The article “Reality or Rhetoric? Barack Obama and Post- racial America” (Love and Tosolt 4) focuses on the impact that Obama’s election had on racial segregation in the country of the United States of America. The article seeks to identify whether or not President Obama’s ascent to the presidency is the beginning of a new post- racial era. The argument raised is divided into two portions. The first argument for discussion raised is that the acceptance of Obama as the president shows tremendous progress in the fight against racism. The other discussion point raised argues that it simply provides a different outlook to the public on the matter of racism and that no action of change has truly occurred. The article analyses the basic reaction of people of various backgrounds, races, age, gender, and professional interests. The article highlights the dynamics and main elements of each respondent. This approach provides an understanding of the aspect of racism and its interpretation from a vast variety of various individuals with …show more content…
The election of Barack Obama to the presidency was a fundamental symbol of unity for all races in America. It highlighted the Americans’ willingness to traverse racial boundaries. In the article, there was a comment by an African American woman who stated, “As an American citizen, I am proud that this country has elected a bi-racial president” showing renewed hope in the issue of racism.” There was also a comment by a white female American citizen who stated, “I was deeply moved by his acceptance speech and I 'm proud of our country for finally getting (at least somewhat) past the race issue” highlighting elation at the thought of having a black president. It is clear that the election of Barack Obama acted as a unifying factor for both the white and the black communities as a whole. The movement tends to be seen as a stride towards the end of
On September 8, 2009, President Barack Obama held a speach at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia, which was broadcast all over America to the millions of students, from kindergarden up to twelfth grade, he was hoping to reach with an important message. In the speech he stresses the importance of getting an education, and he reaches out to the students to tell them why they have a responsibility not only to themselves but also to the country; ”-if you quit on school- you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country”1. With this sentence he suddenly makes every single student listen, he makes the whole genration feel important, and hopefully this will motivate all of them to work harder in school, get an education
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
President Barack Obama has been a well-known political figure for just over 8 years; he has served two terms as the President of the United States. There has been controversy surrounding the first African American president, after his first term Obama failed to prove to America that he would fix all the things he promised to fix upon election. With his second term he has set in place his views and goals for the country. Obama’s views have been trying to benefit the overall population of American, from the poor all the way to the rich with a few subclasses in-between. During the Inauguration of his second term, won against Mitt Romney. His opponent stood for many things that were conflicting to Obamas platform, while Obama stood for rehabilitating the poor after the recession, Romney wanted to focus on tax breaks for the rich. Throughout the speech given by President Barack Obama, he outlines necessary changes in the system to benefit the people and the need for people to come together as one to have an effective country.
Through capturing these events and images in the minds of his audience, Obama writes, “Those stories – of survival, and freedom, and hope – became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world” (14). Obama’s references of biblical and historical events which are known today from history as powerful stories of difficulty and perseverance is used to describe the struggles of racial inequality. As racial inequality itself is a huge problem which creates separation between races even till today, Obama’s allusion to these events match well with putting into perspective
Whenever tragedy strikes, people often look for someone with the eloquence and the empathy to reassure them and help them seek some form of comfort. This was especially evident when President Barack Obama was to speak on behalf of the victims and loved ones of said victims on the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre on December 14. Obama’s use of rhetoric in relations to sympathizing with those affected by the tragedy is used as he fervently relates to it on being himself a parent and expresses it as such through the speech. Some have related and compared this to Lincoln’s renown Gettysburg Address. Either way, Obama does achieve the purpose that was sought out by Lincoln regarding the attempt to mitigate the despair of the loss
On his speech “State Floor”, broadcasted from The White House on September 10, 2014, president Obama makes a statement about the ongoing chaos caused by the terrorist group, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). President Obama delivers his message to the people of the United States of America as he addresses them as “my fellow Americans”. President Barak Obama endeavors to comfort and persuade the American people that ISIL will soon be eradicated, by successfully using the rhetorical strategies of ethos, pathos, and logos. During American prime time; 9:00 pm EDT, a day before the 13th anniversary of 9/11 the president of the United States appears on the State Floor of the White House to let the American people know that he is doing
Many people believed Senator Obama won the presidential nomination because he gives a speech that changed the political, religion issues about the race. President Barack Obama is the 44th president and the first African American to serve as U.S president. He was elected second terms over former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. On March 18, 2008, president Obama gave a famous speech about the political, religion issues of race in the United States speaking at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. This speech brings more hopes to the black people, and opposed to former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s view. The speech encourages the black people to fight for their freedom, to overcome the difficulties to create more strong union
President Obama’s Inaugural Speech: Rhetorical Analysis. Barrack Obama’s inauguration speech successfully accomplished his goal by using rhetoric to ensure our nation that we will be in safe hands. The speech is similar to ideas obtained from the founding documents and Martin Luther King’s speech to establish ‘our’ goal to get together and take some action on the problems our country is now facing. As President Barack Obama starts his speech, he keeps himself from using ‘me’, ‘myself’, and ‘I’ and replacing it with ‘we’, ‘us’, and ‘together’ to achieve his ethos.
