Obama's Speech and Ally's Choice

The purposes of both Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” speech and the Ally’s Choice podcast differ from each other significantly. In Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” speech, Barack Obama gets into his personal history and the history of his family, and talks about how both white and black people comprised his family. He also talks about all of the places that he’s been to and the varying amounts of wealth represented by those places, and talks about how he made it to where he is now. By talking about these things, Barack Obama allowed people to see him as an actual person rather than just some political figure that isn’t anything like them, making him more relatable and even likeable to many people as a result, even to those who might disagree with his political views and platform. His openness about his personal life and history also makes him more credible, and feelings of are triggered because of this. However, because he is applying all of these things for political purposes, the intentions behind this speech differ from those in the “Ally’s Choice” podcast. In the “Ally’s Choice” podcast, multiple women, all of who are related, are interviewed regarding their history together. The woman who the podcast is centered around, Ally, explains that, while she grew up in a black family, she has not considered herself black for most of her life, resulting in conflict between her, her mother, and her sister. It also led to Ally telling everyone around her that she was not black, but was actually white. All of them also get into their experiences with racism in both school and the town that they lived in, even up to the 1980’s and 1990’s. Two examples of this were students holding up signs telling them to go home on Martin Luther King Day, and their family becoming a potential target of the Ku Klux Klan. During the interview, emotions related to sadness are triggered, because listeners are able to hear about the hardships of those time periods from people who experienced them directly. Because they are describing personal hardships, the podcast also makes the women interviewed relatable to those who are listening. Because the women interviewed are talking about what they had to go through with the intention of showing people what things were like for them at the time rather than winning over people politically, they are also more trustworthy.

Obama & Ally's choice

In both of these texts, “A More Perfect Union” by Barack Obama and Ally’s Choice podcast they used emotion (pathos) to convey a messages to their listeners/readers. In Obamas speech he goes into great detail about his early life and childhood, about how he is black, white, and has so many different ethnicities in his family. He talks about his family and the nice countries they’ve lived in and also the poorest cities they’ve been in. He shares his good and bad experiences to create emotions so his listeners can relate and connect with him. In the Ally’s choice podcast she goes to talk about how being black when she was younger wasn’t enjoyable. She purposely decided one day that she didn’t want to be black anymore and she wanted to be white. I think both Obama and the Ally’s choice shared their life experiences about race because race is actually a huge issue and major topic in society today. Its very relevant so they share their stories to show that they are like everyone else who struggled or to even share the stories of their struggle.  I personally enjoyed reading president Obamas More perfect union because his story was genuine and interesting. He made me feel for him and almost as if I understood him. He talked about how America has an issue with race and that we need to fix it if we ever want it to get better. Both of these pieces of work are very important and are helpful when it comes to sharing experiences.

April 13 blog

I would say that in the More Perfect Union Speech written by Barack Obama, I think that Obama portrayed himself as relatable. He states that he had a white mother and a black father, that he lived in very rich parts of town, and very poor parts of town, and he has relatives in multiple different continents. Buy mentioning these certain things about him; it really draws supporters and even non-supporters to him. These certain details that he expressed about him self, made him relatable to a vast variety of people. I feel like when you have similar connections with someone else, you ultimately can see them as someone you can relate to like a friend, or as someone you can trust. So since Barack Obama made himself relatable to a wide variety of people in his speech, he ultimately became trustworthy. For the podcast, I am going to assume that the author of this is Ally. I am also going to assume that Ally is the woman talking in the podcast telling her side of what it is like having black roots but looks as if she is white. She tells people she is white even though technically her roots are black. To me, I think that Ally portrays herself as insecure. I do not think that she was intentionally trying to portray herself like this, but that is how it came across to me when listening to the podcast. Ally talks a lot about just wanting to fit in with the popular girls so she told people at school that she was white. This is because she grew up in a small town in Ohio that is around 97% white and so there are some racist tendencies because it used to be a white town solely. I guess because of the town’s history and current status, and having grown up in this environment, this story is credible. At the same time, I feel as if her persona is portrayed as being a victim. I say this because her certain aspects of her story seem super emotional like just so she could fit in with other white people, she helped her quote on quote “friends” help make fun of her own sister. To me that is just playing the victim card in a way. Overall Barack Obama did a good job portraying himself as being universal through his writing. He did a good job at making his persona seem trustworthy through all of his personal experiences. On the other hand, Ally made her character appear to be super emotional and insecure. After listening to her podcast it made me feel like her story of growing up in the predominantly white city in Ohio was very one sided, which made it untreatable.

