DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Abstract: This collaborative essay, written by Michelle Sencion and Juan Guzman explores the topic of racial discrimination against black men in America. The rhetorical analysis of a Melissa Harris-Perry video titled, "Melissa Harris-Perry: The Deaths of Black Men in America", is used to explore the role that Harris-Perry chooses to play concerning the issue.

 

The murder of Michael Brown was one of the most controversial events we had seen in a long time. It brought up the topics of race and equality back into the mainstream radar. Social media played a pivotal role in ensuring that the conversation stayed alive. As a result of the death of Michael Brown, the citizens of Ferguson, Missouri took to the streets to protest their indignation at the heinous crime performed by a police officer. The police reacted in a less than gentle manner and literally blocked media outlets from reporting on the scene. The murder of Michael Brown at the hands of police officer Darren Wilson opened up once again the discussion of race. It soon became apparent that there were serious social and racial issues that had been ignored or glossed over for too long.

 

Melissa Harris-Perry is a woman of many talents. She is a writer, a television hots, and a political commentator, mainly focusing on social issues within the African American community. She is well known for hosting her own show “Melissa Harris-Perry” on MSNBC. Her focus on the African American community mostly deals with the fight on social justice. For example, she wrote a book on the struggles that African American women face in regards to the harmful stereotypes that are put in their way when planning to become a politician titled Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America. Her concern on the fight for social justice is seen through one of her most impactful segments, where she acknowledges the murders of numerous black men by the police force. Through the use of different means, we are able to analyze the way that Melissa Harris-Perry chooses to address the issue and convey an impactful message to her audience.

 

 "Melissa Harris-Perry: The Deaths of Black Men in America"

In this video, Harris-Perry named some of the many black men murdered by law enforcement officials, she also brought up the infamous Dred Scott v. Sanford case of 1857. Dred Scott sued for his freedom during a time where owning a colored slave was normalcy in the United States. The case reached the Supreme Court which resulted in one of the most controversial decisions in American history. Chief Justice Thomas Tenney ruled that Scott was not allowed to sue because he was a black man. He went on to say that the phrase “All men are created equal” was not drafted with the black men in mind. The actual opinion of the court did not hesitate to degrade African Americans and basically state that they had no right as citizens of the United States, therefore their rights did not need to be acknowledged. “No rights which the white man was bound to respect,” was one of the quotes from Tenny’s decision, it was this quote that Harris-Perry repeated over and over at end of the video. The use of repetition is meant to remind the audience that just like Dred Scott’s rights were not respected, the rights of the previously mentioned black men were not respected. It is placed at the end of the segment because it is meant to cause a lasting impact as the last words Harris-Perry says. It is meant to enforce the idea that even though more than one hundred fifty years have passed since the Dred Scott v. Sanford case, there is still a lack of respect for the lives of people of color living in the United States.

 

During this segment, Melissa Harris-Perry discusses the history of police violence against black men by going through a decade of victims who were murdered by law enforcement. Harris-Perry names people such as Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, Michael Brown, Jonathan Ferrell, Eric Garner (pictured below) as well as the dates and cities they were killed. Harris-Perry extended on the fact that these were not the only black men killed by police, but just a few of the hundreds. As she shared these individuals information, she also stressed the point that all these individuals were “unarmed’. Harris-Perry also portrayed the men differently by showing non-offensive images of them. When the media portrays black men who have been victims of police violence, they display less than appealing pictures of said individuals. This in turn produces a negative image in the viewer’s mind. Harris-Perry used positive images depicting the victims as non-threatening for example, Sean Bell’s picture with his family and Eric Garner with his children. By using these images and by stating they were all unarmed, Harris-Perry depicts these men as non-threatening individuals who were not able to defend themselves in the face of police violence.

 

Melissa Harris-Perry portrays herself as a very serious and professional woman. By wearing a black dress and using a somber tone, she allows the audience to infer the relation of her black dress to the grief that was felt at the loss of these men’s lives. Her credibility as a writer, a television hots, and political commentator, gives the audience a sense of comfort to know that she is knowledgeable on the topic. She uses hard facts that may or may not shock the audience, in order to support her opposition to racial discrimination. Harris-Perry states that “white” police officers have killed a black person twice a week between the years of 2006 and 2012. It is facts like these, that offer the audience a chance to imagine the damage caused by this social issue.

 

Just three minutes of sophisticated wording allowed Melissa Harris-Perry on her video “The Deaths of Black Men in America,” to give a short powerful speech on the deaths of African Americans. The deaths of these men, which Harris-Perry announces in the video, and the hundreds of other African Americans whom have been killed by police forces has become a controversial issue. Harris-Perry argues that discrimination towards African Americans has been an ongoing issue for over two hundred years. Supporters of the Declaration of Independence such as Thomas Tenney stated that the document was not intended for black people; they were not to be considered Americans. Harris-Perry elaborates on the fact that discrimination and racism towards Blacks continues to be seen in today’s society and as a problem that justice doesn’t seem to be serving.  Throughout the whole clip, the way that Harris-Perry portrays herself, with her body language, her tone of voice, her use of words and the images she shows, really allows the audience to take into consideration the severity of this problem. Not only is Harris-Perry trying to gain the support of African Americans to fight for justice, but also tries to reach out to the whole American community that we must come as one community for our brothers and sisters. As our founding fathers once said, “All men are created equal,” clearly states that all men are created equal and the black community should not be excluded from that statement. Our pigment color should not define us but rather what lies behind it. Whether your white or black, justice should be serve for all. After all we do live in a free country and where the rights of whomever should bound to be respected.

 

 

References

Harris-Perry, M. (2014, August 18). The deaths of black men in america. Retrieved February 20, 2015 from, 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bzzoC1Y8I4

 






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