Good Essay About Pro And Con Of Storytelling As A Method Of Advocacy For People Of Color

Introduction

Storytelling is one of the major ways to extract information from clients at the courtroom. In the process of giving a story one can give out hidden information. The actual story has a great possibility to change sharply held theories and make information easier to remember. Part of the attraction of stories is the effect they have on audiences by tapping emotions, prompting beliefs, molding new conducts and even shaping cultural characters. It was marked that stories convince and that they are a vital tool in Advocacy effort. Advocates must understand the factors that make a story fascinating and convincing (Meyer. P, 2014).

Circumstances of people of color

There is high rate of racism and discrimination of African-American in the United States. The U.S criminal justice system’s biggest crime is that it is a race-based institution that African-Americans are targeted most and are punished more aggressively.
A surge has been noticed in the U.S over the last four decades that have been steered by the war on drugs. Both whites and blacks engage in drug possession and offenses at comparable rates. According to 2009 Congressional testimony by Marc Mauer, African-Americans consist of 13% of the U.S population and 14% monthly drug users. On the contrary, they are 37% of the people detained for drug offenses.
People of color constitute about half of the population in New York City. Latinos and blacks are stopped at a higher rate than whites (around 80% of the NYPD stops were of blacks). When whites were stopped, only 8% were frisked while 85% of blacks were frisked according to NYPD.
Drug arrests for African-Americans have been seen to be 2-11 times higher than the rates of whites. After arrest, blacks wait for long before their cases are heard, and they are put in prison for a longer time than whites. In the event of fines, blacks are imposed with higher fine rates compared to whites.

Advantages of storytelling

It creates a vivid picture in the audience mind. Therefore, it helps in the interaction of both parties in the courtroom since it is a more involving process. During this process, you can read the mind of the storyteller by observing his/her emotions.
Emotional link- Narrating a story is like placing the listeners in the actual event. Stories provide a chance to experience a diversity of feelings without the danger of those emotions themselves. For children, you can tell their feelings as they narrate tales. For example, you can tell when they hiding something confidential or the judge can see the stress on some evidence. Adults may remember the feeling of emotions that can activate memories or fashion resolution as a result of hearing stories. For youth and young adults, the event of hearing stories can stimulate portions of passionate lives that may have lain latent or have not yet been explored.
Storytelling also grows intimacy between different parties. When personal and event stories are shared, there is a chance to know some hidden facts that were hard to find (Lubbock. J, 2006).
Reliability- Storytelling is more reliable method since a recording of the story can be kept for future reference. It also time-saving since the story teller must have rehearsed and is well versed in what he or she is just about to present to the gathering.

Disadvantages of storytelling

Twist of reality- During this process, the storyteller can tell a false story, and it cannot be proven to be wrong. It’s hard to understand the real feelings of the narrator.
Lack of flow- During storytelling the listeners can lose the flow of the story thereby resulting to misunderstanding of the lawyer and clients. This may occur due to a language barrier or direct translation from the story teller’s language
Misunderstanding of the narrated story- In the process of narration it is possible that some portions of the story can be misunderstood (Asimow, 2004). In this event, it changes the whole meaning of the story and, therefore, the lawyer can cite wrong evidence or the judge can make a wrong decision.

Conclusion

According to the discussion above, I would prefer the use of storytelling in the advocacy of people of color. It can be supported by the numerous advantages discussed above. It is also reliable since a recording of the story teller can be kept for future reference.

Reference

Asimow. M, Shannon Mader, 2004, law and popular culture, Peterlang publishers.
Lubbock. J, 2006, Storytelling in Christian Art, Yale University press.
Meyer. P, 2014, storytelling for lawyers, Oxford University press.