Oluwaseyi Gbadamosi

First Year Writing

Unit 1- Rhetorical Analysis

War On Drugs, War On Blacks.

The ongoing war against drugs is one of the biggest

ridicules of our time. In 1971, the then President of the United States,

Richard Nixon started what some of us see today as the War on Blacks.

With the ongoing police brutality against blacks, this issue is one to be

spoken about and closely reviewed. Why are white men poised to get rich

doing the same thing African-Americans have been going to prison for?

(The New York Times). There is a vast amount of documents that have

proven how the so called drug against war is far from what it is portrayed

as and is much worse to the nation than we think. The video, A History of

the War on Drugs from Prohibition to Gold Rush is one of the documents

that point out some of the irregularities of the the ongoing War on Drugs.

This video especially speaks on how the war on drugs is a product of

racism. The non-fiction video was narrated by Shawn Carter, also known

as Jay Z. This made the video empirical because he is a black man who

was deprived at a younger age suffering from racism amongst other

things, but is now successful as a well renowned musician and

businessman.

Shawn Carters purpose was to inform and gather

support. He mainly wanted to educated those who were not aware of this
serious problem which has been going on for decades. He also wanted to

point out the flaws of the War on Drugs and convince the viewers to be

against it. He did this by stating key facts and giving pieces of information

that linked the War on Drugs to racism. The facts he stated were very

important to the successful execution of the purpose. Today we imprison

more people than any other country in the world..., (Shawn Carter). This

is an example of the effective use of a well sought fact to persuade the

viewers the right way. The narrator also accomplished his purpose by

making his rhetorical stance crystal clear from the start. In doing this, he

made use of logos and pathos.

By giving clear evidence on how the War on Drugs

has mainly affected Blacks and Latinos, the voice-over appealed to logic.

Despite a boom in the celebrated $50 billion marijuana industry, most

states still disproportionately hand out mandatory sentences to black and

Latinos with drug cases (Shawn Carter). This use of data is an example of

substantial statistical evidence which is helpful in appealing to the logic of

viewers. By choosing to use a pitiful tone of voice, the voice-over made

the video appealing to the emotions of viewers. Based on the image that

Jay Z has in the eyes of the public, he is a hip-hop artist who lives life to

the fullest, worry-free. The fact that he has a very subtle and serious tone

shows that this is something that has affected him. It also shows that he is

really calling for help for his people and not trying to use this as a

publicity stunt or for some good public relations. The use of logos and

pathos was key to the creation of the narrators persona. His persona was
significantly important in delivering this message effectively to the

audience.

The narrators persona in this video was very

contradictive to the illustrators. As Jay Z speaks, his very serious tone and

genuine mood are accompanied by vibrant images which leads to a

situation of conflict. There were more than 1.5 million drug arrests in

2014 (Shawn Carter), accompanied by a sarcastic image of the police

holding up a banner saying WAR ON DRUGS (Molly Crabapple). The

image in this instance shed light on the serious situation at hand. This

could have a negative effect on viewers as it could make them take a

situation of so much importance for granted. However, this was a good

technique to use to pass this message across because of the nature of the

issue at hand. The topic is a very sensitive one and having colourful

images or drawings make it have less detrimental impact on the society. If

the message was passed across in a completely serious tone without the

illustrator shedding some light on the situation, it could be seen as a call

to protest and fight against the higher power, namely the government.

With the social influence Jay Z possesses, this could cause serious

problems as many of his followers and fans in combination with activists

and victims of racism could be moved to making violent actions or

showing hostility to the opposite race. The combined persona of the

narrator and illustrator was suited exactly for the target audience.

The target audience of this video primarily include

people with interest in racial matters, activists, American citizens or

residents of color especially Blacks and Latinos. The secondary target

audience include people with the power to change the system such as

government officials. The video was narrated in such a way that virtually

every individual who understands English would be able to understand it.

