Civil Rights Comparison: Logos - Black Panthers' Ten-Point Plan

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Logos - Black Panthers' Ten-Point Plan

The Black Panthers made frequent appeals to logos in their Ten-Point plan, constantly asserting that black people were owed restitution for all of their suffering at the hands of white Americans throughout history. This is a logical argument because it is widely believed that those who commit transgressions must be brought to justice and/or repay their victims for their wrongdoing.

They first ask simply for freedom, which is a very justified request. They also plead for housing, employment, food, and justice. These are all reasonable demands because they are basic human rights and necessities. However, some of the Black Panthers' demands are extreme and unreasonable. They believed the government should repay the black communities in currency for the undeniable wrongs committed through slavery. While it makes sense that black people deserve justice for such a terrible crime, it is impossible to put a price on that crime, and it would be impractical for the US government to pay out such a price to every black person because there simply wouldn't be enough money. They demand an end to police brutality, which is fair, but they aim to achieve it by arming all black people with weapons. This is an irrational proposal because it would effectively create a black militia that could ultimately result in a nationwide race war, which would obviously be bad for everyone. Later, the Black Panthers demand the freedom of all black men in prisons and jails. This is, of course, ridiculous. While it is reasonable to assume that many black men were convicted because of their skin color, it is also undeniable that many black men did commit crimes worthy of imprisonment.

At the end of their plan, the inclusion of an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence is an outstanding appeal to logos because it uses the words of white Americans in a treasured, patriotic document to justify the Black Panthers' fight for changes in the government and in American society, even going as far as saying it is not only their right but their duty to abolish an oppressive government. Ultimately, the Black Panthers made some good appeals to logos but they were inconsistent in making logically sound arguments.

No comments:

Post a Comment

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.