Themes and message

The main theme explored in David Sedaris's essay "Obama!!!"  is prejudice. The writer illustrates various forms of prejudice (against other nations and races, against homosexuals, etc.) to convey criticism of the hypocrisy of these prejudices; as David Sedaris puts it, “that’s the pot calling the kettle black” (ll. 259-260). The author’s message is that prejudices often turn out to be false and disconnected from reality. The theme of prejudice is explored with the help of motifs like discrimination and racism which we will also cover in this part of the study guide.

Forms of prejudice

Prejudices are preconceived opinions and ideas that are not based on reason or experience. In “Obama!!!”, David Sedaris explores various forms of prejudice or bias in an ironical and critical way.

The main prejudice the writer explores is that of non-Americans (mostly Europeans) about Americans being racist which leads them to predict that Obama will not be elected president. People like Sedaris’s French neighbors or media reporters from Europe who have had little contact with Americans and American society become convinced that Obama stands no chance of winning the elections because he is African-American:

 ‘No way’ said the German who’d once spent a week in Los Angeles, the Brazilian whose wife was from Tennessee, the Englishman who’d seen Borat four times. Everyone was an expert, and what they all knew was this: Americans are racist. (ll. 86-92)

Even when they talk to Americans living overseas like the writer, who believe in Obama’s chance of winning the elections, they still maintain the same preconceived ideas: “I’d predict with confidence that Obama would win. This would get me a shake of the head and a look that translated in five languages to ‘Poor dreamer.’” (ll. 119-123)

This suggests that their experience of talking to an American doesn’t make them change their mind about what Americans are like: this is the definition of prejudice.

When Obama wins the elections, Europeans congratulate the writer because they believe the Americans have achieved something exceptional. For them, th...