Learn English – ny difference between ‘all despite’ , ‘despite all’ and ‘despite all that’ in the following sentence

word-usage

S1: The same is true for Barack Obama, the man who worked tirelessly in government before becoming President of the USA, all despite racial discrimination.

S2: The same is true for Barack Obama, the man who worked tirelessly in government before becoming President of the USA, despite all racial discrimination.

S3:The same is true for Barack Obama, the man who worked tirelessly in government before becoming President of the USA. Despite all that, racial discrimination.

Question 1:Are the three sentences above the same in meaning?
Question 2: What does the word 'all' in the first sentence represents?

My conclusion: The first two sentence seems to express the same idea that the racial discrimination can not stop Obama from working tirelessly. But for the 3rd sentence, I can't tell whether it has the same meaning or not as the first two sentences.

Best Answer

With "all despite", all refers back to earlier things:

He ran through the parking lot, jumped the fence, and hopped a train, all despite having a broken leg.

"all" refers back to all of the things he did: ran... jumped... hopped.

With "despite all", all introduces something:

He slept soundly, despite all the noise from the revelers in the street.

"all" here is a part of the phrase about the noise.

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