A More Perfect Union, By Maya Angelou

Philadelphia, March 2008. Neither that city nor year suggests a crucial event in American racial history. It’s not Birmingham in 1961, or Washington, D.C. in 1963. However, on March 18, 2008, at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon-to-be President Barack Obama, a black man with an African father, took the stage and delivered a speech that would paint the racial landscape of his historic presidency. In his speech, Obama welds three distinctive rhetorical tactics to support his overarching argument that unity is compulsory in this country to produce racial equality. First, he opens with a personal and historical background to highlight the kairotic moment and exigence present, then appeals to pathos through multiple examples of racial injustice to indicate the necessity of such change, and finally uses his appeals to ethos to suggest, but not legislate, modes of change for black and white Americans. The speech was met with profound success: pundits from both the right and the left praised his bravery and oration, while, later that year, Obama defeated John McCain in a landslide victory to secure the presidency. To many, this speech was both a rhetorical and political turning point in the 2008 presidential campaign.

In episode 6 of PBS’s The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross is titled A More Perfect Union. This episode showed how African Americans had tried to build a new and improved future on the footing of the Civil Rights Movement’s triumphs, but a rising class discrepancy threatened to split the black community in two. Many of African Americans won political offices across the nation and the middle class African Americans made unparalleled progress, which led to the upper class African American’s leaving the urban blacks to fend for themselves. Yet and still, African Americans of all backgrounds united to support Illinois’ Senator Barack Obama in his extraordinary campaign for the presidency of the United States, which he won in 2008 leading

Philadelphia, March 2008. Neither that city nor year suggests a crucial event in American racial history. It’s not Birmingham in 1961, or Washington, D.C. in 1963. However, on March 18, 2008, at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon-to-be President Barack Obama, a black man with an African father, took the stage and delivered a speech that would paint the racial landscape of his historic presidency. In his speech, Obama welds three distinctive rhetorical tactics to support his overarching argument that unity is compulsory in this country to produce racial equality. First, he opens with a personal and historical background to highlight the kairotic moment and exigence present, then appeals to pathos through multiple examples of racial injustice to indicate the necessity of such change, and finally uses his appeals to ethos to suggest, but not legislate, modes of change for black and white Americans. The speech was met with profound success: pundits from both the right and the left praised his bravery and oration, while, later that year, Obama defeated John McCain in a landslide victory to secure the presidency. To many, this speech was both a rhetorical and political turning point in the 2008 presidential campaign.

On March 18, 2008, Senator Barack Obama gave the “More Perfect Union Speech” at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia. The power and excellence behind his speech made all who listened think about race and the racial divide and conflicts that are so prevalent in America.

In duration with his speech, Obama does an inversion to racism and how it has left people with a weight from years of misery and intensity. He expresses that individuals have not overlooked what they have experienced in their lives. Yet he accentuates that it ought to be utilized as a quality rather than a shortcoming, to help other people assemble character and accomplishments within their community.

Beyonce’s Super Bowl performance referenced the Black Panthers movement and many African-Americans are boycotting the Oscars which are both examples of demands for equality now. The American Way is dependent upon immediate gratification. Washington believes that it is necessary to look beyond one’s self to achieve eternal meaning in life and that sustained effort is required to unite the races.

The main theme of this essay is based on racism and how poorly African Americans were treated. Therefore, the contribution to this theme is emotion. Angelou had an empowering and uplifting message behind the listing of the presidents, giving the students the encouragement they needed to overcome this difficult time and to also help them realize that they all have as much potential as the white students and anyone else for that

Presidential Candidate Senator Barack Obama, an African-American gave a speech on his presidential campaign behalf. He stood across the street from the hall where men stood 221 years ago. Those men came to an agreement of signing an important document for their declaration of Independence, but ultimately unfinished. Within the Constitution, it is promised liberty and justice to the people. Americans of this union need to be willing to do their part and grasp the ideal of not treating others different because of their race, color of their skin , or gender. Reality be known, disobedience of such inequality can lead to hatred and part this union as a whole; when really in order to be stronger we should come together as a whole. Obama strongly uses rhetorical devices in his speech to demonstrate his literal education in response of race equality and relations in the United States of America.

