him for days. Once that poem was published in a teachers union publication the poem was then set to music by amature and heard by a night club owner who gave it to Billie Holiday.

This just shows how a images can cause so much discourse, this imaged is still talked about and debated until this day, not to mention the song that this image inspired is known as one of the most influential songs in African-American history.

The piece that I chose is when Kanye West accused President George W. Bush of not liking black people.  I chose that piece because it will be simple to break down the Pentad of this situation.  Also, this situation caused a lot of controversy after it happened.

The Act- Was Kanye West stating that Bush does not like black people

The Scene- The reason why Kany West stated such was because of George Bush’s poor response to Hurricane Katrina and the massive amount of black men and women that it impacted negatively.

The Agent- Kanye West an opinionated, outspoken and very emotional man.

The Agency- He used the NBC  “A Concert for Hurricane Relief” as his platform.

Purpose-His Purpose was to be an advocate for what he believe most black men and women were thinking during this situation.

I know this approach is a little nontraditional, however I believe it is a perfect example. Scapegoating happens in nearly ever team sport and it influences the public opinion for example ESPN. Lets look at football for example how many times has the receiver blamed the quarterback for dropping a pass saying it was bad throw, he over threw it and then on the other hand how many times has the quarterback blamed a bad throw on the receiver? Saying the pass was right to him, and he missed it!

Both of those are example of scapegoating, its about throwing the blame somewhere else and not looking at the facts. On a daily ESPN reports forms of opinion and facts, but people watch for the opinion. Sometimes some of those opinions are influenced by the scapegoating, because they weren’t there to see it first hand and sometimes it so close you can’t clearly see who fault it was. So the reports listen to the players accounts of what happens and no player wants the loss of the team on their record so they try and find a scapegoat and persuade all the fans, reporters and coaches that it wasn’t their fault.

However what I notices is that scapegoating just goes from one person to the next, no one wants to own up if it isn’t something they did and some people don’t want to own up if it is something that they did do.

This is just a basic rundown of what my mini in class presentation will be about

I am choosing to look at a song and its social impact.

The song that I am looking at is “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye. I plan on looking at how it impacted and how it still impacts until this day.

I chose this song because of the controversy that it caused and not to mention Marvin Gaye isn’t hard on the ears.

Bobby Sands is an extremely inspirational story. The movement created by the prisoners, along with the rebellion itself, serves a deeper purpose. It mirrors the lengths that people will go in order to stay true to what they believe in. Bobby Sands endured harsh conditions, freezing and hungry, in order to prove a point. He believed that the inner good would prevail and they would eventually be able to change the world. Through the beatings, hunger, and sacrifice the men were making, he remained hopeful that better times were to come. Once Sands was granted to the ability to write, he brought forth his deepest concerns. Separated from his family, along with the country he was suffering so hard to protect, he was beginning to become lost in hopelessness. He shows the feelings of the prisoners, and touches readers through his writing. It shows how violence can change someone. Each attack and beating served it’s purpose, yet it was engraved in the minds of many the bravery that these men possessed.

A present and continuing example for the use of Pentad is the US vs. Syria and the continuous conflicts of the nearby use of chemical weapons on the civilians of the Syrian nation. The United States is sometimes seen as a leader in the world when we maintain a certain level of peace and agreement that we try to implant in the world. President Obama stated that we have a purpose which is nothing more than having a secure safe flow of energy. Moreover, the United States is viewed as the actor in the Syrian battle because of the fact that we feel it is our responsibility as one to avoid and prevent the use of weapons in factor of a mass obliteration; the weapons are mainly the tools used in the battle to endorse equality and human rights. If the battle is viewed as a “point’s finger” perspective, Syria and the rebels may be realized as the main character because of what they had opposed on their acquitted citizens. Additionally, from a scene’s perspective, it is captivating a place in a worldwide ground where equality is being dishonored.  Overall, such terms in the Pentad can’t be enduringly placed on one person because they will differ as the point of view differs. Therefore, a disaster such as the chemical weapons of Syrian has a plethora of opponents and perspectives to it, which can alternate what is going on intensely.

Bobby Sands and his friends will choose to tolerate punitive, brutalizing, disastrous, unfair, and physically unpleasant surroundings to stand up for their opinions. There were men lying bare naked and beating to a pulp on freezing cold concrete floors that were wet from urine. They had the choice to break their suffering by physical demonstrating a prison uniform to show that they were conventional to the British government. Some of the strong willed Irish men broke their vowel to continue their strike. Bobby Sands lived with indecision that he would ever be released back into the arms of his family and treasured country. There was a sense of perseverance in his writing but it required an endurance that had to come from the depth of his soul. The detachment that these prisoners must have felt was alive in the pleas of these men through the writings of Bobby Sands. He was very creative to have his written word smuggled out of their profound jail/cell and to other individuals support was their only anticipation. The men fought for dependence and were immense. They had a selected teacher in the group who instructed the younger comrades how to speak Gaelic in order for the prison guards not to understand them. There was a very small sign of submission that came from the actions proceeded on the prisoners of war by the British guards. The examples of wrongdoing, such as false charges towards the men by the guards by giving them lengthier prison sentences that were unfair. Bobby Sand’s ability to deliver his emotional appeal never hesitated. He clearly created a distinct look into the prison that concluded that the men in there were decaying away. The only regularity that he ever related to his viewers was the sounds of different kind of birds outside. His comrades and he barely allowed their disgrace to prevent them from their mission of equality. Bobby Sands petition fills me with wrath and grief all in one. The fact knowing that Bobby Sands as made a change in our world, it makes me extremely appreciative.

The recent Trayvon Martin case had many examples of guilt, mortification and scapegoating.  In July of 2013 Martin was killed by George Zimmerman during a neighborhood watch. Zimmerman accused Trayvon of being suspicious, so he called 911 to get approval to approach him. The dispatchers ordered him to stand down, but Zimmerman did otherwise. Zimmerman became the “actor” once he approached Martin and then chased him, which makes Zimmerman “guilty” for his actions on Martin’s murder. Trayvon Martin’s family was mortified to find out that their son was murdered for no proven reason. Zimmerman got away with this crime because there was not enough evidence to prove that he started the altercation between him and Martin. This “not guilty” verdict caused most of the public to be mortified. The “scapegoat” was Zimmerman’s defense accusing Martin of being a juvenile delinquent and that his actions were suspicious. They also brought up that he was suspended from school for marijuana. I believe that his background of events should not be the reason he was shot and killed by Zimmerman. However, Zimmerman and his supporters believe that Martin was a threat due to his history, which allowed him no justice after his death.