Mellody Hobson works for the African American owned money management firm, Ariel Investments, which makes it clear that Hobson is a big supporter of institutions and projects run by African Americans. Since she acknowledges the fact that racism is a universal and ongoing issue, her intended audience is probably everyone who can access the video. The TED talk was published in May 2014, but seeing that it is still very relevant and effective today further emphasizes the significance of the issue. The argument that Hobson is making in this speech is that people should leave behind the notion of being “color blind” and instead be “color brave” and be comfortable with having to speak up against racism.
Hobson uses rhetorical devices such as logos, pathos, and ethos to effectively convey her argument. She includes many statistics about discrimination in the workplace and other professional settings, and follows it up with ethos by mentioning her career as an investment expert and how it is a known saying in her field that “numbers do not lie.” The professionalism in her appearance and her tone, along with the fact that she isn’t just complaining about the issue also adds to her credibility. All her personal experiences throughout her life is pathos as it appeals to the audience’s emotions and makes those who understand what she is saying feel empathetic. Also, I’m not sure if this counts as kairos or if it is just something that stood out to me personally, but her mentioning that “it is time to become comfortable with being uncomfortable” was really the biggest and most memorable point in the speech.
In my opinion, her ethos was not something that she had to try too hard for since it was mostly to do with her background, her profession, and keeping a professional tone, but it was definitely one of the best ways to capture the audience’s attention. Her use of pathos and logos also added to her ethos and basically made her seem as a trustworthy, smart person who is worth listening to. Hobson’s ability to appear as a credible source effectively conveys her argument about becoming more aware and active in fighting racism, as her other rhetorical techniques further enhance her ethos.
Hi Raisa,
This looks like a great start. I agree with your assessment of Hobson’s ethos being related to her position in society (a successful businesswoman), but I also like that you mention her “not complaining about the issue” adding to the ethos that she had already pre-established. It sounds like you have a good handle on the rhetorical strategies she uses in her talk. The moment you mention where Hobson says “it is time to become comfortable with being uncomfortable” reminds me a little bit of King in his speech where he is urging his listeners to act now rather than another time. Kairos refers more to the speaker seizing the correct moment to make her argument. This seems like an emotional appeal to really motivate the crowd toward action. It might even be neat to make that comparison with Dr. King’s speech.
As you further focus on Hobson’s rhetorical situation and the overall purpose of her talk, I’d like you to try and narrow down the target audience a little bit more. You mention that her audience is everyone who “can” access the video, so I’d encourage you to think about who that might be. Also, just because people “can” access it doesn’t mean that they will; can we further narrow down the audience by thinking about who she might be trying to reach based on the type of people who would listen to TED talks? Does she give any clues in her talk that point to the kinds of people she might specifically be targeting? Of course, these are all inferences, we can never say for sure who she is targeting and we can never know for sure who ends up watching it, but it’s important to try to be as specific as possible based on the facts that we do have.