River by Leon Bridges- Pathos

In the song River by Leon Bridges he appeals to pathos in an audience by using powerful visual imagery in his music video that is accompanied by the song. Leon Bridges uses an appeal to pathos in order to demonstrate the continuous police brutality the black community has been facing but emphasizes that there still is hope. In the beginning of the song Leon Bridges is sitting on the bed playing his guitar with the T.V. in the background that is displaying the Baltimore Riots. Throughout the music video it shows the homes of other African-Americans  with the T.V. on in the background displaying scenes of police brutality. It gives the audience a sense of entrapment that emphasizes that black men and women cannot merely go back home and the issue of police brutality is over. It is an issue that is prevalent and will follow them day after day. The music video also shows a little girl looking outside her door with a somber expression as she looks out into the streets and sees an African-American man walking home with blood on his shirt. This gives an audience a sense of guilt and remorse to realize young children are witnessing these cruel acts of police brutality and making them feel targeted and unsafe by the police solely based on the color of their skin rather than on their character. These young African-American children will grow up feeling like they live in a society that will despise them and make them feel inferior to the rest. Later on in the song the music stops and all you can hear is the rain. The silence gives the audience a feeling of unknowing and anticipation for what is to come next. Because of this, the silence also gives a sense of hope that even after the long misery of police brutality there is still hope for African-Americans to prosper. The sense of hope is intensified when the music video shows families embracing and the black community laughing and dancing together. These last few scenes also give the sense of unity and togetherness of the black community, and to emphasize that even after all the struggles they are facing they have to be united as one. Leon Bridges uses the right amount of emotion to match the severity of the injustice that African-Americans are facing by the police.
                     

  ~Kim Cerritos