The speaker in the add is a group called Rise. They are trying to present themselves as “activists”. A group of people trying to spread awareness of racism in America. I am able to tell this by the title “Don’t want to get stopped by the NYPD” as an African-American teenager in America. Also, as a young African-American witnessing other young African-American males being stopped and questioned by white police officers for no reason.
This message this add is trying to convey is African-Americans are the main victim of police harassment and that no matter how good or how rich you are if your skin is “black” you can always become the next victim of police harassment.
The intended audience is for the community especially young African-American males. They need to be aware of the challenges life has to offer them and what they may encounter while growing up in this world based on the color of their skin. Also, it’s used to gain unity within communities around the world dealing with this injustice.
One method of persuasion the ad used was the color “blue“. The color blue is associated to tears, hence sadness. This trigger in the brain can cause sympathy for the victim and the “cause”. Also, brought about was the fact that several African-American young males were stopped on the street and while driving for contraband or weapons and had neither were found. This indicated innocent males of color were stopped for one apparent reason, the color their skin.
This ad appeals to pathos because as you know some people are not able to walk away from police interaction alive. This message of people of color being targeted due to their color creates a lot of concern and worry within the African-American community and their homes. This ad appeals to logos by putting true statics of police stops and their finding mostly nothing in dominant black areas. This has ethos because these numbers come from the government of the year 2010 and not from the group Rise.
This ad is effective because it’s spreading awareness of the ugly truth in America, the ugly truth that racism still exists. It’s unfortunate that the legal system set up to protect citizens of America is the same system crippling African-Americans. We have to prepare our youth to deal with these challenges so they won’t become the next victim and hopefully gain enough support to change this on-going attack by cops who are sworn to serve and protect citizens of America not harass and sometimes murder innocent African-Americans.
