Comparing Human Family And Barack Obama's Speech On Race

Improved Essays
People all across the world are treated unequally, and they have been for years, just because of they way they look, their culture, their heritage, etc. However the two texts “Human Family” by Maya Angelou and Barack Obama’s Speech on Race clearly support the idea of all people having minor differences but in whole all of us are very similar in many ways.

When Maya Angelou wrote the poem Human Family she was able to tell the reader the obvious differences among the people in a few ways. For example she said, “The variety of our skin tones can confuse, bemuse, and delight...” This shows how we all are different just by looks but Angelou is goes much deeper than this in her writing. She does this by repeating this at the end of the poem,

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In the world today everyone believes in treating each other as equal as possible, but the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel portrays a time where this was not the case. The true power of dehumanization is displayed throughout the book. The story follows Elie’s journey as a Jew during the Holocaust, from his hometown of Sighet, Transylvania up to his liberation from a concentration camp in Buchenwald, Germany. Although Elie faced some of the worst the world has to offer; starvation, loneliness, and losing his family, perhaps what had the strongest impact on his life was the dehumanization he endured from the Germans. Contrary to many beliefs of dehumanization only having a minor impact on an individual, Elie Wiesel demonstrates the truth…

    • 1512 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    David Obama's Race Summary

    • 1102 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The authors of the book Obama’s Race is Michael Tesler and David O. Sears. Michael Tesler is a doctoral student in political science at the University of California, Los Angeles. This is his first book. David O. Sears is distinguished professor of psychology and political science at the University of California, Los Angeles, and has served on the board of overseers for both the American National Election Studies and the General Social Survey. He is the coauthor or coeditor of numerous books, most recently Racialized Politics: The Debate about Racism in America, Oxford Handbook of Political Psychology, and The diversity Challenge: Social Identity and Intergroup Relations on the Multiethnic Campus.…

    • 1102 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In the essay “Graduation,” Maya Angelou narrates her 1940, eighth grade graduation from the persona of her younger self, Marguerite Johnson, illustrating the impact of racism towards African-Americans in society. Angelou provides readers at large, the depiction of her own graduation, as well as educational and societal issues through the use of juxtaposition, imagery and various rhetorical questions. In doing so, Angelou is able to convey her younger self’s developing epiphany in the essay. Initially, Angelou juxtaposes the schools of the white and African-American people to depict the harsh reality of education and society, as well as display the initial development of Angelou’s epiphanic views. Foremost, at the beginning of this essay, it is evident that Angelou implies the subordination and racial discrimination of the African-American race.…

    • 1182 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Barack Obama‘s speech about race was a response to the controversy that threatened his quest for the presidency. It was considered to be one of the greatest ever given speeches on the topic of race. The speech, A More Perfect Union also known as Speech on Race, was delivered on March 18, 2008, at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. The response to that speech was largely positive, it was compared to Martin Luther King’s 1963 I Have A Dream…

    • 81 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Qualifications for Human Rights Woven deeply in the American identity is the belief that all humans have rights. This was officially penned in one of the most significant documents in American history. In 1776 Jefferson wrote, “All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” (Jefferson, 1776/2014, p. 108). After experiencing a series of injustices inflicted upon the early American colonists by the British parliament, the colonists recognized the importance of human rights, and sought to establish a government that would protect those rights. The founding fathers of America believed in the significant of including the rights given…

    • 1377 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The Story Of US: The Human Family The poem "Human family" by Maya Angelou is about the whole concept of the “Human Family” and how we all play a role in our society and how we are all different but still the same in many ways. It talk about how, ethnicity, nationality and race make us all unique in our own ways. Speaking of this, the poem will be used this year because it talks about the difference of man and how different cultures are formed. In stanza 4 for example, Dr. Angelou says that she has been to all the wonders of the world but have not found anything common to each other. This shows that cultural differences throughout history have made our existing world today possible.…

    • 327 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Despite all the negative undertones of the year, it could be argued that there was equality for everyone. There have been many events that have unfolded that have opened the world’s eyes to the possibility that a person of color, a certain gender, or religion could offer something valuable to the world. People craved a change in society. For instance, Ella Fitzgerald was the “First Lady of Song.” (Rivera, Laury)That her rise to fame made her equal to men, therefore she must have been treated with respect…

    • 700 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Part 1: Analysis of Barack Obama’s speech 2004 Keynote A1ddress The speech is written and spoken by Barack Obama in 2004. Back then he was a senator in Illinois, and this speech changed everyone’s point of view of him, and people started to see his presidential potential. About 9.1 million people were reported to have watched the Democratic convention on the night of the speech.…

    • 622 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Stephen Covey once said, “Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs.” In this quotation, Covey explains that once you determine your beliefs and what you stand for, use your voice to inspire others to do the same. The same concept applies in the two works “Ain’t I A Woman” by Sojourner Truth and “Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou. The main focus of these pieces is about women taking action and using the power of their voice to change the living for women and the levels of society. Analyzing these two works reveals a message that a woman’s voice is strong enough to raise the moral standards of how society views women.…

    • 1070 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Democratic National Committee invited Barack Obama to give the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic Convention. This news came as a surprise as Obama had not yet gained national attention, and was not an obvious choice when compared to other candidates. After his inspiring speech however, Obama became well known throughout America which was good news for John Kerry, as Obama’s speech was intended to persuade voters to support Kerry as president. Obama uses rhetorical devices such as climax in structure, epistrophe, and metonymy to persuade skeptical voters to vote for John Kerry as their next president. Obama makes his speech more convincing by using climax to split his speech into multiple sections; the first section is used…

    • 1127 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    People start their live everyday by meeting someone different and new; from these interactions they judge each other. However, the most important message behind these judgements is whether or not they accept each other as another human being. Through her quote “We, as human beings, must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves”, Barbara Jordan introduces a way to see beyond these judgements. Jordan is conveying that these judgements should be taken as something positive, and accepting each other’s differences allows the human race to evolve. In the 1930’s, the citizens of the South discriminated against each other because of their race and their economic situation.…

    • 1191 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Equally Divided

    • 407 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Some may argue and say that treating all people equally is morally correct. However, other may insist that all individuals are and should be treated fairly depending on their own distinct situations. I tend to side with the latter and agree with Thomas Jefferson whom paraphrased Aristotle’s thought; not all persons are created or should be treated equally. While discussing this topic, one should take different sides into perspective.…

    • 407 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Steven Feierman’s account of “African Histories and the Dissolution of World History, has proven that history is unable to be written as a narrative due to many accounts of the same event being excluded when written. “Indian Givers” by Jack Weatherford and “A History of the World in 6 Glasses” by Tom Standage, is able to show how the experiences that have been felt by many during different periods of innovation and development were not included, therefore not providing an accurate depiction of a particular event. A lot of people were often neglected and dehumanized, thus preventing them from being able to share their accounts of different events in history. How someone is treated in society can merely depend on their race, gender or even…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The poem “Human Family” by Maya Angelou, is about differences and how no one is the same. In this poem she says “...their lives are lived as true profundity... they really live the real reality.” When Angelou says this she is saying that there are people in the world that look as if everything is bad and that being different is not a good thing.…

    • 780 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The civil rights movement was a time in history that made an impact on the people of America. It was an era when society was trying to make the segregation between black and whites , disappear. Maya Angelou grew up during this time period and went through the stress of having people discriminate on her because of her skin color. The civil rights movement made a personal influence on Maya Angelou’s poetry, as revealed in her poems , “ I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, and ,” Still I Rise”. Growing up during the 1930’s was difficult for Maya Angelou because it was a time of discrimination and separation.…

    • 1114 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays