External Speech Analysis
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External Speech Analysis of Louis Moreno
September 23, 1997 at 7:00 p.m. in Glass Hall (101), Louis Moreno, who is the Executive Director of National Skyline Community in New York, delivered a speech called "Minority Stereotypes in Media." His first comment to the audience was that he wanted to be interactive; he could speak to himself anytime he wanted, so he wanted our opinions and questions anytime during his presentation. This statement was a nice technique that grabbed our attention and also made us feel more at ease and willing to speak up. He introduced his main point by telling us a joke, which was if a black and a Latino are in a car, which is driving? The answer was the police. This simple joke that he had heard in San Francisco was a good way to lead in to how he was disgruntled by the way media portrays minorities.
Moreno, a Latino raised in the Bronx, said that he disliked the way it was always the minorities on television and in the paper who were on welfare or pregnant at thirteen, when actually statistics show that there is a higher percentage of non-color than minorities doing these things. Moreno also used an excellent example that really showed the audience what kind of treatment that Latinos dealt with on a regular basis. It was that one Sunday morning back in February 1995, he was watching the David Brinkley show and at the end, Brinkley of course made one of his comments. However, this time it pertained to how a woman from Puerto Rico moved to the United States and lived here for twenty-seven years. Brinkley then added that she cost the state of Massachusetts 1.5 million dollars a year to raise her seventeen children. Moreno's point was why couldn't have Brinkley used a white woman. By the end of the introduction, he had me and probably part of the rest of the audience feeling sorry for him, which was something that I didn't admire in him. But, it is a fact that the media down grades minorities every chance they get.
The beginning of Moreno's body lacked organization; he seemed to be jumping from idea to idea with no direction really. He mentioned quotes from Danny Glover and Bill Cosby, who both felt that racism was in Hollywood and that people often looked at one's flesh, not what was inside. Then, Moreno started talking about the documentaries that he makes with juvenile minorities and showed us one called "Thanks for my Child", which was the story of a Puerto Rican couple who adopted a small deaf child. This documentary was created/ produced by minority teenagers, and I was completely amazed at how good they did. I admired Moreno for giving the teenagers such a positive opportunity. By this point, it was obvious that Moreno was determined to counteract all the negative media; he had devoted his life to it. Right after this, Moreno discussed his childhood. How his father had left his mother when she was only six months pregnant, but how he had still grown up happily in the Bronx. I liked Moreno's originality of waiting until the middle of the speech before dropping his life story. Most speakers begin with themselves, but Moreno put his work in front of himself. Then Moreno spoke about the many ways to solve the problem of the media demeaning minorities. He began using heavy repetition when he was explaining what we should be doing, like writing and complaining to the networks that only use blacks and Latinos as the prostitutes, maids, or drug addicts. I think for this topic Moreno got away with being a little unorganized because you could easily tell he knew what he was talking about and he was concentrating on keeping our interest.
Two of Moreno's major arguments were that there should be more minorities in the media, that way minorities could grow up without being bombarded with negative media, and how to solve the problem of how the media portrays minorities as people who can not contribute to society. Moreno used a strong informative voice when he was trying to convince us that there should be more minorities behind the scenes, but his voice completely changed into a sly persuasive tone when he was describing the many ways we could get involved to stop the media.
He told us that by the year 2050 one in every four Americans would be Latino, so we needed to support minorities in the industry. He had very impressive examples and statistics supporting radio stations in the United States, but only 180 are owned by blacks; and there are 1000 television stations, but only 20 are owned by blacks and it is a fact that blacks watch more television than non-color. This statistic made it clear how hard it is for minorities to grow up with a high self-esteem.
From the moment I walked into the room and saw Moreno walking in and out of the aisles attempting to start a conversation with each individual, I knew that he was a speaker with strong delivery skills. Throughout his speech he was moving quickly from one area to the next with his arms speaking his words. In the introduction, he used smooth upward hand motions, but towards the end when he was trying to persuade us to have his opinion, he made short precise movements.
When he talked, he turned his whole body towards a section and made a point to make eye contact with as many people as he could. His voice really told how dedicated and thrilled he was with his profession by getting louder and clearer as the speech came to a close. Moreno's language was rather direct and to the point for the most part, but as more questions got asked (especially the ones that didn't agree with his views), he sort of beat around the bush and avoided giving his honest answers; he knew that he would be offending non-color people. His prejudice was exposed in his voice and language as the speech progressed. It upset me that I was listening to a hypocrite.
