[SJackson]

Barack Obama's quest for the presidency is a classic "See, I can be here too" moment.

For many voters Theola Labbé-DeBose nails it. I can be here too is the issue. Or they can be here too.

[montag813]

I've been thinking a lot about this sort of failure to be truly accepted

Perhaps Michelle would be more readily "accepted" if she had achieved enough academically on her own to attend Princeton, instead of--as she has admitted herself--relying on racial preferences to get in.

[dennisw]

LOL
This writer wants everyone to kiss her ass.
This writer also is NOT an African American
Her parents immigrated from Haiti
Why did they move to such an awful racist country such as America? (sarcasm)

So where does this idiot get off criticizing America the same way an American with slave ancestors would?

[LibFreeOrDie]

I've made a bet that hard work, study and persistence should be able to vault me past mockery

So this person thinks that an Ivy League diploma should inoculate you from criticism? It wasn't her pic on the cover anyway. It was a couple whose politics and unsavory associations should be mocked.

[xDGx]

"I last visited my alma mater, Princeton University, two years ago to speak on an alumni panel about the future of Iraq. Inside stately Wayne Manor, where I'd taken Constitutional Law more than a decade earlier" Who teaches these weiner-tards how to write? This is the phiosphical detritus one derives from a lifetime in front of the idiot box. "Theola Labbé-DeBose goes on to whine about race (*shock*) samplings: "I spoke to a mostly white crowd" "I've been thinking a lot about this sort of failure to be truly accepted as I've watched Michelle and Barack Obama recently. After all, a white couple with their accomplishments would be another one of those gilded couples that appear on the New York Times's society pages or in Town & Country magazine. Instead, these two earnest meritocrats wound up on the cover of the New Yorker last week in a now notorious fist-bumping caricature, complete with a Black Panther-era 'fro for her and traditional Muslim garb for him. " " Like the Obamas and millions of other African Americans who have relied on the promise of American meritocracy, I've made a bet that hard work, study and persistence should be able to vault me past mockery and wariness. But episodes such as that cover make me worry that no amount of pedigree and personal polish will let us entirely escape suspicion, mistrust and jealousy. And I'm hardly alone in this: A New York Times/CBS News poll last week reported that 64 percent of blacks think that whites have a better chance of getting ahead in today's America. It's a painful lesson, especially for us blacks who chose majority-white universities as the means to achieving professional success. " "I've given a lot of thought to the intersection of race, education and meritocracy, based on both my personal experience and my job covering schools for The Post. Here are some of the questions I ask myself in private (and I suspect I'm not alone): " "These questions hit particularly close to home because, like Michelle Obama, I graduated from Princeton. We're members of the fraternity known as "Black Ivy," sisters and brothers who earned our diplomas at some of the country's most elite universities, places that have educated generations of political families such as the Kennedys and the Bushes. I've gotten very different reactions, from both blacks and whites, to my Ivy League background, from the over-the-top, I'm-impressed tone of voice ("Princeton? Wow!") to barely concealed envy ("Really? How'd you manage that?"). " "Some blacks have asked why I didn't go to Howard or another historically black college. Some of them must be thinking that about Michelle Obama, too. I can only say that choosing a college wasn't an easy call. At The Post, I've written about young people in the District who are determined to attend a black college. That choice is often driven by black pride or the desire to continue a family legacy, much in the way that attending such schools as Yale and Cornell is passed down in some families. But some of these young African Americans tell me that they also feared not looking like everybody else, or that they were pressured by family and friends not to venture too far from what they know. In some instances, the choice between Harvard and Hampton can be seen as choosing to accept or reject your race. That can make an Ivy League acceptance letter seem more like a burden than a break. But some of us still decide to go to "white" schools -- because it's a glittering line on a résumé, because we're compelled to try to own something that was once denied us, and because we hope that an Ivy League education may act as a kind of academic armor against misperceptions, assumptions and plain old bigotry. Like every other meritocrat, we're looking for an advantage, and we have particular reason to think that we may need one. " You can read the rest if you want, but it is pathetic bitching and excuse-mongering about race race race. How about this, Ms. Labbé-DeBose? Why don't you build your career on MERIT instead of whining about how you feel cheated, slighted,dissed, whatever. You EARN respect by what you do, not what your color dicatates. You do not find ANY Asian-Americans writing this type of whining tripe anywhere. ANYWHERE. Same for everyone else except for the professionally oppressed. Grow the hell up, Ms. Labbé-DeBose, and dispense with your whining about perceived insults and impress folks with what you can do.

