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Aiyana Tong
Dr. Marianne Arini
English 102-06
November 6, 2019

Comparative Rhetorical Analysis of Calvin Terrell and Yusef Salaam

The first two speakers to come to my mind were Calvin Terrell and Dr. Yusef Salaam.

Calvin Terrell is a local speaker who resides in the Phoenix area, and he also happens to be a

close friend of mine. I grew up with his presence in my life, and I am thankful for that. The other

speaker, Yusef Salaam, has had a widely known name for decades; this is due to a famous

criminal case that is known by the name “Central Park Jogger Case.” Yusef Salaam was one of

five teenage boys wrongly accused and convicted of rape and assault to a woman in central park

on April 19, 1989. He, along with the other four young men became exonerated many years later,

and he moved on to become a public speaker. I want to analyze each speaker’s use of rhetoric in

a variety of their different texts.

Calvin Terrell’s focus is mostly on youth at the high school ages. He says this is because

“The people that move the world are youth. Every great change throughout this planet has

always been initiated by youth… if a society is going to transform- it is going to be started with

the youth” (Terrell). Terrell is really a speaker for all people. However, he tends to speak to

youths of color a lot; this may be because he can relate well to the experiences of people of color,

being that he is an African-American man. In a video titled: Voices From Our Schools: Calvin

Terrell, he talks about what led him to do public speaking. He mentions that he gained many

different perspectives whilst growing up in a mixed-race family (Terrell). He also mentions that

at the age of seventeen, a friend of his was killed because of the color of his skin (Terrell). This
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was a moment of exigency in his life that moved him to speak on social issues and encourage his

audiences to engage in introspection to change the world around them.

Dr. Salaam speaks in front of many different groups of people. His audience is usually a

bit older than Calvin’s. Salaam sometimes speaks at different universities. According to his

website, yusefspeaks.com, he helps people to break through boundaries to find their worth when

it seems like everyone and everything is against them. While his stories can be applicable to

anybody, they are largely geared towards people of color. Like Terrell, Yusef Salaam is a human

whos’ experiences are that of an African-American man. His experiences as a youth wrongly

imprisoned created the exigency to speak publicly about overcoming and forgiving harm put

upon individuals.

These speakers have a lot in common, and it is perhaps why I am drawn to each of them.

They are very calm when they speak. They both talk about very difficult and not widely

acknowledged societal problems so it is important for them to keep calm conduct. They also both

fill their talks with direct quotations from very influential figures. They both incorporate poems

and analogies into their talks.

Terrell speaks a lot about how humans can uplift each other. Whereas, Salaam focuses a

lot on the individual. Terrell also uses different archetypes to give his speech a story. However,

Salaam usually tells his true and personal stories to make his point. Terrell also focuses more on

what we do wrong as humans, and how we should be unlearning toxic influences of things like

colonization. This is different from Salaam because Salaam encourages people to change their

perspective on their struggles. Salaam’s work is more like internally establishing happiness, and

Terrell’s work is more about creating healthy external environments.

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Calvin Terrell has a number of different videos, tweets, and a website that his rhetorics

are prominent in. Calvin makes himself relatable to a wide audience. He has studied many

different religions. When he addresses the audience he makes sure to acknowledge his own

mistakes and learnings from his experiences. This is important because he gains the respect of

many people when he presents himself in a humble manner.

In Calvin Terrell’s TEDx, he uses a lot of quotations. One thing that using a lot of

quotations does is make the speaker seem well-read and well-educated. This is one way that

ethos can be established indirectly. He also uses repetition in the video with his most iconic

phrase, “hurt people hurt people.” The phrase is not just an echo but a play on words. The phrase

means that people who are hurting are the ones who hurt other people. The repetition in the

phrase and throughout the video helps to instill this concept in the audience’s mind. It is also a

very emotional and relatable phrase.

Calvin Terrell’s Twitter is filled with pathos. Right off the bat his bio explains he is a…

“Warrior healer working for a better, safer, more united humanity that doesn't threaten each other

or earth” (Terrell Twitter). His most poignant message is that love is important and should be

shared amongst individuals. It is clear that his Twitter profile appeals to pathos.

