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.”
Make statements like that and don't be surprised if you'll be criticized.
“I ain’t no ways taard.”
She must have had a hard time squeezing all the emotional toll in between vacations. Poor thing.
No Moochie, we lost.
Whining biatch. We need to start asking — who is the worst first lady ever? Michelle or Hillary?
I would call that a ‘close’ tie....
She needs to STFU and get the hell out of the Oval Office. She and Hillary have a lot in common: they are both married to losers.
Agreed. Or as an alternate choice; GTFO!!
That's a tough one but Michelle has over a year and a half to go.
No Moochie, it’s the taxpayers that are paying the toll for all your fancy vacations.
Yeah, she’s been so busy working hard. I mean, she just puts Eleanor Roosevelt, Pat Nixon, and Nancy Reagan to shame! /sarc
What about MY emotional toll having her as first lady
SHE WAS A VICTIMMMM!!!
/Kinnison
She needs to stop race obsessing. It is not the center of everything.
Moochelle has NEVER been a lady.
It is for her.
Recently for example, because she didn't want to wait two hours where hubby was going to stop on the way back to DC, she flew on another aircraft.
It's tough being a beard to a muslim fag who is pretending to be an American while he sells us out to our enemies.
"Please pass the arugula and wagu beef...and another shot of Magnum Grey Goose, you little white jerk."
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