My only concern with Louis Moreno is his dislike for white people. I don't feel that all white people are as prejudice as he claims they are. He never actually said that he disliked whites, but he didn't ever say anything positive about them either. Rude comments here and there really annoyed the mostly non-color audience after about thirty minutes. In the beginning, I thought what a neat guy he was helping minorities and being a positive role model, but by the end I detested him for teaching teenagers that they are privileged because they are a minority.
To me, that very concept is one thing that has been slowly destroying our society. I think Moreno forgot that all men are to be treated equal somewhere along the line. I walked out with so much anger inside. I know that he has been treated differently than me and I tried to keep an open mind and be understanding, but I was not going to treat him special or give him sympathy because he was Latino. It disappointed me that he insulted others to make himself feel strong and powerful. He lost all my admiration and degraded me in only twenty minutes.
Overall, the only thing that Moreno needed to improve on in the future was to consider the diversity of his audience. If he had done that his speech would have been spectacular. He really has all the right qualities to be an amazing speaker, but lacks the effectiveness because it gets overlooked, or at least it did in this speech. People remember what they didn't like just as much as they remember what they did like if not more. Moreno had a great delivery that many speakers would envy; there aren't many people who can bounce from one side of a room to another with as much enthusiasm. He had great statistics, which made the audience realize the facts of reality; he used them consistently throughout his performance. His voice was also one of his strengths; it projected well and had a nice rhythm. If I were a minority, then I would definitely say that his speech was dynamic and inspiring. But the truth of the matter is that he insulted me, whether he meant to or not, and I can't lie and say that I liked his speech.
The only barriers that I noticed were squeaky chairs, people coughing, and then towards the end, people leaving. The squeaky chairs were the hardest thing to overcome because every two minutes someone moved in their seat enough to make the terrible noise, and for that brief second I wasn't listening to his words or even concentrating on what he was saying. I eventually got used to it. I wasn't really bothered by the people who got up and left because they were quiet about it and I was sitting towards the front so I didn't actually see them leave. Overall, the environment was decent and not too distracting.
External Speech Analysis of Louis Moreno
September 23, 1997 at 7:00 p.m. in Glass Hall (101), Louis Moreno, who is the Executive Director of National Skyline Community in New York, delivered a speech called "Minority Stereotypes in Media." His first comment to the audience was that he wanted to be interactive; he could speak to himself anytime he wanted, so he wanted our opinions and questions anytime during his presentation. This statement was a nice technique that grabbed our attention and also made us feel more at ease and willing to speak up. He introduced his main point by telling us a joke, which was if a black and a Latino are in a car, which is driving? The answer was the police. This simple joke that he had heard in San Francisco was a good way to lead in to how he was disgruntled by the way media portrays minorities.
Moreno, a Latino raised in the Bronx, said that he disliked the way it was always the minorities on television and in the paper who were on welfare or pregnant at thirteen, when actually statistics show that there is a higher percentage of non-color than minorities doing these things. Moreno also used an excellent example that really showed the audience what kind of treatment that Latinos dealt with on a regular basis. It was that one Sunday morning back in February 1995, he was watching the David Brinkley show and at the end, Brinkley of course made one of his comments. However, this time it pertained to how a woman from Puerto Rico moved to the United States and lived here for twenty-seven years. Brinkley then added that she cost the state of Massachusetts 1.5 million dollars a year to raise her seventeen children. Moreno's point was why couldn't have Brinkley used a white woman. By the end of the introduction, he had me and probably part of the rest of the audience feeling sorry for him, which was something that I didn't admire in him. But, it is a fact that the media down grades minorities every chance they get.
