A Change in Community

Hello! Welcome to my second action project for my Rhetoric class. Rhetoric is the process of using forms of speech like talking or writing in an effective way. This unit was titled, “Suppose.” We did a lot of digging into what rhetoric means and how it can be applied in distinct ways. We learned about different parts of the rhetorical toolbox and how to apply those parts to various situations. The rhetorical tool box is different parts of speech that might help to get a message across. Some of the parts of it are pathos, which appeals to an audience through emotions. There’s also logos, which use logic to appeal to an audience. Lastly, there’s ethos, which helps to make someone credible by presenting a certain background.

We were able to see some of these things applied when we watched an alder meeting on a zoom call. We then chose a main topic for the class, that being housing. With housing in mind, we had many contrasting conversations on how we are affected by things like gentrification. For those who aren’t informed, gentrification is the process where a lower income area is changed by higher income residents moving in. We also got to go talk to a developer who has been working in real estate. For this action project I was assigned to create a flier that convinces the viewers to bring up housing issues to their alders.


Here’s my flier below:

For my flier, I decided to target a neighborhood close to my heart, Bronzeville. Gentrification is something that affects the entire neighborhood in multiple ways. The issue is not as publicized as it should be, which leads to most of my audience not knowing about what’s happening in their communities. Some people in the neighborhood may know how their rent is impacted by their income. The issue is they don’t know how affordable their rent could’ve been in the 1990's compared to how expensive it is now. Pathos is based on appealing to a person’s emotions and how they may think. With that, I tried to appeal to some forms of emotion by making the last message heartfelt and making the audience notice the issues at hand. This is something that I represent on my flier with the two main statistics which appeal to logos. Finally rounding off in the corner with the contact information of Bronze ville’s alders. This can help make this issue more known for people who might not be too informed.


Sources:

A documentary film. Blueprint for Bronzeville. (n.d.). Retrieved September 30, 2022, from https://www.blueprintforbronzeville.com/issues/

Bloomberg. (2012, December 31). How black gentrifiers have affected the perception of Chicago's changing neighborhoods. Bloomberg.com. Retrieved September 30, 2022, from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-12-31/how-black-gentrifiers-have-affected-the-perception-of-chicago-s-changing-neighborhoods


Hourie, I. (2022, September 2). Bronzeville's revival is here to stay. The Real Deal Chicago. Retrieved September 30, 2022, from https://therealdeal.com/chicago/2022/02/16/chicago-betting-bronzeville-revival-is-here-to-stay/amp