Rhetorical Analysis Of Stokely's Speech

Stokely Charmicheal was a black rights activist in the late 1960's along with Martin Luther King Jr, and Malcolm X. In the beginning Stokely was non-violent activist like King, however as time grew he became more radical and less interested in non-violent protest. Leaning more towards Malcom X's philosophy. As a chairman of the SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) he gave the speech Black Power in an attempt to validate his philosophy of violence to his nonviolent committee and to gain more support amongst the people. Stokely gave his speech Black Power before a demonstration.(xxxx) Within the speech we see distinct rhetorical elements. Stokely employed syllogism, and rhetorical questions, along with stunning diction to persuade his audience. Throughout the speech he appeals to logos, ethos, and pathos consistently. This paired with marginalizing all white people as racist he becomes a very powerful speaker to his predominantly black audience. Stokely deploys the use of rhetorical questions often in his speech. He does so to convince his audience his reasoning is the …show more content…
For example Stokely says " we’re not ever to be caught up in the intellectual masturbation of the question of Black Power." The power behind that sentence was the oxymoronic phrase " intellectual masturbation" as those two words don't seem to be next to each other often, especially with the definition of masturbation seeming completely unrelated to anything intellectual. But it serves to increase credibility with the author making him come off as highly educated speaker and someone important enough to listen to. This appeal to ethos shows him as a speaker with lots of credibility and that's why he even uses such words, I mean everyone knows fancy words make you sound smart. And the phrase intellectual masturbation sure is a head