Directions:
Read and annotate the following excerpt from Obama’s speech. Annotate for main ideas/claims, supporting details/evidence and reasoning, and rhetorical appeals and devices.
You must have at least 2 comments per paragraph.
Choose and thoroughly answer ONE Level 1 question and write 1 CCCC paragraph for ONE Level 2 question at the bottom.
Excerpt A
“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.
The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least 20 more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.
Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution — a Constitution that had at its very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty and justice and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.
And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part — through protests and struggles, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience, and always at great risk — to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.
This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this presidential campaign — to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. 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 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.
This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather 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. I’ve gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners — an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.
Level 1 Questions (choose one to answer)
A. Summarize in your own words why Obama says he has decided to run for president.
Obama decided to run for president to rewrite the declaration of independence
B. Obama suggests that it would take more than the struggles and protests of the people of color to bring equality for all into existence. Based on the text, what other actions are necessary and is it just a people of color issue or an issue of all humanity? Why or why not?
Level 2 Questions (choose one to answer)
A. Why does Obama frame his speech about modern racial issues in America around the Constitution and the founding fathers?
B. Why does Obama use the phrase “the original sin of slavery”? What comparison is he making and what effect does he want this to have on his audience?
C. Why does Obama introduce his family’s history? How does this relate to the belief he’s referring to?
D. Obama states that his family’s origin is spread across three continents and that even his daughters also inherit the same blood of slaves and slaveowners from he and his wife. What is Obama suggesting by his statement?
Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” Speech Excerpt B
Directions:
Read and annotate the following excerpt from Obama’s speech. Annotate for main ideas/claims, supporting details/evidence and reasoning, and rhetorical appeals and devices. You must have at least 2 comments per paragraph.
Choose and thoroughly answer ONE Level 1 question and write 1 CCCC paragraph for ONE Level 2 question at the bottom.
Excerpt B
…As William Faulkner once wrote, “The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past.” We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist between the African-American community and the larger American community today can be traced directly to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow…
…Legalized discrimination — where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions or the police force or the fire department — meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between blacks and whites, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persist in so many of today’s urban and rural communities…
…For all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn’t make it — those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations — those young men and, increasingly, young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race and racism continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of [the older] generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or the beauty shop or around the kitchen table ….That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity within the African-American community in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful. And to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.
In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience — as far as they’re concerned, no one handed them anything. They built it from scratch. 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. They are anxious about their futures, and they feel their dreams slipping away. And in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. 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…. Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren’t always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation.
Level 1 Questions (choose one to answer)
A. As Obama explains the history and policies that have caused anger within the Black American community, what does he say are the problems that this anger sometimes causes?
B. Summarize in your own words the causes for anger within the white community in America.
C. According to the text, what has the Black American community failed to do as a result of discrimination and racism
Level 2 Questions (choose one to answer)
A. What does the William Faulkner quote that Obama presents mean? Why does he use this quote? For what effect?
B. Why is Obama focusing on the problems found within these communities? For what purpose and effect?
C. Why is the issue of racism so misunderstood by both White Americans and Black Americans
D. What does Obama mean by the phrase “a legacy of defeat” in paragraph three?
E. How has the prevention and ultimate lack of the American Dream for Black Americans often lead to violence and pain with their own communities?
Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” Speech excerpts and tasks
Directions:
Read and annotate the following excerpt from Obama’s speech. Annotate for main ideas/claims, supporting details/evidence and reasoning, and rhetorical appeals and devices. You must have at least 2 comments per paragraph.
Choose and thoroughly answer ONE Level 1 question and write 1 CCCC paragraph for ONE Level 2 question at the bottom.
Excerpt C
…This is where we are right now. It’s a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve 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.
But I have asserted a firm conviction — a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people — that, working together, we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.
For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances — for better health care and better schools and better jobs — to the larger aspirations of all Americans: the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man who has been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for our own lives — by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny….
…In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination — and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past — are real and must be addressed, not just with words, but with deeds, by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.
In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more and nothing less than what all the world’s great religions demand — that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother’s keeper, scripture tells us. Let us be our sister’s keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.
For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division and conflict and cynicism….
…That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, “Not this time.” This time, we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time, we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can’t learn; that those kids who don’t look like us are somebody else’s problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.
Level 1 Questions (choose one to answer)
A. Summarize in your own words what Obama presents as the “path” that the African-American community should take.
B. Summarize in your own words what Obama presents as the “path” that the white community should take.
C. What is a stalemate? What does Obama mean by a “racial stalemate” in this excerpt?
Level 2 Questions (choose one to answer)
A. As Obama mentions a conviction that he has, why does he add that this is “a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people”? For what effect?
B. As Obama is proposing solutions for the problems within both the African-American and white communities, why does he use the word “path”? For what effect?
C. Obama believes African-Americans must embrace their scars and not be victims of the past in order to overcome racism today in America. Do you agree or disagree that this is necessary to have more unity in America? Why or why not?
D. What does Obama believe should be the future of the country’s children?
Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” Speech excerpts and tasks
Directions:
Read and annotate the following excerpt from Obama’s speech. Annotate for main ideas/claims, supporting details/evidence and reasoning, and rhetorical appeals and devices. You must have at least 2 comments per paragraph.
Choose and thoroughly answer ONE Level 1 question and write 1 CCCC paragraph for ONE Level 2 question at the bottom.
Excerpt D
This [election] we want to talk about how the lines in the emergency room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care, who don’t have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.
This time, we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time, we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn’t look like you might take your job; it’s that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.
This time, we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together and fight together and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that should have never been authorized and should have never been waged. And we want to talk about how we’ll show our patriotism by caring for them and their families, and giving them the benefits that they have earned.
I would not be running for President if I didn’t believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation — the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.
There is one story in particular that I’d like to leave you with today — There is a young, 23-year-old white woman named Ashley Baia … one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there. Ashley said that when she was 9 years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that’s when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom. She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches — because that was the cheapest way to eat. That’s the mind of a 9-year-old…
…So she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents, too. Now, Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother’s problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn’t. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.
Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they’re supporting the campaign…And finally they come to this elderly black man who’s been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he’s there… He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, “I am here because of Ashley.”
“I’m here because of Ashley.” By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. 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. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the 221 years since a band of patriots signed that document right here in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.
Level 1 Questions (choose one to answer)
A. After Obama has laid out the problems found within both the African-American community and the white community and he has proposed “paths” for both communities to take in previous excerpts of this speech, summarize in your own words the main ideas of what he now says we need to do together as a country.
B. Obama states, “I would not be running for President if I didn’t believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected.” What does Obama feel is key for perfecting the “perfect union” we have yet to achieve in America?
Level 2 Questions (choose one to answer)
A. As Obama is bringing his speech to a close, why does he include this anecdote about Ashley? What effect is this supposed to have on his argument? The audience?
B. What does Obama mean when he says the signing of the Constitution is “where the perfection begins”?
C. Why do you believe healthcare is an ongoing debate for presidential candidates? What did Obama’s mentioning of Ashley Baia depict about Obama’s character as a presidential candidate?