Rhetorical Analysis on "Combating Prejudice and Racism"

The article Combating Prejudice and Racism, written by Bernard Guerin, focuses on a specific type of racism and prejudice where people use statements that are primarily aimed at sustaining groups and relationships rather than promoting racial diversity. The premise of the author is that people can use language to make people do or believe racist ‘things’ against another group or individual. The author offers intervention for racist and prejudicial 'talks' in that people can only be persuaded through the use of language to be anti-racist and anti-prejudicial. Guerin urges people to practice caution when conversing in social contexts.

The article was written by Bernard Guerin, who is a professor at the Department of Psychology, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. He has authored other books, such as 'How to Rethink Human Behavior,' 'Social facilitation,' 'How to Rethink Mental Illness,' 'How to Rethink Psychology,' among many others. His extensive field of research is on human behavior and the use of social interaction, which accounts for a significant part in prejudice and language. His article was published online in Wiley InterScience with the purpose of communicating to people about the need for establishing language and prejudice appropriateness when interacting in social circles. The goal of the article is to change the human perception that racism and prejudice are only meted on an individual and instead understand that in a social context, prejudice can sustain groups and relationships by being persuaded to do and believe racist and prejudicial things.

The article focuses on a rather broad target audience because every category of readers has something to learn from it. First, the author communicates to people within diverse races and cultural backgrounds. In this case, he warns people of different races about “individual or psychological beliefs about race that are trying to be established in others” (Guerin 37). Guerin targets to communicate to learners and appeals that society is always a good place when human beings perceive each other as the same. In his view, Guerin believes that “student who makes racist remarks could change the dynamics of the social relationships that support such comments in the groups" (41). Finally, the author targets the community at large; the space in which people interact. He argues that society is the baseline for eliminating racial and prejudicial language.

The first predominant rhetorical mode used in the article is argumentation. To persuade readers to agree with his points of view, Guerin appeals to the audience by arguing with facts and critical elaboration to ensure readers understand and concur with his postulation. The second rhetorical mode is exposition; here the author offers comprehensive description and application of game theory to show how the veracity of remarks made concerning race and prejudice can easily be denied and considered as a joke, yet in a real sense such comments were meant to fructify racially and prejudicial connotations. Finally, the author applies the cause and effect rhetoric mode to give readers a clear understanding of the causes of racial and prejudice in society and negative implications that people endure in the hands of people who do not mind hurting others through the way they talk.

The first appeal evident in Guerin’s article is the use of ethos. The author uses most of his expertise in psychology major to appeal to readers about his thesis. Guerin also quotes several authorities from universities and government manuals. Relying on these authorities and his cumulative experience on the matter of racial and prejudice language enables Guerin to discuss the subject matter of the article. Secondly, logos...