Analysis Of President Obama's A More Perfect Union

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On March 18, 2008, Senator Obama gave a 37-minute speech that was dictated to his speechwriter merely 3 days prior. Appropriately titled A More Perfect Union, this speech was a formal response to a controversy that threatened his presidential campaign. The controversy was initially sparked when videos of Obama’s former pastor, advisor, and close friend Reverend Jeremiah Wright delivering offensive and provocative sermons were released. In these videos, Wright accuses the American government of countless offenses, such as orchestrating 9/11, perpetuating racism, and infecting African Americans with AIDS. This incident caused widespread questioning of Obama’s viability as a candidate, which resulted in Wright’s immediate removal from the campaign. …show more content…

This was achieved by quoting the opening line of the U.S. Constitution, “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.” This allusion to the constitution immediately grasps the audience and steers them to the comparison of the significance of the constitution and that of Obama’s speech. He then gives the audience a brief summary of the progress of racial equality in America, along with insinuating that his candidacy is a crucial next step. Defining the constitution as a “promise of our ideals” and “ultimately unfinished”, Obama makes it clear that things are still not equal in this country. However, electing him as president will get us that much closer to the finish …show more content…

Recalling incidents such as segregation in schools. Obama is very vocal about his passion towards proper education. In fact, In his book Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, he stated that “perhaps education doesn’t do us much good unless it is mixed with sweat.” Obama believes that those very same schools that were once segregated are still flawed even with the change. And that that is one of the major causes of the “pervasive achievement gap” between present day white and black students. Obama then brings to attention what he dubs as “legalized discrimination” and defines it as “where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments” (Obama, B.

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