The oratory of African Americans has been judged by a primarily epideictic, aesthetic character since the "principal motif of African American discourse has necessarily been the subject of appearance sheer physical appearance and its fateful effects on public life". Douglass' characterization as an epideictic orator may also be in part due to his fiery style and his tendency to appropriate epideictic occasions for his oratory. This reduction of Douglass' rhetoric to an epideictic or ceremonial function is limiting and no doubt has contributed to the lack of scholarship and critical inquiry surrounding his oratory.