Rhetorical Analysis Of Remarks By The President At The NAACP Conference

In “ Remarks by the President at the NAACP Conference,” President Obama speaks in a powerful yet passionate way about our criminal justice system to NAACP Convention Attendants during the 2015 NAACP Convention so that he has our support on refining our criminal justice system. Obama uses many rhetorical appeals to reach his purpose out to the NAACP Conference Attendants. The NAACP, National Association for the Advancement of the Colored People, has a respectful relationship towards President Obama. They also support him and racial equality which makes it easier for him to achieve his purpose, getting support on meliorating our criminal justice system because most of the prisoners are African American. President Obama employs statistics, anecdotes, and rhetorical questions in “ Remarks by the President at the NAACP Conference,” in order to appeal to his intended audience and achieve his purpose.

When Obama is talking about the unemployment rate when he first into office and now he states, “ When America’s unemployment rate was 9.5%, When I first came into office, as it was going up, we properly recognized this is a crisis. Right now, the unemployment rate among African Americans is 9.5%” (pp 61). This statistic used by President Obama to denote how in 2009 the unemployment rate among all of America was 9.5% but is 9.5% among just African Americans in 2015. Obama also talks about the number of people behind bars in America by saying, “ In 1980, there were 500,000 people behind bars in America...today there are 22 million,” (20). Among all the countries, America has 25% of the world's prisoners. Our criminal justice system is harsh on all the prisoners but especially to the African American prisoners. If our communities, courtrooms, and cell blocks work together, our criminal justice system can be