by Shannon Takahashi

Created on: August 18, 2008

Title: Michelle Obama - Political Activist or Racist?

Article: It is interesting that predominantly White Princeton has chosen to suppress Michelle Obama's thesis until after the Presidential election in November. The effect of this move on the part of Princeton makes it appear as if Mrs. Obama has something to hide. In the portions of her thesis that I have read, she states that she feels as if her instructors and classmates see her as Black first and a student second. She also makes the statement, "My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my 'Blackness' than ever before." She further writes, "I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus, as if I don't really belong."

Mrs. Obama has been ripped apart for her choices in jewelry, her middle class roots, her clothing style, and everything else she says or does. The verifiable truth is that she paid major student loans to attend Ivy League colleges, ultimately achieving a law degree from Harvard. The fact that she did not start off on the bottom rung of the ladder should not diminish her achievements. She pulled student loans when surrounded by so much family money that many of her classmates paid cash for their Ivy League educations. She worked hard and achieved degrees most could not aspire to.

The inescapable truth is that when we vote for a presidential candidate, we base our decision in some part on the person who will be the First Lady. While this is not a paid position within the government, and why not is a question we should be asking ourselves, the First Lady is an influential and highly visible representative of the American people, all of the American people. She should be intelligent, cultured, and should demonstrate the kind of panache that will allow her to move easily between kings, presidents, and dignitaries of all levels. Part of the problem with how Michelle Obama is being marketed to the voters is that they are downplaying her best qualities, and pandering to the lowest common denominator. The Obama campaign is buying into the very kinds of behaviors that have contributed to keeping minorities in this country oppressed. Instead of standing proudly for her accomplishments, she is told to pay homage to her poor beginnings, which the media jumps on for not being poor enough. She is told not to dress for success and look like the highly paid and accomplished woman that she is. Their opponents portray her as an angry Black woman, and her husband's campaign does nothing to dispel that notion by making her downplay the truth of her beginnings or her accomplishments.

So, is Michelle Obama a racist or a political activist? I am not really sure at this point that she is either. There have been questionable behaviors and associations on the part of both her and her husband that bear further scrutiny, but in the end we never really know the truth of who the candidates are, nor can we predict who they will become when facing the temptations that are constantly thrown at politicians at that level. It was disheartening to hear her make the statement that she has never been proud of her country, and while it is not a great thing for a potential First Lady to say or feel, just maybe it is the truth, and perhaps we would know more of the truth about who she is if someone had the insight to ask her why.

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