Racial Discrimination

Discrimination can come in a all forms but one form of discrimination that negatively effects people of color and those who are of the oppressed is racial discrimination. We can describe discrimination as a unjust treatment or a prejudicial treatment based on people’s identity such as sex, age and race. The type or form of discrimination that I will be focusing in on is racial discrimination. Racial discrimination is treating a person differently and unjust because of their race. Racial discrimination is a problem that we have be dealing with all throughout history and it is still a problem in today’s society. With racial discrimination still being a problematic event it also prevents society from achieving the goal of equality. I will provide various sources that indicate the way racial discrimination has impacted society and how specific races have been negatively effected by racial discrimination. To demonstrate the mentality of a minority under the fear of racial discrimination is effected. Due to racial discrimination, the oppressed individual has to work a lot harder than most just to be able to compete and be at the level of a race that isn’t being discriminated against. Racial discrimination can also be subtle and represented in areas we won’t even expect it to be in so we often end up over looking it. When and where racial discrimination occurs should not matter because it should not occur in the first place. As a way to fight and end racial discrimination people have developed movements and protests. For instance, the Black Lives Matter movement not only uplifts and acknowledge African Americans as an oppressed race but it also stands for ending racial discrimination. Also we have to understand that the ending of racial discrimination will not happen immediately a change like that takes time. Nevertheless with perseverance and with everyone speaking out against racial discrimination it will eventually come to an end.

Source 1: Magazine Article

The rhetorical situation for the magazine article How Black Cafe Owners Are Responding to Starbucks’s ‘Racial Bias’ Shutdown by Clint Rainey is that they are standing up against the racial bias in Starbucks by shutting down and closing Starbucks. In addition the shut down and closing of Starbucks is a way for black owned coffee businesses to shine and receive some attention. Although Starbucks is a monopoly and other cafe business owners are not and struggle to compete with the overwhelming Starbucks company, the shutdown is only a part of fighting against the racial discrimination problem. The other aspect is that small black run cafe businesses can take this shutdown as an opportunity to level the playing field and at least be able to compete with Starbucks. Lastly to address the rhetorical situation clearly, since Starbucks is a company run by white and is a company that dominates other small black run coffee shops such as Shoppe Black, this shutdown provides an outlet for another angle to eradicate racial discrimination along with white superiority as well. . This is a form of protest because by taking away Starbucks it forces people to speak up and gain knowledge on the racial bias in Starbucks. 

The author Clint Rainey is a contributing writer for the New York magazine who also developed articles for the Huff Post, Bloomberg News and other news article companies. This demonstrates his credibility as an author. The audience he is speaking to are two different types of audiences. The first audience is those who go and purchase coffee at Starbucks. They are now informed about the occurrence and racial bias in the company and in the Starbucks workplace. The second audience is people who had no idea that Starbucks is racist or has workers with racial bias mentality. The magazine article states “A group of black cafe owners in Philly meanwhile is holding a round table discussion today to stress how inclusivity and racial justice has been core parts of the business models for years”. This discussion exposes Starbucks and lets the public know the racial bias in their company. The magazine article also states “Sites that promote black-run small businesses like Shoppe Black have curated lengthy lists of alternatives for the next time you feel the need for some Starbucks”.  The quote supports the claim of influencing the audience that Starbucks is a company that’s racist because the way Starbucks is run causes other black financial coffee businesses to be stagnant and not grow as a business because of Starbucks racial bias system. 

The tone and purpose of this magazine article is informative and it is meant to inform those about the racial bias training Starbucks holds. An example of tone in reference to the article it states “Shoppe Black’s list — which has now been shared 180,000 times — encompasses 47 businesses nationwide and commenters have added dozens, maybe hundreds, more”. This is an example of an informative tone because it is providing statistics and numerical values to inform the reader of numerical results and gains that black cafe businesses experience with Starbucks shut down. They may have black cafe owners but nevertheless the training of racial bias needs to stop and come to end in the Starbucks company.

Source 2: Newspaper article

The rhetorical situation for the newspaper article is that the ending of racial discrimination and road to change is a process and will not happen overnight. The article’s rhetorical situation is basically stating that we have to handle the problem of racism little by little and that starts with speaking up. The first step is developing a movement which has already been achieved and this movement is called the Black Lives Matter Movement. To demonstrate the article states “ Johnson says the Black Lives Matter movement has made people “wake up” But he believes the progress made in 2020 is only the start”.This quote indicates that creating the movement is the first step towards change however how we use this movement to orchestrate change is the real process. 

The newspaper has two types of audience that it is targeting. The first audience are those who are a part of the Black Lives Movement. The newspaper article persuades then that just having the movement is the beginning and the that we need to continue to push for change by speaking up on racial injustice and racial discrimination to prevent any setbacks as we push to end racism. He is also speaking out to those who are against racial discrimination. “We have to be conscious of that and we cannot get frustrated. And we cannot expect like everything else that we have or we experience these days, with the advancement of technology and all of the innovation, where everything that we want we get immediately. This is not going to happen that way.” This quote demonstrates that Johnson is telling the audience that process in ending racial discrimination will take time and he says this because people of color who are effected by racial discrimination are eager for it to come to an end so that they can experience equality and justice. In addition, he is stating this because even though we have advanced in technology and have enforced some type of change towards ending racial discrimination there is still more work to do.

