Short Essay #2 - “My President Was Black” Ta-Nehisi Coates's essay presents many historical perspectives on the presidency of Barack Obama during the 2016 election. Coates emphasizes the importance of Obama as the first African-American president and the effect of his presidency on American society. He also discusses the challenges and criticisms that Obama faces, especially regarding race and the expectations placed on him as a symbol of black success. Coates examines the Obama administration, its significance, and the historical context of his presidency. One of the main historical arguments made by Coates is the symbolic significance of the Obama presidency. Coates emphasizes that Obama's election represents a shift in the traditional power dynamics of the presidency, which white men have historically dominated. According to Coates, Obama's presidency was about breaking …show more content…
He discusses how Obama's embrace of white innocence was necessary for his political survival, and how his attempts to address racial issues were met with discipline and declining favorability among white voters. Coates also points out that some critics dismissed Obama's victories in 2008 and 2012 as merely symbolic for African Americans, but he argues that there is nothing "mere" about symbols, emphasizing the power embedded in symbolic representations. I find this argument about this topic to be a bit unpersuasive, although Coate’s description of resistance that was relevant during Obama’s presidency was compelling; I don’t think that it really captures the complexity of the political landscape during that time. It may be true that Obama's embrace of white innocence was necessary, but I believe that it’s important to take note of his attempts to address racial issues that were not universally met with declining favorability among white
Coates wrote a 176 page long letter to his 14 years old son to explain what the African American society were going through at the time being. In the book, Coates used himself as an example to demonstrate the unjust treatment that had been cast upon him and many other African Americans. Readers can sense a feeling of pessimism towards African American’s future throughout the entire book although he did not pointed it out directly.
Panel Members. (2014). Retrieved February 26, 2014, from The Brown & Black Presidential Forum: http://www.bbpresforum.org/panel.html
Then, the speaker of this letter is Jackie Robinson, the first black baseball player in America. However, without Robinson as the speaker this text wouldn’t be preserved as it is today, specifically if the speaker was a little known person of color or even a white person speaking on the behalf of the black community. The audience includes President Lyndon B. Johnson directly; then Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York; and lastly the people of America, the black community, and those fighting for civil rights. This audience is important because if Robinson hadn’t written to the President, and indirectly to the others, then, similarly with the speaker, the text might not be as preserved or well-known nor carry the same influence it has. The subject, as mentioned before for the text’s purpose, is the Civil Rights Movement and the President’s involvement in it during the Vietnam War, which is affects the text as Robinson is a
America have a long history of black’s relationship with their fellow white citizens, there’s two authors that dedicated their whole life, fighting for equality for blacks in America. – Audre Lorde and Brent Staples. They both devoted their professional careers outlying their opinions, on how to reduce the hatred towards blacks and other colored. From their contributions they left a huge impression on many academic studies and Americans about the lack of awareness, on race issues that are towards African-American. There’s been countless, of critical evidence that these two prolific writers will always be synonymous to writing great academic papers, after reading and learning about their life experience, from their memoirs.
When it all comes down to it, one of the greatest intellectual battles U.S. history was the legendary disagreement between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois. This intellectual debate sparked the interest of the Northerners as well as the racist whites that occupied the south. This debate was simply about how the blacks, who just gained freedom from slavery, should exist in America with the white majority. Even though Washington and DuBois stood on opposite sides of the fence they both agreed on one thing, that it was a time for a change in the treatment of African Americans. I chose his topic to write about because I strongly agree with both of the men’s ideas but there is some things about their views that I don’t agree with. Their ideas and views are the things that will be addressed in this essay.
