Racism, tolerance, and perfected redemption: a Rhetorical critique of the dragging trial

• Autores: Larry Williamson
• Localización: Southern communication journal, ISSN 1041-794X, Vol. 67, nº 3 (PRIMAVERA), 2001, págs. 245-258
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This critique probes the rhetorical significance of popular trials by treating the media coverage of the 1998 dragging death of James Byrd, Jr, in Jasper, Texas, as an example of perfected redemption. Burke's theories of symbolic perfection and redemption are employed to reveal how the representations of what became known as the "Dragging Trial" provide insight into the status of racism in America. This critique demonstrates how the rhetoric of redemption functioned to purge east Texans of the stigma of Dixie-styled bigotry at the expense of an oversimplification of our moral progress in regards to racism, thus posing a moral paradox inherent in perfected redemption