Double-Consciousness and the Rhetoric of Barack Obama

Double-Consciousness and the Rhetoric of Barack Obama
Author: Robert E. Terrill
Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press
Total Pages: 291
Release: 2015-07-30
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1611175321

“This incisive work” examining Obama’s speeches and the theories of W.E.B. DuBois “illuminates the influences of words and ideas” (Choice). The racial history of US citizenship is vital to our understanding of both citizenship and race. Robert E. Terrill argues that, to invent a robust manner of addressing one another as citizens, Americans must draw on the indignities of racial exclusion that have stained citizenship since its inception. In Double-Consciousness and the Rhetoric of Barack Obama, Terrill demonstrates how President Barack Obama’s public address models such a discourse. Terrill contends that Obama’s most effective oratory invites his audiences to experience a form of “double-consciousness,” famously described by W. E. B. Du Bois as a feeling of “two-ness” resulting from the African American experience of “always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others.” An effect of cruel alienation, this double-consciousness can also offer valuable perspectives on society. When addressing fellow citizens, Obama asks each to share in the “peculiar sensation” that Du Bois described. Through close analyses of selected speeches from Obama’s 2008 campaign and first presidential term, this book argues that Obama does not present double-consciousness merely as a point of view but as an idiom with which we might speak to one another. Of course, as Du Bois’s work reminds us, double-consciousness results from imposition and encumbrance, so that Obama’s oratory presents a mode of address that emphasizes the burdens of citizenship together with the benefits, the price as well as the promise.

Race and the Obama Phenomenon

Race and the Obama Phenomenon
Author: G. Reginald Daniel
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
Total Pages: 507
Release: 2014-07-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1626742014

The concept of a more perfect union remains a constant theme in the political rhetoric of Barack Obama. From his now historic race speech to his second victory speech delivered on November 7, 2012, that striving is evident. “Tonight, more than two hundred years after a former colony won the right to determine its own destiny, the task of perfecting our union moves forward,” stated the forty-fourth president of the United States upon securing a second term in office after a hard-fought political contest. Obama borrows this rhetoric from the founding documents of the United States set forth in the US Constitution and in Abraham Lincoln's “Gettysburg Address.” How naive or realistic is Obama's vision of a more perfect American union that brings together people across racial, class, and political lines? How can this vision of a more inclusive America be realized in a society that remains racist at its core? These essays seek answers to these complicated questions by examining the 2008 and 2012 elections as well as the events of President Obama's first term. Written by preeminent race scholars from multiple disciplines, the volume brings together competing perspectives on race, gender, and the historic significance of Obama's election and reelection. The president heralded in his November 2012, acceptance speech, “The idea that if you're willing to work hard, it doesn't matter who you are, or where you come from, or what you look like . . . . whether you're black or white, Hispanic or Asian or Native American.” These essayists argue the truth of that statement and assess whether America has made any progress toward that vision.

W.E.B. Du Bois and the Africana Rhetoric of Dealienation

W.E.B. Du Bois and the Africana Rhetoric of Dealienation
Author: Monique Leslie Akassi
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2018-11-02
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1527520854

As the rich words from the African proverbs resonate into the twenty-first century regarding the importance of identity and telling the stories of people of African descent through the eyes of the people, the grand rhetorician and griot of the twentieth century Dr William Edward Burghardt Du Bois’s infamous problem remains so today – “the problem of the colour-line.” After the election of Barack Hussein Obama, the first African American president of the United States; after the Civil Rights Movement; after Brown versus the Board of Education; after the students’ right to their own language; after Plessy versus Ferguson; and the murders of innocent, young African American males, including Emmett Till, Timothy Thomas, Trayvon Martin, John Crawford III, Tamir Rice, Jordan Davis, Eric Garner, and Mike Brown, people of African descent are still battling with being labelled a “problem in one’s own country” while the USA continues to strive for a post-racial era. W.E.B. Du Bois’s rhetoric and motives in general are more relevant today than ever in reassessing what he so eloquently describes and unveils through the phrase “double consciousness” in Souls of Black Folk (1903), through which he reveals the feeling of a problem. This ground-breaking volume, featuring contributions from W.E.B. Du Bois’s great-grandson, Arthur McFarlane II, among others, is organized into three parts. Part I focuses on the foundation of Du Bois’s Africana Rhetoric through the origins of Africana Studies, Pan Africanism, and Africana Critical Theory. Part II focuses on Du Bois’s rhetorical strategies and rhetorical analyses in his scholarship and life. Part III focuses on gender and sexuality in Du Bois’s selected works. This work, the first of its kind devoted exclusively to Du Bois’s rhetoric and motives—can serve as a blueprint for today as the struggle toward a post racial society continues.

