Obama Race Speech

Jessica Mitchell

4 - 11 - 04

Professor mundo

United Nation

On March 18th, 2008 Democratic Senator Barack Obama filled the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and delivered one of the most highly recognized campaign speeches the country has ever witnessed. Obama was responding to controversial remarks made by the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor and, until shortly before the speech, a participant in his campaign. Wright made inciting remarks about the United States and has accused the country of bringing on the Sept. 11 attacks by spreading terrorism. Barack Obama opens his speech by illustrating a background of the Declaration of Independence.

"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union ..." "221 years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America's improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars, statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787".

With that being said, Obama abstracts an idea of unity and agreement among his listeners that night. He uses the Declaration of Independence as a symbol of opportunity for the future of America. His message spreads not only to the minorities of the country but to citizens of all ethnic groups and social classes. By labeling himself as an African American and relating his family to ties with slavery Obama is allowing the public to actually feel a sensation behind his words. He clearly acknowledges his belief in importance of coming together as one non segregated nation and even protests his own feelings behind his candidacy. Obama tells his audience, "I chose to run for President at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together, unless we perfect our nation by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes".

The arguments presented by Obama in his 2008 "Speech on Race" captivated his audience partly due to his use of Cicero's canons of rhetoric and Aristotle's proofs. Cicero's canons of rhetoric are highly influential in persuasive speeches and are clearly demonstrated by Obama throughout this speech. According to Cicero, the first step of invention is to understand the different targets of persuasion. Identify who they are, separating them into subgroups as necessary. Identify their needs, interests and goals around the persuasive situation. Throughout the speech Obama does an expert job of identifying and not leaving out any ethnic background or social groups. He does not make the speech about blacks conforming to white culture or vice versa. He even discusses racial tensions in the minds of prominent white communities.

Secondly, according to Cicero's cannon of invention it is important to consider what information you need to persuade these people. In my analysis I related Obama's personal reflections about his own family history and childhood as an American African to the cannon of intervention. By protesting his own difficulties with racism I feel as if he is able to touch and relate to a larger population. His audience portrays him to have more credibility and understanding of the real life dilemmas of the Black community.

Obama clearly demonstrated a persuasive maneuver in this speech by using Cicero's second cannon of arrangement. Cicero claims to start with an introduction that positions both your argument and, if appropriate, yourself. He asserts to present the basic facts of the case, clearly and with enough information that they can be accepted as independent facts, and not just your observations. After building up your own case, the next stage is to attack the stronghold of any opposing arguments. In doing so, Obama presents his audience with a brief history of the ongoing problem of racism and discusses the message of the Declaration of Independence. He does an inordinate job relating the history of his past to the general argument of existing racism. Towards the end of his speech Obama criticizes the views of Reverend Wright.

"The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society, it's that he spoke as if our society was static, as if no progress had been made, as if this country, a country that has made it possible for one of its own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black, Latino, Asian, rich, poor, young and old, is still irrevocably