Arthur Brewer

English 1101

Dr. Crowther

03/02/22

In this essay, I will be talking about how black people should be treated equally through three different images.  Black people deserve just as much respect as people of all other races.  I will tell you about images of George Floyd’s death, a mural of Breonna Taylor, and the Black Lives Matter protest.  They all happened during the time of the covid pandemic.

 

This first image is about George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  A store clerk falsely accused Floyd of using a counterfeit 20-dollar bill.  A white 44-year-old police officer named Derek Chauvin showed up along with J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane and Tou Thao and restrained Floyd.  Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck so hard for over nine minutes that it killed him.  Chauvin was convicted of second-degree murder.  The other three officers were charged for helping Chauvin in murdering Floyd.  Floyd did not deserve to be killed because he did not commit a crime.

This image is using logos because Chauvin thought the most logical thing to do was kneel on Floyd’s neck.  The photo is dark around Floyd and it looks lighter everywhere else.  It is cruel for a police officer to kneel on someone’s neck, especially if they’re black.  Kneeling on people’s necks should be illegal.

The next image shows a mural of Breonna Taylor, who was shot and killed after her boyfriend Kenneth Walker fired a warning shot at the police officers, whom he thought were intruders.   White police officers Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankinson, and Myles Cosgrove were investigating drug dealing operations.   Hankinson was fired for firing through Taylor’s apartment window and the covered patio door.  He was also accused of endangering Taylor’s neighbors with his gunshots.

On a basketball court at a park, a mural of Taylor was made to honor her memory.  The text on the mural that reads “Black lives matter” is saying that black people do not deserve to be killed over crimes they don’t commit.  It was written in bold black to send the message to racist people.  The picture was taken on a very nice day at a park.  The image uses pathos because the people who made the mural seem very sad about Taylor’s death.  It also uses ethos because it is trying to gain credibility from the children at the park.

Lastly, this picture shows people at a Black Lives Matter protest in Washington DC.  People also protested in Louisville, Kentucky, and Los Angeles, California.  They were demanding justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other black people who were falsely accused of crimes and killed.  The protesters also said “Defund the Police.”

The picture has the protesters in the foreground and the Washington Monument in the background.  There are people of different races and cultures.  The monument symbolizes freedom and justice, which is what should be served for the black people who were killed after falsely being accused of crimes they didn’t commit.  The signs the protesters are holding also symbolize justice for black people.  One of the signs reads “BLACK LIVES MATTER,” which means black people deserve more respect.  This image uses pathos because the people are angry about black people being treated unfairly.  The image also uses ethos because the people are using authority to send the message to everyone around the world.

In conclusion, the images are saying that black people do not deserve to be killed, berated, or mistreated in any way shape or form.  Black people deserve as much freedom, justice, rights, etc as other races and cultures.  It should be illegal to mistreat a black person because that would be racist.

Works Cited

Penn Live Patriot News, 4 Minneapolis police officers fired as FBI investigates George Floyd’s death, 03/02/22 https://www.pennlive.com/nation-world/2020/05/4-police-officers-fired-as-fbi-investigates-in-custody-death-of-man-in-south-minneapolis.html

Denver7, Lawsuit: Breonna Taylor’s death connected to Louisville gentrification plan, 03/02/22 https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/america-in-crisis/lawsuit-breonna-taylors-death-connected-to-louisville-gentrification-plan

Gottbrath, Laurin-Whitney, Aljazeera, In 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement shook the world, 03/02/22

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2020/12/31/2020-the-year-black-lives-matter-shook-the-world