1042 Amoroso Place

Venice, CA 90291
September 26, 2016
Erin Lebacqz
Room 106
Ortega building
Dear Ms. Lebacqz,
My primary goals in this paper is to expose Tomi Lahren for being completely biased
and racist in her video as well as breaking apart parts of her video and explaining why
they are not effective by analyzing her rhetorical devices and strategies.
I think I did a good job at meeting these goals because I explained how she contradicts
herself repeatedly and used examples from her video to prove how she was racist,
biased and inconsistent.
I chose organization, focus and thesis, and ideas and content. I tried being more
consistent with my transitions in this paper, as well as making sure my paper flowed. I
made sure my thesis was clear throughout the whole paper and I tried to bring up
complex angles and topics in this paper. For the organization I chose transition between
ideas and paragraph order. For focus and ideas, I chose thesis is the focus of the paper
and staying focused on the thesis and topics. For ideas and content, I chose to bring up
interesting and relevant topic and analysis should include rhetorical strategies.
I chose mechanics, writing style and clarity, and evidence and examples as my less
weighted sub topics.
Im interested to hear about how I did analyzing the rhetoric of the video and if my tone
and voice through the paper fit what I was writing about.
Sincerely,
Julian Greenspan

Julian Greenspan
English 120
September 16, 2016
The Roast of Tomi Lahren
Police have killed at least 214 black people in the U.S. in 2016 and 97% of
cases in 2015 did not result in any officer(s) being involved being charged with a crime.
This is an issue that America is currently dealing with. There have been many people
and groups that have protested in different ways with the hope of changing the
injustices done to black Americans, one of the most recent examples of a celebrity
taking a stand against these events was a Colin Kaepernick a NFL quarterback who sat
during the national anthem before one of his games to show that he was unhappy with
these events with the hope of people noticing. Doing this has become a huge
controversial argument all over the media. Not only are the acts of this players causing
a storm but some of the responses to this form of protest have also been taking on
some heat, specifically on by a web journalist, Tomi Lahren. Tomi Lahren went online
and made a video where all she did was argue and criticize Colin kaepernick. What she
says in her video is completely biased and cannot be considered a good argument
because the rhetorical devices she uses are completely ineffective
Colin kaepernick is the quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers football team.
Recently he decided to sit during the singing of the national anthem before his game
because he was not going ...stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that
oppresses black people and people of color...". Kaepernick is making reference to
mainly all the killings done by police officers in the last months. There are plenty of
people who back him up because they believe in the freedom of speech and that any

individual can participate, or not, in the celebration of the national anthem. Not after long
other professional athletes who believed the same as him started supporting him and
doing the same. Soccer star Megan Rapinoe decided to join Kaepernick as well as
other players of the NFL. On the other hand, there are a lot of people opposed to what
he is doing because they say that not standing for the flag and anthem is an act of
disrespect towards the country. Many people have even pushed for Kaepernick to be
suspended from games or even worse.
Tomi Lahren is an online video host and a conservative political commentator
who is currently anchoring her own segment on a popular website called Theblaze.
Lahrens response to Colins nonviolent protest was filled with biased, racist and
ignorant comments which she used in hopes of convincing her viewers that what the
football player was doing is wrong. Her video is a three-and-a-half-minute long
monologue where she goes whines nonstop. There are several problems in Lahrens
rant not because she is expressing her opinion but more on how she tries to convey it.
When a person with credibility speaks people are more likely to listen, like a
teacher. People achieve a level of credibility because they are knowledgeable about a
subject through experience or education. Tomi Lahren has no real ethos for this issue
because she does not have education on the subject or any experience of what
Kaepernick is protesting. The most she has going for her credibility is that she makes
angry videos like this one all the time. Tomi Lahren is very biased in most if not all of her
videos, she even says in several videos that she does not like the current president. In
the video she made about Colin Kaepernick she expresses that he should not be
blaming white America, black America, brown America or even purple America but

