Discrimination towards us is never over: many fellow African-Americans tell themselves and others every single day. One father/author, Ta-Nehisi Coates, published “Letter to my son” on July 4th, 2015 on The Atlantic, and he is writing a letter to his son discussing the discrimination they went through years prior and now. Coates builds his credibility by using personal experiences and facts, citing facts and historical evidence and applying emotional appeals to his letter and ends with a strong statement towards his son.
In his letter, Coates first begins to set the letter by setting the scene from his news interview at a very popular station, and becomes disappointed at the fact that the people that believed they were white had this hope. He continues to write to his son about all the injustices that himself and other african americans had to endure injustices towards them. He brings up the murders of the african americans, slavery and the cruel injustice that they suffered through the years. In the end of his letter, he apologizes to his son for everything that he will possibly endure in his lifetime and writes him “The difference is that you do not have the privilege of living in ignorance of this essential fact.” letting him know that you can live in this life and ignore the issue because he has know about it for years.
Throughout his letter, Coates uses many strong sources that strengthen his credibility and address his ethos. These sources include the murders of the young african-americans, slavery, Jim Crow segregation laws, police brutality and even his own experiences of his childhood. This all shows that Coates does know what he is talking about, and uses historical evidence to help him support his claim. Besides all the evidence he uses, he brings up his personal experiences and others personal experiences to not only support the issue, but also to bring emotion (pathos) into it, which also shows the personal stake in and first hand experience with the situation.
Coates does use ethos to help make his point valid throughout the piece, in which he uses all the injustices brought upon the “black bodies”, specifically American history. He brings up slavery numerous of time throughout the letter to show all the suffering that they endured. He also brings up the segregation laws such as Jim Crow, which lasted for nearly a century and caused many outbreaks and riots, including one of the most famous figures, Rosa Parks. Even though Coates does not mention Rosa Parks, he does imply what went on during those times. He tries to tell his son that the United States has a well known legacy for abusing those of color whether it be verbally or physically. This all goes from what happens in real life from the use of slavery back to 1869 to the 21st century where we have white supremacy and much more racial profiling. These pieces of information help support his claim that we have a huge problem of race relations to those who are not white.
Along with his ethos appeals, Coates also uses pathos to connect with his son. Throughout the entire piece, he uses strong emotions to show all the injustices that he has endured and what his son will potentially endure too. The strongest point of his letter was his conclusion towards his son where he apologizes for everything we will come to face in the near future. The main thing he wants his son to“live an honorable and sane life.” while growing up in this cruel world. His goal is to make not only his son, but the reader to feel sympathy of those of color. He uses words like, “rage”, “cruel”, “struggle”, “ashamed” (Coates). All of these words show the negative emotions towards them, which allows the reader to sympathize with people of color, specifically african americans, who have been discriminated.
To continue, Coates last two paragraphs bring so much emotion and truth which allows for his level of effectiveness to sky rocket. Even though this piece was meant for his son, his whole book allows us to open our eyes to our American history of discrimination of those who are colored. Coates writing about this specific topic and publishing in a book allowed numerous of people to realize the horrible history of the United States and how it came to be. How we are know more for such horrific events than actual good things.
To conclude, Coates begins with a strong opening and ends with an even stronger conclusion that not only will impact his son but have an impact on others. Coates used numerous of rhetorical strategies in this letter, specifically ethos, pathos and uses facts to support what he is trying to say. Readers can see where the problem exist and where it truly affects the people.