A Critical Look at "A More Perfect Union"

Obama’s speech "A More Perfect Union" has been hailed as one of the greatest since Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream”. People who say this are not being critical enough of the speech. Yes, it was brave of him to mention this volatile topic, but did he offer brilliant insight? No. Did he offer concrete solutions? No! Certain parts of his speech lack critical support, making the overall message seem illegitimate.

He opens the speech with a short history lesson, referring to the constitution, and how it is a document that gives everyone freedom. Yet regardless of the government being based on its principles on African Americans were still discriminated against. A few minutes later he says, “We do not need to recite the history of social injustice in this country.” This directly contradicts the opening of his speech.

To explain the discrepancy between white and African Americans income and education he, again, cites past discrimination against African Americans. He says that because of slavery and Jim Crow laws, African Americans were unable to give their descendants much upon their death. Therefore inhibiting their successors from being able to access decent educations, jobs with higher wages, and ultimately prohibiting them from being able take care of their families.
While this is a logical reasoning in explaining current differences economically and educationally between African Americans and white Americans, the statement of not having to recite the history of past social injustice towards African Americans contradicts half of his speech. A lot of time, and emphasis, was spent on elaborating past discrimination and their effects.

Obama also uses race to appeal to a wide audience throughout the essay with phrases like, “problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all” and “…unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction.” Another excellent persuasive idea that is imperfect.
An imperfect idea because only African American and White American problems are mentioned - also the majority of this reference is focused only on racial discrimination against African Americans. While America is made up of mostly white people, the Hispanic population is larger than the African American. Regardless of the major ethnicities, he’s trying to appeal to all peoples - to bring everyone together.

This is slightly understandable, as Barak Obama is both White and African American, but he still should have made reference to different ethnicities past and/or current discrimination. It would have been easy to mention how illegal immigration has caused discrimination for those of Hispanic descent, or how terrorism has led to the discrimination for people of Middle Eastern heritage. Mentioning these, or other different ethnicities would have supported the idea of people of different backgrounds coming together better than only using black and white examples.
At the end of his speech he tells a long story about a white girl, Ashley Baia, who helped organize his campaign in South Carolina. Her reason for participating in the campaign was to help others, similar to herself, overcome poverty. She asks others their reason for supporting Obama’s campaign, and an old black man says, “Because of Ashley.”

That is the only explanation given. No elaboration as to how Ashley helped or affected this man enough to be his sole reason for donating his time to Obama’s campaign. The story would have a bigger impact if he explained what about Ashley had made him come, how they had met, how she impacted him, etc. The story lacks any depth or insight.

He used this story as an example to show how recognition between the black and white communities is increasing. He used this as his conclusion, to tie up his entire message. It does show two people of different ethnicities and backgrounds coming together, but it has no kick or warm fuzzies. The only point of using a childish example like this would be to make people feel good, but it is too stale and lacking in detail.

To close his speech he mentions the problems that America needs to come together to solve: “It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children. But it is where we start.” This is a weak way to close the speech because the entirety of his speech is meant to support these things, and then he says it is not enough? Presenting a further goal, or ideas of what could be enough would have been far more interesting and inspiring.
Also, he never mentions any concrete solutions to health care, education, the housing crisis, jobs, etc. His only advice is that everyone join together to fight for these things. If everyone could agree on a way to solve them that would be great, but for people to come together over these issues ideas and solutions need to be offered to them.

Overall this speech came off as fluffy political jargon, all talk and no substance, except for the valid point of racism's current and non-ignorable existence. Comparing it to Martin Luther King’s inspired and hallowed speech is similar to holding a rave at his grave. Just don’t do it.

Analysis of "A More Perfect Union"

Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” speech is not just about hope and change. It is about our problems - where they come from, why we should look at them now, and start to change now. He delivers a powerful message on a volatile issue that many are afraid to address. It is delivered in a way that is appealing to a wide audience, logical, and effective in uniting different people. His message is how we need to, and how we can come together to create “a more perfect union.”

The first problem he addresses with the imperfect union, which his speech revolves around, is racism. His purpose is to prove that racism is still in effect today. To introduce the subject he recites some US History focusing on how African American’s were discriminated against even though they were living under a constitution “…that promised its people liberty and justice and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.”

While a short recitation of US History is not very interesting to a college student who has had it drilled into them during a 101 class, it is rousing to the general American, especially African Americans, and others who feel their race has impacted how successful they can be. It’s also effective in eliciting sympathy from those who feel they haven’t been discriminated against for those who have.
Another point of the history lesson was to show that progress has been made – through previous protests, a civil war, and civil disobedience. He supports this notion, using himself as an example: a half-African American man running for president. This point is made to disprove comments made by Pastor Wright – offensive and biased comments which Obama feels divide the nation further. But regardless of the progress that has been made, more still has to made,

To show current discrimination he cites discrepancies between predominately white and black neighborhoods, “…And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods — parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pickup, building code enforcement — all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continues to haunt us”. This is effective because it is true, and not only in black neighborhoods. Problems like this exist in communities with illegal immigrants where too many people are forced to live together in cheap, unsafe slums.

Because of this, and past discrimination African Americans hold deep resentment which non-African Americans probably won’t see. He mentions how this resentment prevents African Americans and others from coming together and understanding each other, and how politicians use this resentment to get elected – playing on people’s fears and bias to get more votes.

He also mentions his “opposition”, White Americans who don’t believe there is racism, problems. How many immigrants view themselves as having had no special privileges from being white ,“They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pensions dumped after a lifetime of labor…So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear an African-American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.” Because of this, white Americans also hold resentment, which politicians have also taken advantage of in the past. Obama says politicians used, “anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition”.

To solve this resentment, the gap between black and white understanding, Obama says people need to recognize “…that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together, unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction — toward a better future for our children and our grandchildren.” It is an effective phrase in uniting these two different communities through appealing to their common logic – everyone is different, but everyone wants to the same thing.

These points about racism being alive, and the resentment people have about it, are all used to support Obama’s phrase, “A more perfect union.” He shows imperfections in America, and proposes to solve them by having Americans understand each other’s differences and work together for their common goals. This phrase is effective in that it appeals to, and unites, a wide audience through patriotism.

Through appealing to people’s patriotism and resentments he effectively shows America’s ignored imperfections and how to solve them. He was logical, and forceful in executing his speech by not stumbling over words or contradicting himself. A beautiful speech with a strong message – unity.