Rhetorical Analysis Of The Dreams Of My Father

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On March 18, 2008, soon-to-be first African-American President, Barack Obama, stepped up on a stage in Philadelphia at the National Constitution Center to deliver a speech that would alter everyone’s perspectives. Moreover, Obama tries to persuade the NCC and the American voters that unity is obligatory to achieve racial equality in America. Throughout his whole speech, former President Barack Obama reflects upon his own racial history, appeals emotions through a myriad of examples of racial injustice, and utilizes his authority in order to indicate the essentiality of such change. In the beginning of Obama’s speech, he contemplates his racial history in America in order to emphasize the importance of unity in excitement of his election. By …show more content…
By establishing a sense of identity in white America, he is able to portray himself as an equal who understands the struggle of being black. His use of ethos rests in the fact that he has put himself as a character in the racial history of America. He is not only raised in a community surrounded with racial inequality, but also the epitome of an outstanding politician with a high education; therefore, he is eligible for stating his claims. In retrospect, Obama recites the preamble to the United States Constitution, in the beginning of his speech in order to gain his audience’s trust, not by resting his authority above or below them, but amongst them. Moreover, he strongly suggest for African Americans to “embrace the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past.” He knows and felt these burdens – from being a black student in Harvard trying to reconcile social knowledge of his multiracial heritage. Although Obama’s presidential win in the 2008 elections was a milestone in making America ‘a more perfect union’, the judgement is still lingers as to whether America is as perfect a union as the founding fathers aspired it to be. While Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s exigency of his opinion reflect the fallibility of this union, Obama felt the need to respond. He accomplished that by first putting himself into the racial context of American history;
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