In November 1991, IDG books published what came to be known as the largest expository body of work in our contemporary time, the Dummies Series. The series, now nearly thirty years old and having sold millions of copies across multiple continents has become the patriarch of what we consider to be a shining example of expository writing is in today’s time. The series has served as a reference for many people on a variety of topics ranging from personal finance to dating. Just as in the Dummies series, the works examined in class utilize the expository and argumentative rhetorical strategy to provide reference to how black men have developed throughout time in American society. Through employing expository and argumentative rhetorical strategy,
…show more content…
He his work elucidates on the sexist and classist ideologies that movement leaders such as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X possessed as they were leading “intersectional and equitable” movements for all people. Here, cone utilizes the argumentative rhetorical strategy to posit a very particular point regarding how we reflect upon laudable figures within history. With this, Cone advances the notion that true understanding of an individual does not come through selective narratives, but rather through true transparency. Cone uses the modality of the protest narrative to critique these leaders, and effectively create a true representation of what it meant to be a black man during the 1960s. Notwithstanding political oppression, it is clear that black men still possessed and maintained a certain level of privilege within the intercultural communities in which they resided. For example, many women who were integral to the civil rights movement like Coretta Scott King and Fannie Lou Hamer were constantly placed under erasure solely because of their gender. For Cone, his critique of black male privilege and consequently black masculinity particularly assists in clearing up the intersection between being black and male within a traditionally patriarchal context which privileges those who are …show more content…
While Cone’s work primarily gives us an understanding of what it means to be black in context of systems of oppression such as sexism and classism, Staples draws a reference point that primarily focuses on the interaction of being black and male in a larger societal construct. Staples utilizes the expository narrative mode to effectively disseminate a catharsis of why preconceived notions are inherently problematic for all parties involved. In this, Staples uses the “protest narrative” to create a dichotomy between those with whom he claims have transgressed him and himself in order to create a clearer comparative standpoint from which his audience can draw from. In doing so, Staples, just like Cone, creates a clear reference point of understanding how black people and subsequently black men are judged and policed in communal spaces. Here, he recognizes the effect of black masculinity not only on black men themselves, but the effect it has on others as well. Particularly illustrative of this fact is found at the end of Staples’s work where he uses the whistling of a Vivaldi score to disarm those who may be tense or otherwise suspicious of him when he enters certain spaces. In reflecting on the experience of black men in America, Staples’s work echo’s the challenge of accommodation that all African-Americans experience, male or
He his work elucidates on the sexist and classist ideologies that movement leaders such as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X possessed as they were leading “intersectional and equitable” movements for all people. Here, cone utilizes the argumentative rhetorical strategy to posit a very particular point regarding how we reflect upon laudable figures within history. With this, Cone advances the notion that true understanding of an individual does not come through selective narratives, but rather through true transparency. Cone uses the modality of the protest narrative to critique these leaders, and effectively create a true representation of what it meant to be a black man during the 1960s. Notwithstanding political oppression, it is clear that black men still possessed and maintained a certain level of privilege within the intercultural communities in which they resided. For example, many women who were integral to the civil rights movement like Coretta Scott King and Fannie Lou Hamer were constantly placed under erasure solely because of their gender. For Cone, his critique of black male privilege and consequently black masculinity particularly assists in clearing up the intersection between being black and male within a traditionally patriarchal context which privileges those who are …show more content…
While Cone’s work primarily gives us an understanding of what it means to be black in context of systems of oppression such as sexism and classism, Staples draws a reference point that primarily focuses on the interaction of being black and male in a larger societal construct. Staples utilizes the expository narrative mode to effectively disseminate a catharsis of why preconceived notions are inherently problematic for all parties involved. In this, Staples uses the “protest narrative” to create a dichotomy between those with whom he claims have transgressed him and himself in order to create a clearer comparative standpoint from which his audience can draw from. In doing so, Staples, just like Cone, creates a clear reference point of understanding how black people and subsequently black men are judged and policed in communal spaces. Here, he recognizes the effect of black masculinity not only on black men themselves, but the effect it has on others as well. Particularly illustrative of this fact is found at the end of Staples’s work where he uses the whistling of a Vivaldi score to disarm those who may be tense or otherwise suspicious of him when he enters certain spaces. In reflecting on the experience of black men in America, Staples’s work echo’s the challenge of accommodation that all African-Americans experience, male or