Trump & Kaepernick

When looking at this striking pieces of rhetorical analysis of our country I found two that really stood out. The first one, a cartoon depicting Donald Trump and Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers. Trump and Kaepernick are both claiming that “America’s not great” to an audience. In the picture of Trump, the audience is replying with a “yeah!” and with Kaepernick a stern, “Boo!” This one stood out to me because I understand so easily where both people are coming from.  Trump’s stance and Kaepernick’s are different and their claims are for different reasons. Trump is more commenting on how the United States is viewed internationally, whilst Kaepernick is more commenting in internal issues, specifically the suffering of minorities through systematic racism. This is very interesting because Trump won the election on this claim. Meanwhile Kaepernick received strong signals about why he was in the wrong. An interesting comparison can be made to Dread Scott’s interactive artwork from 1988. The Plaque on the wall reads, “what is the proper way to display the flag?” with images of the flag being burned. Then on the ground, the flag has been laid for people to walk on as they make their way to the podium and write something into a journal of some kind. His name immediately reminds me of Dred Scott an ex-slave who fought for freedom of blacks in the 1800s. However, this Scott is making a similar claim. Scott is claiming that it is okay to walk on the flag or to burn the flag. Though Kaepernick never claimed this, his reasons are similar to that of Scott. Scott thinks that actions of the citizens of the country aren’t something that needs to be respected. This easily relates to SLO #1B: analyze the way a text’s (artifact’s) purposes, audiences, and contexts influence rhetorical options.