Additionally, Angelou demonstrates that once these obstacles are overcome through affirmative action a destination characterized by hope can be reached. I believe Dan Savage and Urvashi Vaid are effective in achieving their purpose of inspiring hope in inspiring hope through affirmative action in the essays It Gets Better and Action Makes It Better. Both authors demonstrate their effectiveness in achieving their purpose by their use of pathos, or emotional appeal, which consisted of consistent usage of anecdote, logos, and optimistic tone. The path to tolerance is long and burdensome, with the path to acceptance being even more so. No matter how narrow and grueling one’s path may be, almost always somewhere down the line it widens and has the ability to transform from a treacherous hike to a joyous stroll. In other words, it gets better as long as one remains hopeful and recognizes that there are others who have emotional appeals similar to our

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s “dream” is based on his electrifying ‘I Have a Dream’ speech that he gave in Washington on August 1963. His speech was a paradigm of how he wanted to have peace and tranquility in America. He believed that all people should be viewed as equal, and have the same access to jobs and freedom, no matter their skin color or nationality. The elation around President Barack Obama’s election has blinded most people from the sad reality for Blacks in America today. They seem to think that his election was the ultimate moment for achieving racial equality. President Barack Obama’s election was not the realization of Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream.

In a country tarnished by discrimination and various inequalities, the NAACP was formed in 1909, in order to promote the advancement for African Americans. After a centennial of outstanding success President Obama gives a remarkable speech in New York in 2009. In his speech he discusses how far the NAACP has come and what needs to be done for the US in the future to thrive and prosper. President Obama provides topics that have the ability to promote equality within kids in the modern generation such as Education, family and the community kids grow up in.

In our world today, we face the problems of diversity of race, religion, beliefs and a great deal of other things. In history itself, there have been people that have tried to take a stand for these beliefs and fight for their rights. Two people who have done this are Maya Angelou in her poem, Human Family, and Barack Obama’s Speech on Race. In their texts, they share a common belief and the common belief that the two express is that even though we are all different on the outside and in our minds, we are all still people and part of the human race. Obama and Angelou express this idea in many ways.

‘A More Perfect Union’ is a speech that was delivered by the then US Senator for Chicago, Barack Hussein Obama, in response to criticism and condemnation that was thrown at him due to his relationship with Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Reverend Wright had come under attack from many corners of American society due to what people termed as ‘anti-American’ sentiments that Reverend Wright shared with his congregants, the most prominent of them being Senator Obama. (Obama, B. 2008).Senator Obama, who was then running for presidential nomination by the Democratic Party, was accused of tolerating anti-American sentiments. People, politicians and academics wondered how he could put up with such sentiments yet he hoped to lead a society as diverse ethnically and racially as America. This speech, ‘A More Perfect Union’, was Senator Obama’s response to these accusations.

The guest speaker at graduation talks about how the white kids will get new microscopes and equipment while the black schools would get fields to play on in order to become athletes (Angelou 151). The black school children were not given an adequate chance to succeed academically and were only believed to be athletes. The only positives the speaker noted from the black schools were the successful basketball and football players (Angelou 151). The speaker does not value the black students in the least bit or their future. The speaker’s attitude reflects the southern ideals that white students have more potential simply because of the color of their skin, rather than their ability. The black students were cornered into a box in regards to academics and Angelou demonstrates the lack of opportunity they received compared to the white

Indeed Barack Obama’s climb to the White House does suggest that we have made notable progress since the abolition of slavery, however the struggle for equality is far from over. After all, King did not stop his fight once African Americans attained “equality” according to the law because he realized that society would have to pay for reversing the mass oppression of a people through delivering economic equality: