Summary Of David Sedaris's Obama !?

Improved Essays
While Barack Obama is not the first African-American to run for president in the United States of America, he is the first black person ever to become president. The process of him becoming president was met with skepticism, especially from the European people. This is, and the time after the election is the topic American author and comedian, David Sedaris discusses in his nonfictional essay “Obama!!!” from 2013.
Sedaris starts his essay by talking about newspapers and how the village he lived in was too small to have its own paper. From this he smoothly carries on to the large amount of interviews he has been participating in during the year before the election of a new president in the US. During these interviews, he noticed that he would
…show more content…
Obama would not win and people who thought so were stigmatized as ‘Poor Dreamers’. The sole reason why most European people thought that Obama would not win the election was because of the prejudice “Americans are racists.” The saying is extremely narrow-minded and Sedaris questions the validity of this saying. He cannot help but wonder how Europeans are able to such a conclusion and if they are even better themselves. David Sedaris wrote, “It always sounds false when white people talk about how gentle and colorblind they are. “One thing I’ve learned from my many Asian, Latino, and African American friends is that we’re all brothers under the skin.” Being ‘colorblind’, is not equal to being a non-racist person, but rather a person of power, which is a white person, who refuse to acknowledge the struggles and oppression POC (People of Color) have experienced because of people who belong to their race. It is white people refusing to consider the importance of the oppressive history of POC people, because said oppression was and are still caused by white people and acknowledging that you as a white person are a part of a systematic system that constantly oppresses people based on their skin color makes you uncomfortable. The reason it would make a white person uncomfortable is that they are suddenly no longer as progressive and as open-minded as they thought they were. White people have a habit of forgetting that racism is not, ‘I dislike black people’, but that racism is based on a system of

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    In the poem “The President Has Never Said the Word Black,” Parker is critical of Obama’s presidency, she begins with the lines “To the extent that one begins/ to wonder if he is broken.” Parker immediately sets the disparaging tone of the poem. She claims that even though the nation has elected its first black president, there is an oversight, because there are still threats that continue…

    • 1345 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Obama supports many of Omi and Winant ideas in his speech. He challenges the views of the American identity, solve the confusion of his racially mixed identity, and ease the tension between the white and the black race. Obama agrees with Omi and Winant that the United States is far away from racial democracy and in order to achieve racial democracy, he has to challenge the ideas of white Americans and black Americans and unite them. Racial dictatorship has identified the American identity as white and that a black person is not an American, therefore he must challenge people’s views of the American identity, in order to become a president.…

    • 1608 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Richard Wright was born after the Civil War but before the Civil Rights Movement. If Wright was writing an autobiography title Black Boy about a black boy growing up in the United States, he would wrote about the first African American, Barack Hussein Obama II, got elected as the President of the United States, African American athletes are dominating the white athletes in the sports, and racial problems is still happening in the police brutality. Barack Hussein Obama II is an American politician who served as the 44th President of the United States from 2009 to 2017. He is the first African American to have served as president.…

    • 1219 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    President Obama’s Hypocrisy President Barack Hussein Obama is the forty fourth president of the United States elected in 2008 and he is the first president, under the constitution, of African descent. He worked his way up from the Illinois State Senate to the US Senate and was officially sworn in as president on January 20, 2009. Given his background in politics, logically, people assumed that he was a responsible, trustworthy candidate for president; however, his actions prove otherwise. His past work does not stand for his mental ability to run and decide for a country. Instead of his idea of “hope” and “change”, his presidency has brought the United States to the brink of ruin.…

    • 1319 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    It’s not that we’re evil, but that we’re human. The challenge is to recognize that unconscious bias afflicts us all — but that we just may be able to overcome it if we face it.” (Kristof, When Whites Just Don’t Get It, Part…

    • 1660 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Obama Vs Binyon

    • 586 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In 2008, Barack Obama became the first president of color in the history of the United States. As a democrat, he promised to help the people, to cut taxes, to provide every American with affordable healthcare, and to end America’s dependence on oil from the Middle East. Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize a year after being elected President, in 2009. The Washington Post, through a cartoon, and Michael Binyon, through an article, publicly revealed their animosity to his award. Both pieces convey the irony of President Obama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize prior to achieving anything worthy of the award.…

    • 586 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    To acknowledge a superior advantage is the first step to changing the world. Majority of white people seem surprised at the fact that there is still a divide between races in modern times. They’ve taken the pretentious viewpoint of claiming that they don’t ‘see race’ that they just ‘the person’ and while that might be what most activists are striving towards in modern times, all that really means is that they are benefiting from the privileges of being white. It is almost impossible to relate to someone who is struggling because of their skin color when the privileged have never had to face such unfair and unjust effects because of the way they look. I am white, I am female, and those are facts.…

    • 1582 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    2008: The pendulum has swung to its one side. The force that pushed it was Barack Obama’s inauguration. The moment he won the presidency, many people rejoiced. That election would not only be a win to democrats, but also to african americans and blacks all over the country.…

    • 225 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Fear of a Black President In reading the article “Fear of a Black President” a thought which kept popping into my head was how I felt that Barack Obama was under more pressure and scrutinized than any other president in the recent past. I think that for him and for other African Americans, whether they agree with his views or not, Obama being elected president was an epic event. From a historical perspective it was a monumental day in United States history, an event that will written about for ages. Taking on the presidency is a great responsibility, but as the saying goes “with great power comes great responsibility.…

    • 774 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Barack Obama is the first African American president. It took 43 presidents before him for our nation to nominate president of another race, but he was the first. Barack Obama had a successful childhood. He had an even better career. With all his political roles Barack Obama is a successful person.…

    • 1328 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Price of the Ticket The Price of the Ticket analyzes the historic development of African Americans among the landscape of equality politically and socially. Frederick C. Harris provides an in-depth and realistic approach to the effects, sometimes negative, of having a successful election for the first black President of the United States. Harris also discusses the lack of action on behalf of blacks that many have expected to occur, with a black president. Although some claim that the election of Barack Obama was the “pinnacle of political empowerment” for black America, many believe that factors, such as the politics of respectability and the “wink, nod, and vote” agreement led to there being a severe “price of the ticket” for black America.…

    • 1475 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Hello motherfuker, I’m Paul Sedaris the youngest out of the whole Sedaris clan. I am loud, outspoken, and “unapologetically blunt” (65) with an unusual accent that no one quite understands. I will give you the truth even when you don’t want to hear it, but the best of all I’m the rooster that never stops hollering. I Paul Sedaris will holler and shout my profanity like it’s nobody's business, so don’t be surprised that I say every word in the book even to my parents. I smoke weed in the house and school just isn’t my thing, so I advise you to stop before wasting your time to ask me about college.…

    • 157 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As I finished reading “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, I was left in a bit of a trance. Before entering this class, I can say I haven’t really read any African American Literature. Even though being from a predomanlitly black area of Atlanta originally , I always strived away from black literature. The literature is so strong and brings such emotions when reading. I always wanted to believe we lived in a perfect world, with little to no harm.…

    • 1504 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    David Sedaris’s essay is a satirical peace that turns the readers’ attention towards the way we live our lives. He does so by utilizing irony as a way of comparing two families and their two very different ways of living. One family lives an interesting life, while the other watches strangers live their lives on…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Cause And Effect Of Racism

    • 2233 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Process Analysis Adams 4 Black sheep I am the only dark-skinned person in my family. My mother is white, my stepfather was white, and my brother and sister are white. I inherited the same 'white traits ' as my family. I ‘dressed like a white person’, ‘spoke like a white person,’ ‘listened to white music,’ and ‘ate white food.’…

    • 2233 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays