Civil Rights Comparison

Friday, February 27, 2015

LOGICAL FALLACIES- Black Panther Party's Ten Point Plan

The most obvious logical fallacy that I noted after reading the Black Panther Party's Ten Point plan was the slippery slope fallacy. The slipper slope fallacy is based on the fear that once we are convinced by the argument even for just a moment, we are immediately overwhelmed by the metaphorical slippery slope and cannot stop for even a moment to consider alternative options or other viewpoints. I just believe that the demands made in the Ten Point plan were ultimately way too radical, and create a strong division between those who support the Ten Point plan and those against it, with little to no neutrality.

The goals and demands made by the Ten Point Plan were so radical at the time, that the division over the Black Panthers' ideals was quite inevitable. They used statements that demand things that even whites in America had not yet achieved, like full employment for all blacks, free health care, and exemption from military service. Also fact that the title of the guidelines that represent the ideals of the Black Panthers' has word "plan" immediately creates the connotation that these are something that will be implemented in the near future. After reading the plan, considering a possible implementation of these plans is beyond scary in the eye of the average white American in the 1960s. Then after seeing the party participating in multiple armed battles with the police, it was clear that the Black Panthers' were more than willing to take action. When the reader considers just how radical and threatening some of the statements are and the connotation of the word plan in the title it is obvious that you will become instantly against it, or passonately for it, so much so that you are willing to fight to protect these ideals; hence is why I view the arguement of the Black Panthers' as such a slippery slope.

THOMAS OUTING

1 comment:

AnonymousMarch 1, 2015 at 10:58 AM
Great post. It really went into detail about a specific fallacy which means you were able to thoroughly expand and prove your point. I like how you mentioned that slippery slope could either gain radical followers or really repel people. Overall it was made clear how radical the black panthers were.
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Critical Introduction

Mike (Intro/Ethos)

Our names are Mike, Tommy, Ian, Jack, and Noah and we are five English 101S students at the University of Maryland, College Park. We have been studying rhetoric this semester and have been slowly becoming familiar with various rhetorical appeals. Although we are not experts on rhetoric, we have enough familiarity with the appeals to expand on them. We chose the Black Panthers 10-Point Plan and a picture of Marin Luther King’s 1963 March on Washington because we felt that both of these works greatly contributed to the Civil Rights Movement through completely opposite perspectives. The Black Panthers’ 1966 “10 Point Plan” radically and aggressively depicted the wants and beliefs of the Black community, while Martin Luther King’s 1963 March on Washington addressed the Black community’s needs through eloquence, peaceful protest, and sophisticated rhetoric. The Black Panthers’ 10-Point plan was aggressive in nature, often expressing radical views. They were not necessarily bad, as many people followed the regime. Martin Luther King Jr.’s approach was obviously more peaceful and sophisticated, thus creating more of a politically correct movement.

Jack (Major argument/Stasis)

Our blog shows that the Black Panthers’ 1966 Ten Point Plan radically and aggressively depicted the wants and beliefs of the black community, while Martin Luther King’s 1963 March on Washington addressed the black community’s needs with eloquence, peaceful protest, and sophisticated rhetoric. We compare these different approaches to the Civil Rights Movement by analyzing the ethos, pathos, and logos of each of the texts. Furthermore, we contrasted the types of audiences each text targeted and the audiences with which each text was more successful. Overall our blog analyzes and compares the effectiveness of differing approaches used by MLK and the Black Panthers.

Tommy (Kairos)

The issues represented by the texts are still very relevant today, especially considering the events of the past year such as the riots caused by the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and other similar cases. Racially charged protests are not simply a thing of the past. Determining which method of protest, whether it be a more aggressive and assertive stance of the Black Panther Party or the hope-filled non-violent stance of Dr. King, still remains a long unanswered question. Ultimately the answer probably lies in some happy medium between the two. However, we leave it up to the readers to decide which method has been more historically successful, and which approach would work better on the readers themselves.

Noah (Logos)

Our blog begins with analyses of the rhetorical situations of our texts and the major rhetorical arguments in each. We did this to introduce the texts, their backgrounds and the messages they convey to the audience. We then wrote about the rhetorical appeals used in each text to show how the authors intended to impart their arguments. Finally, we analyzed the audience that each text was designed for and the visual elements of each text. We used the analysis of the audience to show how each text was designed to target them. Overall, we introduced the texts and why they were important to get readers interested and engaged in our topic. Then we went into detail about the texts and the methods behind their reasoning and arguments to give readers insight about the texts. Lastly, we showed how the audience and visual elements of the texts further contributed to their purposes and show the impact of each text.

Ian (Pathos)

Although our blog focused on all of the appeals, we found that Dr. King and the Black Panthers especially appealed to the Pathos of their audiences. We not only wanted to examine the pathos of each text individually, but how they related to each other in a time of great social turmoil. We wanted to convey that the March on Washington was a sort of emotional high water mark of the civil rights movement; more progress towards equality was made in the coming years, but not quite to the level of expectations set in 1963. This sense of a letdown with the work of Dr. King was a strong influence in the creation of the Black Panthers. Tired of waiting, he Panthers worked to improve the lives of blacks directly rather than working for racial equality. The causation between the failures of Dr. King and the birth of the Black Panthers, especially in relation to their respective appeals to pathos, was very important, and we tried to highlight it in our blog.