 The book is a collection of original essays from "leading black thinkers" – journalists, scholars and public intellectuals – exploring literary, political, social and cultural issues of Obama's speech In addition to the essays, the full text of the speech is included as well as a journalistic look at the issues of race in the 2008 Democratic primaries and general election.The book is entitled "The Speech" because Sharply-Whiting's contact at the publisher kept referring to Obama's speech as "the speech, the speech" and prompted a book to be written on the subject.She was also inspired by the core components of institutionalized racism, structural inequalities and race relations in America that was sparked by the Jeremiah Wright controversy.