Authors Portrayal of Themselves

In “Ally’s Choice”, the family speaking in the podcast portray themselves as negro, although their skin color is predominately white. Ally, one of the two daughters, decided at the age of 12 that she was going to be white because she could not take the bullying and treatment she got from other students for being negro. They seem both trustworthy and credible because they’re telling the stories of their lives, and how they personally experienced discrimination for being negro. Although they might not be as well educated or intellectual, their story really shows how even after the Civil Rights movement, people that were viewed as negros were still being treated as less worthy than whites. Ally and Carlotta did not look negro and had less than 1/16 negro in them, but since they came from East Jackson they were still treated as badly as someone with black skin. Ally portrayed herself as white so that she could be likeable in her school, and I think it made her go against her family’s beliefs, but she was only doing it so that she could be treated with more respect.

            In Barack Obama’s speech, “A More Perfect Union”, he had a lot more credibility, intelligence, and knowledge about the gap between white and blacks. Instead of choosing to be either white or black, he embraced both sides of his ethnicity and used his diversity to help shape him into a great man. Like Carlotta and Ally, he did go through his hardships, but throughout his life he still rejoiced himself and the history from both sides of his family. Obama can sympathize with both whites and blacks because he lived both of those lives at once. While he was raised by his white grandparents, he was still involved in the black community and made it clear throughout his speech that to create a more perfect union, we need to not look at race or color and unite as one. This gives him more credibility since he can understand both the white community and the black community. He explains that each ethnicity has held their own struggles throughout generations, and if we want to diminish these struggles we need to all work together. His speech was more influential and wise than the podcast “Ally’s Choice” because instead choosing to pick between either the white or black side, he united them together.