Similar to his use of ethos, Malcolm X also applied logos
throughout the entirety of his speech on police brutality. By appealing to the
audience’s logic, Malcolm X was able to further create a strong argument that
showed how the problem of police brutality in African American communities was
an extremely important issue that needed to be fixed. According to Malcolm X,
the police had convinced the white public that African Americans were
criminals. In a sense, the police had also applied logos to the general
population by making them believe that this statement was a valid truth. This
allowed the police to “question, brutalize, and murder unarmed innocent negroes…
and the white public was gullible enough to back them up.” Thus, the black
communities of the time had basically become police states, and Malcolm X
looked to expose the wrongdoings of the legal system by reciting his own logos
to the nation. In his speech, he debunked this believed “truth” and used logic
to show how the white public had been fooled by the police for too long. This
is a strong use of logos that was able to convince many people that a change
needed to occur, but like I stated in my previous post, this issue still needs
to be fought for today.
- Parker Knott
I am glad that you brought up the fact the police had also used the logos appeal to persuade the white public to believe that what they were saying was true. But it is important to point out that they did not necessarily used logos with facts, the police just said whatever was convenient for them,somehow distorting the truth. That way, their wrong doings would be justify in the eye of the white audience. I also agree with you that this issue still needs to be addressed today. In my opinion, everything Malcolm X said during his speech (word for word) applies to today's situation where black man get killed by the police and the media tries to cover up for the police s lot of the tme.
ReplyDeleteI like that you pointed out the use of logos on both sides of the issue. Malcolm X's use of this technique helped bring police brutality into the radar as a real problem that must be changed.
ReplyDeleteBringing up logos on both sides of the issue was very informative. I never thought of the fact that police officers used logic to convince white people that African Americans were criminals. However, through select evidence, it could come across that way. For example, when it comes to the death penalty, blacks are more likely to be sentenced for the same crime as a white.
ReplyDeleteI agree that using an appeal to logos was a crucial way in which Malcolm X appealed to the American people for equality. I also think your point at the end that this is an ongoing issue is so important because racial inequality still unfortunately plagues our nation today and is something that we still must fight against.
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