The tone and purpose of this article was to persuade the audience and motivate them to continue to push for racial equality. The tone of the article is uplifting and encouraging and the author uses this tone to persuade the audience. For instance the newspaper article states “But he believes the progress made in 2020 “is only the start”.We are seeing progress,” the 53-year-old former sprinter told BBC Radio 5 Live. “But that progress, and we have to be very careful with the word progress, this is progress in what will be a generational fight”. His tone is encouraging because he uses words such as progress this provides a positive connotation for the audience and provides hope that the goal of ending racial discrimination is achievable. This goal is appealing to the audience because the audience is people who have been negatively effected and emotionally damaged as they viewed racial discrimination occur over and over in society. As a result hearing a credible person such as Johnson stating and showing that societies racial discrimination problem is making progress towards being eradicated gives them hope,encouragement as well as motivation.

Source 3: Scholarly Article

The rhetorical situation of the scholarly article Racial Identity, Racial Discrimination, Perceived Stress, and Psychological Distress among African American Young Adults is that being an African American who is racially discriminated against is stressful and placed psychological distress on them. The article has studies that show the relationship and correlation between those who are racially discriminated against and their stress levels. The purpose of this article was to inform readers of one of the effects racism and racial discrimination has on African American young adults. The stress racism places on this specific race causes them to inhabit behaviors that may further affect their physical health. For instance they may develop bad smoking habits and alcohol and drug use because they are looking for something to constantly relieve that stress and feel at ease. Similar to anyone who has high stress levels they also develop unhealthy waiting habits as well as unhealthy eating disorders. In addition stress is one of the few effects that racism causes in an African American or discriminated race mental health. Discrimination can lead to suicidal thoughts, anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. With society’s police brutality and stereotypes generated against people of color it makes sense as to why people of color experience a vast majority of these symptoms. For instance the scholarly article states “studies have shown a relationship between the Racial Identity Attitude Scale and various mental health outcomes” this quote demonstrates that a person’s race and comfortibility in their race plays a huge factor in that persons mental health

The tone of the article is informative as well as persuasive because it attempts to show the audience that there truly is a correlation between mental health and race. In addition it also provides the audience with evidence of that claim being true by referring to the Racial Identity Scale and comparing it to the stress levels. 

Source 4: Social Media Post

The rhetorical situation of the twitter post made by President Donald Trump is a form of racial discrimination as he states the Black people protesting are thugs. This is racial discrimination because it is taking a race and placing them under a negative separate category from other races.

The audience he is targeting are racist people and those who support him as president. To demonstrate this post was meant for those who have similar viewpoints or perspectives like him which fall under being racist so stating something like this is his way of speaking out to his followers on social media. The post states “These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd”. He develops this post to persuade and persuade people that a specific race (Black/African Americans) are violent and thugs. His tone of voice in this post was stated with hate towards a specific group of people. This demonstrates and is a form of racial discrimination. The post also was also made to stereotype blacks and profile them as thugs. So as a result he is basing an entire race of black people or African Americans as thugs. The audience he is speaking to is society and the world as a whole considering it was posted on twitter for everyone to view. However he is truly targeting racist people and those that racial discrimination just as he does. He also is targeting those who actually believe this post and believe that African Americans and Black people are thugs. In generating this post he also wants to persuade society that this is true by basing it off the riots.

Synthesis

There are numerous sources generated to demonstrate various things under the topic of racial discrimination along with the negative effects of it as shown in each source. Overall each source targeted or referred to people of color. The reason as to why this was the case was because in each source the audience always wrote for people in color. In addition, the majority of the sources’ purpose were overall all meant to inform the audience on what racial discrimination is and their viewpoints towards it. The tone varied however because each author wrote in different tones because their viewpoints and focus on racial discrimination varied across the sources. In addition each source all acknowledged racial discrimination being detrimental to those who are effected by it however their stand or position on it each varied. As some sources viewed the correlation between Race and mental health and some viewed the correlation between race in the business aspect. Although each stance scenario of the source varies, overall the source all join and agree on the fact that racial discrimination negatively effects people of color as well as those who are racially discriminated.

 Source Based Citations 

● Rainey, Clint “How Black Cafe Owners Are Responding to Starbucks’s ‘Racial Bias’ Shutdown https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.grubstreet.com/amp/2018/05/black-cafe-starbucks-r acial-bias-shutdown.html 

● Michael Johnson says progress on racism in the US is not going to happen immediately, BBC Sport, 25 Sept.2020 https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/sport/amp/54291936 

● Sellers, Robert M., et al. “Racial Identity, Racial Discrimination, Perceived Stress, and Psychological Distress among African American Young Adults.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior, vol. 44, no. 3, 2003, pp. 302–317. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1519781. Accessed 28 Sept. 2020. 

● Trump, Donald, Twitter, May 29 2020 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1266231100780744704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1266267446979129345%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fnation%2F2020%2F05 %2F29%2Ftrump-minneapolis-twitter-protest%2F