Kairos is an important rhetorical device used in Syl Johnson's "Is it because i'm black?" This song was clearly made to address racial inequality, as the phrase "It it because i'm black?" serves as the hook of this song. This song was released in 1970, the rhetorical situation being a time of racial tenderness. The United States was still recovering from the civil rights movement at this time, and was trying to adjust to a new society that actively promoted equal rights for all regardless of race. The title of this song communicated to the public in saying that even though blacks were protected by the law, there were still many disadvantages of being a black man during this time. At the time, many of these disadvantages were not clear, making black men wonder whether or not they were, for example, denied something because they were black.
-Nebeyu
Your explanation of the release of the song and its relation to the civil rights movement is great. One thing I would improve on though is maybe adding more information about Syl Johnson. If possible, maybe you could add a section about Johnson's own experiences with discriminations and its affect on the lyrics of the song.
ReplyDelete-Kyle Strouth
I believe your analysis of the kairos of this song is very good. You did a great job of describing some of the problems that existed even during the later parts of the civil rights movement. My only suggestions are that maybe you could go a little more in depth on some of the events happening the year the song was released. Also maybe you could add some hyperlinks in the analysis, possibly to an article about the civil rights movement, to give some more context for someone who might not know a lot about this time period. All in all this was a really good kairos analysis for this song.
ReplyDelete-Ryan Young