then she goes on to mention that we have had a black president for almost eight years
now maybe he failed you. Why does it matter if he is black, white, brown or purple? It
should not statement she makes throughout her video are proof of her obvious racist
mindset and ignorance. Even though we have had a black president for the last eight
years that does not mean the problem didn't exist before he was president and certainly
does not mean he could fix decades of oppression so fast. Comments like these that
contradict her argument are examples of how she does not have any ethos.
Without ethos it is difficult to believe or want to listen to a person but when their
argument is filled with biased statements and the word choice of an angry seven-yearold it makes it a worse argument. In her opening statements she claims she is going to
...eviscerate this mouth diarrhea sentence by sentence., throughout her whole video
she quotes in two times and doesn't analyze what he says, she simply just argues it with
a sentence that takes in her a different path. A sentence later, she goes on to say she
supports the first amendment and the freedom of speech and expression nevertheless
she then calls him a whiny, indulgent, attention seeking cry baby and orders him to
leave if he is so disgusted with this country, even though she is the person who has a
video blog dedicated to complaining about the branch of the government that she
doesn't agree with.
She starts her video off by attacking Colin for speaking his mind and taking
actions which he saw fit for the situation but the tells him to leave. After spouting that
nonsense, she begins the part of her speech where she turns into an ethnocentricity
racist. Lahren talks about how Colin is half white and was adopted by a white family
because his were willing to raise him, and in her mind that means he should be very

grateful to a certain race and if he believes there are injustices not being addressed
correctly he can't take a stand. Since he doesn't like what is going on in America today
and decides to protest in a nonviolent way that catches the peoples attention, then he
should decline his paycheck right? Well, Tomi Lahren thinks so. She also questions why
he never took a stand before, during his six-year career, thats probably because this
issue was either not as bad before or because it is barely starting to get more attention
because of the internet.
The one thing Lahren has going for her is that she is using strong emotions is her
tone and what she is saying, even though it doesn't make sense. By being that
confident in what she is saying and choosing to target his hate for America she is
appealing to a rather large group of people who are extreme patriotics and do not agree
with Kaepernick that there is a problem with police brutality. That is the best rhetorical
strategy she used since nothing she states is backed with facts and a lot of what she
says counters her points and are inconsistent.
Tomi Lahren did a good job appealing to certain audience by getting them
agitated and mad at Kaepernick for not standing for the flag but the rest of the audience
can see right through her nonsense. She has no ethos which makes it hard to even
want to listen to her but what makes her argument completely invalid is the fact that she
calls Kaepernick named and complains about him protesting when he has the right to
do so. After Tomi Lahrens video becomes more viewed, I hope other people are able to
see through her bullshit and understand that it is people like her who are empowering
the ignorance in our country.

INDIVIDUALIZED RUBRIC FOR PAPER # ____1______

NAME: _____Julian Greenspan ______

Area
Meets
assignment
& Addresses
Rhetorical
Situation
(10 points)

Subpoints

Meets all requirements

and instructions as
delineated in the
assignment sheet
Purpose: Writing
decisions help forward your
purpose and achieve
desired results from your
audience.
Audience: Writing
decisions reflect an
awareness of audience
values, biases, and needs
Genre: Your project works
within the conventions and
goals of the chosen genre.

What will this look like?

Your project will reflect

requirements including
topic, purpose, genre,
source use, writing goals.
Purpose: to prove that
Tomi Lahrens video is full
of ignorance and
ineffective rhetorical
devices.
Audience: anyone who
has seen her video or
heard of what Colin
kaepernick is doing.
Genre: social injustices
and social ignorance

In the next three rows, paste the three areas youre focusing on most those you
would like to be worth 20 points each with the two subpoints youve chosen for each,
and a bullet describing what each will look like in your paper.

Transition between ideas

Paragraph order

Focus, thesis
and cohesion

Staying focused on thesis and top

Thesis is the focus of the paper

Ideas, content
and analysis

organization

Content: bring up interesting and relevant topics

Analysis should include rhetorical strategies, analyze text (not
just summarize)

In the next three rows, paste the three areas youre planning to practice more in other papers
those you would like to be worth 10 points each with the two subpoints youve chosen for each,
and a bullet describing what each will look like.

Mechanics etc

Evidence and
examples

Writing style
and clarity

Verb tense

punctuation

categorization of examples (diverse, variety)

explanation of examples and evidence

use active voice

voice and tone

Works cited
Tomi Lahrens video: Novilady. "Tomi Lahren Schools Colin Kaepernick." YouTube. YouTube,
29 Aug. 2016. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.
Website that has facts about police brutality: "Police Have Killed at Least 214 Black People in
the U.S. in 2016." Mapping Police Violence. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.