Kimberly Huerta
Frey
English 102-167
January 25, 2012
A Rhetorical Critique of David Brooks “People Like Us”
In David Brooks’ “People Like Us” passage on the issue of diversity, Brooks takes a personally emotional perspective of the way in which Americans don’t appreciate how diverse our nation is while “relatively homogeneous” (Brooks 136). His argument is weakened, however, through a bias and hypocrisy that his diction conveys. He claims that grouping ourselves with those who we are most alike is in our nature to, and in doing so, we separate ourselves from those who are different. Using certain statistics as evidence, Brooks points out that the social segmentation created by society will always exist. He argues that no matter …show more content…

By repeating his aversion for the situation, Brooks implies that the hundred years of protest about how diverse our nation is turns out to be a lie. This brings clarity into Brooks’ definition of diversity being, a group of people in an area with minimal similarities. Brooks succeeds in his attempt to convey his reach to his readers readers through personal experience complemented through logic in order to explain the ways in which “human nature” works. His most effective method is the way in which he provides substantial examples and information that would make his audience think about each situation or piece of evidence in their own lives. For example, Brooks puts forth the marketing firm strategies, university statistics, and even what one would do in these particular situations. Another essential example would also be as he ends the text with the questions; “Are you really in touch with the broad diversity of American life? Do you care?” (Brooks 136). Leaving the audience with this small yet significant question which causes one to think about what we have gotten from American life as opposed to living anywhere else.
Towards the end of the passage, Brooks settles informing us that he himself is not narrow-minded but knows that there is a limit to “how diverse any community can or should be” (Brooks 136). However emotional, or even mockingly