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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.
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,
The first thing Obama does in his speech is bring up American past times. He connects those pastimes with the audience by saying there is a spirit that every American
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
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.
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.
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.
On July 27, 2004, Barack Obama made arguably his most important speech, “The Audacity of Hope”, at the Democratic National Convention Keynote Address. These conventions are for political parties to announce a winner for nomination. All the way through his piece, Obama focuses on connecting Americans and himself to the audience. In fact, at the time, Barack Obama was a US Senate candidate for the United States president, and in making this speech, was offered a window for raising his popularity. Throughout “The Audacity of Hope” speech, Barack Obama implements three main devices to raise his political popularity: repetition, abstract language, and structure.
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.
An overwhelming message that Obama mentions throughout the book is the idea that America can offer hope to anyone from any background; and to make sure that every person gets equal opportunity, a couple governmental changes are needed. Many times in the text he says “a new kind of politics, one that can excavate and build upon those shared understandings that pull us together as Americans,” (Obama 9). He continuously describes Abraham Lincoln as an ideal example of this quote. Lincoln, having only two years of Congressional experience, was able to become president and lead the country through som...
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
Across the world, ordinary people find heroes that they aspire to imitate. Comic books portray heroes as super strong men in spandex suits, and although a three-year-old child might aspire to be superman, more mature audiences hopefully find more realistic figures to idolize. Take Barack Obama, the President of the United States; he worked his entire life to attain the highest position in our government, President. Obama was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth but to a single mother in Hawaii. Through hard work and motivation, he went to college and received an education at Columbia University. He later obtained a law degree from Harvard University and began working with the Democratic Party. In 1996 he was elected to the Illinois Senate and acquired a seat in the United State’s Senate in 2004. After only 5 years of experience in the Senate, he was elected the 44th president. Obama’s exponential growth in importance and power could only have been achieved by an exemplary man. His determination, intelligence, hard work, and professionalism all made his success attainable, and he should be admired for these traits. Every country has a national hero and Barack Obama is the United State’s.
In the autobiography, Obama entails on the beginning journey of his life from early childhood to young adulthood. The novel begins with him finding out from his aunt that his father has passed away in Nairobi. 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. Obama also talks about how fascinated he was with by his father. As he grows a bit older into adolescence, Obama learns more about race relations and reads the book Heart of Darkness. This book helps him to see how white people look at black people, as a white man wrote the book talking about black people. He also delves into his marijuana use, which he used to help him during this confusing and rough period in his life. Obama’s story then ...