“The New Jim Crow” is an article by Michelle Alexander, published by the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law. Michelle is a professor at the Ohio State Moritz college of criminal law as well as a civil rights advocate. Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law is part of the world’s top education system, is accredited by the American Bar Association, and is a long-time member of the American Law association. The goal of “The New Jim Crow” is to inform the public about the issues of race in our country, especially our legal system. The article is written in plain English, so the common person can fully understand it, but it also remains very professional. Throughout the article, Alexander provides factual information about racial issues in our country. She relates them back to the Jim Crow era and explains how the large social problem affects individual lives of people of color all over the country. By doing this, Alexander appeals to the reader’s ethos, logos, and pathos, forming a persuasive essay that shifts the understanding and opinions of all readers.
Although an effort is made in connecting with the blacks, the idea behind it is not in understanding the blacks and their culture but rather is an exploitative one. It had an adverse impact on the black community by degrading their esteem and status in the community. For many years, the political process also had been influenced by the same ideas and had ignored the black population in the political process (Belk, 1990). America loves appropriating black culture — even when black people themselves, at times, don’t receive much love from America.
In “The Case for Reparations,” Ta-Nehisi Coates sets out a powerful argument for reparations to blacks for having to thrive through horrific inequity, including slavery, Jim Crowism, Northern violence and racist housing policies. By erecting a slave society, America erected the economic foundation for its great experiment in democracy. And Reparations would mean a revolution of the American consciousness, reconciling of our self-image as the great democratizer with the facts of our history. Paying such a moral debt is such a great matter of justice served rightfully to those who were suppressed from the fundamental roles, white supremacy played in American history.
The American Narrative includes a number of incidents throughout American history, which have shaped the nation into what it is today. One of the significant issues that emerged was slavery, and the consequent emancipation of the slaves, which brought much confusion regarding the identification of these new citizens and whether they fit into the American Narrative as it stood. In The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B Dubois introduces the concept of double consciousness as “the sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others” (Dubois 3). This later became the standard for describing the African-American narrative because of the racial identification spectrum it formed. The question of double consciousness is whether African-Americans can identify themselves as American, or whether the African designation separates them from the rest of society. President Barack Obama and Booker T. Washington, who both emerged as prominent figures representing great social change and progress for the African-American race in America, further illustrate the struggle for an identity.
They first mentioned President McKinley’s silence and demonstrated how that silence violates his duty as president and service to the people. To build upon President McKinley‘s failure to demonstrate his constitutional duty as president, the African-American community displays further examples of his hypocrisy. The authors use a series of questions to show the unequal treatment they have received. They ask why they are. They ask if it is due to the fact that they are “black and weak and despised?
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.
Obama emotionally influences the nation to move forward from the issues of race that is hindering America. Without dwelling on his family tree, Obama reminds us that his father was black and his mother white, that he came from Kenya, but she came from Kansas: “I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slave and slave owners — an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles, and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.
In Barack Obama’s Dreams from my Father, many aspects of race, gender, class, education, etc. are involved in the life of the current president. This novel introduces and brings out discussion for further analysis into these categories of privilege and discrimination. Though certain categories have caused great adversity for Barack Obama, he is still able to overcome his minority group due to the other privileged groups that he is in.
On March 7th, 2015, President Barack Obama stood in Selma, Alabama where he effectively portrayed the hardships and accomplishments faced by African-Americans. This was done through his authority as a direct inhibitor of the movement, unifying emotions meant to bring the crowd together to feel the power of the civil rights movement, first person accounts, and historical antidotes. In order for a speech to successfully convey a point or topic to an audience, the appeal to the character of the speaker must be demonstrated through outstanding orating skills and the exclusion of easily misunderstood political context. As President of the United States of America, Obama holds the attention and governing power of the American people, allowing him
Anna Owczarzak College Writing 6th hour September 30th, 2016 Textual Analysis In Barack Obama’s Speech “Election Night Remarks” he confidently expresses that he will be an exceptional president for the hard working middle class and everyone else whose voice needs to be heard. Obama uses a fair amount of pathos in order to show how close he feels to his audience of the hard working middle class. In his speech he paints Joe Biden as a normal citizen.