My First Impression of First Lady-Elect Michelle Obama
The Woman Behind the 'Messiah'
The paper is about blacks who attend/attended Princeton and their relationship, past, present, and future, with the "black community". Personally I hate the term "black community" because I hate anything separatist and to imply there is a black community and a white community only places us further away from our goals of unity. But I digress. Michelle Obama, in her defense, was writing during a period in the 1980's when race relations still saw boiling points and movies like Spike Lee's 'Jungle Fever' were hotbeds for social debate.
She continues on with endless statistics and explanations about her "study", which frankly was not well received by her peers according to the numbers shown in her results. As expected from my previous readings about Mrs. Obama, she seemed utterly disgusted when she encountered data suggesting that once a black alumni of Princeton moved on from schooling into the professional world, that they did not plan to devote the majority of their time to improving "the black community". As if they were turning their backs on black people by going off to the corporate world and high power law firms.
In my opinion, the same people Michelle Obama loathed in her 2-day-old-pastry like thesis are the people that make this country great. She sees them as turning their back on the community when in actuality they're proving exactly what many people refuse to admit about the past 25 years in our country's social revolution. Black people can do it on their own. The opportunities are there. We should not scorn people for leaving their pasts behind them to forge ahead with new visions of their life. We should embrace that kind of growth, and praise them for leading the way.
Michelle Obama once promised to always "take care of the black community first", and that bothers me. Knowing that because of the color of my skin, my First Lady sees me as a secondary priority. Black Liberation Theology will be a hot topic in the coming days of this administration, and it will be very interesting to see where Michelle Obama's name falls within the discussion.
So far, I'm not impressed.
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11 Comments
Post a CommentIt was in reference to the fact Obama had not taken office yet, not that we elected her. Moron.
First Lady elect? c'mon people when did we start electing First Ladies.
I love how Michelle, as well as many other BLACKS, don't consider that issues that concern blacks are also issues that concern EVERYONE. If you can't desegregate yourself, you are the problem Mrs. Obama. Great article Charles, I felt the same way when viewing her work.
Imagine if I said I was President, and I or my wife said we were going to put WHITES first...I'd be shot, and DESERVE it.
Congrats on having another article featured on the front page!
Great article, Charles. I have known many black people who were insulted by their own race when they rose above their past to become something. All of a sudden, they're "not so black" anymore, and they're a traitor to their neighborhood. I don't understand that philosophy.
it's fine for individuals to have their own agendas, so long as you are not in such a position as president or first lady. representatives of a nation and leaders of us all. not one particular segment.
I appreciate your points, but I disagree. The fact is that there are different segments of America: white, black, yellow, etc. We all feel national pride and we all feel pride about our heritage. It's natural to look out for those with whom you most closely identify. And, I am not going to question the anger felt by the Black community--any way you slice it, it's bitter and unforgivable history. But I think you bring up a good point about divisiveness. We should work toward coming together. At the same time we all have our own agendas, and that's just not going to change as long as it's America, the land of the diverse.
thanks for the comments guys. yeah shanika, african-american should only apply to people who moved here directly from africa. otherwise, i would like to be called an irish-greek-American from now on instead of caucasian.
Agreed. I tried reading her thesis months ago when it first resurfaced (surfaced?). I just couldn't stick with it. You make some excellent points, as does Sylvia, including her mention of their former pastor. Im willing to overlook something that was written 30 years ago, however when you tally up all that Michelle has said and done, there may be cause for concern. While we are on the subject of racial nuisances, I HATE the term African-American. I think it promotes further division. Plus, it is inaccurate.
Charles, great article...I couldn't agree more with: "Personally I hate the term "black community" because I hate anything separatist and to imply there is a black community and a white community only places us further away from our goals of unity." Keep up the good work.