It is hard to believe that after electing a minority president, the United States of America can still be seen as a vastly discriminatory society. A question was posed recently after a viewing of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream…” speech of whether his dream has become a reality. After consideration, a majority of the viewers said no. Although many steps have been taken to improve racial equality in America, there is still no way to legislate tolerance. Dr. King’s message of equality for all has been lost in a black and white struggle over the taken meaning of his context. Until our society can allow all people to live in peace we will never truly achieve King’s dream. Case in point, referring to President Obama as our "our First Black President" should not be considered a statement of pride over how far we have come. Placing this racial qualifier, even in a positive light, only serves to point out his minority status, not the fact that he is the President of the United States. According to Dr. King's dream, a man or woman, black or white, would be viewed as President without qualifying their differences from mainstream America.
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
For many years, American Presidents were viewed as being white and powerful leaders. Why were they only white? Is it because Americans felt Blacks were not smart enough to run a country on their own? African Americans were viewed as less dominate people and have been discriminated because of the color of their skin. In 2008, Barack Obama was elected President of the United States making him the first black president ever. In this paper, I will discuss how Barack makes a change and if America can accept him as our first black president.
Growing up in a time where we have seen the different actions by America’s first black President, Barack Obama, I think it is appropriate to look back on the civil rights movement and the role that hundreds played in documenting the events. Accurately researched and intensely condensed, The Race Beat is an extraordinary explanation of one of the most explosive periods in our nation’s history, as told by those who covered it
The article, “RACE AND ETHNICITY- CHANGING SYMBOL IS OF DOMINANCE AND HIERARCHY IN THE UNITED STATES” by Karen I. Blu is an exceptional work that clearly expounds on the racial and ethnic groups especially in America. Racial and ethnic groupings are gradually becoming popular in the public arena, in which people are shifting their focus on classifying other people on the basis of racial groupings to rather classifying them on the basis of ethnicity. Moreover, race grouping is slowly submerging into ethnic grouping with Black activism being the role player in this (Blu, 1979). The following is a summary of the aforementioned article in how it relates to racial and ethnic groups and response regarding its views.
Let’s take a step back to 2008 in Philadelphia. Neither the city nor year suggests that history is going to be made. On March 18, 2008, at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Barack Obama took the stage and delivered a speech that would portray the racial landscape of his presidency. In his speech, Obama points out rhetorical tactics to support his argument that we as Americans in this country need to be united for racial equality to exist. He begins his speech with a back story to highlight the kairotic moment present, then appeals to pathos through lots of examples of racial injustice to signify the need for such change, and then uses his appeals to ethos to suggest ways of change for Americans, both black and white. The speech was very successful: people from both sides praised his bravery, and later the same year, Obama demolished McCain in a close victory to secure his presidency.
President Obama’s Address to the nation was presented on January 5, 2016. His speech was shown on all of the major network stations. The main goal of his speech was to get the point across to the nation about the increasing problem of gun use. His speech really focused on the issue of gun control and if it would benefit the country. Overall, the biggest idea of his Address was that gun control is a large issue in the United States. The way to prevent deaths caused by firearms can be prevented in other ways than taking peoples guns away. The examples brought up in this Address really stood out to me. The use of personal, national, and global examples really made his speech stronger on the topic of effectiveness.