Visual Rhetoric

Robert Beck
My visual rhetoric piece is meant to be provocative. It is both simple and, hopefully,
striking. I used two well-known images to construct meaning. The images form an equal sign and
are cropped to be thin. This is of course intentional. Underneath the two images is a hashtag that
reads were not there yet. This simple phrase is meant to provide context to the imagery. To
understand the rhetoric a comparison to all images present is necessary. This comparison
however should be easy and quick. Each piece of imagery is a reaction to the other images on the
page.
The first image is a black and white photo from the Selma march. It shows the long line
of marchers and a single police man, standing and watching. The policeman in this photo is
simply watching, from the photo it is unclear what he is doing. Is he protecting the protestors? Is
he attempting to stop them? In this context it is unclear. The audience will immediately recognize
the march. They will be viewing a window into the past.
The second image is from the Ferguson protests of the past year and is also easily
recognizable. It is in color and as such shows the progression of time between the two images.
This second image is what our society has progressed to. In this image, one sole protestor is
surrounded by several well-armed officers. The officers do not look like the policeman in the
first image. In this image they look like soldiers. The image is striking. They appear aggressive
toward the protestor. He has his arms raised while they have their guns raised. The images show
the progression of time. These images symbolize how far America has come in civil rights.
The images together make an equal sign. This is for multiple reasons. The shrunken
image forces the audience to look closer. It gives the images a window like quality. The audience
is not only getting a window into the past but a window into the lives of others. Lives of people
who must protest to earn their own right to live. People who are viewed as lesser or second-class.
People whose lives are still inherently unequal by a multitude of ways. The inequality is
referenced through the equal sign. The audience sees to scenes of protest and progression in the
shape of our symbol for equality. They then read the hashtag were not there yet. The message
is easy to understand, equality in America has still not been reached.
The intended audience is people like me, young, white Americans. Americans who have
misconceptions on white privilege and equality. This is image is meant to remind the audience
that we as people have not overcome hatred and inequality. America has not become the land of
equality yet. It has much more work to do. The hashtag is an effort to spread this. Hashtags are
effective mass media. Sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram all utilize hashtags. Social
media is the largest media in the world today. A hashtag is an extremely effective way to spread a
message. With its addition to the imagery the argument becomes much more effective.