The beginning of Moreno's body lacked organization; he seemed to be jumping from idea to idea with no direction really. He mentioned quotes from Danny Glover and Bill Cosby, who both felt that racism was in Hollywood and that people often looked at one's flesh, not what was inside. Then, Moreno started talking about the documentaries that he makes with juvenile minorities and showed us one called "Thanks for my Child", which was the story of a Puerto Rican couple who adopted a small deaf child. This documentary was created/ produced by minority teenagers, and I was completely amazed at how good they did. I admired Moreno for giving the teenagers such a positive opportunity. By this point, it was obvious that Moreno was determined to counteract all the negative media; he had devoted his life to it. Right after this, Moreno discussed his childhood. How his father had left his mother when she was only six months pregnant, but how he had still grown up happily in the Bronx. I liked Moreno's originality of waiting until the middle of the speech before dropping his life story. Most speakers begin with themselves, but Moreno put his work in front of himself. Then Moreno spoke about the many ways to solve the problem of the media demeaning minorities. He began using heavy repetition when he was explaining what we should be doing, like writing and complaining to the networks that only use blacks and Latinos as the prostitutes, maids, or drug addicts. I think for this topic Moreno got away with being a little unorganized because you could easily tell he knew what he was talking about and he was concentrating on keeping our interest.
Two of Moreno's major arguments were that there should be more minorities in the media, that way minorities could grow up without being bombarded with negative media, and how to solve the problem of how the media portrays minorities as people who can not contribute to society. Moreno used a strong informative voice when he was trying to convince us that there should be more minorities behind the scenes, but his voice completely changed into a sly persuasive tone when he was describing the many ways we could get involved to stop the media.
He told us that by the year 2050 one in every four Americans would be Latino, so we needed to support minorities in the industry. He had very impressive examples and statistics supporting radio stations in the United States, but only 180 are owned by blacks; and there are 1000 television stations, but only 20 are owned by blacks and it is a fact that blacks watch more television than non-color. This statistic made it clear how hard it is for minorities to grow up with a high self-esteem.
From the moment I walked into the room and saw Moreno walking in and out of the aisles attempting to start a conversation with each individual, I knew that he was a speaker with strong delivery skills. Throughout his speech he was moving quickly from one area to the next with his arms speaking his words. In the introduction, he used smooth upward hand motions, but towards the end when he was trying to persuade us to have his opinion, he made short precise movements.
When he talked, he turned his whole body towards a section and made a point to make eye contact with as many people as he could. His voice really told how dedicated and thrilled he was with his profession by getting louder and clearer as the speech came to a close. Moreno's language was rather direct and to the point for the most part, but as more questions got asked (especially the ones that didn't agree with his views), he sort of beat around the bush and avoided giving his honest answers; he knew that he would be offending non-color people. His prejudice was exposed in his voice and language as the speech progressed. It upset me that I was listening to a hypocrite.
My only concern with Louis Moreno is his dislike for white people. I don't feel that all white people are as prejudice as he claims they are. He never actually said that he disliked whites, but he didn't ever say anything positive about them either. Rude comments here and there really annoyed the mostly non-color audience after about thirty minutes. In the beginning, I thought what a neat guy he was helping minorities and being a positive role model, but by the end I detested him for teaching teenagers that they are privileged because they are a minority.
To me, that very concept is one thing that has been slowly destroying our society. I think Moreno forgot that all men are to be treated equal somewhere along the line. I walked out with so much anger inside. I know that he has been treated differently than me and I tried to keep an open mind and be understanding, but I was not going to treat him special or give him sympathy because he was Latino. It disappointed me that he insulted others to make himself feel strong and powerful. He lost all my admiration and degraded me in only twenty minutes.
Overall, the only thing that Moreno needed to improve on in the future was to consider the diversity of his audience. If he had done that his speech would have been spectacular. He really has all the right qualities to be an amazing speaker, but lacks the effectiveness because it gets overlooked, or at least it did in this speech. People remember what they didn't like just as much as they remember what they did like if not more. Moreno had a great delivery that many speakers would envy; there aren't many people who can bounce from one side of a room to another with as much enthusiasm. He had great statistics, which made the audience realize the facts of reality; he used them consistently throughout his performance. His voice was also one of his strengths; it projected well and had a nice rhythm. If I were a minority, then I would definitely say that his speech was dynamic and inspiring. But the truth of the matter is that he insulted me, whether he meant to or not, and I can't lie and say that I liked his speech.
The only barriers that I noticed were squeaky chairs, people coughing, and then towards the end, people leaving. The squeaky chairs were the hardest thing to overcome because every two minutes someone moved in their seat enough to make the terrible noise, and for that brief second I wasn't listening to his words or even concentrating on what he was saying. I eventually got used to it. I wasn't really bothered by the people who got up and left because they were quiet about it and I was sitting towards the front so I didn't actually see them leave. Overall, the environment was decent and not too distracting.