Cover Letter

This specific year I felt was the best time to work with the rhetoric of identification and division, as racial tensions flared more than usual in this election season. One of the reasons I chose Barack Obama’s campaign to center my pieces on was the apparent lack of the “race” word when speaking of this candidate from a white audience, and many times the opposite response from communities of color – many people of color were criticized in the media coverage by talking about race too much. These opposing views of one man’s identity begged the question of authenticity as a black man, ownership of this man in one racial group or another, and motives of those writing about Obama. As the election at the beginning of November reached its peak during the time the first few pieces were written in my portfolio, I found it discomforting that the topics that I discussed in my papers were not widely spread throughout the rest of coverage during the election. Because of this fact, many of the pieces I wrote pushed the issue of race and identity to the forefront as I found it lacking in the conversation of Obama as a candidate. The lack of talking about race seemed to be a tacit understanding in the media; the only times race seemed to be discussed was in clips of either Rev. Jeremiah Wright or white McCain-Palin rally supporters, both instances of outright jaw-dropping rhetorics for those “nice” white people in the middle.
One of the strengths of this topic I found was in the timeliness of the pieces- in a sense, one can look at each of the pieces and remember the political climate of the nation at the time. The letter to the editor introduces the topic of “whitewashing race” in the media coverage that I felt did not truly change throughout the election coverage: save the one black commentator on CNN, you would be hard pressed to find a representative voice for communities of color on the news. The second paper addresses the question that seemed to be on the minds of many as the campaign continued: Who is Barack Obama and what does that mean for him as a candidate? In this piece, I looked specifically at the only time that the issue of race had to be mentioned in the campaign, the controversy regarding Jeremiah Wright. The issue of Obama’s identity as a black man changed race relations and made many underlying issues within the white community come to the forefront; as we were free to speculate about Obama’s identity but there was no mention of John McCain’s identity as a white man. This supposedly “neutral” yardstick of race was a direct result of how identification of “white is right” is understood by all and political motives are not speculated as tailoring to a specific audience. Something communities of color just don’t have the luxury of having.
Uncovering the rhetorics of the election, one of the most pressing issues in the United States this last semester, I discovered once again how those with the power to speak get their voices heard. This was seen specifically in the stifling on voices of the topic of race in the election and the choices the media made regarding the representation of Obama, something I discussed in the research paper. The research done for that piece made it clear that hierarchical rhetorics still dominate the popular media- it became a goal of mine then, as it had before, to create a more inclusive piece that discusses these same issues with a viewpoint of speaking for another community. By no means do I feel that my work was groundbreaking in any sense of the word, but I do think that issues were raised about Obama as a candidate and the future president-elect that were not mentioned in other hierarchical media outlets. I also chose specifically to keep the piece unchanged, as it was written before we knew the outcome of the election, because I don’t want the issues raised in the three pieces to be swept aside because Obama won the election. The multi-media collaborative project was also an attempt via format to get the voices of individuals heard, especially those who don’t speak in class that often. The issues raised on the blog were ones that we have been swirling about all semester while looking at Burke, and I feel like taking the identity of the student-athlete garnered the same passionate reactions from my colleagues as would any other misunderstood group.
My understanding of the rhetoric of identification and division comes also with the emotions of fear and comfort. (Diagram below). These two dyads are polar opposites in regards to proper communication. And although the ultimate goal of our society is to strive towards inclusion and identification and care with one another, the process of getting there for someone who has lived in the white habitus for their whole life is a challenging process. My political commitments then strive towards inclusion, and in my current and future work I feel as though I am working on a daily basis towards identification with all people. The way that I understand the rhetoric is an ongoing process of both self understanding and acknowledgement of others’ lifestyles and life positions. The arrows moving curved from division to identification denote the process one must go through in order to get to identification – and the emotions that must be faced. A circle is rotating and agile, changing based on your path of understanding of self and others as well as the constant shifting racial winds on a country-wide scale and a community wide scale. I feel that I am a work in progress, but I feel as though I am somewhere past the complete comfort and fear into a wide-eyed space of discovery. As I move into a field that works with so many voices that are not represented in a university setting such as this, I feel as though my comfort in myself and in openness towards learning new things will aid me. By no means am I there – I would be arrogant to think so. But I do believe that I have the gumption to look the fear of division in the eye, and get along with people that I don’t necessarily agree with or know much about.
