Forgive Wolfowitz: Article Rhetoric Essay

The focal point of the paper is to present a rhetorical analysis of the article “Forgive Wolfowitz: He’s right man for World Bank” by Andrew Young published in Monday, April 30, 2007 in Washington Post. The subject of the article is to convey us that the mistakes made by Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank resulting crisis and hunger should be forgiven as the person is concern had only noble intentions but the steps that were taken were proved to be wrong. Under such context, the writer indicates that the person should be forgiven and provided with another chance to rectify. The audience in this case is the entire population of the world who has been hit by the World Bank crisis and particularly those who are extremely dissatisfied with Paul Wolfowitz.

However, the theme of the article denotes a different approach to the subject. He indicates that for a democratic society with its democratic form of government system, it is but an obvious choice to opt for a society that is predominantly colorblind or faith blind. The basis norm of a democratic society is to provide its mass with a structural form that offers equality in terms of justice and social characteristic. It is an unwanted phenomenon but it is also extremely true at the same time that racism is a curse that exists among us whether we like it or not. The presence of racism is well documented in many societal domains including workplace, school, health care, and housing. It is very peculiar to consider racism is an ideology where humans are separated into various groups in the belief that some people are superior because they belong to a particular ethnic or national group. It could be summarized that racism is the result of having negative judgments, beliefs, and feelings towards certain identifiable groups. The theme of the writer’s intention is clear; Paul Wolfowitz was not motivated by racist approach during the commitment of his errors.

One of the most compelling developments of our age is the recognition of multicultural of multiracial society and how they translate to each individual. The challenge is not just in recognizing other races but more importantly, the culture and heritage of people must also be recognized. Are people becoming aware and accepting of others? Are people’s view and minds growing broader? Is intolerance being decreased? Are we now on the path of building a society that does not just recognizes cultural and racial diversity but celebrates it? As much as we would like to think that we are accomplishing this, current evidences show that there is still much to do.

However, the theme of the article in concern, Forgive Wolfowitz: He’s right man for World Bank by Andrew Young, is forgiveness. Though there are instances of racial problems and World Bank induced ramification that resulted in misery, the main aspect of this article is forgiveness of those errors and forgetting the parameters of racism and racist thought process. The author remarks, “We must get beyond the current crisis at the World Bank, a careful examination of which will show that Wolfowitz was operating in what he felt was the best interest of the institution and with the guidance of its ethics committee.” (Young, 1).

However, it certainly appears that the author is trying to defend the works of Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank. Nevertheless, there is an overtone of racial interpretation for particularly no reason. This makes us skeptical of the author’s claim and forces us to get the essence that the entire article is racially motivated in the mask of forgiveness. I feel there were any other reasons of these words, “I am a Protestant Christian minister, a product of America’s excessive Puritanism” (Young, 1) or “Wolfowitz’s companion, Shaha Riza, a British Muslim woman”. (Young, 1) This was the purpose of Young’s article. Motivated by racism and trying to shield Wolfowitz from the consequences of racist activities. The author is certainly mitigating the image of being a racist.

This hard pill of ‘colonialism with brutality’ needed some spooning with sweetness to become a favorable aromatic digestible element for the general people of the imperial states. As a result this phrase ‘white man’s burden’ came into existence as a remedy to the enlightens of the industrial revolution and people were ready to buy this theory as this theory easily softened the guilt feeling of the educated class and apparently justified the brutal acts and decisions taken to control and cover the colonial agitations. It is not that the leaders of men and the men of their leaders never knew what was really going wrong in these colonies but kept both eyes blind towards these acts.

This is because all of them and all the way they knew everything they did and everything they knew about the colonies were either immoral or tampered to the extent of fallacy but could never digest the fact as it was too decadent for their psyche. Therefore, this term ‘white man’s burden’, almost tried to do a damage control act on their soul. Ultimately, is could be well ascertained that familiarly to democratic governance system, knowledge and lack of economic bitterness seldom allows a person to express himself as a racist no matter how much deep rooted the ideal actually is. The only way out seems to be by intermixing with no prejudice or consciousness (like Shaha Riza being ‘muslim’). Under such parameter, the population should discard article writer such as Young.

Works Cited

Young, Andrew; “Forgive Wolfowitz: He’s right man for World Bank”; Washington Post; Monday, 2007. Web.