Analysis of Viola Davis’s Award Acceptance Speeches

Analysis of Viola Davis’s Award Acceptance Speeches
On September 21, 2015, Viola Davis, the lead actor in the hit television show How to Get Away with Murder, won an Emmy Award. This was significant as she became the first African American woman to win the award for a phenomenal lead acting role as Annaliese Keating. On this platform, Viola Davis’s speech emphasized how significant the prize was to all African American women in the United States. She quickly referred to Harriet Tubman's 1800s poetic lines of distress of being unable to prosper. Davis used rhetoric to ensure that the language resonated with the immediate crowd and the country. Despite having a short time to speak, Viola Davis’s choice of discourse is effective as it not only thanks the directors but also highlights the struggles of black women in the entertainment industry.
Viola Davis quickly uses an intimate and deliberative style of speech when she refers to Harriet Tubman's line that should not get across. The emphasis was on the view of the green fields with white women lending a hand but never genuinely getting beyond the line (Television Academy). This showed her understanding of Black history, especially for Black women. She creates a scenario where the entertainment industry puts up a face of inclusion, but the fundamental roles given to Black women are not equal to those of White women. Additionally, it denotes the struggle Black women have endured through history, never managing to cross the line to prosperity and success. If Black women were given the same opportunities as white women, then there would be more women of colour winning the Emmy Awards.
She maintains a deliberative language style with a rhetorical discourse to impose the debate between Black and White women in the entertainment industry. She ack...