Revin Jehanger Political Debates In Politics February 3, 2014 A More Perfect Union Barack Obamas 2008 A More Perfect

Union speech or better remembered as The Race Speech emphasized why running for presidency in 2008, and especially 2008, was absolutely necessary to greater unify and remedy the future of Americas equality and racial issue where past attempts in American history had failed. Throughout his election campaign, Barack Obama signaled that he was in fact the great white hope, the president that could be the prime example of overcoming racial struggles and converting adversity into prosperity, the American Dream. Obama, very intelligently sets the tone of his speech with that of a historical frame, stirring the power of pathos very early in his speech with the powerful language of the American Constitution, We the people, in order to form of more perfect union. The American people have already anticipated Obamas Race Speech greatly and mixed emotions surrounding what the tone of Obamas speech would be were heavy in 2008. Obama states in the Race Speech that throughout his election campaign, many felt he was either too black or not black enough but what Obama cleverly does is play on duality. The fact that Obama can adhere to both African Americans and Caucasians is in Obamas favor and is one of greatest factors to why the 2008 Race speech was both successful and will be forever be remembered and categorized as a historical American speech.

Barack Obama is fully aware that within America, racism, inequality and poverty is a daily reality for millions of Americans, he does not deny that America has completely overcome racism and inequality, Obama does signal that 2008 is a transitional year for America because America has indeed come along way from slave ownership, racial segregation and injustice, but has not fully progressed towards absolute equality and racial justice. Where Obama manages to

capture the audience into the palm of his hand is where Obama begins to use the same language, terms and emotions used some two-hundred and twenty-one years ago in the American Constitution. Terms Obama uses throughout his speech are both excellent examples of pathos. Obama several times in his speech repeats words such as, liberty, justice equal and free. Obama understands that when addressing the subject of Race in America, pathos and ethos will not only penetrate the heart greater than logos but draw the attention of the media and subdue fears of the American People also. Obamas past and upbringing differs from that of the rich and comfortable life of presidents, which have preceded him, George Bush, Bill Clinton, John F. Kennedy. Obama has the ethos to appeal to both Whites and Blacks better than presidents before him and is why Obama is able to harness the trust and sincerity of both African Americans and Caucasians. Obama uses himself as a character in his narrative about his own life experiences as being a black male in America, living in the most poverty-stricken neighborhoods, yet rising to prosperity by attending some of the best schools in the country. Obama understands that both African Americans and Caucasians want to find not only political but personal similarities of themselves within Obama, and although Obama is fully aware that he can do just both, be the president that African Americans call their own and be the intellectual in a room full of Harvard lawyers. Obama has the ability to capture both African American sentiments as well as White sentiments; he explains that both his white heritage and black heritage were filled with adversity, despite their skin color. He uses the story of his grandmother many times in his campaigns and speeches, the white grandmother, 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 while he was overseas." Obama also reminds African Americans that he chose to marry a black woman, a woman with a deep history of slavery dating back in her family and hardship in her veins. Already, one can imagine both African Americans and Caucasians, teary-eyed and sympathetic, as well as, one cannot rule out that, amongst the crowd, there are also the Americans that do not buy into Obamas pathos and would rather hear the side of logos and ethos, because those Americans, though not many, do still exist in America. Where Obamas logos briefly comes

into play is when he admits the American Constitution failed to unify the country, failed to free the slaves and failed to spread the notion of equality and tolerance throughout America, as slavery still continued long after the American constitution was declared. One of the most painfully true components to Obamas speech, and perhaps he is hinting here that within politics and media, not enough of logos and ethos is present, Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism. Obama signals he understands the workings of both the political and media world, however fails to see that he himself has used allusion language many times as well. Though Barack Obama is a very intelligent man, he did not keep logos a consistent theme in his speech; he could have expanded on how Americas horrific racial injustice continued throughout decade after decade in America and how the effects have scientifically and statistically had a first hand in influencing the generation of adults and children today, as well as what strategies his administration wishes to implement to narrow the gap between racial tensions and tolerance. However, Obama only briefly states we need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow. He could have expanded here and created a speech with depths of logos and ethos, rather than continuing on about his own life and his family. Although Obama admits that his presidency cannot remedy the countrys extensive and historical shame of racial injustice by stating, I have never been so nave as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy - particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own. Obama, yet again resurrects the pathos, in which much of the crowd by now, probably thought was over. Obama states how rooted he is in both faith and the American people, working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union. Obama uses the example of his relationship with Reverend White, a close friend and

long time reverend to the Obama family, what Obama concludes about his relationship with White, is that Obama wants to portray himself as a man of tolerance, a man of ethos and a man that can be friends with a Reverend who makes offensive comments and with Americans with political, social and philosophical beliefs which differ from his own. Obama is emphasizing that he in fact can handle political difference and is not intimidated by those who wish to challenge his politics, thus no damage can be done to his ethos and he can still remain credible. Again, Obama is tugging at the pathos and ethos strings. Obama has a tendency to tell many stories within his speeches, perhaps why his speeches are so lengthy; Obama gradually comes to both tell and end and end the speech with a story about a girl named Ashley Baia. Ashleys story is both heartbreaking and inspiring, perhaps why Obama chose to tell Ashleys story in the first place. Obama uses Ashley as an example of how many households in America cannot afford medical care and attention and result in members of household leaving their jobs, or in the case of Ashleys family, declaring bankruptcy. Obama again uses pathos here to signal that Ashley could in fact have blamed Blacks for their consumption of welfare or Hispanics for entering and working illegally in the country, but instead Ashley, a white female, did not blame any which member of her society, instead she sought allies in her fight against injustice. A compelling story, nonetheless, but what is ironic about Ashleys story is, Obama signals that it was a elderly black man who feels a young white woman's pain, and not to undermine the sentiments of Caucasian people and deem them heartless, but Obama is not blind to the fact that the higher number of Americans who cannot afford health and medical care and are pressured into declaring bankruptcy range higher in African Americans and Hispanic households than rather than in Caucasians households.

All the people, media and critics can remember from this speech is two quotes, We the People, in order to form a more perfect union and I am here because of Ashley. Perhaps, that is not my mistake but by design since Obama understands fully well that if a logos was the

dominant language of his speech, it would open a line of questions in which Obama knows very well he will have a hard time answering. Obama consciously designed his speech to be composed predominantly with pathos. A speech in which he wanted the American people to remember, a speech in which he knew students, writers and politicians would refer back to one day and reference in their papers, articles and campaigns. This is a key reason why Obamas 2008 speech A more Perfect Union, is considered as one of the great historical speeches and rhetoric in American presidential history.