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And your contribution is on topic how?
I am not calling you out on it because I object, but it seems a little hypocritical.
As to not getting support, I am actually not looking for support, rather trying to see if my calibration is way off.
Sure everyone likes to think they are tuned in, and pats on the back are never unwelcome. However I do wish to hear opposing points of view (whether I agree or not) which might help to give me a better understanding.
For example Javacoffee made an interesting point which might explain why this speech might be more acceptable under the circumstances (i.e. not a speech to the nation). While I'd still like to think any commencement speech should not focus on potential racism/sexism etc.(i.e. things that divide us), if the same speech would be taken poorly if addressed to the nation by her, we are not that far off.
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You're not so much asking for opinions as trying to push yours. You asked our opinion on THIS speech, (the Current Event, appropriate) and when we held opinions you didn't approve of or that didn't align with yours, you expanded the topic from this speech by pulling out things from her past that have nothing to do with this speech but instead are intended to foster a more global debate on whether she's a racist (not a Current Event and inappropriate here) Is the topic about THIS speech, or isn't it? If it's not, take it to politics like the other Angry White Men do.
This blind acceptance (by the majority of black people) of everything the Obamas do is disturbing. Her speech was full of "they", "them" and "some people". If that is not divisive I don't know what is.
She should have been encouraging, congratulatory, and if anything - encouraged students to live their lives in honorable, successful ways that will help dispel the negative image of blacks created by the ghetto crowd.
She should have been encouraging, congratulatory, and if anything - encouraged students to live their lives in honorable, successful ways that will help dispel the negative image of blacks created by the ghetto crowd.
This is exactly what she said:
Quote:
And, graduates, that’s what we need from all of you. We need you to channel the magic of Tuskegee toward the challenges of today. And here’s what I really want you to know -- you have got everything you need to do this. You’ve got it in you. Because even if you’re nervous or unsure about what path to take in the years ahead, I want you to realize that you’ve got everything you need right now to succeed. You’ve got it.
You’ve got the knowledge and the skills honed here on this hallowed campus. You’ve got families up in the stands who will support you every step of the way. And most of all, you’ve got yourselves -- and all of the heart, and grit, and smarts that got you to this day.
And if you rise above the noise and the pressures that surround you, if you stay true to who you are and where you come from, if you have faith in God’s plan for you, then you will keep fulfilling your duty to people all across this country. And as the years pass, you’ll feel the same freedom that Charles DeBow did when he was taking off in that airplane. You will feel the bumps smooth off. You’ll take part in that “never-failing miracle” of progress. And you’ll be flying through the air, out of this world -- free.
And the mere fact that you first and foremost associate "black" with "ghetto" and that these bright, college educated students have to prove that they aren't thugs is exactly why her speech is important.
And the mere fact that you first and foremost associate "black" with "ghetto" is exactly why her speech is important.
I think part of the problem is that they can't (or won't) recognize that the video was a 3 minute excerpt from an entire commencement speech, posted with the specific agenda of making Mrs. Obama look racist.
I'm not going to read all the pgs of this thread, or links. 1st let me say.... I'm totally fed up with the racism crap going on with recent trends, news, culture, or whatever.
But I can offer a different insight. I am WHITE! Was born middle class white 1963. (you do the math, of that age)
I was also BORN with psoriasis. I mean BLOODY scabs everywhere psoriasis. My parents had to put white cotton gloves on me, from the youngest of age, or I would scratch myself into a bloody mess!
There's a REASON I choose to be an INTROVERT! Because I learned early on, in elementary school, just how cruel, mean, and vile other kids can be. Ya see.... I was the one with *cooties*.... don't go near HER... you'll get *cooties*.
I personally can't stand Obama or his wife. Can't stand the last few Pres Families we've had either.
Back in the early 60's I learned to *feel* for the blacks. Why? Because I was a young white child also being frowned upon because I didn't look *right* to everybody else. Back in the 60's, kids with psoriasis just wasn't the norm!
I know what it's like to be an OUTCAST! I'm fed up with the racism card being overplayed. But I've also lived an *outcast* life. I understand both sides of the coin.
And the mere fact that you first and foremost associate "black" with "ghetto" and that these bright, college educated students have to prove that they aren't thugs is exactly why her speech is important.
Please. This hypersensitivity and imagined slights have gotten beyond old. If I said low-life people of color, you be on me about calling them low-life. I used "ghetto" because everyone knows what I'm talking about (including you) when the term is used.
Underprivileged and underachieving African Americans with a propensity to commit criminal and violent behavior. Is that better?
My point was that she in no way asked them to disassociate and rise above the negative influences in their own culture, but instead stirred up resentment with her "they", "them" and "some people" rhetoric.
So far as we know, She has lived a life of privelidge, went to the best schools, never toiled in a factory, or in some minimum wage job. Pretty much handed to her everything she could hope for without really putting any kind of real commitment. Remember that cushy $300,000 a year job that was basically handed to her because her hubby was a senator?
I remember a speech during the 2008 DNC Convention where she talked about how her blue- and pink-collar parents worked hard to raise her and her brother in the notoriously challenged South Side of Chicago. Her parents were apparently supportive role models as she was able to work hard and graduate with a Harvard law degree. Her brother is an accomplished college basketball coach. While I wouldn't put it past Illinois politics for a wealthy supporter to hand out a patronage job, I suppose $300K might be a going rate for an experienced Harvard Law School graduate.
So no, not much privilege until perhaps January 2009. And even then, no more arguably than any other Presidential family. But back to the speech...
It was totally appropriate for the audience. Most Black people - if not also many other people of color and perhaps even some lower-income White people - understood the micro- and macro-aggressions she was talking about. If anything, I was floored by her honesty. I think we will continue to see such blunt and honest talk from the President and Mrs. Obama as the "lame duck" season continues.
(EDIT: I did not see Ruth4Truth's post of Mrs. Obama's Wiki which is much more thorough than my recollection.)
For those of you who have heard it, I would assume most would feel the way I do. That being that not only was it beneath the First Lady of the United States to make such a divisive speech, but that she herself seems to be full of resentment (maybe even hatred). ...
The point of discussion I am getting at is that aside from the partisan koolaid drinking supporters of the Obama's, how can people see that speech in any type of a positive light?
Are we so polarized as a nation now that what I perceive to be a poor example of our countries First Lady's speech, can be seen by others as something positive?
Is it related to race, in that 6+ years of racial animus stirred up by Barak/Holder/Sharpton has caused black people to see things strictly through a lens of grievance?
I have not had the chance to discuss this with my black or liberal friends yet, so I wanted see what my fellow CD posters think of the this.
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Wow... your assumption is so wrong that I wonder if it is even worth responding since your perspective is so off the mark... off the charts really. If you really consider yourself a fair minded person let me assure you that you are not at all if the post here is any example. You have an agenda & that interpreted her real life experiences through that filter into "she has held grievances (real and perceived) and that she has a massive chip on her shoulder." Explaining one's past experiences honestly isn't anything like "having a chip" on one's shoulder.
Yes tell us how your "black friends" react to your characterization of 6+ years of racial animus stirred up by "Barak" & Sharpton... because everyone equates them together, do you assume that too?
If she thinks things are bad here why not emigrate back to Africa?
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