Author Portrayal and Style

           The style of “Ally’s Choice” is a podcast, thus, the ‘writing style’ so to speak is much different from “A More Perfect Union”. Ally’s choice draws pathos and emotion from listeners by having multiple people speak about racism, which also adds to the credibility on their part. The lady who primarily speaks seems knowledgeable for she pulls in references directly from history such as “The Trail of Tears” pertaining to the Native Americans. She also seems to pertain to pathos and emotion by saying in a sad voice that when someone looks black, black becomes “who they are”, and that it becomes what defines them as a person to most, even if they aren’t fully or even half African American. One of the women that speaks on the podcast also adds to the credibility for she had first-hand experiences growing up with oppression and racism, stating that when she went to a primarily white school, the kids would hold up signs saying “Go home Negroids” on Martin Luther King day… She lied to her classmates and told them that she was white, even ignoring her sister to be popular and “white”, which is very depressing, and by touching on this you can really see her persona coming through.

                The style of “A More Perfect Union” written by Barack Obama, uses pathos to emotionally draw in his viewers/listeners. He does this in many different ways, one of which being that he quotes “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union”, then goes on to state how this large and life-changing statement was tainted and ruined by slavery and other bad decisions on America’s part. He makes himself trustworthy by promising he will help to put an end to this issue, and by also showing us that he has firsthand issues with oppression and racism, but has overcome them and wants to help others do so too. He seems very knowledgeable due to his diction and tone that he speaks/writes in, and this makes me more inclined to not only like him but believe him. I can tell that his persona is very determined, caring, and reliable. 

Being white

being white in today's society has many stereotypes and "advantages". Here are some that I belive I have just for being white. 

1. Employers might give a chance over someone else 

2. I am not judged by authorities for doing nothing like some other races. 

3. I am assumused to be smart and assumed to go to school 

4. I am assumed to have money and be able to afford anything. 

5. I wouldn't get in trouble for doing the same thing as maybe a minority might. 

6. Sometimes white people get less or no punishment. 

7. I'm not labeled as a terrorist. 

8. People don't stare at me in stores and think I'm stealing 

9. People feel more confortable around me. 

10. It's easier for me to get certian things that for others 

11. People assume that white people are better and aren't in bad situations. 

12. I might get a job over someone's else 

13. People assume im trust worthy. 

14. Whites aren't thugs 

15. Whites obey laws. 

White Privilege

            Due to the fact that I am white I have certain privileges that are not given to other races.

1.     Nude Band-Aids match my skin color

2.     Not worrying about law enforcement abuse

3.     I can be well spoken without people being surprised

4.     There’s no questions asked if I get a good job people think I’m qualified.

5.     Not being monitored in a store because of my skin color

6.     Not being labeled as a terrorist

7.     Not having to worry about being stopped and frisked

8.     Never being told to “get over slavery”

9.     I never have to be aware of my color

10.  Nude colored items match my skin tone

11.  When learning about my national heritage, people of my color are seen

12.  Renting, buying, leasing property is much easier

13.  My neighbors will be generally neutral or pleasant to me

14.  Most of the media is centered around people of my color

15.  My skin color will not represent my financial status

Unearned Privileges

15 unearned privileges for being straight.

1.     Receiving social acceptance by neighbors, colleagues, and friends.

2.     Having positive and accurate media images of people with whom I can identify.

3.     Expecting to be around others of my sexuality most of the time. Not worrying about being the only one of my sexuality in a class, on a job, or in a social situation

4.     Not being asked “how does sex work for you?” or other too-personal questions by strangers.

5.     Not having to hide or lie about women/men only social activities.

6.     Legal marriage to the person I love.

7.     Freedom of sexual expression without fear of being prosecuted for breaking the law.

8.     Knowing that I will not be fired from a job or denied a promotion based on my sexuality.

9.     Going wherever I wish and know that I will not be harassed, beaten, or killed because of my sexuality.

10. Having role models of my gender and sexual orientation.

11. Public recognition and support for an intimate relationship (e.g., congratulations for an engagement).

12. Expressing pain when a relationship ends from death or separation and receiving support from others.

13. Talking openly about my relationship, vacations, and family planning me and my partner are doing.

14. Acting, dressing, or talking as I choose without it being a reflection on people of my sexuality.

15. Joint child custody.