With words such as coke, feds, trees (Shawn Carter), the narrator

makes it clear that he is trying to make it as informal as possible

considering the primary target audience. The very simple level of

complexity was intended to appeal to an important segment of the

primary target audience. According to an article by CreditDonkey,

approximately 85% of youth who have come into contact with the juvenile

court system are considered to be functionally illiterate (Rebecca Lake). To

pass the message across effectively to this important segment of target

audience, simplicity was key. Apart from making the video easy to

understand, there were a lot of facts stated by the narrator. The facts

helped to make the video more suitable for the secondary target

audience. When the war on drugs started in 1971, our prison population

was 200,000, today it is over 2,000,000 (Shawn Carter). Facts such as this

could also have been aimed at educating younger colored individuals who

do not know much about their history to convince them to support the

cause. The argument of the narrator was made much more effective to

the target audience with the designs.

The design of this video was very graphic to say the

least. The designs were used to fulfil the purpose by making the message

very easy for the target audience to understand. Almost every point of the

video was accompanied by simple drawings, illustrating the situation the

narrator was trying to describe and some times also showing the
outcomes of the situations to the reader. An example of this is when the

narrator said, judges hands were tied by tough on crime laws and they

were forced to hand out life sentences for simple possession and low level

drug sales (Shawn Carter), this was portrayed by drawings of a judges

hands literally being tied and five black men in inmate uniform in front of

him handcuffed. Our prison population grew more than 900%... (Shawn

Carter) accompanied by one cell inmate eventually turning into hundreds

of inmates. The drawings also supported the narration of the video by

showing relative significance of proportions which is another way the

design of this video was made to be suitable for its target audience. Due

to the fact that the target audience includes illiterates, when percentage

increases were spoken about, they were illustrated well enough to pass

across the message in drawings. If this was not done, stating an increase

of 900% could be seen as vague by viewers who have little knowledge of

percentage change. The designs enlarged the informative and persuasive

impacts of vital pieces of information, as well as the overall structure.

The structure in which the information is

passed across is one of the main assets of the video. The argument was

built up in chronological order from the introduction of the War on Drugs

by Nixon in 1971 down to the review of the War on Drugs 45 years later

(Shawn Carter). This was intentionally done to create a build up an

educative aspect to the argument; aimed at viewers who are indifferent

about the topic. In between the beginning and the end, the narrator gave

viewers clear insight on why the War on Drugs was indeed, a war on

blacks. The NYPD raided our Brooklyn neighbourhoods while Manhattan

bankers openly used coke with impunity (Shawn Carter). This statement

was referring to the preferential treatment that white people got in order

to point out the racist nature of the Drug laws. The structure was

meticulously put together to suit the purpose of the narrator.

Overall, the war on drugs is a discriminating

part of our law system and that is what this video suggests. The speaker

tried as much as possible to instil this in the audience. He did this

meticulously by fulfilling his purpose throughout the duration of the video.

For the best part of the video, the narrator constantly compared the

difference in the way people were treated based on color and location of

residency. This was very effective in pointing out the issues that need to

be addressed and convincing the audience that these issues really do

exist in our society. Due to the fact that it is a short video, the speaker

always focused on the negativity of the drug laws. He never stated any

good done by the drug laws or any wrongdoings on the part of the

victimized racial groups. This could be positive or negative however for

the intended purpose, it was very effective. I say this because if he

weighed both sides of the argument in the short time, it could have been

hard to persuade the audience; especially the secondary target audience.

The narrator fulfilled the motive by stating at the end that the War on

Drugs had made no amendment to the excessive amount of drug users in

the country. In general, the persona, structure and designs were all

impressively assembled to potently deliver the purpose to the target

audience.
 Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSozqaVcOU8

Work Cited:

Rebecca Lake, Credit Donkey, Shocking Facts: 23 Statistics on Illiteracy in America,

https://www.creditdonkey.com/illiteracy-in-america.html

StanfordUniversity,

https://web.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/paradox/htele.html

The New York Times, Jay Z: The War on Drugs Is an Epic Fail, September 15,

2016, https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000004642370/jay-z-the-war-on-

drugs-is-an-epic-fail.html

The Drug Policy Alliance, Reforming Drug Laws, http://www.drugpolicy.org/reforming-

marijuana-laws