Frederick Douglass Persuasive Essay

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, by Frederick Douglass, is a first hand account of Douglass’s experience as a slave in seventeenth century America; how he lived, survived, and eventually escaped. The Condition of Black Life is One of Morning by Claudia Rankine is an essay written by an African American woman detailing the conditions of black life in America in the present day, and discussing acts of institutionalized racism and violence towards African American people. In The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, by employing biblical allusion, and ethos, Douglass attempts to convince his audience that slaves are human, therefore slavery should be abolished while Claudia Rankine’s The Condition of Black Life is One of Morning is crafted using pathos, and anaphora to convince the audience to actively recognize the effects of institutionalized racism in the present day in order to bring about equality. Each text is effective in it’s purpose, however whether one is more effective than the other cannot be determined because of the
It’s in our laws, in our advertisements, in our friendships, in our segregated cities, in our schools, in our Congress, in our scientific experiments, in our language, on the Internet, in our bodies no matter our race, in our communities and, perhaps most devastatingly, in our justice system” (Rankine 5). Again, the repetition of the words “in our” followed by a shared belonging or trait, emphasizes the point Rankine is trying to make; That racism is deeply imbedded in the fabric of society, and in places that people are supposed to trust to have their best interests at heart, such as schools and congress. By repeating the word our, Rankine strongly suggests that racism is everybody's problem and once again causes the reader to apply that lesson to themselves and discover what that means for