Rhetorical Critique Essay - 1175 Words

Kimberly Huerta Frey English 102-167 January 25, 2012 A Rhetorical Critique of David Brooks â€Å"People Like Us† In David Brooks’ â€Å"People Like Us† passage on the issue of diversity, Brooks takes a personally emotional perspective of the way in which Americans don’t appreciate how diverse our nation is while â€Å"relatively homogeneous† (Brooks 136). His argument is weakened, however, through a bias and hypocrisy that his diction conveys. He claims that grouping ourselves with those who we are most alike is in our nature to, and in doing so, we separate ourselves from those who are different. Using certain statistics as evidence, Brooks points out that the social segmentation created by society will always exist. He argues that no matter†¦show more content†¦As he provides the statistic that 90 percent of professors in some universities that are â€Å"in the arts and sciences who had registered with a political party had registered Democratic† (Brooks 135), he gives the reader opportunity of debate. However they are connected with very specific s ubjects, in this case education, which does not include the amount of neighborhoods he is considering. On the other hand, supporting Brooks’ main point, the detail he provides explains to what level of diversity is not as widespread as we think it is. In Brooks’ statement, â€Å"many of us are so narrow-minded that we can’t tolerate a few people with ideas significantly different from our own† (Brooks 136), he sounds very passionate about what he is saying. I believe that when a writer becomes emotional about their argument, it is more engaging and gives the reader a reason to be convinced. Brooks begins this fundamental paragraph comparing our wish for diversity to our dream of equality. He says that both of these are â€Å"based on ideals we celebrate even as we undermine them daily† (Brooks 135). In this 21st century, one would think that equality exists everywhere, however similarly, women still get paid less than men for the same job, and dis crimination by race occurs plenty to this day. The same unawareness occurs with diversity, which we see, but by nature, we prevent it. Brooks continuously tells how terrible the situation is,Show MoreRelatedCritique of Rhetorical Appeals in A Call for Unity Essay1075 Words   |  5 Pagesexplore the various persuasive devices used by Carpenter et al.. to determine how important they are in creating a successful and convincing argument. Carpenter et al. make use of numerous persuasive techniques throughout their letter including rhetorical appeals and various claims. 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