In both essays, Brent Staples creates ethos building his case to the audience. In the first essay, he establishes ethos presenting how people feel uncomfortable around him as he is a black. “She thought herself a quarry of a mugger, a rapist, or worse” (Staples). He also states ethos using Norman Podhoretz essay, “My Negro Problem- And Ours”. He tries to make himself less threatening. On the other hand, in the second essay he uses ethos presenting his credibility identifying himself as a well-educated person “ a graduate student at the University of Chicago”, who has complete sense of what he is talking about. He also talks about his profession as a journalist.

Brent Staples has tried to move people by using logos in both essays. In the first