The artifact I have chosen to analyze is a letter titled Dear Racists, written by Charlemagne the God in 2015. Charlemagne the God, or Lenard Mckelvey, is a proclaimed TV and radio personality who speaks on behalf of Black Americans. Mckelvey’s letter is directed towards white Americans and its purpose is to make the end of racism start with white Americans denounce racist white Americans. He does this by reminiscing the events of racial injustices across the country. He depicts racist white Americans as “subhuman, savage, pariahs who need to be eliminated from the human race (Mckelvey, 2015, p.1).” I chose this particular artifact because it is extremely relevant to what is happening in America today and it is admirable that the rhetor aims to take action against injustice.
This paper aims to analyze this artifact using the pentadic criticism method to examine the impact the rhetor’s choice of narrative might have on the agent. My research question is: Insight of all mentioned events in this letter, do white Americans hold the key to ending racism in America, and how powerful was the …show more content…
There are a possible 20 ratio combinations that can be made. In the agent-act ratio, the act could not possibly happen without the agent and therefor the agent becomes more significate. The act needs the agent in order for the act to take place or it would have never transpired. In the agent-agency ratio, hatred and ignorance is what the agent embodies, however, in the agent-purpose ratio there is no logical purpose for the agency to take place. And so in conclusion, rehetor is trying to allude that there is no reason for the act to take place because there is no logical explanation for it to occur. This makes the agent the dominant element because all other elements are affected or will no be changed without the agent (Racist white Americans)