Throughout the history of the United States, one ethnic group has particularly been looked down upon with condescend, the African Americans. From lynching and heavy torture to dehumanising rights in society – this specific denomination has endured almost every kind of pain and agony there is to endure. Even in today’s America, where people of culture is to be found, blacks, in some parts still face discrimination on a daily basis and aren’t treated as Americans. As a result of the dark side of the history of The United States graduating and stepping into the real world can be quite intimidating. Michelle Obama, the former first lady of the United States – motivates the graduates at Bowie State University of Maryland (a 68,7%) majorly black university with her commencement address on May 17th 2013.
To motivate the graduating pupils of Bowie University Obama approaches the graduates with circumstances that are two-folded: Obama’s speech is both a reminder to the students regarding the fact that pursuing a higher level education is worth the time that it takes, but she also uses the commencement address to discuss the discriminatory aspect in the field of education in general. She does this by using a historical and contemporary view on education. She quite intelligently sets up the two contrasting stories on education as an antithesis “But despite the risks, understand, students flocked to these schools in droves, often walking as many as eight to ten miles a day to get their education.” (ll. 95-99) Contrastingly, in the upcoming excerpt, she offers insight on contemporary circumstance on the accessibility of education, and the students that aren’t making proper use of it Today, instead of walking miles every day to school, they’re sitting on couches for hours playing video games, watching TV. Instead of dreaming of being a teacher or a lawyer or a business leader, they’re fantasizing about being a baller or a rapper. (ll. 171-177)
Det er gratis at oprette en konto