Catrina Banci
English 3 AP
Mr. Soeth
February 16, 2011

REHUGO Analysis- Current Events- Family

b. Articles

Family Intolerance of Interracial Marriage Can Be Overcome- Yolanda E.S. Miller

Family Intolerance Is a Obstacle for Interracial Marriage- Maria P.P. Root

c.Arguement

Yolanda Miller argued in her article that your family would be accepting if you can show them that your interracial marriage can overcome all. She also stated that your family could possibly not accept your marriage because they could have experienced a mistreatment from that certain race, and they don't want you to be set up for the same mistreatment. In Maria Root's article, she argued that with interracial marriages, cultures and religion could easily slip away, plus the children of interracial couples could face mistreatment because they are not of "pure blood".

d. Evidence

Miller used Logos and Ethos in her article. For Logos, she stated, "Thanks to the era of political correctness, being part of an interracial couple no longer elicits blatant staring, but my husband and I are still unique", and that is factual considering that she is Asian and her husband is Caucasian.This article wouldn't be as effective if she didn't state that in the beginning like she did because readers wouldn't been able to see her connection to it and where was she coming from. For Ethos, because she was using her own experience to talk about the matter, Miller talked about the time when she asked her father why he was so dissapproving of her and her husband at first and he "quoted Old Testament commands forbidding the Israelites to intermarry with foreigners". By doing that, her father was creating credibility because he was able to relate what had happened ages ago to her situation, so it wouldn't have seem like he didn't like them as a couple because of who her husband was. Miller's father proved that the husband wasn't the problem and it was just the race itself because he had a bad experience with Caucasian people.

Root used Logos and Ethos as well in her article. For Logos, she used statistics and poll results to make her article more logically correct. For example, she said, "A 1997 Gallup poll found the highest approval rating of interracial marriage ever by both black (77%) and white (61%) Americans" to prove her point of how many more people were accepting year to year. But this certainly doesn't change the fact that how "interracial marriages can create deep conflicts within families". Root used another poll result to prove this using the question of how people felt about people of their same race marrying other people in a different race, and the people who said that they didn't mind interracial marriages were the ones who opposed it as well. For Ethos, Root used the book Multiracial Couples: Black and White Voices to make her article more reliable. It was to make her point of how people fear contamination within families and even though they were not stated, she said she also had interviews with different people to get hold of this information.

e. Rhetorical Strategies

Miller used allusion and definition to prove her point. In her article, she referred to God many times saying that He was the one who set this up for her and how He made her and her husband strong to overcome whatever came their way and blessed to have each other in their lives. It was very effective because this showed how she felt about her "unique" situation. She used definition to make her readers know why she used her situation to talk about interracial marriages like for example, Miller defined the word lohfahn, which was the derogatory term for Caucasian.

Roots used cause and effect and exemplification to make her point clear. She used cause and effect when she was talking about how people of different races marry each other and what could possibly happen after that. For example, if a Black guy and Caucasian woman got married, their children will be "torn between two worlds" because they could feel so overwhelmed by the fact that they don't have a one certain place that they belong, or their children could "contaminate" the family blood and won't be accepted by their parents' families because they are not of "pure" blood. Exemplification was used heavily in this article and it made it effective because the readers were able to see what Roots was saying or what she was trying to prove. For example, Roots talked about in this "culturally and diverse nation", it's impossible to not consider the fact that your kin could fall in love with a person of different race and that fact becomes real when a person's relative, who is Caucasian, marries a person who is Black, which is common. Another example would be how clans have a narrow criteria of people who wants to be apart of the clan. Roots used the experience of an African-American, whose mother-in-law didn't accept his and his wife's kid because the child was not someone she wanted to be apart of the family, let alone the husband.

f. I am definitely on Yolanda Miller's side on this topic because I am in an interracial relationship as well and I could relate to what she was saying to an extent. But the times has changed; being in an interracial relationship is perfectly normal for us. Nobody has a problem with people who are really mixed because we have come to learn that race doesn't matter and personality is what counts. In fact, people, who are mixed, are embraced for their beauty because it is definitely unique. Love is love; people can't change what they feel no matter what the person looks like or who they love. If your family is one of those families who are against interracial marriages, that's fine, but it is up to you whether or not you want to continue their traditions or starting your own because at the end of the day, your happiness is what matters. You have no one, but yourself to blame for how things turn out.

MLA Format

Milller, Yolanda E.S. "Family Intolerance of Interracial Marriage Can Be Overcome". Interracial Relationships. Ed. David M. Haugen. Detroit: Greenhaven Press. 2006. At Issue. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 2011 Feb 17.

Roots. Maria P.P "Family Intolerance Is a Obstacle for Interracial Marriages". Interracial Relationships. Ed. David M. Haugen. Detroit: Greenhaven Press. 2006. At Issue. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 2011 Feb 17.