In her piece for the Catholic weekly publication America, “Race in America: ‘We Would Like to Believe We Are Over the Problem’,” Maryann Cusimano Love responds to a comment made by Delegate Frank D. Hargrove Sr. and discusses the still prevalent issue of racism in the United States of America. Love provides many facts and figures in obstruction to Delegate Hargrove’s belief that the blacks in America need to move past the grudge of slavery because it is not an issue today. Love obviously disagrees with his statement and spends the majority of the article arguing why he is wrong, as well as providing her solution to the problem.
I do not believe that Love was successful in her argument against Delegate Hargrove’s comment. While she gave multiple statistics in defense, they tended to be weak in reliability as well as being emotionally driven. Love relies on manipulative language to carry her article, which makes her writing seem shallow and poorly developed. In her article, Love argues that, though many citizens, politicians, and even the press profess that the country is far past its racial issues, they are still present in today’s society.
Love begins by bringing up an interview of Delegate Frank D. Hargrove Sr. , a Republican from Richmond, Virginia. In this interview, Hargrove made the statement that “blacks need to get over [slavery]” because it is “counterproductive to dwell on it” when “not a soul today had anything to do with slavery” (Love par. 2).
Love goes on to argue against Hargrove’s views, providing many statistics to prove that America is in fact not over the problem of racism. Love concludes with a reminder that “the United States is not alone” (Par.
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In its racial struggles, and determines that the solution to them is to study the past to understand where the origins of racism are as a whole nation, not just as individual citizens. Love is writing to a generally Catholic audience. The readers of this publication are interested in “spiritual renewal and social analysis guided by the spirit of charity” (America), so this may explain the reasoning behind Love’s argument. Love’s writing is manipulative from the beginning.
She does not provide any context for Delegate Hargrove’s statement, unfairly making him sound like more of a racist than he would have had his comments been provided background information. Love’s tone is very defensive throughout the article, making it sound like she is seeking pity. Overall, Love relies far too much on emotional appeals to support her argument. The statements made by Delegate Hargrove which Love uses as a foundation to her argument were taken manipulatively out of context. Love does not explain the situation surrounding the comments, nor does she elaborate as to why they were made.
With further research, it was discovered that Delegate Hargrove was making these statements in response to a resolution calling for an apology from the state of Virginia for the long gone institution of slavery (Gibson).
Delegate Hargrove disagreed for the need of such apology, therefore he was explaining why he did not vote to support it. Love’s portrayal of the interview was inaccurate, making her writing seem unreliable and contriving. Furthermore, the statistics Love provides in support of her claim that racism is still prevalent in the United States are poorly cited and are seemingly shallow.
They are one sided in regard to the race in which is referenced, making Love’s bias toward the subject obvious. Love clearly believes strongly in her argument, which is necessary for a convincing piece of writing, but she lets this get in the way of the need to present all sides of the issue. If Love had shown statistics of races including, but not limited to, African – American, her argument would have come off as more developed as well as possibly more convincing. In regards to remaining on topic, Love strays from her original point.
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The article begins by addressing the disagreement for a necessary apology for slavery by a state legislator, but then immediately jumps to the issue of racism in the country today. The connection between these two topics is vague and the lines of logic that are assumed connect the two are left unexplained. Love’s balance of the different ideas of her thesis is uneven, making some aspects of it ineffective. She spends the majority of the article stating facts and figures that she believes support her argument. The solution she gives is short, shallow, and is summed up in one sentence.
It sounds as though Love is not as concerned with providing a key to peace as she is with bringing to attention to “unfairness” of certain parts of American society. Again, the meat of her writing is intended to manipulate the emotions and cloud the reasoning of readers. Although Love brings many pieces of evidence to the forefront in an attempt to show the racism that still exists in the United States of America, she does so shallowly and manipulatively in order to support her weak and poorly developed argument. I agree with Love in her opinion that racism is still an issue in our country today, but not for the reasons she provides.
I believe that had she used fewer statistics, had cited those statistics more, and had relied more on a solution to this problem, it would have been a more convincing stance. Also, her deceptive interpretation of Delegate Hargrove’s statements was completely off – putting for me. Yes, I think that his statements were poorly worded and not thought out, but after reading his comments in the context that they were given, I find myself agreeing with him for the most part. Overall, I believe Love’s article was weak in development, shallow, and manipulative, therefore making it unconvincing.