I feel like I’ve been most successful as a writer in this course in integrating different sources in the pieces that I’ve written, specifically in paper 3. I also believe that I was able to use some of my little knowledge of race theory and utilize it in this topic. It was exciting to be in the middle of thinking about a piece or writing it and have to jump out of my chair and go to my bookshelf for something I read a year ago. It means that I care about it and that it stuck. One of the things that I enjoy most about writing is that emotion has to be a part of it – for me, there has to be fire about something inside of you in order to research it and write it. Thankfully I found work in anti-racism work. It was also exciting to be able to tackle that topic from a different theoretical angle with Burke, and I feel as though I was able to integrate Burke well with current events. Unfortunately, though, because I do believe that passion is a key ingredient in writing I found myself becoming frustrated with colleagues that didn’t write like they cared about the topic they wrote about. My annoyance I hope didn’t come off as arrogance, because I truly believe that everyone has the capability to make a strong passionate argument, regardless of whether anyone likes it or not. I realize that in the world of work I will have to come to terms with the fact that not everyone loves their job all the time, I surely don’t. My patience will surely be tested with my coworkers that I don’t agree with, and the open forum of the classroom was at times a test of my patience that was good for me. Sometimes I just wanted to jump out of my skin…but that would’ve been messy and inappropriate.
Honestly, I’ve never been a huge fan of collaborative work. The group usually dorks around and people don’t contribute equally, so I was wary at first. But as the idea for the project took shape and discussion began on the blog I felt differently about the idea of working together. Life is about coalitions and collaboration, and I felt like the project was a good example of how many groups work. Some people don’t know as much as you about the topic and are willing to ask the questions that make you rethink exactly why you believe what you do. Some hold stereotypes and opinions that you will fight your whole life to try and dispel. And some will be on the same page as you in many ways. What was important about the blogging experience was I was able to see that those I don’t agree with are not villains, not enemies in the war of words, but friends with different opinions. It is my sincere hope that I am able to continue putting knowledge out there about multicultural rhetoric and voices, moving people even within my own racial or family group to inclusion and coalition building.
I’ve re-learned once again that the most powerful words come from your own voice and the voices of the people in your own community. Your work becomes the best when you are honest with yourself and when you’re honestly choosing the voices that you want shared in your work as well. The voices used throughout my papers from many different sources helped keep me focused on the ultimate goal of writing for me, to help as many people as possible see themselves as identifying and caring about others. The numerous voices shared throughout race theory have been to universities, they know how to reach their specific audience about race theory. But those prisoners in Through the Eyes of the Judged did not go to university, yet their voices are stronger in many ways than the theorists I’ve read. Reading the words of these marginalized voices helped illuminate the affects of racism on these prisoner’s life choices. They were not heard or helped in many cases during their childhood, and only now are they able to get their own thoughts and feelings about their situation on paper. Through this class and the community we have built here, the anti-racism work we have done through the principle of having all voices heard will continue to affect our lives.
The biggest question I have to ask now is: Where will this knowledge take me in the next stage of my life? What will Kenneth Burke, the man that barely anyone can understand on one read, teach a person I will talk to on a regular basis? I think most importantly Burke and the rhetoric identification has taught me that the most difficult thing, and most rewarding thing, is taking a concept like rhetoric and being able to apply it to regular life and teach other people. It’s great to be able to spout off authors who have been dead for years, but it’s also more rewarding to be able to teach someone about how identification interacts with their own social standing to create or quell conflict. Identification helps us see who we need to spend more time with, who we need to learn more about, and how we are to interact and connect with others. Burke has taught me in a greater sense how to collaborate with others in ways that might be unconventional, following the concept that you have to understand where you are divided in order to know how you can then be united.
Because of my commitment to multicultural rhetorics and my use of collaboration in both the papers and class work, I believe I deserve an A for the semester. My work both in and out of class has proven to be passionate and committed. I believe that as this semester has gone on I have been able to engage openly with colleagues in class and provided significant feedback for their work. Overall, I feel as though I have been a significant contributor to this course and hope that you saw my effort and mastery of the subject matter. I by no means think my work and learning is done, but this course has proven that it is possible for me to master difficult texts and challenging concepts that occur in the everyday. The support and community of this course will be missed, and I just hope that I have proven worthy of a top mark in this material.

Sincerely,
Sarah Weakley