We
are training writers in our classrooms. We are teaching students how to engage
in public discourse. Or are we just assigning essays?
This
week’s reading on “Democracy’s Lot” by Candice Rai looked at some of the
physical spaces where rhetoric happens. Her book focused on one neighborhood in
Chicago where the dual struggles of gentrification and affordable housing are
at odds with each other. While published in 2016, the topic of democratic
debate in community spaces seems especially timely for 2020. In her conclusion,
Rai muses: “As ancient rhetoricians attested, the best way to arm a citizenry
against the pernicious use of rhetoric is to train people in the art of
rhetoric.” This is our role in teaching our students composition, we are
preparing them to enter into public rhetoric.
“Democracy’s
Lot” focused on areas of debate in Uptown. The future use of a vacant lot, the
subjects of murals in public spaces, and the presence of day labors looking for
work across from a U-Haul location all led to engaged debates in this
community. These are the types of debates our students will encounter in real
life. On a large scale, these are the conversations happening all over the
United States in 2020. The role of modern police departments, the usage of
racist and stereotypical images on products and as mascots, the existence of
statues and monuments honoring slave owners, confederate leaders, and those
responsible for genocide are all topics in the public forum this year.
Rai
writes:
“Given
the complexity of rhetoric, discovering the available means of persuasion, as
Aristotle defined rhetorical invention, calls for immersive methodologies and
the inhabitation of the sites of rhetorical production where one might study
the places of invention.”
In
the current movements we are seeing, the “sites of rhetorical production” are
the streets being physically occupied, the ongoing occupation of which has given
a physical presence to the words of protests that have been shared for years.
Black Lives Matter is not a new movement, the arguments over the mascot of the
Washington football team are not new either. There have been protests for both
of these movements over the years with little results. It took a cold-blooded
murder caught on camera and literal riots to enact positive change in these
areas.
Rai
also writes that:
“Therefore,
if one is interested in the power of language to do things, one might shift focus
to understand the nature and qualities of the forcefulness and consequences of
language as the primary object, of which “truth” of an argument need not factor
into its power—or, at any rate, is but one concern among others.”
While
this quote focuses on the power of language to accomplish things, the physical
act of occupying space lends additional weight to the words being used. Rai
makes note of this too in her discussion of “positive loitering” which was used
to impact day laborers in Uptown. To send the message to the day laborers that
they were no longer tolerated, the neighborhood CAPS organization used as many
bodies as they could to send the message. Rai quotes one homeowner from Uptown
as saying:
“We’re
sending them the visual message [through positive loitering] that it is not
just me…but it’s this group of people, it’s the police, it’s someone from the
Alderman’s office occasionally, it’s U-Haul, it’s Public Storage, it’s the car
dealership over there, it’s the hospital. Everybody is not ok with this and we
are all standing here hanging out letting them know how many of us there
are…It’s the whole community. And that’s been shocking to them because they
assumed it is one or two people who just stared out their windows and called
the police all day, and I think they were a little surprised by that.”
This
is how the current Black Lives Matter movement is gaining so much traction. The
murder of George Floyd was outrageous enough to provoke large-scale public
outrage, enough outrage that it led to action in the form of people taking to
the streets, enough people to make public entities realize that this movement
is more than a passing fade or a few outraged individuals. And while many of
the positive changes that have occurred so far may seem superficial (see ya
Aunt Jemima) they are reflective of a large-scale shift in public opinions. The
meaningful change of policing reform may still be a long ways off, but these
smaller changes still matter and reflect larger changes to come.
I’m
thinking also of the very public actions that many cities have taken to paint
the words “Black Lives Matter” on the streets. While such an action is largely
symbolic, it is still meaningful. Rai writes of murals and other symbolic
statements:
“In
this sense, icons, like topoi and rhetorical structures more generally, are
such powerful tools in everyday democracies because while people can access
them within their idiosyncratic and situated contexts of everyday life, they
are also tools that transcend the details of those contexts, which means—among
other things—that they can resonate broadly, forcefully, and flexibly across
social space and political positions.”
Let’s
end by reflecting again on the “power of language to do things.” Even in cities
where the leaders prefer to paint the words “Black Lives Matter” before
actually crafting policies and protections designed to save Black lives, will
the words alone lead to a change of attitudes and beliefs of those who drive
over the words daily? Are words here enough? (I mean, obviously not, but is it
enough to start with?)
And
how does all of this apply to the composition classroom? I think it’s important
to craft assignments that lead students to a growing awareness of the community
around them and the dialogues that are already taking places so that our
students are better prepared to join in such dialogues.
This
is my last “official” post as the Comp/Intent blogger. I will be posting
reviews of each of the books I’ve read during this class to Goodreads.
Hopefully as I continue to read on my own more posts in this series will
follow. Thank you for reading along.
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