1. First, because we weren't interested in the "gotchas" that bloggers and media have been focusing on, like Wright's references to Louis Farrakhan. We looked at Wright's speech to the National Press Club on April 28, 2008, but chose not to use that speech because a large portion of it took the form of question and answer and therefore would not necessarily reflect how Wright wanted to shape the issues.
2. Second, we were able to find reasonable transcripts (from prominent news media sources) for both with associated video records, though there are typos in both that suggest either problems in transcription or oral infelicities. We have not proofed either against the video records, letting the record stand.

Recipes for learning text analysis including a comparison recipe.

Text Analysis Developers Analysis wiki with lots of materials like this.

This Time We Want To Talk

Committed to Repetition

Strangely Wright also goes on about differences beyond race like differences between African and European music. These differences of rythm illustrate something important for Wright.

Now, what is true in the field of education, linguistics, ethnomusicology, marching bands, psychology and culture is also true in the field of homiletics, hermeneutics, biblical studies, black sacred music and black worship. We just do it different and some of our haters can't get their heads around that.

Different and Deficient

"Black" is the highest frequency word, and "white" is up there, though it should be noted that Wright only uses "white" 4 times compared to Obama's 27. It is also worth noting that neither of them use the phrase "White House", preferring the less colourful "Oval Office."

In sum, Obama is talking to all races, and he goes out of his way to talk about his white grandmother. Wright, on the other hand, is addressing the NAACP and talking from the perspective of the black church which

Obama distances himself from Wright's use of "incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike." Obama sees has some sympathy for his "religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice", but unequivocally condemns Wright as being divisive.

As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems - two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

We will close with the view of the [[http://tada.mcmaster.ca/Main/CoLocation][collocates] of the words "black" and "white" in both speeches. Collocates are words that appear near the words in question. This visual collocation should provoke you to think about how Obama and Wright talk about black and white. Or you can try it yourself. (Note 8)

• wordsList.jpg:
  

• blackAndwhite.jpg:
  

The Texts

1. First, because we weren't interested in the "gotchas" that bloggers and media have been focusing on like Wright's references to Louis Farrakhan. We looked at Wright's speech to the National Press Club on April 28, 2008, but chose not to use that speech because a large portion of it took the form of question and answer and therefore would not necessarily reflect how Wright wanted to shape the issues.
2. Second, we were able to find reasonable transcripts for both with associated video records, though there are typos in both that suggest either problems in transcription or oral infelicities. We have not proofed either against the video records, letting the record stand.
3. Finally, and most importantly, these seem to be the important documents to which people are returning to understand Obama and Wright's positions. Why not analyze that?

• Not this time Obama is trying to redirect what we, including the electorate and the media, talk about this election. He is making a claim about discourse during an election and calling for it to not degenerate this time as it has other times. He wants to elevate and focus what is talked about on what he believes matters to the electorate and away from the identity politics that tars him with Wright. Wright, for Obama is a distraction, and if that is what the media pays attention to then the nothing will change, and change is what Obama promises. "But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change."
• We want to talk about is the phrase the precedes what Obama thinks is important, and it is a list of things that he believes are important. The repetition of the phrase is climax of the speech, both in terms of location and in terms of its rhetorical power. If we want to know what Obama thinks is important for us to talk about we should pay attention to "this time we want to talk about".

• Crumbling Schools - Education
• Lines in the Emergency Room - Health Care
• Shuttered Mills - Loss of Manufacturing Jobs
• Shipping Your Job Overseas - Business Outsourcing
• Serving and Fighting Together - The War in Iraq

The thrust of his speech is that this election time should be about the the issues that Americans (both white and black) have in common, not about the issues that hijack elections (for the Republicans).

Committed to Repetition

Interestingly, when we looked to see if there was a similar repeated phrase in Wright's speech we found one, "we are committed to changing the way" that is similarly located at the climax of the speech and is similarly used to draw attention to the change important to Wright. The distribution graph for "committed" shows how it is distributed towards the end of the speech similarly to how "time" was distributed in Obama. (Note 4)

Distribution of "committed" in Wright

Distribution of "time" in Obama

A concordance of the word "committed" shows a pattern of similar phrases that Wright repeats. (Note 5)

Again, that which Wright and his audience is committed to is at the heart of what Wright has to say and has to do with changing the way we see and treat ourselves and others. The heart of it is two words that show up with text analysis as used more by Wright, "different" and "deficient". Wright wants people to see and treat each other as different, not as deficient. And it is not just about race.

