Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Professor Granillo
English 101
26 September 2018
Americas Divisions
Rhetoric is the use of persuasion on readers with the use of three modes known as ethos,
logos, and pathos. Reading through an article “Why America Is Self-Segregating” by Danah
Boyd she wants to make it clear that this time it’s more of people self-segregating and dividing
ourselves among society. Rhetoric was founded by Aristotle, uses the three modes to get others
to see your views, ethos relates to ethics and morals, logos is for logical evidence, and pathos is
all about emotion.. Although Boyd would agree that America is self-segregating she uses the
rhetorical mode of logos with historical background, ethos by stating division in the military, and
pathos in relation to social media slandering; This evidence was further used to get her
motivation across to show that we are segregating ourselves from the world.
Boyd wants to prove that America has had to deal with divergent views and opinions to
keep this country functioning and keeping us together. To give other examples where America
had people with opposing views and how it was handled she stated, “Hell, the history of the
United States is fraught with countless examples of people enslaving and oppressing other
people on the bias of difference.” (Boyd 219). She wants to show where we have had issues with
being segregated. We have always had some divisions between people based off the biases that
feared change or difference, or just hope that they can avoid it. These are all some views that
have been brought by Boyd who was is the founder of the Data & Society research institute,
fabric is being torn apart. She has knowledgeable information with her being a researcher for
Microsoft Research, professor in interactive telecommunications, and founder of the Date &
Society research institute. Her facts are very logical coming from her having knowledge in how
society works and communications, this is where she gets her follow up information or logical
evidence. She has plenty to bring to the table but there are some who would like to fight and
While it is brought to our attention that the internet is meant to bring people together and
close those bridges of division, there are those who use them to build up segregation. Boyd
reminds us that “… The tools that were designed to bring people together are used by people to
magnify division and undermine social solidarity.” (220). This is where Boyd uses ethos to shoe
that the things we make to bridge the divisions are being used to start social groups who slander
one another; While there are those who continue to divide us and keep us segregated, Boyd
wants to bring them into the light so that us as readers can avoid being like them. This explains
that there are a clear majority who still divide us with their biases, stopping us from becoming
less segregated.
We need to come together as people to have a country that has no issues based on the
biases of difference or change. Boyd states what she believes is how our country can function
right, saying “The United States can only function as a healthy democracy if we find a healthy
way to diversify our social connections…” (221). Boyd is using ethos in this as well showing
how our democracy is being affected by segregation which in return could cause more divisions
in society; this county had a big issue with segregation and unfairness to some social groups in
our country. There are still some of that division and unfairness around today, but Boyd wants us
to know that we are starting to increase these divisions again. It is what she wants people to
know, that our diverse country can’t function properly if we do not come together. This is where
she uses a big piece of logos to remind us of the history this country using the time of
Boyd being founder of a research institution could be where most of her information
comes from besides the common knowledge we all share. The areas she had to have some type
of research, speaking on privatization in the military. Also, having facts about what our military
was doing after 9/11; speaking on us pouring large amounts of money into the U.S. defense, this
is common knowledge as well because we can assume that we would ante up our defense
system, but it could show that she could’ve had some research. Along with other dates “… the
U.S. military is far lower than it was throughout the 1980’s.” (Boyd, 222); Adding that it was
“Due to the military privatizing huge chunks of it’s branches.” (222). These facts couldn’t be
common knowledge, unless she learned this when she was going to school, there must have been
some type of research done to get these dates and what occurred. Boyd does not focus on just
society, but the military as well with it privatizing its recruits, which doesn’t give them the
chance to learn to work together in a diverse group. Despite Boyd giving some facts without a
citation, which should’ve been there, she wants to try to reach us on an emotional type or way as
In these areas of pathos Boyd used some of her own language in the article that giver her
emotional input to get us to feel how she does. While she was on the topic of social media,
saying that she felt bad for Mark Zuckerberg because she believes that while people questioned
Facebook for creating divisions, he just wanted to make the world a better place. This was pathos
because she is trying to have her readers have some sympathy for what Mark would’ve wanted
but was criticized and bashed on his website; to get you to feel bad for him and give some
sympathy that people are doing the opposite of what he was trying to do, bring people together.
This example was used to relate back to the theme of segregation. This isn’t the only sign of
When it came to caution she used more of future scenarios of what could happen to get us
to act now and change. She believes that there is an “increased polarization and were going to
pay a heavy price for this going forward.” (Boyd, 228). This is used to show that there can be
serious consequences if we don’t act now; she indicates that by stating “…we are moving in the
opposite direction with serious consequences.” (228). Thus, giving more feedback on her
wanting us to be cautious. America is just becoming self-segregated and this is what the long-
term damage could be if we continue to go about like this in society. Not only does she want us
to look ahead but right now as well because this could be the very start of our country becoming
self-segregated.
Rhetoric is used to persuade readers with modes like ethos logos and pathos, which relate
to logic, ethics, and emotion. Danah Boyd uses these in her article “Why America is Self-
Segregating” to make it known that more and more people in society are segregating themselves
amongst others. Aristotle created these to give motivation and power to an author’s argument so
that they can prove their views. Her use of logos with the historical evidence, ethos with how it
affects democracy, and pathos for those who try to bridge gaps but are criticized. Self-
segregation is what can tear us apart and ruin society creating new tension between race and
gender; society must bridge these gaps and allow us to heal Americas divisions.
Boyd, Danah. “Why America Is Self-Segregating”, They Say/ I Say, Edited by Gerald
Graff, Kathy Birkenstein, Russel Durst. 4th Edition, W.W. Norrton, 2018. pp.219-229,