: In his speech to the NAACP Obama argues several points surrounding the nation’s inequities and short comings when it comes to its justice system. Obama is particularly concerned with the number of colored community members who sitting in overcrowded prisons. Obama begins to dissect this issue by taking a look at the statistics from the last thirty years which show a dramatic increase in the number of people incarcerated, and of those prisoners that belong to the Latino and African American race. The main factor Obama sees for the large number of incarcerations in the justice system, is due to the number of nonviolent drug offenders sitting behind bars. He wants to reform the justice system so that these nonviolent offenders are not paying
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Given the currents events occurring at my high school regarding racism and death threats, and also that recent news reports on racial inequity across the nation and the justice system; I wholeheartedly agree with Obama. Everyday news gets plastered with a new breaking story of police brutality on an African American, or we go on with our days while plenty of kids living poor communities with less opportunities for success than those wealthier. By withholding opportunities such as quality schooling and job opportunities, there can’t be room for improvement, because not everyone is being given a fair chance. I also strongly agree that we as a country are handing out unnecessarily long term sentences to people who are guilty nonviolent drug offenses. These offenders are not a threat to society, and can be easily set down the right path with the proper tools. America has an astronomical number of people behind bars, when we could that number in opportunities if we changed up the system. Obama’s strongest point was by reforming the prison system and putting more taxes towards education and other forms of betterment for the country, taxpayers will save more money in the long run. Obama supported this point by listing specific numbers and compared these figures to the current tax situation with prisons. As a persuasive speech Obama did a good job avoiding fallacies; he did not contradict himself or state examples or thoughts without providing some additional support. For example, his figures were easy to follow and played an effective role in his argument, as opposed to using the statistics as filler space. Obama was also smart about incorporating the viewpoints on the topic, from politicians of the opposing party. The views of course were in agreement with his, however seeing two oppositions come together on a topic convinces the reader more so that reforms should be made.
Given the currents events occurring at my high school regarding racism and death threats, and also that recent news reports on racial inequity across the nation and the justice system; I wholeheartedly agree with Obama. Everyday news gets plastered with a new breaking story of police brutality on an African American, or we go on with our days while plenty of kids living poor communities with less opportunities for success than those wealthier. By withholding opportunities such as quality schooling and job opportunities, there can’t be room for improvement, because not everyone is being given a fair chance. I also strongly agree that we as a country are handing out unnecessarily long term sentences to people who are guilty nonviolent drug offenses. These offenders are not a threat to society, and can be easily set down the right path with the proper tools. America has an astronomical number of people behind bars, when we could that number in opportunities if we changed up the system. Obama’s strongest point was by reforming the prison system and putting more taxes towards education and other forms of betterment for the country, taxpayers will save more money in the long run. Obama supported this point by listing specific numbers and compared these figures to the current tax situation with prisons. As a persuasive speech Obama did a good job avoiding fallacies; he did not contradict himself or state examples or thoughts without providing some additional support. For example, his figures were easy to follow and played an effective role in his argument, as opposed to using the statistics as filler space. Obama was also smart about incorporating the viewpoints on the topic, from politicians of the opposing party. The views of course were in agreement with his, however seeing two oppositions come together on a topic convinces the reader more so that reforms should be made.