This writing sample is an excerpt from a larger reader sample pertaining to the power of rhetoric. I feel that this sample represents my writing voice well.
Words Do Have Consequences
By: Mary N. Renfroe
Throughout the past year Trump has constantly referred to the humanitarian crisis at the border as an “invasion” and to illegal immigrants as “invaders.” This use of repetition has not existed without impact. On August 3rd2019, Patrick Wood Crusius open fired in a Walmart in El Paso, Texas “killing 22 and injuring 24” (Davis). Right before Crusius set fire on the Walmart, he released his manifesto entitled “The Inconvenient Truth.” In this, he claims this “‘attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas. They are the instigator, not me. I am simply defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by an invasion.’” With the mention of a “Hispanic invasion of Texas,” Crusius’ manifesto draws a connection to Trump’s political discourse from his presidency (Davis). Although Crusius also took influence from the manifesto from Brenton Tarrant, the New Zealand Christchurch shooter, Trump’s own influence is not negligible. Through his usage of border rhetoric in his tweets and speeches, Trump has taken part in constructing a divisionary atmosphere in the United States, and this atmosphere has become intensified in the borderlands surrounding the United States-Mexico border. Crusius was able to further distort Trump’s usage of border rhetoric to fit his own cause and needs. Ultimately Crusius and his manifesto illustrate the unintended consequences that border rhetoric can perpetuate when utilized by those with wide power and reach. Trump himself has utilized “the ‘discursive construction of US and THEM’” as “a powerful persuasive tool that supports prejudiced conceptualizations” and through this, has created a distinct division between national self and other in order to assert his control over the American citizenry (Schubert 318). Border rhetoric then is not only an intangible tool of writing and speech but also something, which impacts society on a physical and psychological level.
Works Cited
Davis, Michael. “The Manifesto Posted On 8chan By Alleged El Paso Shooter Minutes Before Attack.” MEMRI, Middle East Media Research Institute, 6 Aug. 2019, www.memri.org/reports/manifesto-posted-8chan-alleged-el-paso-shooter-minutes-attack.
Schubert, Christoph. “Cognitive Categorization and Prototypicality as Persuasive Strategies: Presidential Rhetoric in the USA.” Journal of Language & Politics, vol. 13, no. 2, Apr. 2014, pp. 313-335.