Critical Introduction

Welcome to our blog about civil rights and police brutality. We are five undergraduate students in the College Park Scholars program at the University of Maryland. After studying rhetoric in our English classes, we learned different ways to analyze a text through rhetorical appeals such as ethos, pathos, and logos. We were all very interested in how civil rights has evolved within our society from the 1960s to today; whether through the protests of such issues as police brutality that were awoken by the deaths of Emmett Till and Freddie Gray or the continual unfair treatment of African Americans. We were mostly interested in the impact of pop culture as it related to educating and helping society grieve these situations.

We have chosen two songs, that we believe showcase the evolvement of the civil rights movement in society today; “River” by Leon Bridges and  “The Death of Emmett Till” by Bob Dylan. “River” by Leon Bridges was written directly after the Baltimore Uprising, a series of racial riots, and captures the pain, the bonding, the growth, and the unity of the African American community. The songs sends a message to the community to remain hopeful and have faith for the better. Bob Dylan’s song “The Death of Emmett Till” describes Emmett Till’s death, Dylan uses his publicity to cry for America’s attention to the horror. Both of these songs work together, despite the difference in time, to call notice to the injustices within our society and to encourage America to change for the better.

Our blog begins with the discussion of the logos behind both of the songs. Neither song encompassed statistics and facts but rather the authors appeal to the audience through vivid detail. Following, we discussed pathos of both songs, providing the audience with a deeper understanding of the emotional aspect of the texts. After logos and pathos, we decided to explain a variety of appeals such as ethos, kairos, audience appeal and stasis theory. These appeals give the audience further understanding of the text and their backgrounds.

In “The Death of Emmett Till”, Bob Dylan vividly describes how Emmett Till was murdered and the process of the court trial through detailed lyrics that follow a chronological order. This process educates listeners about the horrific event and provides a deeper insight into the unjust treatment towards African Americans in the 1960s. Leon Bridges presented logos in both lyrics and scenes within the music video. Bridges provides detail to educate us on the tragedy of the protests by showing scenes of a man covered in blood walking on an empty street, a child sitting alone looking outside of the window and people banging police cars with cones in the TV in the room. He weaves pathos into his logos by showing scenes of both the brutality in the beginning  and the sense of optimism at the end.

As the authors made their own rhetorical statements through the expressions of these songs, we too hope that our blog presents an understanding of the relevance and impact of civil right and racial injustice had and continue to has in our society. Our goal is to educate the younger generation about unfair treatment towards different races, so that in the future this problem can cease to exist. Hopefully readers will leave this blog with new insights about the origin and impact of civil rights and the issues of police brutality.

Leon Bridges "River" Style

Leon Bridges uses a combination of soul and gospel music in order to inject the song with traditions of the African-American community. The emotion portrayed in his voice shows how sincere he is about the topic and it connects the audience with his story. Along with the gospel choir in the background of most of the song, the viewer is able to understand the pain that the people of Baltimore experienced.
However, Bridges also wanted this video and this song to be a message of light. Around the two minute mark of the video, a tambourine is added to the sound, the only percussion instrument throughout the song. The tambourine is a happy, cheerful instrument that relays the message of love and community. Jack Ashford, the most well-known tambourine player from the Motown era, made the tambourine a mainstay in music and he brought the sound to mainstream America. This new sound, plus the symbolism of the moving river, show that Bridges was using his sound to not only open the eyes of outside communities, but also to open the eyes of the African-American community.

-Sammy Turk Tolub

Bob Dylan "The Death of Emmet Till" - Stasis Theory

In the song “The Death of Emmett Till”, by Bob Dylan, the main statis argument is evaluation and action. Throughout the song Dylan heavily criticizes his society and what is injustices are allowed to go unanswered. He goes into extreme details of the cruel murder of Emmett Till invoking deep thought and emotion from the audience as they think of an innocent child killed “just for the fun of killing him.” Dylan speaks of his own personal disgust with the subject and in his country as he “could not bear to see the smiling brothers walking down the courthouse stairs.” He acts his audience to look within themselves and to be the change in their own society as they cannot sit around and let such injustices be continued and go answered. He inspires actions with the last two verses, singing, “If you can't speak out against this kind of thing, a crime that's so unjust, Your eyes are filled with dead men's dirt, your mind is filled with dust. Your arms and legs they must be in shackles and chains, and your blood it must refuse to flow, For you let this human race fall down so God-awful low! This song is just a reminder to remind your fellow man that this kind of thing still lives today in that ghost-robed Ku Klux Klan. But if all of us folks that thinks alike, if we gave all we could give, We could make this great land of ours a greater place to live.”

