A new and special kind of awareness has struck the world—more importantly, America, as the onslaught of police brutality and racial equality takes center stage. It is a civic awakening occurring mostly in our nation's young people who dare to protest, advocate, and redefine what it means to be a minority in America. From #Blacklivesmatter to #JusticeforMikeBrown, Twitter activism is only a part of the greater participation young people are continuing to have on civil rights. In his article, "This Is Your Moment," columnist Charles M. Blow affirms the cultural realization reached by many of today's young people that racial-justice and equality must be won-- not set aside. Adopting a poignant and urbane tone, Blow hopes to appeal to similar feelings…show more content… Blow's delivers a personal anecdote in which he chronologically depicts his own "equality" thought process. He does this for the purpose of relating to his target young adult audience. Blow begins by transporting the reader into the past, "I was born in 1970, on the heels of the civil rights movement." In the second to last sentence of the first paragraph, he states, "there existed a space between that reality and me." It is inferred that Blow didn't have the empathy and maturity to truly understand the past. Blow appeals to pathos by smoothly transitioning from big-picture details to his own education and experience. Much like current teens and young adults, he "didn't witness [his] parents' struggles and their parents' struggles before them." Searching through a collection of "present societal conditions" and alluding to those of ancestors "from slavery to Reconstruction," Blow leads the reader to the same epiphany he had: He didn't understand the true struggle. The struggle of the previous black, young men who stood in his very same shoes in a very different time. In the second paragraph, Blow's learned language and long syntax evokes a pensive tone. He foreshadows the parallel between his past experience and the experience of young Blacks in America today, which he connects to later on in the…show more content… Du Bois and uses it as a springboard to acknowledge the civic awakening exhibited by young protestors. His language becomes abstract and focused when he illustrates Du Bois "double consciousness." Using verbiage peppered with metaphors that undertone the many opaque layers of social justice, he explains how the American and the "Negro" are somewhat paradoxical. Blow expounds upon the false comfort zone of "innocence inculcated and nurtured by the distance of history;" most change has been a dream deferred. Paralleling the past visions of progress with the actions taking place by citizens today, he shows how the moment for change is now. Now, people--young people--have realized that progress is a "constant pushing" ignited by "outrage and outcry." Aware of the possible counterarguments, Blow includes appeals to logos (recent polls and empirical evidence links) to help support his assertion that progress isn't being achieved "as fast as many had hoped." Thus, Blow establishes the precedent necessary to improve race