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.
In President Barack Obama’s eulogy for Reverend Clementa Pinckney and others who died in the Charleston Church Shooting, delivered on June 26, 2015 at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, he commemorates Reverend Pinckney and at the same time advocates for his own political agenda. President Obama shifts between black and presidential registers, weaves the ideas of grace, sight, and blindness throughout the speech, and cultivates his ethos to better connect with his audience, the American people, not only African Americans or Christians. President Obama addresses the American public during this racially charged time in order to remember the lives lost during the shooting, to promote his political views, and to unify the all Americans.
In his “State of the Union” speech, President Barack Obama effectively uses the rhetorical devices of Ethos, Pathos and Logos to convey a more convincing message to the citizens of the United States to urge them to follow the example of the many people that have made their nation greater.
The documentary Obama’s Deal narrated by Jim Gilmore highlights the 44th Presidents’ endurance as he fought against a great resistance in reforming healthcare. This bill was the most complex bill in modern times says Gilmore. The Affordable Care Act eventually deemed Obama Care was a signature issue and Obama spent most of his first term focusing on this specific reformation. For the first African American President, the pushback was astronomical, and excuses were abundant, but he needed to prove that Washington could solve bigger problems so he relentlessly pursued every avenue he could explore to push this bill in the direction of reformation.
While Sanders’ narrative primarily focuses on the Child Development Group of Mississippi, Black Mississippians historically valued education and focused careful attention to the construction of education systems that empowered Black children in disenfranchised social systems. Their vision was clear; Black students should have access to high quality, free education that exists outside of white supremacist regulations, but also empowers those students to navigate the volatile systems of power that pervade American society. According to Sanders, “Black parents focused not on the idea of their children sitting in classrooms with white students, but rather on their children’s right to an equal education,” (2016, p. 12). Thus, Black communities in Mississippi understood “good education” not as integrated schools, but schools that directly served the various needs of the children in their
The second is the concern over segregation and the effect it has on society. Mr. Kozol provides his own socially conscious and very informative view of the issues facing the children and educators in this poverty ravaged neighborhood. Those forces controlling public schools, Kozol points out, are the same ones perpetuating inequity and suffering elsewhere; pedagogic styles and shapes may change, but the basic parameters and purposes remain the same: desensitization, selective information, predetermined "options," indoctrination. In theory, the decision should have meant the end of school segregation, but in fact its legacy has proven far more muddled. While the principle of affirmative action under the trendy code word ''diversity'' has brought unparalleled integration into higher education, the military and corporate America, the sort of local school districts that Brown supposedly addressed have rarely become meaningfully integrated. In some respects, the black poor are more hopelessly concentrated in failing urban schools than ever, cut off not only from whites but from the flourishing black middle class. Kozol describes schools run almost like factories or prisons in grim detail. According to Kozol, US Schools are quite quickly becoming functionally segregated. Kozol lists the demographics of a slew of public schools in the states, named after prominent civil rights activists, whose classrooms are upwards of 97% black and Hispanic — in some cases despite being in neighborhoods that are predominantly white. It has been over 50 years since Brown vs. Board of Education. It is sad to read about the state of things today.
In his speech, Obama says,” Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven 't fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today 's black and white students.” Obama is saying that because of the effects of separation in the past, it still affects children. By having parents who have little interest in an education since they did not receive one. Lindsey Cook, a writer for U.S News, says “Black parents, most of whom are less educated than their white counterparts, don’t expect their children to attain as much education as white parents expect. Lower expectations become self-fulfilling prophecies, contributing to lower expectations from the student, less-positive attitudes toward school, fewer out-of-school learning opportunities and less parent-child communication about school.” This shows that because of 50 years ago, by having parents who did not receive a good education, are more likely to not provide their children a good education. The article Cook wrote continues to show how black students do poorer in all aspects than their white counterparts. With these issues since childhood, it is harder for blacks to get into a top college and a high paying job. Therefore there is a need to
He makes sure his audience connects with him directly by making them feel at his level, and at hiss. This way he connects to the audience, and in exchange, helps his statement of unity. Using various examples of parallelism, anaphora and refrain, Obama brands the theme of equality and togetherness in our country throughout the speech, vital to gaining the respect of his audience. Obama recalls the ‘enduring strength of the constitution’ by delving into the past alluding to America’s allegiance to the Declaration of Independence by quoting “we hold these truths. that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”.
