The Reality of Life

In Rhetoric this unit, I learned about rhetorical artwork. I analyzed how a piece of artwork can challenge the status quo and provoke someone to think a certain way. For a homework assignment I analyzed the rhetorical devices of the song, Patience by Nas and Damian Marley. The message of the song is that humans must come together and make a difference in the world despite our differences and beliefs. For my 3rd action project, I had to choose a political topic I cared about and create a piece of artwork that unites people using rhetorical elements such as logos, pathos and ethos. I also started to make a song that depicted the same message, white privilege.

The topic i’ve decided to research about is white privilege. White privilege is having societal advantages that is beneficial to whites systematically,socially and economically. White privilege demeans the lives of blacks and minorities in America, for example black kids are 10 times more likely to be arrested for possession of marijuana than whites, even though white children are more likely to abuse drugs. This data exemplifies white privilege by showing that black males are stereotyped as criminals and will be stopped because of it. I decided to create a collage that depicts how white people benefit from white privilege and yet decide not to acknowledge it. I wanted to do white privilege, specifically white people recognizing their privilege.

The piece I created is called the Reality of Life, inspired by the board game Life,I decided to make a board game layout that displays how white privilege works through advancements. I used the life game title to metaphorically present the reality of how white and blacks live everyday. On the spaces there are spots that benefit the white guy(which would represent white privilege). This allows him to be much further ahead then the black guy in the game. There are more spaces that will negatively affect the black guy, that represents how hard it is for blacks to succeed at life with an oppressive system working against you. The Reality of Life unites people by accepting that white privilege is an issue that only benefits people who are white or look white. Reality of Life is an attempt to unite the black and white community by showing we all have to make it through life, but show that whites have more advantages because of their privileges.

The Reality of Life uses logos, as in facts or statistic. It also uses pathos, an appeal to emotion. There is an appeal to logos because the spaces provide facts that show how white privilege benefits only white people and demeans blacks and minorities. An example of logos in the Reality of Life is that there are higher wages for white males .Whites get paid a median of $21 per hour,while black or minority men make around $14 or $15 . Another example of logos I included was Jim Crow law. Jim crow law were laws that began in 1890, and started with the “separate but equal” way of life for African Americans. There were laws that enforced racial segregation,specifically in public places such as school, public bathrooms, threatres and neighborhoods. There is also a use of pathos in my art piece, by showing the hardships of African Americans and comparing their hardship to someone who is white life. My audience for this piece are white people who don’t recognize their privilege and ignore it because they don’t physically experience it. But this piece challenges that idea by using logos and showing that there are advantages that come with being born white. While someone black is born with years of oppression starting with their ancestors experiencing slavery to them experiencing police brutality.

The Reality of Life: