https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6211-4471
![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Derek Chauvin’s trial for murdering George Floyd was a flashpoint of public deliberation around justice, accountability, and police reform. Burkean approaches to guilt, and their corresponding Western understandings of language, can be extended through Afrocentric rhetorics. We propose the “rhetorical fractal” to encompass Black ways of knowing and communicating. Unlike a cycle that returns to its starting point, a fractal is endlessly complex and cannot be refined to a single instance. Informed by Afrocentric concepts of nommo, hush harbors, and Black publics, we apply the rhetorical fractal to hashtags that circulated on Twitter during Chauvin’s trial and verdict.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank the editor, the paper’s anonymous reviewers, Tom Hollihan, Jim Klumpp, and Paul La Plante for the valuable feedback they provided on the paper.
Correction Statement
This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Notes
1 Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Kim Barker, “New Transcripts Detail Last Moments for George Floyd,” New York Times, July 8, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/us/george-floyd-body-camera-transcripts.html.
2 Joe Hernandez, “Darnella Frazier, Who Filmed George Floyd’s Murder, Wins an Honorary Pulitzer,” NPR, June 11, 2021, https://www.npr.org/2021/06/11/1005601724/darnella-frazier-teen-who-filmed-george-floyds-murder-wins-pulitzer-prize-citati.
3 Christine Harold and Kevin Michael DeLuca, “Behold the Corpse: Violent Images and the Case of Emmett Till,” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 8, no. 2 (2005): 263–86.
4 John Eligon et al., “Derek Chauvin Verdict Brings a Rare Rebuke of Police Misconduct,” New York Times, April 21, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/20/us/george-floyd-chauvin-verdict.html.
5 Ray Sanchez and Eric Levenson, “Derek Chauvin Sentenced to 22.5 Years in Death of George Floyd,” CNN, June 25, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/25/us/derek-chauvin-sentencing-george-floyd/index.html.
6 For example, Eric Garner’s murder in New York was captured on film but did not result in a crimination conviction of police officer Daniel Pantaleo. Philando Castile was filmed being shot by Jeronimo Yanez in Minnesota, but Yanez was found not guilty on second-degree manslaughter. Listing the names of everyone who has been killed by police officers would take up nearly a page. Instead, we encourage readers to visit the Say Their Name resource and the Know Their Names interactive list. Gonzaga University, “Say Their Name,” accessed September 2, 2021, https://www.gonzaga.edu/about/offices-services/diversity-inclusion-community-equity/say-their-name; Alia Chughtai, “Know Their Names: Black People Killed by the Police in the US,” accessed September 2, 2021, https://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2020/know-their-names/index.html.
7 Eligon et al., “Derek Chauvin Verdict.”
8 Kenneth Burke, The Rhetoric of Religion: Studies in Logology (University of California Press, 1970).
9 Burke, The Rhetoric of Religion; Barry Brummett, “Burkean Scapegoating, Mortification, and Transcendence in Presidential Campaign Rhetoric,” Central States Speech Journal 32, no. 4 (981): 254–64.
10 Emma Frances Bloomfield, “Rhetorical Constellations and the Inventional/Intersectional Possibilities of #MeToo,” Journal of Communication Inquiry 43, no. 4 (2019): 394–414.
11 Benoit B. Mandelbrot, The Fractal Geometry of Nature (Times Books, 1982), 1.
12 Mandelbrot, Fractal Geometry, 25.
13 James F Klumpp and Thomas A. Hollihan, “Debunking the Resignation of Earl Butz: Sacrificing an Official Racist,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 65, no. 1 (1979): 1–11; Bloomfield, “Rhetorical Constellations”; Casey R. Schmitt, “Scapegoat Ecology: Blame, Exoneration, and an Emergent Genre in Environmentalist Discourse,” Environmental Communication 13, no. 2 (2019): 152–64.
14 Brummett, “Burkean Scapegoating.”
15 Bloomfield, “Rhetorical Constellations”; Roger Davis Gatchet and Stephen A. King, “‘I Call Him Father of Us All’: Vicarious Transcendence at the B. B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center,” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 15, no. 1 (2018): 53–69.
16 Celeste Michelle Condit, “Post-Burke: Transcending the Sub-stance of Dramatism,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 78, no. 3 (1992): 349–55.
17 Molefi Kete Asante, Afrocentricity: The Theory of Social Change (African American Images, 2003), 51, 76.
18 Lisa A. Flores, “Between Abundance and Marginalization: The Imperative of Racial Rhetorical Criticism,” Review of Communication 16, no. 1 (2016): 4–24; Tiara R. Na’puti, “Speaking of Indigeneity: Navigating Genealogies against Erasure and #RhetoricSoWhite,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 105, no. 4 (2019): 495–501; Godfried Agyeman Asante, “#RhetoricSoWhite and US Centered: Reflections on Challenges and Opportunities,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 105, no. 4 (2019): 484–8; Karrieann Soto Vega and Karma R. Chávez, “Latinx Rhetoric and Intersectionality in Racial Rhetorical Criticism,” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 15, no. 4 (2018): 319–25.
