Racial equality is something that has long been discussed and fought for. Through the look of two pieces within The Contemporary Reader, by Gary Goshgarian, the reader can see how each author utilizes the use of rhetoric to persuade, inform, and inspire the reader to change or strengthen their current beliefs on this topic .David Brooks' The essay “People Like Us” sets out to undermine the belief that America truly cares about diversity and is doing everything it can to support it. Its main focus lies in the fact that people tend to “self-segregate” in the places where they live. Goshgarian labeled this piece a “process analysis,” which is an explanation of how something works and Brooks’ essay does just that. The way he presents his information explains how self-segregation occurs and how he centers his piece around many logical appeals helps further prove his points. Brooks writes about how marketing companies break down the U.S. population into groups so they can target their products to the most profitable areas and says, "Looking through market research, you can sometimes be amazed at how efficiently people they cluster together and predictably we all do” (367). He also uses statistics such as “Did any of your 12 closest friends graduate from Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton…? , the odds of not having four or more friends from those schools would be more than a billion to one” (Brooks 368). Statistics like these help prove that what he says is valid approach to his essay is because you can't deny the hard, hard facts. If he had used another type of appeal, his argument would not have been as strong because it is difficult to get someone to pay... halfway through the document... talk about the issue, but he used a personal experience to really explain what he meant. Adding his personal story, however, would have been more effective if he himself had actually been black, which he wasn't: he was half white and half Asian. His piece would have been more authentic and connected to the title of his work and more effective in its overall goals for his readers. Analyzing the rhetoric used by an author allows the reader to break the piece down into parts and then explain how each part works. together to create a certain effect. Thus allowing the reader to determine the author's intentions with their work. Works Cited Brooks, David. "People like us." The contemporary reader. Ed. Gary Goshgarian. Pearson, 2011. 366-371. Print.Kamiya, Gary. "Black on black." The contemporary reader. Ed. Gary Goshgarian. Pearson, 2011. 381-386. Press.