A brief recognition and analysis on the ethos (ethics), pathos (emotions), and kairos (moment in time). This essay focuses on a specific work done by civil rights activists Malcolm X and expresses how my own pathos was affected by being a member of the group that Malcolm X demonizes.
Hypocritical Analysis
WR 101, Section 4
Date Due: 14 Oct. 2016
Date Sub.: 14 Oc. 2016
Paper No. 2
Help Received: One-on-one conference with professor, Writing for Writers
Kameron Warlitner
Malcolm X’s works on the struggles of African Americans are well known for the amount of pathos, or emotion, involved in them. It is understandable for him to have his own strong, personal opinions of how difficult life has been for African Americans with the amount of hardship that they have had to experience not only during the civil rights movement, but throughout the course of slavery as well. Even he himself has experienced prejudice, becoming imprisoned on more than one occasion due to his activities as both a hustler and a civil rights activist on the streets. It can be understood while reading some of X’s pieces that he is very set in his beliefs, and with that trait comes a very stern dislike for those who are either against his beliefs or do not fully understand them. In his piece Learning to Read, there was some expressions of pathos that I, as a white reader, found rather offensive to the context it was in. The negative pathos not only drew my attention away from his argument, but convinced me that a certain audience of his was being called out: whites. On the other hand, it appeared that while he singled out whites, he also seemed to twist logical situations into mechanisms to create pride in the black readers that may be reading his piece.
X plants a kairotic moment into his writing, explaining how a teacher had made a racist joke against black people. [1] It is obvious of how this could offend X, as he goes on to explain how the history of blacks has always been suppressed, and how that realization had struck him in such a way. This is one example he uses in order to reinforce his case of African Americans being oppressed, however, he quickly allows his own pathos to influence his logos. He goes on to explain that in no way can you create a black man from a white man due to genetics. He directly states: “if you started with a black man, a white man could be produced; but starting with a white man, you never could produce a black man…” Although this may be true, he uses his personal hatred towards whites in order to make this conclusion. He uses his own pathos and pride towards being an African American that he came to the conclusion that if the black man came first then the black man must better because of that fact. Truly, since the white gene is indeed recessive, you could not create a black man through a white man, however, this is not the way he is explaining it. As a white person reading this piece, although I did not feel personally offended by this comment, I did have a feeling of being a copycat in a way, and that just because a prominent gene of mine is recessive, it made me feel like I was not as pure as blacks.
X also goes onto explain that “there is but one original man.” At first, I was confused to what his logos actually was behind said statement and how he came to that conclusion. I later realized that X was referring to his own race, and coming to the conclusion that since Africans were first, then everything that came afterward is a copycat and will never be able to obtain the title of being the first. I also perceived it as X placing blacks on a pedestal, meaning that every other race, due to the fact that we have all directly evolved from Africans, were inferior because of this fact. Although the statement of blacks being first in indeed true, I do not receive it as a simple fact that is being thrown out into the passage. It caused my own pathos to shift to a more upset, offended tone due to the fact that X was taking a well-known fact and using his negative ethos towards whites to twist this fact into a statement that fit his argument.
X, throughout this entire piece, allows his own pathos to strongly influence his text. While it does add value to the text due to the intense emotion, it also causes it to lose its credit as some points. Throughout the piece, he does not seem to be going off on a rant. To me, he appears to target whites for previous crimes that they have committed not only against blacks but other people such as the Chinese. The main topic being slavery, X describes as “the world’s most monstrous crime.”[2] I will agree that African slavery was a tremendously terrible period in American history, however, I feel as though X is calling out whites for what they have done to his people in the past. As a white person reading the specific passage, although I did not participate in any form of slavery, I felt as though I was being called out just because the whites before me had committed this crime. It is obvious how this has effected X and his views on whites, but it causes me to feel unwelcome while reading the piece. I also found that since I was the accused, it did not matter what I thought about it, and since other whites before me had committed the “most monstrous crime” in history, I was directly responsible in some way. It caused the following of the piece to be very difficult. The thing that stirred around in my mind the most was the concept of why such a thing was being brought up when it had ended almost one-hundred years prior, and how could the emotion from that event trickle down into the generations that came after and manifest itself again in the 1960’s? Questioning whether or not his logos was rational or not while attempting to refrain from feeling as though my race was set in a spotlight caused me to dislike the reading in a way. I don’t believe that anyone truly appreciates being called out for something that they have done, let alone for something that they had done a long time ago. This is different. This is X pointing out the misbehavior of fellow whites who I have no connection with, yet he is still able to trigger ethos in me. The way he describes it, it appears that whites are, and have always been, the worst threat to the rest of humanity as well as it’s freedoms.
While pointing out the many crimes of whites, X does not mince words when it comes to how he feels. As he continued his rant, one phrase stuck out to me specifically. He states that throughout history “white people have acted as devils.”[3] The reason why is stuck out to me so clearly was due to the fact that the statement, to me, was propaganda in a way. It seemed to pin whites as the “bad guy”, causing anyone who reads this piece and isn’t white to think the exact same thing. To be compared to the devil, obviously, would not appealing to anyone, but it seems that when he compares white people to the devil, he isn’t actually talking about Caucasian whites, he talks about everyone that isn’t African.
I found it hard to grasp this kind of logos; pooling everyone else because they are not the same color as you are and ridiculing them on their past transgressions. X also explains white’s role in the Opium Wars, and how we essentially ruined foreign policy with China. Once again, I felt responsible to something that I had had no participation in, and once again, I felt as though I was being singled out as a white reader. It was obvious at how much Malcom hates whites, and his pathos is not only directly transmitted through his writing, but it is also well received by its readers.
I will agree, Malcolm X does have adequate points as well as substantial research to back up his claims. However, the feeling of simple, bitter hatred can be clearly understood. At some points, I questioned whether I should continue reading due to the facts that were piling up against me, and how he seemed to chop whites down, little by little, until it appeared as though we were in fact the most cancerous race. Also, I felt as though no matter what type of opinion I had, no matter what has changed, or no matter what is done by whites in the future, the wounds of what has already happened will never heal. I also feel now that because I am white, I have an incredible burden that I should be carrying due to what my ancestors have done to others. I also feel, after reading his piece, that I am, in a way, naturally evil because I am white, and that it seems to be a pattern and an instinct for whites to take advantage of others.
[1] Pg. 122 Malcolm X, Learning to Read
[2] Pg. 123 p. 26 Malcom X, Learning to Read
[3] Pg. 124 p. 28 Malcolm X, Learning to Read