19 Melbourne S. Cummings and Abhik Roy, “Manifestations of Afrocentricity in Rap Music,” Howard Journal of Communications 13, no. 1 (2002): 63.
20 Sarah J. Jackson, Moya Bailey, and Brooke Foucault Welles, #HashtagActivism: Networks of Race and Gender Justice (MIT Press, 2020), 102.
21 Asante, Afrocentricity.
22 Ronald L. Jackson II and Elaine B. Richardson, eds., Understanding African American Rhetoric: Classical Origins to Contemporary Innovations (Routledge, 2003).
23 Damariyé L. Smith, “Malcolm X and Africana Communication Theory: A Case Study of Ujamaa as Rhetorical Theory at the Founding Rally of the OAAU,” Howard Journal of Communication 32, no. 2 (2021): 117.
24 Maulana Karenga, “Black Studies and the Problematic of Paradigm: The Philosophical Dimension,” Journal of Black Studies 18, no. 4 (1988): 404, emphasis removed.
25 Felicia R. Stewart, “Exploring Afrocentricity: An Analysis of the Discourse of Barack Obama,” Journal of African American Studies 15, no. 3 (2011): 271.
26 Molefi Kete Asante, The Afrocentric Idea (Temple University Press, 1997), 22.
27 Jackson II and Richardson, Understanding African American Rhetoric, 121.
28 Arthur L. Smith (Molefi Asante), “Markings of an African Concept of Rhetoric,” Communication Quarterly 19, no. 2 (1971): 15.
29 Janheinz Jahn, Muntu: African Culture and the Western World (Grove Press, 1961), 133.
30 Jahn, Muntu, 124.
31 Alexandria L. Lockett, “What Is Black Twitter? A Rhetorical Criticism of Race, Dis/Information, and Social Media,” in Race, Rhetoric, and Research Methods (WAC Clearinghouse, 2021), 166.
32 Lockett, “What Is Black Twitter?,” 165.
33 Lockett, “What Is Black Twitter?,” 165–6.
34 Toniesha L. Taylor, “Transformative Womanist Rhetorical Strategies: Contextualizing Discourse and the Performance of Black Bodies of Desire,” in Understanding Blackness through Performance (Springer, 2013), 42–43.
35 Vorris L. Nunley, Keepin’ It Hushed: The Barbershop and African American Hush Harbor Rhetoric (Wayne State University Press, 2011).
36 Catherine Knight Steele, Digital Black Feminism (New York University Press, 2021), 44.
37 Sarah Florini, “The Podcast ‘Chitlin’ Circuit’: Black Podcasters, Alternative Media, and Audio Enclaves,” Journal of Radio & Audio Media 22, no. 2 (2015): 209–19.
38 Florini, “The Podcast ‘Chitlin’ Circuit,’” 210.
39 Catherine Knight Steele, “When the Black Lives That Matter Are Not Our Own: Digital Black Feminism and a Dialectic of Self and Community,” Feminist Media Studies 21, no. 5 (2021): 860–3.
40 Jackson et al., #HastagActivism, 126.
41 Florini, “The Podcast ‘Chitlin’ Circuit,’” 215, 216.
42 Catherine R. Squires, “Rethinking the Black Public Sphere: An Alternative Vocabulary for Multiple Public Spheres,” Communication Theory 12, no. 4 (2002): 446–68.
43 Squires, “Rethinking the Black Public Sphere,” 446.
44 Squires, “Rethinking the Black Public Sphere,” 457.
45 Squires, “Rethinking the Black Public Sphere,” 454.
46 Squires, “Rethinking the Black Public Sphere,” 466.
47 Patricia Hill Collins, “Learning from the Outsider Within: The Sociological Significance of Black Feminist Thought,” Social Problems 33, no. 6 (1986): 14–32.
48 Logan Rae Gomez, “Temporal Containment and the Singularity of Anti-Blackness: Saying Her Name in and across Time,” Rhetoric Society Quarterly 51, no. 3 (2021): 184.
49 Burke, The Rhetoric of Religion, 234.
50 David Avnir et al., “Is the Geometry of Nature Fractal?,” Science 279, no. 5347 (1998): 39.
51 Ron Eglash, African Fractals: Modern Computing and Indigenous Design (Rutgers University Press, 1999), 7.
52 Eglash, African Fractals, 7.
53 Gomez, “Temporal Containment,” 190.
54 Achille Mbembe, Out of the Dark Night (Columbia University Press, 2021).
55 Adetokunbo F. Knowles-Borishade, “Paradigm for Classical African Orature: Instrument for a Scientific Revolution?” Journal of Black Studies 21, no. 4 (1991): 493.
56 Gomez, “Temporal Containment,” 185.
57 Bloomfield, “Rhetorical Constellations.”
58 Emma Frances Bloomfield and Gabriela Tscholl, “Analyzing Warrants and Worldviews in the Rhetoric of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton: Burke and Argumentation in the 2016 Presidential Election,” Kenneth Burke Journal 13, no. 2 (2018); Dana L. Cloud, “Hegemony or Concordance? The Rhetoric of Tokenism in ‘Oprah’ Winfrey’s Rags-to-Riches Biography,” Critical Studies in Mass Communication 13, no. 2 (1996): 115–37.
