Nia Saunders

English 102

Dr. Wynne

9 February 2017

Genre Analysis: Stop and Frisk

Over the past few years, stop and frisk has rapidly manifested itself into a national

controversy. It has caused a social divide amongst opposing views, some believing stop

and frisk is necessary for a safer country and others believing its a racially prejudice

policy put in place to oppress the minority. According to Cornell University Law School,

stop and frisk is the brief stop of a suspect justified under the fourth amendment which

allows law enforcement to stop and pat-down a suspect if they have reason to believe the

suspect is armed and dangerous. The poem Stop and Frisk by Claudia Rankine and the

picture taken by Seth Wenig of a stop and frisk protest, persuade their audiences that stop

and frisk policies need to be outlawed. Since these two genres are different the message

received from both varies. The setbacks each genre faced are different because the picture

focuses only on visual interpretations while the poem focuses on written interpretations.

Based on the subject matter and visual, we can deduce that the intended audiences

are urban communities and law enforcement. While the audience is already familiar with

stop and frisk, what they want to know is the kind of racial bias it promotes. The

photographer is trying to inform the audience about the importance of uniting and

fighting against stop and frisk. While the picture is mostly visual, the sign held up by the

protestors in the foreground does use relatively formal language. In terms of specialized

language it uses Racial Profiling and Stop and frisk (Wenig). These specialized
words are important to the audience because African Americans tend to take oppression

and injustice very seriously, as they have seen in the past how ignoring terms like these

can cause an endless cycle of oppression. These terms are important for law enforcement

because it is their job to ensure that everyone has equal protection under the law; seeing

words like these lets them know that there are injustices occurring.

This genre is effective because of the photographers use of ethos, pathos and

logos. The photo evokes Pathos like hope, unity and power. Hope is shown through

Reverend Al Sharpton (Weing); in the past he has been able to change seemingly

hopeless situations and make them monumental moments. He is known for taking what

most would see as an impossible situation and proving its possibility; by using him in

this picture it shows the audience that he will provide that same change for them. Unity is

shown through the different ethnicities protesting in the picture. Typically stop and frisk

has been something that divides ethnicities however, what we see in this picture is blacks

and whites coming together and protesting (Weing). This promotes the idea that united

we can beat this policy but divided we will fail. Power is shown through the low angle

camera shot; this is because typically in pictures low angle shots suggest the subject is

powerful (Weing). Next, the photographer shows ethos by having Reverend Al Sharpton

in the center of the picture; this shows credibility because he is a well-known and

respected civil right activist who is notorious for his ability to bring attention to and

change civil injustices in minority communities. Lastly, the photographer establishes

logos through color, size and angle shots. The sign is very bright yellow and the letters

are black; this allows the audience to clearly see and understand why the crowd is

protesting. The sign is also the width of the crowd this shows its importance to the
picture. Having Al Sharpton hold up part of the sign shows the audience that this isnt

just a local problem, rather a national issue, as he is a national civil rights leader.

When looking at and analyzing a visual, there are often times a lot of limitations

placed on the information. Since this genre is a photo, word usage is very limited. When

looking at this picture in particular we are only given one sentence of information

(Weing). Due to these limitations the audience is forced to draw their own interpretations

of the image. In this picture specifically we see the effect space limitations have on the

overall photo; in the image there are hundreds of people marching, this forces the

photographer to decide which aspect of the crowd to include or leave out. When using a

photo it is crucial to use space wisely in order to get the message across. The

photographer chooses to maintain a close up on the front of the crowd that holds the sign;

he does this so that the audience can see the emotion on each protester's face. When

looking at a picture it is important to realize the importance of the structure.

In the poem entitled Stop and Frisk, by Claudia Rankine, the intended discourse

communities are African Americans and law enforcement. The author repeats the phrase

and you are not the guy still you fit the description because there is only one guy who is

always the guy fitting the description (Rankine). This statement implies that the

audience already knows the oppression certain individuals face under the law; what the

audience wants to know however is why this oppression exists and how it can be

changed. In this poem, the author is trying to inform and persuade the audience that stop

frisk has become a problem; instead of protecting everyone it targets certain minorities

and promotes racial profiling. The language in this poem is mostly informal for example,

go ahead hit me motherfucker (Rankine). The author doesnt use specialized language,
this is done so that the audience can clearly understand and appreciate her message

without having to look up definitions. In terms of language features, the author decided to

use italicized font and a black and white picture of African American men at the top of

the poem (Rankine). Her reasoning for this was to establish the sensitivity of the subject

along with the discourse community.

This poem has a good analysis because the poet establishes Ethos, Pathos and

Logos. Claudia establishes credibility or Ethos, by using the word I multiple times in

the poem I left my clients house knowing I would be pulled over. I knew. I just knew

(Rankine). This establishes ethos because it implies that the poem is based on something

she or someone she interviewed has directly experienced; it shows that her poem is

corroborated and not just opinion based. The poem forces the audience to feel many

emotions, the first one being anger you didnt do anything wrong. Then why are you

pulling me over? (Rankine). This makes the audience feel anger as they are forced to

realize the oppression African Americans feel daily. Sadness is felt for the victim in the

poem officers knee pressing into my collarbone, the officers warm breath vacating a

face creased into the smile of its own private joke (Rankine). The audience feels sadness

as they realize the pain and torture this man is facing for a crime he didnt commit.

Lastly, courage is felt because the audience realizes that without someone fighting back

cops will always win The charge the officer decided on was exhibition of speed

(Rankine). The poem has logos because it separates the information into sections

representing the progression of the arrest, starting with getting pulled over and ending

with charges being pressed.

 In a written piece the author has the power of words to captivate the reader. This

can also pose as a setback; with the ability to use many words the author must be careful

to remain organized and focused on the purpose of the piece. In a written genre the author

is forced to use only words to get their message across so they must be savvy, organized

and concise.

The poem Stop and Frisk by Claudia Rankine and the photograph of the stop

and frisk protest were both trying to persuade their audience that stop and frisk needs to

be terminated. While both aimed to persuade the same message, when analyzing we see

that the genre used dictated how the message was delivered. Both genres were good,

however the poem was most effective. The picture, while visually pleasing did not evoke

enough emotions; Claudias ability to use powerful words and structure to persuade her

audience is far more effective than the picture.

 Work Cited

Rankine, Claudia. Stop-And-Frisk Traveling as a family. Web. 7th Feb. 2017

Stop and Frisk. (n.d). Cornell University Law School. Retrieved from

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/stop_and_frisk

Weing, Seth. Stop-and-Frisk. Photograph. The San Diego Tribune. (n.p.), June 17th,

2012. Web. 7th Feb. 2017