Jesse Peterson Rhetorical Analysis

In this essay, I will be analyzing an interview between Dr. Brown and Reverenced Jesse Lee Peterson. The topic of discussion in this interview is that racism does not exist in America. Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson is a Black Christian leader and is very active in media outlets giving his views of certain matters. In this interview, he gives his opinion about how while he believes that social injustice does exist, but it isn’t skin color or socio-economic status that create them, but they are self-imposed. In this essay, the forms of rhetoric in this speech will be discussed, including the five cannons of rhetoric and the modes of persuasion.
Cicero developed the five cannons of Rhetoric in speech which are invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. In this interview, his invention was …show more content…
The ethos, or credibility he uses is that he is a Black Christian leader who was around at the time when there were Jim Crow laws were still instated. He uses his position of power along with his lifelong experiences in order to validate his word. The logos that Reverend Peterson uses is controversial but makes sense. He states that Black Americans put it on themselves by not educating their youth how to interact with police officers and also states that Black Americans allow people that are delinquents to reside in their neighborhoods. There is however, a lack of pathos in this interview. Reverend Peterson fails to appeal to the speaker’s emotions and limits his rhetorical devices to ethos and pathos. Reverend Peterson uses his childhood growing up in the South while Jim Crow laws were in place as his element of story. He talks about how he was raised to treat someone by how they act and not necessarily the color of their skin. The element of story and his use of rhetoric in his interview builds a strong case for his views on the causes for social