Speaker: A married African American male named Ta-Nehisi Coates, who understands his place in regards to respect for his varying relationships with friends and family. This can be seen with his relationship with his father, being that he’s never called him anything other than “Dad” despite others addressing him differently. It can also be noted that Coates has 6 siblings, and friends of different demographics and races.
Occasion: Multiple cases of people of different demographics using the “n” word that have brought up debates upon the issue. The occasion here being him stating his stance and opinions on the issue. This being urgent due to it having been in discussion for such a long time, and the topics background coming from an unforgettable period in history that has been talked about everywhere for centuries.
Audience: The article of course would be intended for reader’s who identify as African American & those who identify as caucasian. We are led to believe this being that he goes so far as to mention the races of the people in his examples. Those races being African American and Caucasian.
Purpose: To inform readers on the reasons why his stance, being that African Americans should be the only people who should be allowed to call eachother the “n” word, should be taken into account. One of them being that it’s much like how women sometimes will call eachother “bitch”, yet that if a male were to partake in this, depending on the relationship between the parties, it would be received with much disdain and scorn.
Tone: The piece has very very light tones of underlying humor when comparisons are made, yet can also be seen to be taken very seriously anytime discussion about who gets to use the word, or the meaning behind the “n” word comes up. This can be seen through his use of diction and word choice. He uses strong words when talking about the use of the word.