On Calvin Terrell’s website, there are images of hearts. Some of which hearts, have

pieces of metal bolted on, seemingly caging the hearts. This is an example of one of his uses of

pathos because people attach the image of a cartoon heart with love and emotion. The image

shows the metal falling off of the heart to imply it has been freed from its confinement. The

image is edited to say “Calvin helps… reveal what is often “unseen” and not often considered, to

unleash talents that better the world.” Along with this image on his website is an image of an

iceberg. It shows that only a small portion of the iceberg is seen above water and the majority is
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hidden beneath the ocean. This is a continuation of the theme to “reveal the unseen.” He also

makes himself more credible on his website by explaining that he is neutral. He does this through

the description of himself that reads… “Calvin is not a democrat, nor a republican, a libertarian

or anarchist;

he is soul

experiencing

black

membership

of the human

race. He doesn’t care what you think or feel about him, but he loves you!” (Calvin Website).

This section is there to make it seem as though he is free from bias. This helps give him a wider

audience as well.

Yusef also has many videos of his talks as well as, tweets and a website that his rhetorics

are clearly evident on. When Yusef speaks he is able to express emotion and humanity through

his personal stories. Even though many of his stories are saddening or potentially enraging, he

doesn’t allow himself to seem angry.

In his video, Forgiveness, a Path to Redemption, he talks about his time in prison and

how he managed to not only survive but strive during it. He begins the video by telling his story

of imprisonment. He says… “I’m going to start by going back in time to the day I was

sentenced...” (Salaam). Then he takes a long dramatic pause. This immediately makes the room

feel tense. He then builds a cadence through his poetic expression, which reaches a more artistic

and soulful sphere, rather than just reaching the intellect. He also has dramatic changes in his

physical expression to match the tone of the story throughout.

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On his Twitter, his bio establishes ethos. He immediately addresses himself as... “1/5th of

the CP5 Mr #PowerPost👊🏻👊🏼👊🏽👊🏾👊🏿 Entrepreneur | Speaker | Trainer | Leader | Author |

Member of the Les Brown Maximum Achievement Team” (Salaam). The more titles a person

can give themself, the more credible they appear. It seems impressive to have many titles.

At the very top of Yusef Salaam’s website, it says “sharing the struggle.” This is right off

the top appealing to the emotions of others to make them feel secure and supported. Then just

down a short way, there are images establishing his aims and his credibility. The first image

starts with him sharing his story and experience, and then he proceeds to speak his purpose of

speaking. He claims to “...help break through the boundaries to help find your worth when it

seems like everyone and everything is against you” (Salaam). The next photo is all about ethos;

it says he is an “award-winning” motivational and transformational speaker. In the last of the set

of photos, he uses a direct quote from Dr. Maya Angelou, a well-known author.
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In Yusef Salaam’s talk on forgiveness, he says,“...Prison life in many ways can be

likened to the womb; if the life inside becomes stillborn, the womb becomes the tomb” (Salaam).

This is a quote that he had found elsewhere, but I found it really profound and true. This

reminded me that we chose how we react to the situations we are forced into. This also reminds

me that there is hope for every situation. In Calvin Terrell’s TEDx Talk, his phrase “hurt people

hurt people” will always stick with me. They each do a good job of making a lasting imprint on

their audiences.

Link to Social Centric Institute (SCi) project by Calvin Terrell- https://www.socialcentric.com/

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Works Cited

Amherst Media. Voices From Our Schools: Calvin Terrell. YouTube. 8 May 2013,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfaOzv2wckI. Accessed 6 Nov. 2019.

Salaam, Yusef. Yusef Speaks. 2018, https://yusefspeaks.com/. Accessed 6 Nov. 2019.

TEDx Talks. Forgiveness, a Path to Redemption | Yusef Salaam | TEDxSingSing.

YouTube, 6 Mar. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItStOmXePww. Accessed 6

Nov. 2019.

Terrell, Calvin. Calvin Terrell. 2019, https://www.calvinterrell.com/. Accessed 6 Nov. 2019.

https://www.ted.com/talks/calvin_terrell_socio_spiritual_evolution

Terrell, Calvin. Socio-Spiritual Evolution. TED. Apr. 2019,

https://www.ted.com/talks/calvin_terrell_socio_spiritual_evolution. Accessed 6 Nov.

2019.

@Terrell_Calvin (Calvin Terrell). “Warrior healer working for a better, safer, more

united humanity that doesn't threaten each other or earth.” Twitter, 6 Nov. 2019,

https://twitter.com/terrell_calvin?lang=en.

@dr_yusefsalaam (Yusef Salaam). “1/5th of the CP5 Mr #PowerPost👊🏻👊🏼👊🏽👊🏾👊🏿

Entrepreneur | Speaker | Trainer | Leader | Author | Member of the Les Brown Maximum

Achievement Team.” Twitter, 6 Nov. 2019,

https://twitter.com/dr_yusefsalaam?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ct

wgr%5Eauthor.