{"id":252,"date":"2015-03-10T21:52:24","date_gmt":"2015-03-10T21:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/?p=252"},"modified":"2016-02-10T05:21:46","modified_gmt":"2016-02-10T05:21:46","slug":"rhetoric-and-sense-making-in-the-death-of-tony-robinson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/?p=252","title":{"rendered":"Rhetoric and Sense-making in the Death of Tony Robinson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Madison, WI, progressive bastion of the Midwest (or so its residents like to think) saw itself become the next city to kill a black, unarmed teenager post-Ferguson last Friday night (March 6). The teen, Tony Robinson, was shot five times by a police officer in a house on \u201cWilly Street\u201d on Madison\u2019s East Side. In the days following, protests have grown in size, and with them, media coverage has grown in frequency and scope.<\/p>\n<p>As a white Madison resident concerned with the city\u2019s disproportionate arrest of black men (they\u2019re 8 times more likely to be arrested than white men here), and the spatial and economic segregation of the community, I have so many thoughts and so very many feelings.<\/p>\n<p>As a scholar, I am overwhelmed by all there is to see and hear. Speeches. Gestures. Blog posts. Newspaper articles. Videos. Still images. Some coalitional. Some divisive. Some purporting to be descriptive. Some honest about offering interpretation. All rhetorical.<\/p>\n<p>While I continue to process what I might have to say about these events, today my aim is curatorial. Here, I share with you some select moments from the last few days which bolster my belief that rhetoric is no ancient art, but very much alive and well in these United States:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Actively working to combat the common representation of fallen black men as \u201cthugs,\u201d Tony\u2019s mother requested that this photo of him at his high school graduation be the one circulated in the media:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a style=\"text-align: center; background-color: #f3f3f3;\" href=\"http:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Tony-Robinson-Madison.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-253 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Tony-Robinson-Madison.jpg\" alt=\"Tony Robinson\" width=\"293\" height=\"495\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Media representations of Tony have tended to align with common tropes used to explain why black men are killed by police. Despite his family and friends\u2019 efforts to talk about him as fun-loving, helpful, smart, and kind, this one <a href=\"http:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/videos\/justice\/2015\/03\/10\/erin-dnt-young-tony-robinson-profile.cnn\">clip from CNN<\/a>, for example, represents Tony as mentally troubled, a criminal, and a troubled teen who had fallen in with the \u201cwrong crowd.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Madison\u2019s police chief demonstrated the Platonic tradition of denigrating rhetoric even as he employed it to apologize to the community. In a March 9 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cityofmadison.com\/police\/chief\/blog\/?Id=6410\">\u201cMessage to the Community\u201d blog post<\/a>, Chief Koval points to Sir Robert Peel, the \u201cfounder of modern policing,\u201d to explain that \u201cPOLICE ARE THE PUBLIC AND THE PUBLIC ARE THE POLICE\u201d (Koval\u2019s emphasis). He then employs a number of metaphors: putting on \u201carmor\u201d each day, thinking about the police as \u201cguardians\u201d of \u201cthe vulnerable, the voiceless, the victims.\u201d Then, as he concludes, he writes, \u201cLet us continue to demonstrate to you that our commitment transcends <em>mere rhetoric<\/em>\u201d (emphasis mine).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>A Milwaukee science fiction and fantasy author took on the role of argumentation scholar that same day, analyzing common arguments made in the wake of events like Robinson\u2019s killing. His piece, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.patrickstomlinson.com\/2015\/03\/09\/4-reasons-not-to-get-upset-about-tony-robinson-and-why-theyre-all-bullshit\/\">\u201c4 Reasons Not to Get Upset About Tony Robinson and Why They\u2019re All Bullshit\u201d<\/a> responded to 1) calls to \u201cwait for the facts,\u201d 2) arguments that \u201cofficers have to protect themselves,\u201d 3) questions about why protestors aren\u2019t \u201cprotesting criminals\u201d instead of police, and 4) colorblind assertions that \u201cpeople shouldn\u2019t make it all about race.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"attachment_254\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-254\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-254 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/soglin.jpg\" alt=\"Paul Soglin addresses crowd\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/soglin.jpg 640w, https:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/soglin-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/soglin-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-254\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image source: The Isthmus, a Madison, WI newspaper.<\/p><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>Scholars of traditional public address often hear that their work matters little in a digital world, but the above image of Madison Mayor Paul Soglin addressing more than 1,500 young protestors on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard suggests otherwise. As the street name reminds us of one of the great orators of last century\u2019s civil rights movements, Soglin\u2019s bullhorn before this group of protestors demonstrates the continued expectation that political leaders <em>speak<\/em> in times of social and\/or political upheaval.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cIndict. Convict. Send those killer cops to jail. The whole damn system is guilty as hell.\u201d \u201cHands Up, Don\u2019t Shoot!\u201d \u2013 As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=VrkTiwJfMy4\">the crowd marched across the city<\/a>, these collective chants demonstrated a belief that shared words and shared experience (the aural, the embodied, and the visual) were important to communicate their response to the deaths of unarmed black youth and adults in Madison, and beyond.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Of all the chants that I\u2019ve heard at this week\u2019s protests, my favorite one is this: \u201cThis is what democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like!\u201d From a community grappling with principles of fairness, equality, and justice this week, I offer these examples to illustrate the critical role rhetoric plays in these negotiations. As rhetorical scholars, we are trained to notice, think through, and make sense of these symbolic representations. However,\u00a0as I hope the above illustrates, and as this blog hopes to communicate, <em>everyone<\/em> is always both a rhetor and a rhetorician.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Madison, WI, progressive bastion of the Midwest (or so its residents like to think) saw itself become the next city to kill a black, unarmed teenager post-Ferguson last Friday night (March 6). The teen, Tony Robinson, was shot five times &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/?p=252\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=252"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":371,"href":"https:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions\/371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}