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analysis of obamas race speech
Barack Obama’s Speech on Race
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Obama on Racial Unity
In the 2008 speech “A More Perfect Union” Senator Barack Obama illustrates himself as a diverse and benevolent leader to repeal said exigencies of him being anti-American and win over American votes. Obama constructs ethos by mentioning he has experienced the luxuries and poverties this world has to offer, attracting rich and poor alike. The tone used by Obama experiences many shifts to appeal to the diverse audience and win their understanding that he hopes can turn into a vote. The speech ultimately achieved its purpose as it aided Obama achieving his utmost goal; becoming President of The United States of America.
The Senator builds up his ethos by using many flashbacks and his experience with both rich and poor: black and white. Barack Obama mentions that he is “The son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas” to infer that he knows the perspective points of both blacks and whites. This creates credibility for Obama, facilitating the transmission of his message to the public. Obama also evokes feelings patriotism for the fact that he states that he was” Raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at fort Leavenworth”, Obama states this mostly to get the attention of the white community and furthermore expand his argument in terms of diversity. As well as the white community, Obama also address the black community by mentioning that he is “Married to a black American who carries within her blood of slaves and slave-owners” to get their support and bring both communities together as one and talk about the state issues. Obama further constructs his characte...
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...s America like he does, it is because he was stained by segregation and still sees America as if African-Americans are still being oppressed. He states this to get America to stop viewing him as an anti-American pastor and get them to see him as a reminder of the mistake we did many years back; segregation.
Obama explicitly forged this speech to repeal the accusations of him being anti-American and achieve the people’s vote. The way he appealed to the audience is interesting because he was able to unite both communities he talked about and discuss why Reverend Wright is his pastor and why he cannot just “disown” him. To reject the exigencies of Obama being anti-American, Obama uses ethos to gain the trust of the people and tone to appeal to blacks and whites. This speech was ultimately successful as it resulted in the election of Barrack Obama as President.
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.
Common stereotypes portray black fathers as being largely absent from their families. Proceeding the emancipation, African Americans were forced to adapt to a white ruled society. Now that they were free, many sought education and jobs in order to provide for their families and achieve their full potential. This caused many African American males to leave their families in pursuit of better opportunities. Obama’s father had left his home to pursue education and study at Harvard University, but Obama only saw his father one more time, in 1971, when he came to Hawaii for a month's visit. Throughout the rest of his life, Obama faced the conflict of belonging, most in part because he didn’t have a father to help him. “There's nobody to guide through
When president Barack Obama first walked on the biggest stage in America eight years ago a lot of Americans did not trust his words of wisdom to carry, we the people to a better United States. On January 10, 2017 President Barack Obama walked back on that same big stage now known and loved by so many to give his last and final speech, his Farewell speech. All of the non believers were certainly awoken to the actions that were taken by president Barack Obama to achieve most of what he truly dedicated his life and career to. Obama worked hard to gain the love, respect and dedication by so many loyal americans today. It definitely was not an easy task to achieve, many trials and many errors. In this analysis I will state weather or not Obama’s
From his extremely vivid imagery at the beginning to his conclusion that America plans to seek a solution with Russia and other nations, the president’s flow from using pathos to logos to ethos made his speech very effective and compelling. His argument was backed up and supported all through out his speech, which helped his audience believe that what he was saying is true and important. However, his speech would have been nothing without the implication and opinion that America is the strongest nation in the world. Although this point is debatable, it is our duty to help other nations. We definitely do an excellent job at helping other nations and always having their best interests at heart. I believe this was the main goal for Obama’s speech; a plan to protect the United States. The use of logos, ethos and pathos just helped his speech to be more persuasive and
In contempt of Obama’s humble giving spirit, vivid personality, and many accomplishments, a debate is always at hand upon hearing the infamous name Barack Hussein Obama. From his place of birth, religion, and ethnicity Obama’s face a fair share of controversy. At the heels of adversity along with sheer determination to help others Obama became a leader that delivers and one of the most influential people of America. Adversity was introduced to Obama at an early age. With a Kenyan father and Caucasian mother residing in Hawaii, Obama has always stood out in numerous ways. In 1959 Barack Obama Senior was selected from a number of candidates to go to school in the US where he attended The University of Hawaii in Honolulu to
The Audacity of Hope was given on July 27, 2004, as the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. Throughout the speech, Barack Obama’s purpose is made clear by the description of the positive attributes of presidential candidate John Kerry. The Audacity of Hope made Obama further known in the world of politics, and a star among the Democratic Party. The strength and persuasive qualities of Barack Obama’s speech are created by repetition devices, various sentence structures, and abstract language.
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”.