Good grief can someone tell me an easy way to write in this forum without < p> and < /p>'ing every blasted paragraph. Honest to goodness I love this place but the format sucks. ARrrrrrrrrgh.

[Bahbah]

How can the Obamas list the same schools and the same jobs on their résumés as their white counterparts and still be seen as something to be feared? Isn't education America's Great Equalizer, one of the few ways we have of creating a society based on brains and talent rather than family background or skin color? Or does that promise of uplift and integration only go so far?

The source of their diplomas has nothing to do with it. And unfortunately, your Ivies are the "great equalizers." You all come out thinking and saying the same things, properly indoctrinated.

Also, the education at these institutions has been so debased that someone can write a thesis like Mrs. Obama's and still get into Harvard Law. So you all made it not mean much, and now you're mad about it.

[mkleesma]

Maybe you did make it on your own. The derision comes from the fact that many in the world of Affirmative Action did not.

[tx_eggman]

After all, a white couple with their accomplishments would be another one of those gilded couples that appear on the New York Times's society pages or in Town & Country magazine.

Bullsh1t ... they wouldn't even be on the radar.

Outside of their connection to Chicago politics they have "accomplished" nothing ... and if they were white, they wouldn't have made a ripple in that corrupt little cess pool.

[Mamzelle]

Gee, lady, maybe they thought you were too smart to be a Princeton grad?

[pabianice]

After all, a white couple with their accomplishments would be another one of those gilded couples that appear on the New York Times's society pages or in Town & Country magazine.

How many white couples would have been gotten there via affirmative action?

[Rudder]

I've made a bet that hard work, study and persistence should be able to vault me past mockery and wariness.

Really smart people learn a basic principle---Life can be unfair, no matter who you are.

[avenir]

What I find funny is that these whining Ivy Leaguers sit around polishing the turds of their discontent and somehow are able to sell their tales of woe to poor, beaten down blacks out here in America! Very few of us—black or white—have anything in common with the vultures of upper education.

[DakotaRed]

Why is it that accomplished “people of color” who are conservative don’t seem to feel the need to cry racism whenever they are not instantly recognized?

[Soliton]

But some of us still decide to go to "white" schools -- because it's a glittering line on a résumé, because we're compelled to try to own something that was once denied us, and because we hope that an Ivy League education may act as a kind of academic armor against misperceptions, assumptions and plain old bigotry.

Please note she never mentions the quality of the education as a determining factor.

[Soliton]

But some of us still decide to go to "white" schools -- because it's a glittering line on a résumé, because we're compelled to try to own something that was once denied us, and because we hope that an Ivy League education may act as a kind of academic armor against misperceptions, assumptions and plain old bigotry.

Please note she never mentions the quality of the education as a determining factor.

[cynwoody]

The article author:

Theola Labbe, Washington Post

[SatinDoll]

What is it with these people? Do they think that they, alone, are ever insulted?

Everywhere I’ve gone, military or industrial facilities, I’ve had to prove I can do the job. As a woman in male dominated establishments, it was to be expected. But truly, this is consistent just about everywhere.

Liberals just don’t get it.

[JasonC]

Nope, my dear, you are still legitimately subject to mockery, because you are a grade A fool.

[Drango]

This time I'll be addressing minority high school students taking a summer journalism course...

And she will tell them that they are victims and the MAN is trying to keep them down.

[philly-d-kidder]

Michelle Is Phillipina I believe.. and Grew up in Philly!!
That Could be the Chip on the Shoulder.. Philly does that to you..