Jay-Z: The Criminal Justice System Stalk Black People Like Meek Mill Summary

In “Jay-Z: The Criminal Justice System Stalks Black People Like Meek Mill”, published by The New York Times, Jay-Z persuades his audience that a change in the criminal justice system should be called for. He effectively uses a logical flow of ideas, examples, good word choice, and literary devices to achieve his goal.
Jay-Z builds his argument by employing a logical flow of ideas. He begins with a hook, generally summarizing what has happened to such a popular star. This strategy catches the reader’s attention, luring the reader to read more. Jay-Z explains how even though on the surface it, “may look like the story of yet another criminal rapper who didn’t smarten up” (2). The author states that there is much more to the story. Jay-Z explains that Meek Mill, who has been on probation for the majority of his adult life, has been stalked by the criminal justice system for unnecessary reasons. He provides information on how unnecessary jailing leads to the entire taxpaying community of Philadelphia having to pay more in order to keep Meek locked up. Then
In the third paragraph, Jay-Z uses good word choice in the second paragraph when he uses strong words with negative connotation such as “slightest infraction a justification for locking him back inside (2). This emphasizes how the criminal justice system’s pure purpose is to ruin the lives of innocent people, and even if they do the littlest thing, they will go back to jail. Using those strong words can capture the attention of concerned audience because of the negative connotations. Jay-Z uses many scenarios in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania in order to emphasize that people shouldn’t just let these injustices happen, and that they should continue to “make that vision a reality” (10). Jay-Z does not utilize any positive words, and the entire article has a looming sad and angry tone to it. This helps the reader understand that a change must be