A Rhetorical Analysis Of Majora Carter's Speech

Majora Carter starts off her speech by directly addressing her primary audience who she proclaims is at the conference because they have heard about sustainable development and how it can correspond to “save us from ourselves.” We can infer that she is referring to the primary audience due in part by knowing that the primary audience are those who receive the speech directly from the source and were present during her presentation. Her secondary audience would include people like myself who have viewed her speech through TED’s website or other any other sources. We can infer this as such because secondary audiences include anyone who “indirectly” views or hears a speech.
Carter starts off her speech by presenting a story about what led her …show more content…
She relates the fact that in the late 40s South Bronx neighborhoods where getting filled with whites and discrimination against blacks and possibly other minorities was prevalent with the use of red-lining by banks and the idea that landlords developed that burning down their buildings would be a more profitable advantage. With short notices to the residents this popular trend Cater says left 600,000 people displaced. Moreover, Carter makes the point that this withdraw that started in the 1960s is what made way for the issue the followed from then and that she was currently dealing with at large.
Carter then uses the strategy of a circular close by referring again to the story she began with when she first presented the speech. She suggested that the river which her dog led her to that became the first water front park in the South Bronx in more than 60 years led to what she called a “Greenway movement.” She then went on to describe the other initiatives and solutions that developed from that before urging others to help her by joining the cause and continue to fight for changes that help promote environmental justice and sustainability in communities like her