Obama's Rhetorical Shift: Insights for Communication Studies

This article explores Obama's rhetorical shift concerning race and offers insight for our racial work in communication studies. My argument unfolds in four parts. First, I explore the rhetorical strategies Obama employed to disavowal race, arguing, via black polarity theory, that he is forced to adopt a rhetoric of inspirational multiculturalism that soothes White America. Second, I explore Obama's shift to race-affirming rhetoric in “A More Perfect Union” speech and offer the law movement of critical race theory as the lens to understand his rhetorical change. Third, I consider Obama's past, mapping critical race theory (CRT) and the law movement's influence onto a young Obama. My final implication offers Obama's rhetorical turn as a roadmap for communication scholars to shift our racial rhetoric toward deliberative racial progress.