Cultural Context – Commentary 2011
It is quite peculiar how so young country as the United States of America has developed
from poorly populated lands into the most powerful nation in the world with enormous
economic, cultural and political influence on a global scale. Divided into fifty states with
more than 300 million population unified beneath the American flag, the fourth largest
country had been of interest of different colonial settlements from 1492 until 1776 when
The Declaration of Independence was signed cutting “all political ties with Britain”. ( O'
Callaghan,1994:29). A new nation was forming, years of growth, wars, reconstruction
and land exploitation led the country to the American Dream that nowadays we all
associate with democracy, freedom, prosperity and equality regardless of class and race
divisions. On the same basic rights founded by Thomas Jefferson insists the current
President of U.S.A in his second book The Audacity of Hope (2006) from where the
extract to comment on is taken. In this work, yet Senator Obama, exposes many of the
issues of his presidential campaign in 2008 and insists on the need of balance between
policies and values in order to solve existing tensions and to build more prosperous and
worthy society. In The Audacity of Hope:Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream,
Barack Obama shares his political and spiritual beliefs of different aspects of American
culture such as faith, race, family, the Constitution, politics and values recalling
constantly the origins and traditions of the American nation. I will concentrate my
attention giving some details about the same topics in order to analyze the key episodes
of the American history and the deep influence they have had on American society in
general, and on the current president of the U.S.A in particular.
Barack Hussein Obama (Hawaii, 1961) is the 44th President of the United States and the
1st African American to hold office elected on November 4 in 2008 with 52,9% of the
votes. Educated by a middle-class family, son of father from Kenya and mother from
Kansas, Barack Obama will embody the American story that through hard working,
education and strong values one can fulfill personal and collective happiness. As he was
educated and lived most of his life in America, Barack Obama was strongly influenced
by the Declaration of Independence (1776), the most cherished symbol of freedom. That
is what Obama probably wants to emphasize starting one of the paragraphs in chapter 2
of his book with a quote of the first lines of the emblematic document. The self-evident
truths “that all men are created equal” with certain rights “among these are Life, Liberty
and the pursuit of Happiness” were central part of the traditions brought by the English
ancestors who studied them in the writings of the thinker John Locke. These were ideas,
a “starting point as Americans” as Obama says, that describe “the substance of our
common creed”. The system of American beliefs that is the right and the duty to act and
to “make of our lives what we will” is one of the most representatives and typical features
American nation has. The belief in self-reliance, independence and hard work can be
traced back to the experiences of their ancestors - the frontiers. By 1733 English colonies
stretched from New Hampshire to Georgia. In the so called “the tidewater” period of
settlement, colonies lived very close to the cost , but by the end of the 18th century, they
started moving deeper into the continent (O' Callaghan, 1994:21,22). Searching for a
fertile soil, they had to clear the land of trees, build houses and sow seeds. If there was
little production, settlers moved to other place and started from the beginning. A special
spirit arose from this way of living; cultivators needed to be self-sufficient and to work
together because of the difficult and insecure way of life. The combination of those beliefs
strengthened the conviction that all individuals are equal and have to face the same
difficulties. This was also the essential idea of the Declaration of Independence written
by Thomas Jefferson who strongly believed, together with the other Founding Fathers, in
the natural right of every human being to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness”, the
basic values fitted in the heart and minds of the constantly developing American nation
whose agency is the right and the duty to act. To act in order to preserve those rights and
the duty to fight for freedom, happiness and success. However, as Obama points out in
chapter 2 and 3 of The Audacity of Hope, these granted rights founded by the Founding
Fathers were not available for all American citizens until recently.
Other reference that the American President makes to another emblematic document that
deals with the common values of freedom, is when he mentions the Bill of Rights and his
appreciation to this addition made by James Madison in 1789 at the First Congress of the
United States when some suggestions regarding limitations of the power of the Federal
government were made. What forms now the 10 first amendments of the current
Constitution of the United States supported the idea that “Congress should make no law
infringing freedom of speech, the press or the religion” and that “no one was to be
deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” (Carnes &Garraty, 128).
In that sense, the powers of the Federal Government were restricted so as to grant justice
and freedom among the Americans.That law which role in the political civilization of the
colonies "was not just necessary – essential to any civil society – it was noble"
(Johnson:147). That is why there has been always the emphasis on the struggle for
individual freedom.
However, these documents, alongside the US Constitution (1787), have been used
throughout history as a means to claim equality only for those who were white, despising
other races and religious faiths. In words of O'Callaghan (1994:44) and talking with
numbers, two centuries ago, the statement “ that ALL men are created equal” was not
valid for 1.2 million of the Americans living in the South. Such a strong and undoubted
conviction on the mankind liberty and equality should be ingrained in American nation
for centuries that “ we tend to take it as granted” says Obama in The Audacity of Hope.
