Deja Woolard

Janel Spencer

WRT 101S

October 03, 2019

Rhetorical Analysis of Bryan Stevenson: “We need to talk about an injustice”

Bryan Stevenson, who is the speaker of the “We need to talk about injustice” TED Talk, published in March of 2012, is a human resources lawyer who claims that the criminal justice system in America is not being fair towards African Americans and how it also matters if you are rich or poor. Dr. Stevenson has worked with many young people who are on death row and being convicted. Having seen first-hand the “injustice” that’s been happening within the criminal justice system, Dr. Stevenson engages the audience by sharing personal anecdotal evidence and also by supporting his claim with historical evidence that shows that African Americans have always faced these injustices. Stevenson’s purpose is to bring awareness to the lack of truth and the disconnect from society for allowing the system to have such inaccurate rules that have caused so much friction for African Americans in the U.S. His purpose is also to have certain rules changed in the criminal justice system to decrease the amount of people in jail in the U.S., and for us to change as a society and help one another. In this essay I will be analyzing the way Dr. Stevenson effectively uses numerical evidence and historical examples to support his claims, and appeals to the audience’s emotions by using emotionally loaded language such as “terror” to evoke empathy for those affected by problems in the criminal justice system to urge his audience to support changing it.

By supporting his claims about the disadvantages African Americans and others face in the criminal justice system with numerical evidence, Stevenson builds a strong case by stating how it is not just African Americans that are being mistreated, but it is everyone who has been in the system. “Ultimately, you judge the character of a society, not by how they treat their rich and the powerful and the privileged, but by how they treat the poor, the condemned, the incarcerated. Because it’s in that nexus that we actually begin to understand truly profound things about who we are.” (Stevenson). Dr. Stevenson uses this example by providing facts that demonstrated how the rich are more privileged than the poor. In 1972, there were only 300,000 people in jails and prisons, and in 2012 that number had increased to 2.3 million, and about seven million on probation and parole  (Stevenson). Giving the statistic that one out of three African American men between the ages of 18 to 30 are in jail, on probation, in prison, or on parole, coupled with the facts showing the increase in general of those being jailed, Dr. Stevenson is effective in persuading his audience that we have a major problem in the criminal justice system. Age is also considered when Dr. Stevenson shows evidence that African American teenagers can stand on trial at 13 years old and face adult sentences, but it depends on which court and what kind of crime has been committed. Dr. Stevenson makes the argument that it should not matter what crime the person has committed, and that having a judge turn you into something that you’re not by having young kids tried as adults, whether they’re white or black, rich or poor, is an injustice (Stevenson). Dr. Stevenson’s evidence convinces the audience that there is an issue for African Americans, and for the poor of any race.

Another powerful strategy to appeal to logos that Stevensons utilizes is citing historical examples of slavery and the segregation of African Americans in comparison with the statistics from 1972 to today I previously cited. He further appeals to his audience to consider the consequences of our silence around these difficult topics. History has never been a secret for anybody, but it is a topic that we as a country don’t like to talk about or address, whether it is in schools, politics, or in the criminal justice system (Stevenson). Dr. Stevenson appeals to logos effectively by stating that injustice has always been a part of our history and has become a part of our current system. His evidence convinces his audience that racism has never gone away in this country, or in the court system.

Stevenson appeals to pathos with emotional facts and emotionally loaded language about how African-Americans have been treated for years, and that he claims is still reflected in the criminal justice system today. Dr. Stevenson talks about the history of terror, such as after slavery and during civil rights when lynching was a serious threat to African American communities, and the disconnect in this country that has been based on race. “For African-Americans in this country, that was an era defined by terror. In many communities, people had to worry about being lynched. They had to worry about being bombed. It was the threat of terror that shaped their lives. The era of terrorism, of course, was followed by segregation and decades of racial subordination and apartheid.” (Stevenson). Dr. Stevenson uses pathos to intrigue his  audience with sadness and anger with the historical facts to support his claim.

 “Our system isn’t just being shaped in these ways that seem to be distorting around race, they’re also distorted by poverty. We have a system of injustice in this country that treats you much better if you’re rich and guilty than if you’re poor and innocent. Wealth, not culpability, shapes outcomes. And yet, we seem to be very comfortable. The politics of fear and anger have made us believe that these are problems that are not our problems. We’ve been disconnected” (Stevenson). Stevenson effectively uses logos and pathos  to convince his audience that the criminal justice system today is unjust. He supports his case that there is racial injustice and class injustice reflected in the system with his own experiences and numerical evidence. He uses emotionally loaded language to show us how we should take responsibility: “we seem very comfortable”; “we’ve been disconnected.” His call to action is to reconnect. He effectively persuades the audience that injustice in the criminal justice system for African Americans is real and is something that will either need time for it to completely end, or will never end.

Dr. Stevenson suggests that there are a few ways to resolve this issue, one was “a referendum coming up this spring where actually there’s going to be an effort to redirect some of the money we spend on the politics of punishment,” (Stevenson), in the state of California and other states around the U.S. Another way to stop the increase is to take care of each other and our communities and to help people who are in need, and be kind to one another whether you are rich or poor, black or white; this is Dr. Stevenson’s other call to action and is something that I agree with, and that’s ending injustice. Dr. Stevenson explains at the end of the TED talk to “keep your eye on the prize, hold on,” which was also quoted by a black janitor at the courtroom when on trial assisting a 13 year old African American who was being tried for adult charges. “Keep your eye on the prize, hold on,” was meant for the audience to feel encouraged to keep hope alive and to understand that injustice is real, and coming together to solve this issue will  improve our country, and also improve humanity.

Works Cited

Stevenson, Bryan. “We need to talk about Injustice.” TED Talk. March 2012.www.ted.com/talks/bryan_stevenson_we_need_to_talk_about_an_injustice/transcript?referrer=playlist-talks_to_help_you_understand_r&language=en#t-695779. Accessed March 2012.