In the past, we were taught to see others who are different as somehow being deficient. Christians saw Jews as being deficient. Catholics saw Protestants as being deficient. Presbyterians saw Pentecostals as being deficient.

Folks who like to holler in worship saw folk who like to be quiet as deficient. And vice versa.

Whites saw black as being deficient. ...

Europeans saw Africans as deficient. ...

In the past, we were taught to see others who are different as being deficient. We established arbitrary norms and then determined that anybody not like us was abnormal. But a change is coming because we no longer see others who are different as being deficient. We just see them as different. Over the past 50 years, thanks to the scholarship of dozens of expert in many different disciplines, we have come to see just how skewed, prejudiced and dangerous our miseducation has been.

Miseducation. Miseducation incidentally is not a Jeremiah Wright term. It's a word coined by Dr. Carter G. Woodson over 80 years ago. Sounds like he talked a hate speech, doesn't it? Now, analyze that.

Notes

3. You can see a detailed comparison of the word "time" using this HyperPo tool to compare time. Or you can search the Obama text yourself for time (or any other word):

4. These small distribution graphs show the number of instances of the word over 5% segments of the text. More eleborate distribution graphs can be generated with these tools --- SS - can you place buttons here for the distribution graphs on Obama and Wright

5. To generate the concordance for "committed" you can use this tool,

Now, Analyze That: Obama and Wright on Race in America

Resources

TAPoR Portal for text analysis research.

Experimental Notes, May 1 & 2 are our notes on this experiment.

Introduction

Of course the media know where the engaging human story is and it is in the age-old conflict of the son and his father, as the son comes of age as a leader.

But, what if we took them at their word and looked away from the pulpit-and-pews drama. What if we looked at what they say is important and tried to analyze the similarities and differences? Are they a generation apart in their thinking or are they caught in the headlights of the media?

So we decided to analyze and compare a speech by Obama and one by Wright, both speeches given to clarify where they stood in light of the controversy. There are ironies to this analysis, but those will

• Barack Obama's March 18, 2008 speech A more perfect union which he gave in response to the controversy and to clarify where he stood on race. This speech has been generally considered one of Obama's finest on race and America.

Sounds like he talked a hate speech, doesn't it? Now, analyze that. (Wright, NAACP Speech)

So we decided to analyze and compare a speech by Obama and one by Wright, both on race to see what they think the issues are. In particular we wanted to look at Obama and Wright on race so we chose to analyze and compare:

• Barack Obama's March 18, 2008 speech A more perfect union which he gave in response to the controversy around his pastor's sermons. This speech has been generally considered one of Obama's finest on race and America.
• Jeremiah Wright's April 27th speech to the NAACP that follows Obama's speech and also deals with race.

The Seeds of Thought

This Time We Want To Talk

Look at how time is used in HyperPo.

The thrust of his speech is that this election time should be about the the issues that Americans (both white and black) have in common, not about the issues that hijack elections. Implied

Disclaimer: Why we are doing this

• To spend no more than two days taking a small and meaningful text analysis project from discussion through to presentation of results (this page.)
• To test the TAPoR (Text Analysis Portal for Research) environment and record bugs, enhancements and general thoughts.
• To reflect on computer-assisted text analysis as a research practice and the rhetoric of reporting results.

Context

Why we are doing this

Thought Seeds

Time

Repetition and Structure

White and Black

Different and Deficient

Pairing of Different and Deficient in Wright

Conclusion

<!-- notes

use of repition Wright - "its going to take" and "Many of us are committed to changing the way we treat" Obama - "this time we want to talk about"

Wright: Referencing academics as if trying to prove

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Now, Analyze That:

Miseducation. Miseducation incidentally is not a Jeremiah Wright term. It's a word coined by Dr. Carter G. Woodson over 80 years ago. Sounds like he talked a hate speech, doesn't it? Now, analyze that. (Wright, NAACP Speech)

-- GeoffreyRockwell - 02 May 2008