Rhetorical devices

The article “Walking while black: Michael Brown, black men and white police officers” by Ishmael Sistrunk includes several rhetorical devices to make the text more appealing to readers.

Allusions and direct references

An allusion is an indirect reference to a person, situation, historical event, or media. Its purpose is to create associations for the readers and engage them with the topics of the article.

Sistrunk makes a direct reference slavery to remind readers that African Americans have a long history of being discriminated against: “Though slavery ended nearly 150 years ago” (l. 10)

The writer mentions “the election and re-election of our first black president” (l. 12) alluding to Barack Obama. His allusion is meant to show that despite Obama’s election, racial tensions are still an important issue in the US.

The mention of “Trayvon Martin” (l. 57) is an allusion to another shooting of an unarmed African American in 2012 by a neighborhood watchman who found him suspicious.

Sistrunk also includes a series of direct references in the text. For example, he makes a direct reference to slavery to remind readers that African Americans have a long history of being discriminated against: “Though slavery ended nearly 150 years ago” (l. 10)

At another point in the text, Sistrunk refers directly to the ‘Stop and Frisk’ practice – which refers to a police practice of detaining, questioning, and searching civilians who appear to be suspicious: “practiced ‘Stop and Frisk’ well before it was officially enacted in the boroughs of New York.” (l. 19). Here, the writer also makes an allusion to the fact that African Americans were subject to ‘Stop and Frisk’ more often than white people, which shows the inherent racial bias of the police.

The writer also refers directly to two types of police discrimination against African Americans: “Driving While Black (DWB) is real. For Brown, so was Walking While Black.” (l. 23). Driving While Black refers to the fact that African Americans are pulled over by the police more often and is thus an allusion t...