The Teleological Discourse of Barack Obama

The Teleological Discourse of Barack Obama
Author: Richard W. Leeman
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2012
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0739174088

The Teleological Discourse of Barack Obama, by Richard Leeman, provides an in-depth analysis of President Barack Obama's speeches and writings to explain the power of the 44th president's speaking. Highly regarded for his eloquent and inspiring rhetoric, Obama is often compared to Roosevelt, Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. However, Leeman's study shows that Obama's teleological philosophy and discourse more closely resembles Ronald Reagan's rhetoric.

Barack Hussein Obama’s Presidency

Barack Hussein Obama’s Presidency
Author: Chuka Onwumechili
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 136
Release: 2023-12-04
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1003822665

This book presents research-based investigations of the communicative aspects of Barack Obama’s presidency, with a focus on ethnicity, gender, and culture as they interact with communication. It examines Obama’s rhetorical strengths, that also inform his visual rhetorical control, and looks beyond Obama’s messaging to examine how the news framed his presidency. The book opens by exploring the racio-rhetorical humour applied by President Obama during his presidency. Chapters investigate topics such as Obama’s use of visual rhetoric, how the media framed Obama using racialized lens, and offer iconographical analysis of satires featured in The New Yorker that symbolized the politics of racial fear erupting prior to the start of Obama’s presidency. They also examine how the White House used YouTube messaging to rebuild the first lady Michelle Obama’s image in ways that became acceptable to a wider American public, Obama’s rhetorical struggles to work within tensions created by the intersection of race and violence and analyze President Obama’s speeches at Tribal Nations Conferences. Barack Hussein Obama’s Presidency will be a key resource for scholars and researchers of communication studies, political communication, media and cultural studies, race and ethnic studies, and political science, while also appealing to anyone interested in the communicative aspects of Obama’s presidency and American politics. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Howard Journal of Communications.

The Size of Others' Burdens

The Size of Others' Burdens
Author: Erik Schneiderhan
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2015-05-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0804794952

Americans have a fierce spirit of individualism. We pride ourselves on self-reliance, on bootstrapping our way to success. Yet, we also believe in helping those in need, and we turn to our neighbors in times of crisis. The tension between these competing values is evident, and how we balance between these competing values holds real consequences for community health and well-being. In his new book, The Size of Others' Burdens, Erik Schneiderhan asks how people can act in the face of competing pressures, and explores the stories of two famous Americans to develop present-day lessons for improving our communities. Although Jane Addams and Barack Obama are separated by roughly one hundred years, the parallels between their lives are remarkable: Chicago activists-turned-politicians, University of Chicago lecturers, gifted orators, crusaders against discrimination, winners of the Nobel Peace Prize. Addams was the founder of Hull-House, the celebrated American "settlement house" that became the foundation of modern social work. Obama's remarkable rise to the presidency is well known. Through the stories of Addams's and Obama's early community work, Erik Schneiderhan challenges readers to think about how many of our own struggles are not simply personal challenges, but also social challenges. How do we help others when so much of our day-to-day life is geared toward looking out for ourselves, whether at work or at home? Not everyone can run for president or win a Nobel Prize, but we can help others without sacrificing their dignity or our principles. Great thinkers of the past and present can give us the motivation; Addams and Obama show us how. Schneiderhan highlights the value of combining today's state resources with the innovation and flexibility of Addams's time to encourage community building. Offering a call to action, this book inspires readers to address their own American dilemma and connect to community, starting within our own neighborhoods.

