Rhetorical Analysis Of Race Is A Four Letter Word By Teja Arboleda

Teja Arboleda, an assistant professor at the New England Institute of Art in Brookline, Massachusetts teaches race and ethnic courses. He plans to use entertainment to teach about race and cultural diversity. A clear example of this is his case study “Race Is A Four Letter Word”, in which he discusses racial stereotypes that he has experienced in his travels around the world. To prove his point Mr. Arboleda talks about his personal experiences as well as those of his family. In order to persuade his audience he connects with the emotions of the readers through the use of racial slurs that he has experienced personally. Throughout Arboleda’s life he was judged because of who he was. He was called different names, by different races of people. Arboleda himself did not know who he was. His father was a Filipino-Chinese and African/American and his mother who was Danish and German. His parents are different multicultural and come from different places. Where his parents come from does not matter
because it is where he grew up that defines who he is. He grew up in different parts of the world, this is why it is hard for him to define who he is. He has been around different cultures, which teach him different values. Arboleda’s life is surrounded by different cultural diversities. He was born in New York but raised in Japan. With all of his experiences this is how he found his career. His career of teaching about race and ethnic relations. Traveling the world with his family has taught him, the world is really multicultural. Learning to adapt to new environments has become second nature to him. He asks himself, “Why diversity or multicultural is so confusing or overwhelming?” This reasoning is because people tend to marry across religious, culture, and ethnic barriers.(page 123) This essay is very interesting to the eye because racism is still present in today’s world. To determine wether this essay is effective or not is by using the three rhetorical appeals logos, pathos, and ethos. Logos is the persuasion of reasoning, or the effectiveness of the supporting evidence. In Teja Arboleda’s, “Race is a Four-Letter Word” he explains how immigrants are shaping the society. When immigrants keep coming to the United States they share their heritages and cultural values. This is how the world is so multicultural, we have people traveling from country to country sharing different ideas and aspects that it is hard to tell what was originally brought up in that certain area. Arboleda found a Time magazine called, “The New face of America” describing the new shape to society. The magazine shows reason about Arboleda’s essay. It supports what his main reasoning is and helps him discover more evidence for himself. Pathos is often associated with emotional appeal. When using pathos it is a good idea to get into the reader’s head, in other words imagination. In the beginning of the essay Arboleda starts with phrases such as “Ive been called n----- and a neighbor set the dogs on us in Queens, New York” another, “I’ve been called Jap and was blamed for America’s weakness.” This gets into the readers emotions, making them feel sorry. It makes the reader think, does this really happen in today’s society? Also it might take the reader threw their own past life struggles. We never know where a person comes from. He wants to get the point across that we are all the same in different ways. Ethos is the credibility a author can give of an essay. Convincing people to believe with using promises or I guarantees you. Arboleda uses ethos by explaining how we traveled the world with his family. We do not know this for sure but he seems convincing enough that we believe him. As a child he felt like he was being dragged to different corners of the world. (page 122) He uses he expression ‘dragged’ as if it was the worst time of his life. Having to travel all over the world he learned how many different cultures their really are and still so many to explore. As I explained earlier he said over-adapting to new environments had been like second nature to him.(page 121) He exclaimed he learned different cultures as he was growing up. Traveling from place to place learning from different cultures this is why he does not know ‘what he is’ and is still discovering new things about himself. In Teja Arboleda’s essay he uses the three different appeals very well.
He connects with the reader in many different ways. By reason, emotion, and credibility. He has reasoning behind his life. Where he came from and his initial background. He describes what is going to come of this world by using supported magazines. Emotionally, he grabs the reader by showing how he felt when people would judge him. Also by how it can hurt other people. The credibility he uses is by describing his life struggles. Arboleda says that he traveled the world when growing up seeing different races, cultures, ethnic backgrounds, and societies. Explaining the struggle he went threw had the readers attention from the beginning. When explaining ones life to another is very personal and had to be hard for him to share. Arboleda, being an assistant professor has enough courage to explain his life. Him being so different with so many different backgrounds growing really had a tole on
him.

Works Cited
“About the Founder.” 2013 Entertaining Diversity. 18 September 2013

“Race Pizza.” 2013 Entertaining Diversity. 18 September 2013