After describing the historic path taken to become the first African-American First Family, Mrs. Obama took to task unnamed detractors who looked down on her and her husband. In prose at once jubilant and suddenly defiant, the First Lady noted: “The world won’t always see you in those caps and gowns…Instead they will make assumptions about who they think you are based on their limited notion of the world. And 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—the folks who crossed the street in fear of their safety; the clerks who kept a close eye on us in all those department stores; the people at formal events who assumed we were the ‘help’—and all those who questioned our intelligence, our honesty, even our love of this country.” Wow. Where to begin?
Who is the they the First Lady makes reference to? Presumably racist whites; but this sounds more like an indictment of our American society at large. What are the assumptions being foisted upon these new graduates of an all-black university—that Americans are bigoted and have a limited notion of blacks as being inherently inferior?
Worse, Mrs. Obama says that she and her husband have felt the sting of these slights for their “entire lives.” Does she feel insulted inside the 18 acres of the White House every day? Having served in the West Wing for four years, I can assure you that overt racism will never be tolerated in the White House today. Has she had a different experience?
Mrs. Obama is the product of two of the finest institutions of higher learning in the United States, having graduated from Princeton University and earned her law degree from Harvard Law School. Did people treat her like the help during her time in Cambridge or follow her through the stores in Harvard Square?
Having served as a Resident Fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics in 2011 I encountered no such bigotry—just respect and good-natured exchanges with my fellow faculty members and eager students. My point is that there is no such thing as the “black experience” in America—the First Lady’s remarks give the sense that such a monolithic experience exists.
This impression is further borne out by two recent articles in The Washington Post. The first, a blog by Emily Badger, is under the banner of “Michelle Obama on Being Black: ‘There Will Be Times When You Feel Like Folks Look Right Past You.’” I agree with the First Lady here, but is it exclusively due to racism? I’ve had people look right past me due to my politics, but I don’t accuse them of being racist.
Badger helpfully notes later in her piece that Mrs. Obama’s remarks “gave a thoughtful window into what it’s like to be a black American today.” So all blacks view the world from the prism of a window in which we all see contemporary American society? The comment is shocking for its insular and paternalistic view of blacks—do all whites see the world from the window of white America, Ms. Badger?
She, Obama, Hillary, Holder, Reid, Sharpton, Jackson, Cummings… all exemplify the depths to which some will sink to use race as a political weapon. Their tactics pushes the progress of race relations back decades.
Kind of like condemning all white police officers as racists simply because a few have to resort to deadly force to protect their lives from violent blacks?
It should not be assumed that because of him, all blacks are lying, racist theives, but Al Sharpton does nothing to disprove the worst of stereotypes that have historically been applied to blacks. Of course, people like Sharpton don’t care of the image they project or the damage they cause to the perception of their race; all he cares about is how much money and power can be generated from inventing racial bias and pretending to fight it.
Apparently, Michelle has decided to take a page out of Sharpton’s book and continue to promote the image of the victim. I guess since every black family doesn’t have the opportunity to take their family and entourage to spend a week in a palatial Spanish hotel on the taxpayer’s nickel and hob-knob with royalty, it is the fault of the racist white devil.
” My point is that there is no such thing as the “black experience” in America”
That’s a rather naive as well as poorly articulated point. Actually, distant from reality is perhaps a better assessment.
@RJ: Yet you fail to engage the “point’.
The author articulates it just fine, though you’re rhetoric pretends to ignore it:
Naive? No, you’re just toeing a line from several decades ago….and thus, naive. Suggesting that all blacks have something one can call “black experience” is akin to saying all blacks like watermelon.
Some of us want people to be judged by the content of character, not the color of their skin.
Michelle Obama wants to leverage “blackness” as a social and political weapon, even though she’s far “whiter” than the average white (if we’re saying there is the “white” experience, as she must accept if there is a black one).
She wants us to judge her based on the content of her skin AND the color of her character.
And you are haplessly engendering a new American caste system, but think you’re enlightened somehow.
Naive? Yes you are.
Don’t tell someone what they are allowed to think, or how to act, by assuming you know something about their *experience*.
It’s all so sad. I was entering the bank a couple of weeks ago and a young black man 19 or so held the door open for me to pass…I have to say I was taken back…I said thank you and he smiles and says no problem…
Now I’m all confused….
” My point is that there is no such thing as the “black experience” in America”
Questioning the validity of that statement is a far shot from your premise Of “toeing a line from several decades ago” and “suggesting that all blacks have something one can call “black experience” which you argue ” is akin to saying all blacks like watermelon”.
There can not be ”black experience,” since blacks routinely call their fellow blacks names such as ”oreo,” “Uncle Tom,” ”house nigger,” etc.
And WHY do so many blacks get vilified by their fellow blacks?
They reach a different conclusion after living in the USA for their childhoods and youths and early adult years.
They chose to be conservatives.
Think: John Connerly of the CA Board of Regents who was called ”partly white,” because HIS experiences told him that affirmative action would backfire on blacks on the college education level. (Oh, that was years ago, so we can see that he was proven correct!)
Think: Larry Elder who was called all of the above right on the air during his radio show over the years.
Think: Charles Payne, economist who calls it like he sees it and spent his entire childhood being made fun of for studying (he said the black kids all called him ”acting white.”
Think: Walter Hudson who is a city council member in Albertville, MN. He cites a study that explains why anyone who rejects the Marxist undercurrent of the Black Lives Matter movement can expect to be labelled racist, even if they happen to be black.
We saw the truthfulness of his explanation when whites joined blacks in the NY and Baltimore confrontations with police and they were considered more authentically black than any actual black who happened to be conservative!