59 Smith (Asante), “Markings,” 15, 15, 16.
60 Smith (Asante), “Markings,” 16.
61 James P. Zappen, “Kenneth Burke on Dialectical-Rhetorical Transcendence,” Philosophy & Rhetoric 42, no. 3 (2009): 280–1.
62 Zappen, “Kenneth Burke,” 281.
63 Mark Lawrence McPhail, “From Complicity to Coherence: Rereading the Rhetoric of Afrocentricity,” Western Journal of Communication 62, no. 2 (1998): 116.
64 Stewart, “Exploring Afrocentricity,” 271.
65 Tweets were collected on April 20–21, 2021 (the verdict announcement) and June 25–26, 2021 (the sentencing announcement). Data collection was not exhaustive because we are not attempting to generalize the trial’s public commentary. Rather, tweets were recorded to capture alignment with the guilt–redemption cycle and rhetorical fractals. Twitter was chosen due to its high representation of Black users and the recognition of “Black Twitter” as a “collective of active, primarily African-American Twitter users who have created a virtual community that participates in continuous real-time conversations” (Jones, 2013). We have opted not to provide formal citations, links, or identifying information for the collected tweets in line with ethical digital research practices that warn against conflating social media participation with research consent. This is especially important for our study because as Amber Buck and Devon F. Ralston argue, marginalized communities have “high stakes” regarding their “surveillance and commodification” in White and academic spaces. Feminista Jones, “Is Twitter the Underground Railroad of Activism?,” Salon, July 17, 2013, https://www.salon.com/2013/07/17/how_twitter_fuels_black_activism/; Amber M. Buck and Devon F. Ralston, “I Didn’t Sign Up for your Research Study: The Ethics of Using ‘Public’ Data,” Computers and Composition 61 (2021): 2, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compcom.2021.102655; see also Shi Min Chua, “Navigating Conflict between Research Ethics and Online Platform Terms and Conditions: A Reflective Account,” Research Ethics 18, no. 1 (2022): 39–50, https://doi.org/10.1177/17470161211045526.
66 Bloomfield, “Rhetorical Constellations”; and Jill J. Francis et al., “What Is an Adequate Sample Size? Operationalising Data Saturation for Theory-Based Interview Studies,” Psychology & Health 25, no. 10 (2010): 1229–45.
67 Schmitt, “Scapegoat Ecology.”
68 Ashley Noel Mack and Bryan J. McCann, “Critiquing State and Gendered Violence in the Age of #MeToo,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 104, no. 3 (2018): 337.
69 Karen Bass, “H.R.7120 – 116th Congress (2019–2020): George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020,” legislation, July 20, 2020, 2019/2020, https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/7120.
70 Elizabeth Nolan Brown, “This 38-Year-Old Man Will Spend Life in Prison Over 1.5 Ounces of Marijuana,” Reason, May 13, 2021, https://reason.com/2021/05/13/this-38-year-old-man-will-spend-life-in-prison-over-1-5-ounces-of-marijuana/.
71 On November 24, 2021, Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael, and William “Roddie” Bryan were convicted for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia. This crime was also caught on film, but many were still surprised by the guilty verdict because of the then-District Attorney Jackie Johnson’s close relationship with the McMichaels and her interference with the case. She is currently facing charges of violating her oath of office and hindering a law enforcement officer. Margaret Huang, “Ahmaud Arbery Verdict,” Southern Poverty Law Center, November 24, 2021, https://www.splcenter.org/news/2021/11/24/ahmaud-arbery-verdict-conviction-men-who-killed-unarmed-black-jogger-necessary-step-issues.
72 Jackson et al., #HashtagActivism.
73 Gomez, “Temporal Containment,” 184.
74 Kent A. Ono and John M. Sloop, “The Critique of Vernacular Discourse,” Communication Monographs 62, no. 1 (1995): 19–46; Squires, “Rethinking the Black Public Sphere.”
75 Jahn, Muntu, 133.
76 Gomez, “Temporal Containment,” 189–90.
77 Miranda Fricker, Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing (Oxford University Press, 2009).
78 Fricker, Epistemic Injustice.
79 Moya Z. Bailey, “All the Digital Humanists Are White, All the Nerds Are Men, but Some of Us Are Brave,” Journal of Digital Humanities 1, no. 1 (2011).
80 Florini, “The Podcast ‘Chitlin’ Circuit,” 214.
81 Jackson et al., #HashtagActivism, 145.
82 Matthew Houdek and Ersula J. Ore, “Cultivating Otherwise Worlds and Breathable Futures,” Rhetoric, Politics & Culture 1, no. 1 (2021): 87.
83 Taylor, “Transformative Womanist Rhetorical Strategies.”
84 Sam Cabral, “Covid ‘hate crimes’ against Asian Americans on Rise,” BBC News, May 21, 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56218684.