It was a brief speech that captivated a lot of matters that concern the American citizens exclusively and the world inclusively. He divided his speech into different sectors which are citizens’ sacrifice, the idea of service, adopting changes, promise of wealth, government harmony and dignity. The language used in the speech was flawless and applicable to the audience, who was the public, since he was using every day vocabulary. Therefore, the speech has a strong structure that can be easily understood by the majority of people. The audience typically will and was the American citizens, but since the United States has many international relationships, President Obama was trying to reach beyond the nationwide concerns and meet a mutual background....
At the time of this speech, Barack Obama is running for the Democratic Presidential candidate as well as being called into question when his former pastor publicly accused the government of committing hateful acts against black Americans. He addresses the American public then tries to persuade them to recognize that he understands both the white Americans and the black Americans. He uses ‘we’ and ‘us’ to show that he truly views the people as one as opposed to various separate groups, “… we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together, unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction…” He wants to move past the racial segregation and move towards a truly unified country, and he uses pathos by talking about his upbringing. The use of the descriptions of his youth with a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas shows that he can relate to the common person seeing as he had to adjust to both sides of his families as well as the stigmas that both sides had. The urgency in which Obama answered the accusations of being similar to Wright,
As individuals, we don’t tend to take action unless it’s for self-interest; however, in Dreams from My Father, Obama spends three years, after college, as a community organizer in Chicago. Obama goes through tribulations, disappointments, and even complete failures organizing meaningful events, decisive meetings, and humble gatherings but he keeps working toward achieving any possible change in the community. Even though results give him every reason to give up, he learns that every individual has a life-changing story that shaped him or her profoundly. He also learns to value education and to strengthen his faith toward the organization in making changes to the community. He doesn’t want to just talk about how wonderful it could be, he actually wants to take action transforming unfavorable to favorable. Barack Obama is determined to help people fight for what is just and deserved.
In the beginning of the speech Barack Obama reflects back to where his parents and grandparents came from and what they did as their occupation. Obama shows pathos, logos and ethos many times throughout his 2004 keynote speech. He also spoke on why his mother and father gave him the name that they gave him. By doing so, Barack Obama showed pathos throughout the speech and got his audience to know him a bit before pursuing the Democratic Party to vote for John Kerry. He appeals to his audience by mentioning that his parents are both passed away, and from the look of things that did not stop him from standing where he was that day with pride and sadness:
He verbalizes in lines 35-37 this by making known that “[Pinckney] conducted himself quietly, and kindly, and diligently. [Pinckney] encouraged progress not by pushing his ideas alone, but by seeking out your ideas partnering with you to make things happen.” This exemplifies how we must move with grace and move with the power to achieve a common goal. He does this to signal the ones who knew Pinckney to continue in his ideologies to discover another side of the world that is ridden of hatred. A second way Obama uses rhetorical appeal towards ethos is when he states in lines 54-55 the names of the people who have passed in this horrific event “Cynthia Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethal Lance, DePayne Middleton Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, Daniel L. Simmons Sr., Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Myra Thompson” He does this to remind the people viewing the eulogy that these people have been lost and this eulogy is about all of them not just Reverend Clamenta Pinckney. We must abide for a better and renewed the US that will stand united to show the people of hatred that we are not scared to unite and we will no longer discriminate based on any physical differences. Furthermore, Obama states in lines 6-7 how the Reverend was “ A man who believed in things not seen. A man who believed there were better days ahead, off in the distance. A man of service who preserved, knowing
In conclusion, I believe Obama’s State of Union address was flawless in the terms of his vocal variety, his content strength and the way he presented possible solutions of problems to his audience. His speech was tailored to address congress as well as secondary audience, the rest of the nation. Regardless of the diversity of the audience, Obama still managed to impact each diverse group with issues that each individual could relate to. Overall, Obama’s 2012 State of the Union informed the nation of his plans during presidency as well as persuaded Congress to take action and implement his plans for the future.
When Barack Obama ran for presidency, there were a lot of questions about his race, color, and whether he was born in the U.S.. The comments from his pastor Jeremiah Wright put him in an awkward situation, so he decided to give this speech to prove the point that we are all the same and live in the same country, so there shouldn’t be any discrimination among anyone. In his speech, Obama uses rhetorical devices to explain how race discrimination is affecting our country and us in every way possible. The use of rhetorical devices in this speech has strong effects on the audience. The use of allusion, symbolism, optimistic tone, and repetition of words gives the speech a strong argumentative tone. He argues the fact that to be able to achieve such big goals and how out country was supposed to be from the beginning, we need to stay united and rely on younger
Obama’s father left him and his mother when he was only 2 years old. Obama then talks about the family he grew up with, his mother and grandparents, and the racism they dealt with at a time when few accepted interracial relations and even more so marriages. He recalls being made fun of as a young child when other kids would make monkey noises when it was discovered his father was from Kenya. He then moves to Indonesia when his mother remarries, but then at 10 years old moves back to Hawaii where he spent his early childhood. It was with his grandparents that he developed much of his character and learned how strongly education was emphasized in his family.