Reader

The article “Walking while black: Michael Brown, black men and white police officers” by Ishmael Sistrunk was published in the newspaper The St. Louis American.

The target readers of the text are the target audience of the newspaper: African Americans living in St. Louis, Missouri. Given that the newspaper has a website, the potential readers of the text are all Americans and other English-speaking readers.

Target readers

In the article, Ishmael Sistrunk targets African Americans, as indicated through direct address instances such as: “We also can’t afford to be too friendly with or fearful of those committing violent crimes in our community. Sound familiar?” (ll. 65-66); “But with every tragic, televised killing, it’s become more evident to those who don’t have the same experiences as you and I.” (ll. 69-70)

The writer particularly targets the African-American communities in Missouri as indicated by references to “Ferguson or North County or even St. Louis.” (l. 10)

Sistrunk directly addresses members of the African-American community, asking them to change their ima...