Does Racism Still Exist

Does Racism Still Exist? On February 26, 2012 an unarmed seventeen year old, African American boy by the name of Treyvon Martin was fatally shot by a twenty eight year old, Hispanic man named George Zimmerman. After the fatal multi-racial incident, a lot of controversy ensued under the claims of racial discrimination. Moments later thousands of media outlets were covering this seemingly small story from Sanford, Florida; major publications like USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. Shortly after, on April 14, 2012 an editorial was written published by the New York Times titled “Young, Black, Male, and Stalked by Bias” written by Brent Staples. The author used the recent incident to further imply an understanding he believed society had on African American men. In the source text, the author states facts using the rhetorical strategy of logos to engage the reader’s logical reasoning and understanding, and to help persuade the reader into seeing his view point. Instead of humor, the author also uses the rhetorical appeal of pathos to gain the reader’s sympathy and to relate to their sentiments. The author succeeds in supporting his argument based on the strategies of pathos and logos. His argument does not go without critic; though he does well using the statistics to support his claims, he manages to make a few generalizations, and often seems to oversimplify certain situations. As previously stated, the author of the source text is Brent Staples. Brent completed his undergraduate degree at Widener University, and went to graduate school at the University of Chicago. As well as writing editorials for the New York Times, Brent has written a couple of books. One was called An American Love Story and the other Parallel Time: Growing up In Black and White, which won the Anisfield Wolf Book Award. In An American Love Story, Brent Staples follows Bill Sims, Karen Wilson and their children over the course of eighteen months, and documents their