Post #2: Rhetorical Analysis

Welcome back to my Pushout blog! I hope you are enjoying either reading this book or your own. I have decided that today I am going to focus on the rhetorical strategies that Monique Morris is focusing on throughout the book. 

(Morris)

I have found that Monique Morris has used a mix between both pathos and logos. Pathos is the emotional appeal an author uses to affect the feelings of the audience, this could be any emotion such as joy, hatred, jealousy, and many more. Logos is the logical appeal to the audience as a way to persuade them, this could include statistics, quotes, charts, and other types of data. Morris uses many different narratives to portray that her writing is real life, not a fictional story. She normally starts with a pathos look, and then eventually migrates into a statistic to back up her narrative evidence. When starting to read into my second section of the book, it has shown that Monique Morris focuses on the extreme punishments for minor-behavioral mistakes or challenges. On page 57, there is an event that Morris writes about and it quotes “this episode was followed by one in 2013 involving eight-year-old Jmiyha Rickman, an autistic child who suffered from depression and separation anxiety. Her hands, feet, and waist were restrained when she was arrested in her Illinois elementary school after throwing a bad 'tantrum' and allegedly trying to hit a school resource officer...was held in a police car for almost two hours” (57). You can see from this quote, she is directing to the audience that these black females are getting too severe punishments for the little things that they may do. The thing is, almost all kids at some point throw a tantrum in school, it is the point of punishment at which the different races are getting is unacceptable. Morris is trying to show the audience that these young black girls also have many different things that they have to deal with through the quote above and others in the book. the little girl was held in a police car for almost two hours. This could make any parent or kid or adult feel sick for this young child. Kids that are on the spectrum, and have mental illness can revert to having a tantrum. Even kids without a disability can have tantrums, it is okay, and quite normal to have. But being a child and being arrested for it, is unlogical. The quote is trying to have the audience feel the emotions of the people who are going through this. She uses the terms “autism”, “anxiety”, and “depression” to prompt the reader so that they can feel comforting for the young black female community.

Reading this book has provided me with more sadness rather than an understanding of the topic. There are so many stereotypes and morbid stories that have been shown throughout this book that portray young black females, or just people in general. The imagery used when describing the different narratives of the people, such as the kindergartener who was arrested, brings pathos to the book. The emotional appeal can take a big hit on people when reading the book. I think that Morris uses the imagery precisely to have the reader feel sympathy for these young colored females. 

There is also the use of logos throughout the book that Monique Morris uses. I found this statistic on page 57 along with the quote I mentioned above that states “black girls are 20 percent of female preschool enrollment, but 54 percent of girls receiving one or more out-of-school suspensions” (57). Read that statistic again. Did you know that there are preschoolers who are being placed in handcuffs? Little kids that age have Halloween, and it is something they look forward to every year. Growing up, my little brother had many different Halloween costumes like an army man, a police officer, a firefighter, etc. He would run around and use his small fake gun or his handcuffs and his friends would play with them. They would play jail or pretend to fight for imaginary games. It is crazy to think that some of the kids the same age are experiencing this but in the real world, real situations. If these young people are experiencing trauma at a young age, they become non-humans. They will become humans who are only hoping that any small mistake or a tiny tantrum will have them end up in handcuffs and maybe even getting arrested, and second-guessing every single action they do. 

I also want to touch on the point of the zero-tolerance policy that Monique Morris explains throughout the book. During my last couple pages of this section that I was reading, she starts to talk about different statistics that show the punishment of black girls in school. This is another form in which she uses logos to inform the reader about the harshness these black females go through. The zero-tolerance policy was placed in schools to have strict enforcement of regulations on behavior on students. A statistic on page 68 states “black girls without a disability was 52 percent out of all girls with multiple out-of-school suspensions...2011-2012 school year, there were 18 states with out-of-school suspension rates for black girls higher than the national average.”(68). This is so crazy. You can see that more than half the girls who are suspended are black females. Furthermore, you can see that some of the state's out-of-school suspensions are higher than the national average! Morris uses the zero-tolerance rule to show how irrational some of the punishments are. In my opinion, the policy should be implemented, but only in the most severe and dangerous situations, not for just tantrums or one-time fights. Students should not be expelled for a fight that happened once, a suspension for a physical fight I think yes, but a verbal fight with a teacher, no. It seems that Morris uses the zero-tolerance policy to give further detail in the logos part of her book and provide details to back up the narrative stories. 

To conclude my thoughts on the second section of my reading and the rhetorical analysis, I have found that Monique Morris uses different modes of persuasion to show the readers the unfair and unacceptable consequences of minor mistakes. Through the initial use of pathos to have the reader be sympathetic for these young black girls, and then backing it up with concrete statistics and evidence, Morris provides a blunt and effective writing style for the reader. I have given my thoughts on the zero-tolerance policy, and I have to agree on some of it. I agree that there has to be some type of regulation throughout the schools, especially with weapons and guns. But I do not agree with the fact that some of these students can get arrested for minor mistakes, an argument even. That happens every day around the country, getting arrested does not have to be a direct consequence.

    Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!

Works Cited

Morris, Monique W., et al. Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools. Paperback edition ed., New York, New Press, 2018.

"Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools." Amazon, www.amazon.com/Pushout-Criminalization-Black-Girls-Schools/dp/1620970945. Accessed 8 Mar. 2021.