Topic

The topic of Barack Obama's “A More Perfect Union” is race relations.

The speech was part of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign of 2008, and was largely a response to an incident involving Obama’s reverend who made some hateful statements about white America…

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Race relations

Barack Obama explores race relations in the US, taking on a historical perspective. His main arguments are that racial tensions are a result of “this nation's original sin of slavery” (ll. 13-14) and subsequent social and economic discrimination against African Americans: “…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 pas…

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Argumentation

In the speech, Barack Obama uses a combination of open and hidden argumentation. Open argumentation means the speaker expresses his views, ideas, and arguments directly. Hidden argumentation is more subtle, as the speaker lets the audience figure out his arguments and his point of view by using examples, anecdotes, facts, etc.

Barack Obama is often very explicit and direct about his views on racial relations, his candidacy, or the incident with Reverend Wrigh…