Talking to Strangers

Talking to Strangers
Author: Danielle Allen
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2009-08-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0226014681

"Don't talk to strangers" is the advice long given to children by parents of all classes and races. Today it has blossomed into a fundamental precept of civic education, reflecting interracial distrust, personal and political alienation, and a profound suspicion of others. In this powerful and eloquent essay, Danielle Allen, a 2002 MacArthur Fellow, takes this maxim back to Little Rock, rooting out the seeds of distrust to replace them with "a citizenship of political friendship." Returning to the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954 and to the famous photograph of Elizabeth Eckford, one of the Little Rock Nine, being cursed by fellow "citizen" Hazel Bryan, Allen argues that we have yet to complete the transition to political friendship that this moment offered. By combining brief readings of philosophers and political theorists with personal reflections on race politics in Chicago, Allen proposes strikingly practical techniques of citizenship. These tools of political friendship, Allen contends, can help us become more trustworthy to others and overcome the fossilized distrust among us. Sacrifice is the key concept that bridges citizenship and trust, according to Allen. She uncovers the ordinary, daily sacrifices citizens make to keep democracy working—and offers methods for recognizing and reciprocating those sacrifices. Trenchant, incisive, and ultimately hopeful, Talking to Strangers is nothing less than a manifesto for a revitalized democratic citizenry.

Obama's Rhetoric and the Myth of Virtuous Power

Obama's Rhetoric and the Myth of Virtuous Power
Author: Annegret Märten
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 44
Release: 2009-11-06
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 3640465881

Scientific Essay from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: "-", University of Dusseldorf "Heinrich Heine" (Institut für Kultur und Medien), language: English, abstract: An initial reaction to the appearance of Barack Obama on the American political stage has been one oscillating between reluctant approval, enthusiastic appreciation and mistrusting rejection. The chance of the first African-American president brought about much support for Obama, as well as critique claiming that he would just be a tool of liberal forces to put forth a politically correct agenda. The problem of race, very early on in the presidential primaries and later in the general election, was oddly unspoken of, yet permanently present. [...] Two speeches of Barack Obama will serve as a foundation for analysis. One is "A More Perfect Union", given in March 2008 in the height of the Democratic primary campaign. It deals with the race problematic in America. The other one is his Inaugural Address from January 2009 which of course has a much more celebratory tone. Both speeches center around the question of how the American society does deal and should deal with times of economical distress though their topical focus is an entirely different one. However, the effect both aim for, and to a large degree surely achieve, is a uniting one. Uniting different racial groups, uniting political opponents, uniting most of the divisive tendencies of society to reclaim the American Dream.

The Making of Barack Obama

The Making of Barack Obama
Author: Matthew Abraham
Publisher: Parlor Press LLC
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2013-10-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1602354707

The Making of Barack Obama: The Politics of Persuasion provides the first comprehensive treatment of why Obama’s rhetorical strategies were so effective during the 2008 presidential campaign, during the first four years of his presidency, and once again during the 2012 presidential campaign.

The New Jim Crow

The New Jim Crow
Author: Michelle Alexander
Publisher: The New Press
Total Pages: 434
Release: 2020-01-07
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1620971941

Named one of the most important nonfiction books of the 21st century by Entertainment Weekly‚ Slate‚ Chronicle of Higher Education‚ Literary Hub, Book Riot‚ and Zora A tenth-anniversary edition of the iconic bestseller—"one of the most influential books of the past 20 years," according to the Chronicle of Higher Education—with a new preface by the author "It is in no small part thanks to Alexander's account that civil rights organizations such as Black Lives Matter have focused so much of their energy on the criminal justice system." —Adam Shatz, London Review of Books Seldom does a book have the impact of Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow. Since it was first published in 2010, it has been cited in judicial decisions and has been adopted in campus-wide and community-wide reads; it helped inspire the creation of the Marshall Project and the new $100 million Art for Justice Fund; it has been the winner of numerous prizes, including the prestigious NAACP Image Award; and it has spent nearly 250 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Most important of all, it has spawned a whole generation of criminal justice reform activists and organizations motivated by Michelle Alexander's unforgettable argument that "we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it." As the Birmingham News proclaimed, it is "undoubtedly the most important book published in this century about the U.S." Now, ten years after it was first published, The New Press is proud to issue a tenth-anniversary edition with a new preface by Michelle Alexander that discusses the impact the book has had and the state of the criminal justice reform movement today.