Analysis

This analysis of the article “Walking while black: Michael Brown, black men and white police officers” by Ishmael Sistrunk is based on the rhetorical pentagram.

In what follows, we will discuss the topics of the article – racial prejudice and violence – looking at how the writer explores them in connection with the Ferguson unrest.

We will present the writer of the article, Ishmael Sistrunk, focusing on the image he conveys about himself in the text through personal stories.

We will consider the potential reader of the text, looking at where the article was published and the people Ishmael Sistrunk targets directly in the text.

We will examine the language of the article, taking into account the choice of words, the tone and the use of argumentative and linguistic devices like allusion, antithesis, imagery, irony, repetition, rhetorical questions, and forms of appeal.

We will explore the circumstances when the article was written, looking at the shooting of Michael Brown and the following riots in Ferguson, Missouri.

We will also discuss the writer’s intention with the article which includes criticizing the police and exposing their racial bias but also criticizing the African-American community and encouraging more solidarity in American society.

You can read the full analysis in the next pages.