Making the Case for Teaching Our Boys to… Bring Me Home a Black Girl Essay Example
Making the Case for Teaching Our Boys to… Bring Me Home a Black Girl Essay Example

Making the Case for Teaching Our Boys to… Bring Me Home a Black Girl Essay Example

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  • Pages: 4 (972 words)
  • Published: April 18, 2017
  • Type: Essay
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“Making The Case For Teaching Our Boys To … ‘Bring Me Home A Black Girl’” is an article on the subject of racial marriage, with the thesis that it is best for black men to marry black women rather than white.

A contributing writer for Essence, Audrey Edwards has written the article with the sole purpose of convincing her audience that black men should marry black women. Hence, the article provides a variety of reasons to fulfill its purpose with appeals to logos, ethos, and pathos to convince black mothers, black men, and all others who do not appreciate the importance of racial marriages as opposed to interracial ones.This audience may or may not be convinced by the reasons put forward by the author, however, given that the article puts down love, which is one of the strong

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est appeals to pathos, in favor of racial superiority and inferiority that are said to remain in interracial marriages, according to a senior marketing executive who offers her authoritative testimony to support the author’s belief with an appeal to the audience’s ethos.Nonetheless, the persona of the author – that of a black woman and mother – makes the article easy to understand from the perspective of a black woman who still cannot digest why she has been believed to be a part of a disadvantaged group in America. Edwards would like her stepson to marry a black woman.

She mentioned her wish to the stepson for the first time when he was only seven years of age. The article begins with a description of this event, and uses the appeal to pathos by describing the young black female

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as a “dark-skinned little cutie,” conjuring up the image of an adorable, little black girl in the mind of the audience.The audience is expected to believe in the beauty of the black female from this point on. Seeing as the article mainly concerns the author’s advice to the black males of America to marry black females rather than white, the audience is also expected to begin admiring black females from this point on, regardless of the fact that they may have found white women more attractive before. Next, the author uses analogies to explain her wish that was expressed to her son: "Bring me home a Black girl.

She compares this advice or “commandment” as she puts it, to other pieces of advice or commandments such as "Don't do drugs," "Finish school" and "Use a condom. "She also writes that her advice to her son to marry a black girl was often received by him with exasperation or mortification. This mention of emotions is useful in that the audience too may believe by this point in the article that the author is insulting a race by favoring one race over another.However, this appeal to pathos is necessary, for the remainder of the article attempts to justify the necessity of racial marriages, not just because the beautiful black woman should be noticed more by black men, but also because the authoritative testimony of a sex therapist declares that the black race may be annihilated if the black woman is refused in marriage. It is here that the author uses the appeals to logos, ethos, and pathos together to convince her audience that black men should marry

black women.She mentions that the number of black men marrying white women has increase tenfold in the last four decades.

This, according to the authoritative testimony of a sex therapist, could lead to “annihilation through integration, a weakening of the culture and economic resources of the Black community. ” Such reasons are enough as an appeal to logos. Similarly, the author appeals to pathos yet again by mentioning “annihilation” and “weakening,” two aspects of reality that strike the mind with a feeling of dread.The most powerful appeal to pathos appears in the article following the above. Edwards writes, “Indeed, it seems almost anti-self to want to mate with someone from a culture that has historically denigrated, despised and oppressed you--and continues to do so. ” This is also an appeal to logos, given that it makes a reasonable statement to reject the idea of black favoring white.

What is more, this statement appeals to the ethics of the audience, who may or may not have been among those that continue to show racist tendencies.The author also mentions “slavery” in America in the same context. According to an authoritative testimony in the article, an appeal to ethos, whites continue to feel superior to blacks because the latter were their slaves at one time. Once again, the reason why black men should marry black women instead of white is clarified through this authoritative testimony with appeals to ethos, logos and, of course, pathos. Slavery is, after all, another emotional subject.

The most powerful appeal to logos and ethos is offered by the author in the form of another authoritative testimony, that of an assistant professor of social work

at Howard University, who states, “If you look at strong cultures, like the Jews, you'll find they have a high rate of marrying within their group. That's how they remain strong. " It is from this point on that the audience finds no choice but to take the author’s arguments seriously.Support for the author’s view from the academia is definitely a strong appeal to ethos. Still, it is perhaps the disproportionate use of pathos in the article that would make Edwards’ writing fail in its purpose – that is, to convince the audience that racial marriages are the right choice for all blacks. After all, another authoritative testimony demeans the pathos of love toward the end of the article in favor of racial injustices.

Many individuals in the audience may find this argument hard to digest.

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