Posted on 05/09/2015 4:42:55 PM PDT by jazusamo
Michelle Obama gave a candid view Saturday of the challenges and emotional toll of being the country’s first black first lady.
Obama, speaking to graduates at Tuskegee University in Alabama, described insensitive media questions and derogatory remarks from political pundits that she said have kept her up at night.
“You might remember the on-stage celebratory fist bump between me and my husband after a primary win that was referred to as a ‘terrorist fist jab,’ ” she said.
“And over the years, folks have used plenty of interesting words to describe me. One said I exhibited ‘a little bit of uppity-ism.’ Another noted that I was one of my husband’s ‘cronies of color.’ Cable news once charmingly referred to me as ‘Obama’s Baby Mama.’ ”
Obama said she was subjected to a different set of expectations on the campaign trail in 2008 compared with other candidates’ wives.
“ ‘What kind of First Lady would I be? What kinds of issues would I take on?’ … The truth is, those same questions would have been posed to any candidate’s spouse,” she said.
“But, as potentially the first African-American First Lady, I was also the focus of another set of questions and speculations; conversations sometimes rooted in the fears and misperceptions of others. Was I too loud, or too angry, or too emasculating? Or was I too soft, too much of a mom, not enough of a career woman?”
In the end, she said, she realized all the negativity was just “noise.”
Obama encouraged the graduates of Tuskegee, a historically black university, to overcome adversity and discrimination by staying “true to the most real, most sincere, most authentic parts of yourselves.”
People “will make assumptions about who they think you are based on their limited notion of the world,” she said. “My husband and I know how frustrating that experience can be. We’ve both felt the sting of those daily slights throughout our entire lives. … And all of that is going to be a heavy burden to carry.”
“But,” she said, “those feelings are not an excuse to just throw up our hands and give up. They are not an excuse to lose hope. To succumb to feelings of despair and anger only means that in the end, we lose.”
She’s everything I thought she’d be in 2007 and less.
part has worn off?
Every thing is a puff piece on her. Community Liaison making what, $300K, for a hospital dumping patients, constant vacations separate from BHO costing the taxpayers more than necessary, fraudulent gardener, ridiculous boob belt outfits, "and I don't know what".
I'd have more, but I try to avoid her BS and that of the sycophantic media.
Yep, and I’ll add that she and her family stuff their face with anything they like while Michelle dictates what kids across the country “will” eat, no matter to her that many, many kids won’t eat it and the food goes in the garbage.
I don’t know what more she wants.
BTTT!
Short, to the point and dead on the mark! ;-)
The first time in my life I was proud to be an American is when I GAVE something, not when I GOT something. In my privileged white world, in order to be deemed classy, I actually have to behave that way...
yes, a real struggle, packing for all those million dollar trips to foreign countries...has the travel account total been made public?
If you read her Thesis, Race comes in third to Sentence Structure and a complete lack of Comprehension for the person being forced to read it.
In a word, the entire mess is Imbecilic. You would expect more from a High School Sophomore. It is tortuous to attempt to makes any sense of her ramblings.
Knock yourself out. Well, you might just decide to after the first Paragraph. LOL
Caucaphobic - an irrational fear of white people. Michelle Obama has it bad.
She is righ about the what but not the who, t it has been massive strain on the country
She is so full of shit. Go away already.
I read it and it is not even a paper you could submit.
yep
Now, where did I leave my tiny violin......
Emotional toll? How about the toll on our budget of you Marie Antoinettesque vacays, girl?
YAWN
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