A More Perfect Union 4/26/17

In Barack Obama’s speech on race, A More Perfect Union, he uses emotional, ethical, and logical appeals to persuade his audience on a controversial topic. In his speech, he builds common ground with his audience by telling us about his diverse background making his speech universal and making an ethical appeal. When Obama talks about his background of being split between a father from Kenya and white mother from Kansas it appeals to his credibility and opens the conversation as he continues to talk about race and his experiences. In this speech, Obama also uses emotion to appeal to his audience by influencing hope and change for our country by the end of his speech, also throughout his speech. Obama doesn’t use logical appeals as clearly as the other appeals but he does use them by stating the journey to the declaration of independence and telling his personal experiences. All of the persuasive techniques are used in this speech to appeal to the audience with an abundance of emotional appeals of hope and change.

            I think that this speech’s emotional appeals worked for me because in the end there is hope and our country can be perfected while still being imperfect. I agree with what Obama said about not becoming a victim of your past and to insist on justice and binding our grievances to the aspirations of all Americans. I think that this speech includes all Americans in the fight for change and shines a light on the need for the children to have a way to prosper because they are the future no matter the color of their skin or where they come from. I like this speech and think Obama did a good job at appealing to his audience and turning a controversial topic into a message for change.