In all probability, Barack Obama wanted to remind his readers that slavery was the reason
of the Civil War begun on April 12, 1861. This war between “brothers” caused terrible
destruction, cost many lives and divided the United States into two. As a consequence of
the Civil War, slavery was abolished by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in 1865.
But whites southerners were horrified by giving equal rights to their black slaves. The
same year A. Lincoln was killed and the next President, Andrew Johnson, did not know
how to face it for the battle between races was not over yet. In response to the Thirteenth
Amendment, there were several separatist movements and violent organizations that kept
threatening the African American population. The Ku Klux Klan, a group founded by
William J. Simmons (1915), spread fear among the blacks particularly in Oklahoma and
Alabama. Their violent actions showed their disconformities regarding the situation of
coloured people, who no longer were slaves and benefitted from the same rights as white
men. Together with this, African Americans also suffered the consequences of the postwar
environment. There was a massive immigration of blacks from Southern USA to Northern
cities looking for jobs and shelter, which resulted into the overpopulation of the
neighborhoods where they lived (ghettos) and a process of decay. White people did not
want to employ their black counterparts. As a result, black people were regarded as
inferiors. The combination of these events led to the segregation of the African
Americans, who would not share the white’s public places (schools, churches,
universities, etc.). Organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People and militants such as W.E.B. Du Bois intended everybody (white and
black) to fight racism and favor the integration of the African Americans.
Great influence for the success of racial justice also had Martin Luther King (1929-1968),
a leader in the Civil Right movement and supporter of the nonviolent methods of sermons
and speeches in the fight for racial equality. His most famous speech “I have a dream”
inspired national campaign and woken up people's consciousness. In his words, he
constantly referred to the dream of finally fighting racism and religious prejudices. King’s
manifesto, together with his support of civil disobedience as the way to fight segregation,
awarded him with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. With no doubt and as Obama points
out, the contribution of M. L. King "posting on the church door" was radical and highly
influential.
Originally from Kenya, the current American President have also been closely involved
in the questions regarding race discrimination. Obama's parents divorced when he was
two years old and while he was attending the esteemed Ponahou Academy. Graduating
with honors in 1979, he was one of the three black students at school which made him
conscious of racism, a topic that will occupy later most of his speeches and interests.
After joining the Trinity United Church of Christ , he visited Kenya, his father's
motherland, and turned back renewed and fully aware of the very different situation
regarding ethnic and race issues, and entered Harvard Law School in 1988 where, a year
after, he met Michelle Robinson.(Illinois, 1964) whom he married in 1992. Shortly before
they were married, the couple visited Kenya. Obama shared their impressions with the
reader in his second book using personal experiences to illustrate the idea of the freedom
that American black people have in comparison to those living in Africa where “their fates
were not their own”. He pointed out that they had a great time, but that they also were
enlightened on the delicate and obscure situation in the country where the lack of basic
human rights provoked by corrupt bureaucrats impeded personal development and
fulfillment.
As a community organizer, civil rights lawyer, Illinois State Senator, U.S. Senator and
currently President of America, Barack Obama has spent much of his political and
professional career struggling to reinforce civil rights convinced that they are the
indispensable grounds of a strong and potent nation. As the President of the U.S.A, he
signed in 2009 the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act - one of the powerful tools to fight
discrimination regardless of gender, race and age. He was also concerned about a more
reasonable and adequate criminal justice system as part of the right of fair punishment
opposing the death penalty and tortures of all classes.
Finally, after having referred to some of the key elements of the American history related
to Obama's extract to comment on, I would like to pay attention to his narrative as such,
his style and way of talking about politics. As we all are aware of, he has been a
professional orator and politic building up his career step by step, gradually but firmly.
The refined and accessible language he uses in both of his books, The Audacity of Hope
(2006) and Dreams from my Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (2004), contributed
to the connection with the reader cutting the distance between those who govern and those
who are governed. In my opinion, Obama changed the way people think and look at
politics. The endless references to his personal experience and to the origins of the
Americans as a nation that is in a continuous process, put him in closer relationship with
the masses that some years later will vote and trust him. Another issue is the question
whether the President of the most powerful country will keep or brake his promises.
In conclusion and in my opinion, everything Obama stands for is about moral values,
human rights, equality and agency through which Americans “can and must” act and set
their course for the good of the country. According to Obama, America have always been
in a process, moving towards success, happiness and prosperous society. He presents
politics in a very different way claiming humanity and people's consciousness, believing
that the nation should be unified around a politics of purpose in order to strengthen and
improve political, health care and educational systems. Despite his origins, colored skin
and Muslim surname, President Obama feels, as most Americans do, blessed and
expected to unify the nation and the world beneath a slogan “Life and faith in free will”.
The fact that Obama refers to the Founding Fathers as his owns evokes the idea of a race
that has finally overcome these hard times, and is now fully integrated as part of the
American nation. I believe Obama being elected as the President of the United States of
America stands as a vivid symbol of integration and tolerance.