Roy Peter Clark, author of “A More Perfect Union”: Why It Worked, takes a stance on President Barack Obama’s speech while analyzing it. President Barack Obama delivered a speech titled “A More Perfect Union.” His speech focused on the prominent issue of racism in America. In this article, Clark talks about President Obama’s known power and brilliance. Clark makes references and comparisons to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and W.EB. DuBois. “A More Perfect Union” features writing techniques that makes the message more defined and effective. President Obama utilizes four closely related rhetorical strategies. Clark broadly explains the purpose of the rhetorical strategies. Allusion, parallelism, two-ness, and autobiography helped to shape President Obama’s speech that that was meant to create
When looking back on the 18th of March, 2008, several do not believe that it is a significant date. It is not a holiday, nor a significant day in history, though, it is the day that Barack Obama delivered his “A More Perfect Union” speech at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama spoke to the public concerning extremely racial comments his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, had made. Obama tries to persuade the people to understand that he does not agree with what Wright stated. His way of doing this is to connect with the audience using his background, he utilizes specific pronouns to connect him to the audience, then tells other people’s stories to allow the audience understand why he does not agree with what the pastor disclosed.
Hewitt, Hugh. The Brief against Obama: The Rise, Fall & Epic Fail of the Hope &
We may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction. Barack Obama’s speech “A More Perfect Union” (Nov. 17, 2008) captivates our nation with its thought out structure of the division and inequality in America. Obama successfully used allusion and repetition. Along with personal anecdotes to identify with the audience.
He uses allusion and repetition of words to prove his points about racial discrimination. His main goal is for the country to stay united and put discrimination aside, and continue the path of the ones who came before us. Obama alludes to the civil war by saying,” continue the long march” which illustrates the march that the north did to the south to stop race discrimination, as well as the fact how the north opposed with slavery and wanted to make south stop (1). The other device he uses in his speech was the repetition of words by using the word “more” to express his main goal and focus. Although the country is so called “free” his main goal is still to improve America in every way possible and put race discrimination completely aside. In the speech, he expresses his tone by saying,” more just, more equal, more free, more caring, and more prosperous America.” Which goes to the fact that he is trying to even improve America more in every way possible. If we improve our country even more, then we will not be having any issues in our
After his former preacher, Jeremiah Wright, gave such exigence for this discussion by making claims that the U.S. government treated black people harshly, Obama was pretty much forced to act. And with great credence and rhetoric, he did. The soon to be president, and also the first African American man to be president, first sets grounds for his speech by inserting himself into the context of the racial history of America, creating the modern-day setting of a war that is centuries in age. He then appealed to pathos by bringing light to his audience with examples of racial corruption and inequality to highlight the huge need for unity and change. And finally, he capitalized on these sentiments by appealing to ethos to advocate methods of change. With the great success of this historic and rhetorical speech, Obama assumed a new podium in November of that same exact year, but this time, to accept his election as the President of the United
“A More Perfect Union” was delivered by Barack Obama on March 18, 2008. At the time her gave the speech he was senator and running in the president election. Obama responded to his former pastor Jeremiah Wright, and also discussed the issue with race in America. This problem is important to us as a whole, because we went through plenty of racism in the past. He wants the prevent those incidents from according again. He did an excellent job using rhetoric tools to support his beliefs, which led to a successful election.
President Obama is telling America’s school children the importance of valuing their education. He does this by explaining that we need education for most jobs, we need to learn never to give up, and we have no reason to pass through school with no care for our future.