Michelle Obama thesis was on racial divide - full text available

Politico.com ^ | 2/22/2008 | Jeffrey Ressner

[GVnana]

Michelle Obama thesis was on racial divide

By: Jeffrey Ressner
Feb 22, 2008 04:20 PM EST
Updated: February 22, 2008 08:07 PM EST

Michelle Obama's senior year thesis at Princeton University, obtained from the campaign by Politico, shows a document written by a young woman grappling with a society in which a black Princeton alumnus might only be allowed to remain "on the periphery." Read the full thesis here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

"My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my 'blackness' than ever before," the future Mrs. Obama wrote in her thesis introduction. "I have found that at Princeton, no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my white professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don't belong. Regardless of the circumstances underwhich I interact with whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, I will always be black first and a student second."

The thesis, titled "Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community" and written under her maiden name, Michelle LaVaughn Robinson, in 1985, has been the subject of much conjecture on the blogosphere and elsewhere in recent weeks, as it has been "temporarily withdrawn" from Princeton's library until after this year's presidential election in November. Some of the material has been written about previously, however, including a story last year in the Newark Star Ledger.

Obama writes that the path she chose by attending Princeton would likely lead to her "further integration and/or assimilation into a white cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never becoming a full participant."

[Gondring]

Never saw so much of the first person in an academic paper.

Well, if you don't have many references to cite, you don't have much else to write. In fairness, the self-referencial syntax isn't carried throughout the paper, but the content is, as it's largely opinion and "proof by assertion," from the brief skimming I've done. Oh well. She was a sociology major.

Glad you said that so I didn't have to. :-)

[reg45]

You racist Pig! The thesis was written in Ebonic not English. It is racist to hold her to the same standards of academic excellence as we would a white person.

[wintertime]

If Ivy League attendance is based solely on money and family connections
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I didn’t say that it was.

[Gondring]

There were some great things at Cornell, and depending on what field of study, I would highly recommend it or highly disrecommend it. I had experiences there that were far outside what I could have gotten elsewhere and I value them to this day. On the other hand, if I were weak-minded, then the liberal side could have sucked me in and ruined me.

If looking for contacts and networking, Ivy is the way to go. But if going to graduate school for sure, I’d recommend a good solid undergrad and then go to an Ivy for grad school.

[sageb1]

lol! We all agree, I think, that she has not. It was just a misreading. I guess I wasn’t the only one. Happens sometimes. ;)

[RepublitarianRoger2]

OK, I think I see the confusion here with my original post. It probably should have said: “Has she NOT progressed past the mindset of her college days? Is she still espousing those ideas today?” Which is really just two different facets of the same question, but to which the answers would be No, she hasn’t progressed, and Yes, she is still espousing those ideas.

Hope that clears that up!

[sageb1]

“Hope that clears that up!”

It does. :)

[Starboard]

I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don't belong.

They why spend four years hanging around a place that makes you uncomfortable, and falls short of your expectations? Why not look for a more suitable school? Sounds like she majored in victimology.

[littlehouse36]

You shamed me for something I obviously didn’t know.

[GVnana]

Sounds like she majored in victimology

Doesn't it? It's not a master's thesis, it's a senior thesis, and I'd probably be embarrassed by my senior thesis, but still...

Most insitutions require that you at least forward the scholarship of your discipline.

[wintertime]

Ivy for grad school.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Depends on the field of study. In my profession, the Ivies do not have the best reputations.

[PapaBear3625]

It galls me how these folks who have done so well...much better than many of us in a land of opportunity and still they whine incessantly. I thought a burgeoning black middle class (same argument folks make about illegals) was supposed to be different and more conservative.

Going to college is often a shock for many bright kids. They go through grammar and high school being the Big Fishes, the smartest kids in their peer group. Many arrive at college with massively swollen egos.

Then they find themselves among peers who are just as smart as they are, with a great many considerably better than them. Deflating that swollen ego is a painful process

It looks like Michelle never went through that ego-deflation process. Every less-than-perfect outcome seems due to The System Keeping Her Down. They do not bow down to Her Greatness.

She seems a very bitter woman

[PapaBear3625]

“I hoped that these findings would help me conclude that despite the high degree of identification with whites as a result of the educational and occupational path that black Princeton alumni follow, the alumni would still maintain a certain level of identification with the black community. However, these findings do not support this possibility.”

With a 22% response rate, her survey sample is not really enough to support ANY conclusion

But she seriously expected that Ivy League upper-middle-class blacks would feel themselves to have more in common with working-class/underclass blacks than with middle-class whites?

[PapaBear3625]

Depends on the field of study. In my profession, the Ivies do not have the best reputations

Depends on the particular dept at the particular Ivy

I work with a guy who got his Chem PhD from Cornell. Very sharp guy, humble, nice person. While working in private industry as a researcher, he had to hire a large number of interns over the years, both from Ivys (UPenn) and 2nd tier. He thought the UPenn interns were excessively full of themselves, from the years of being told that they were the elite of the elite. The interns from 2nd tier schools were just as smart, and more importantly did not feel that doing actual work was beneath them

[Gondring]

A simple syllogism, “Admit the best and the best will continue to keep America the best.”

A syllogism?!

[wintertime]

My husband, a Ph.D in biochemistry and research team leader at Du Pont, had exactly the same experience.

[Gondring]

[...] the UPenn interns were excessively full of themselves, from the years of being told that they were the elite of the elite.

That was the experience we had with UPenn recent grads, and we also have had more success with Cornell grads, but it's a small sample size. :-)

Nowdays, though, it seems that it's hard to find a work ethic and good attitude in any new hires.

[Gondring]

What field is that?

[Gondring]

I can’t believe nobody has commented on the place where she admits future sex-change ambitions (Introduction, Page 1).

[ravensandricks]

Glutton for punishment that I am, I read the whole thing. I’m embarrassed for her, her university and my country. If this is the kind of nonsense turned out by Ivy League elites, I shudder at what materials they produce in the real world.

Putting aside the topic, this paper is written at a middle-school level, there are typos galore and she seems to prefer (for the most part) simple-mindedness to genuine insight. If I, as a white male, had turned something like this in at the University of Maryland, there is not a chance in hell I would have gotten higher than a C, and deservedly so. It’s just very shoddy. I have no doubt that this was an A for Michelle, though. Affirmative action, baby!