Unity and Duality in Barack Obama's “A More Perfect Union”

Abstract

Faced with a racialized political crisis that threatened to derail his campaign to become the first African American president of the United States, Barack Obama delivered a speech on race titled “A More Perfect Union.” He begins by portraying himself as an embodiment of double consciousness, but then invites his audience to share his doubled perspective, and finally models a doubled mode of speaking and acting that is captioned by the well-known maxim, the Golden Rule. This speech text thus contributes discursive resources required for the productive doubling necessary for the successful negotiation of contemporary public culture.

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