- Gabriella Boozer

River by Leon Bridges - Third Text

In order to deepen the argument of police brutality in the black community I decided to introduce a speech from pastor Jamal Bryant  that was delivered during the Freddie Gray protests in Baltimore. In this speech, pastor Jamal Bryant starts to talk about Freddie Gray's mother and how the citizens of Baltimore need to, "stand with her family shoulder to shoulder, arm in arm...injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere". This quote proves the unity and hope that Leon Bridges was signifying in his own music video. Both the speech and song emphasize that in order for there to be hope, for a better future, in the black community they need to stand together and help each other mourn the losses of their people. Pastor Jamal Bryant also says in the speech that, "houses of faith are going to be open for prayer of those who are grieving and because of the perpetual cycle of injustice that seems to plague us." When Pastor Jamal Bryant says this it reiterates the fact that the injustice of police brutality is taking a toll throughout the black community. Specifically, it lowers their self-esteem making them see themselves as nothing more than targets for discrimination in our society.  This was something that Leon Bridges also was signifying in his music video and emphasized it through emotional scenes. One example was when he showed the young girl looking outside the door with sorrow in her expression as she was witnessing the ongoing horrors of police brutality directed to the black community. However, when Pastor Jamal Bryant talked about standing shoulder to shoulder I think it really shows that being able to be unified with a group of people, who understand your troubles, can help boost your morale and hold on to the last strand of hope. The speech definitely helps emphasize Leon Bridges main message of his own music video which is the broken spirit of the black community, as well as the black community holding on to hope as a unified group.

~Kim Cerritos 

The Death of Emmett Till - Audience Analysis

Bob Dylan’s song “The Death of Emmett Till,” was written in 1955 after the traffic death of an African American boy Emmett Till. The murderers of till were two white males who were then acquitted in the outrageous subsequent trial. In the song, Bob Dylan directly calls out to his audiences, which in his words are his “fellow [men].” He urges them to take action against such hatred and discrimination in a nation where all men were supposedly created equal. Finally, he pleads with them to “[give] all [they] could give… [to] make this great land… a greater place to live.” Bob Dylan directs his song to more than just his normal audiences and instead sings to the whole America, forcing them to recognize the racism and cruelty that African Americans face not only socially, but also in America’s supposedly “incorruptible” justice system. 

-Ruoping Li

River by Leon Bridges- Audience Analysis

Leon Bridges wrote “River”, directly after the Baltimore uprisings, to reflect on them with a healing and hopeful reminder that hope trumps injustice. It was mainly directed to the black families and people that were grieving due to the horrors that took place. His goal is to remind the grievers that we will find our way back from this and we will be stronger. He delivers that message by singing lyrics such as “surrender to the good lord and he will wipe you clean.” He is trying to tell them that God can fix anything just remember that he’s in your corner. Towards the end of the music video, he shows everyone coming together in the backyard playing music and the families reuniting. By ending with this he is trying to portray that no matter what the outcome, if we all come together and stay together we will heal. Leon Bridges used scenes in the video and lyrics to try and remind the black community that was hit the hardest, there is hope and justice will be found, so don’t worry.

-Nidhi Kalaria

River by Leon Bridges - Stasis Theory

In the song "River", by Leon Bridges ,the main stasis is cause and effect. I believe that in this song police brutality has caused the degradation of the human spirit among the African-American community. This is first evident in the fact that throughout the music video there is a T.V. playing in the background with scenes that display police brutality. This shows that the issue of police brutality is always instilled in the minds of the African-American community and that they cannot escape this reality. They also in a sense have become paranoid because they are constantly thinking about this issue, and they have to face the reality that one day one of their own family members or friends could become a victim of police brutality. Another way that this song shows the degradation of the human spirit is when we see the young girl sitting at the door with a somber expression. This shows that her witnessing the continuous acts of police brutality, among African-Americans, has made her lose hope of seeing herself having a better future because of the color of her skin. She just sees herself as a target in society and nothing more. Also, in the music video an African-American man is laying on the floor breathing heavily as his child is crying in the other room. The man doesn't get up to attend to the crying baby like most parents would do as soon as they heard their child crying. Instead, he just lays there breathing heavy. This shows that police brutality, he being a direct victim of, has left him out of energy and is something he can't experience and just be able to continue to live his life with the same kind of drive and happiness.  We see the degradation of the human spirit continuously throughout the music video as everyone has somber expressions because of the constant news of an African-American dying under the actions of the police. This has made them lose hope in society, and  has made them feel like targets, one by one being taken down. The main argument would be that police brutality is causing the degradation of the human spirit among the African-American community.

~Kim Cerritos