This is my Rhetorical Analysis for English 1101. It analyzes Questlove's Facebook post and how he tries to persuade his readers using argumentative claims and evidence.




Questlove’s Famous Facebook Post
In this paper, I will analyze how Questlove’s Facebook post tries to persuade his readers
through the use of argumentative claims and evidence. First, I identify Questlove’s main
argument. Next, I describe his personal experiences as evidence Questlove’s uses to defend his
thesis. Then I asses his evidence and fine that it is not logical and effective for an academic
argument. He makes many assumptions, and I explains why they are not good. Next, based on
his evidence and assumptions, I argue that some readers will agree with those assumptions while
others will not. I conclude that he was not trying to make an argument, but instead was trying to
express his feelings. Questlove’s Facebook post argues that society thinks that all black men are
dangerous and untrustworthy. Overall, his main argument locates racism in his personal
experiences. He link his experience to the Trayvon Martin case. He explains that the outcome of
the trial means black men “ain’t shit” (Thompson).
Questlove’s evidence
Most of Questlove’s evidence is personal experience. Questlove clearly states that “I’m
in scenarios all the time which primitive, exotic looking me-six foot two, 300 pounds,
uncivilized Afro--for starters finds himself in places where people who look like me are not
normally found” (Thompson). The argument set up from personal experiences is fallacy of
reasoning because he makes hasty generalizations with few pieces of evidence. He also uses
faulty deduction. He has a major premise that people do not feel safe around him and has a minor
premise of going on vacations because he don’t want to make rich white people feel
uncomfortable. From these premises, he concludes that the society in not comfortable with him around. He uses this example, but does not support the claim with good enough evidence.
Racism is bigger than just personal experiences. To strengthen his argument, he needs to have
more examples or use statistics.
Logical and effective evidence
Questlove’s evidence is not logical and effective for an academic argument. His use of
personal experience as evidence is fallacy of reasoning because he uses very few piece of
evidence to support his claim. For example, “I wait and wait in cars until I feel it’s safe for me to
make people feel safe, but if you spent a good three months in these size fourteens, you’d
understand why I take this position” (Thompson). When he states “why I take this position,” he
needs more evidence. The argument is presented to the reader without strong supporting facts.
There is not enough evidence here for a strong academic argument. However, I do not think he
was trying to make an argument. I do not find that he was to express his feelings not create an
argument.
Assumptions
In a lot of the Facebook post, Questlove makes a lot of assumptions. He made an
assumption specifically when he says;
Then I assume she is missing her building card, so I pulled my card
out to try to press her floor yet again. She says, ‘That’s okay’.
Then it hit me: ‘Oh God, she purposely held that information
back.’ Then door closed. It was a ‘pie in the face’ moment
(Thompson)
He tells this story but does not have enough facts to back up his claim. There is no information
beyond his personal experiences for the reader to understand the argument. To make a stronger argument, Questlove should get more perspectives from many other people. If they all have the
same opinion this would make a stronger argument. He uses an unfair emotional appeal in this
post. Based on his past experiences he thinks she feels he is dangerous without asking how she
feels. In this article there is not enough evidence here for a strong academic argument but I do
not think he was trying to make argument. I think he was just expressing his feelings not creating
an argument.
Reader’s opinion
Questlove’s post was on Facebook, so some readers may agree some may not. Readers
are on Facebook to see what is going on with their friends, families and famous people. The
whole point of Facebook is for entertainment. Readers are not always looking for strong, wellwritten
arguments. Sometimes they are just looking for other people who have had this
experience. The people who did not share an experience like this would be more likely to
disagree. Some people would agree because they might have felt the same way or have been in
his shoes. This story may relate to racism, but because he wrote the post without facts or proper
supports, readers will likely take it as a personal experience which is contextual evidence.
Conclusion
In this paper, I have shown how Questlove tries to persuade his readers with the use of
argumentative claims in a recent Facebook post. Questloves main argument was racism is real
and he experiences it a lot. He links his experience to the Trayvon Martin case, explaining that
the outcome of the trial means black men “ain’t shit” (Thompson). I explained how Questlove
used personal evidence that was missing facts to support his claims. I pointed out his fallacy of
reasoning, faulty deduction, and underdeveloped argument based on assumptions. I illustrated his
use of emotional appeal in order for him to strengthen his argument. I conclude this paper with my own argument. I do not believe he was trying to argue with post he made, he was just
expressing his feeling towards the situation. So while my analyze shows this is not a strong
argument, that does not mean it did not do what Questlove hoped it would.
 Work cited
Thompson, A. Questlove. “Trayvon Martin and I Ain’t Shit.” Link