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I'm fine with the speech. It was given at Tuskegee University. It wasn't an "address the nation" moment. If it were, my opinion would change, but Obama was speaking to people who have shared her past experiences. I don't believe she was stirring the racial pot.
Maybe the OP doesn't know what happened in Tuskegee many years ago. Most white people don't know. Here's a link https://abagond.wordpress.com/2010/0...ee-experiment/
Google "Tuskegee Experiment" for more. It's another horror that occurred to poor, black men in Tuskegee...at the hands of eager whites.
I am well aware, and agree it was despicable.
I also have read your posts and think you are a reasoned individual. I can see your point about differentiating between a national speech vs. one to a predominately black audience. However we might disagree about how we view the POTUS. My perception of the presidency and the First Lady is that they speak for the entire nation. Yet far too often it seems as if Barak, Michelle, and Holder have been focused on race, making comments that seem to favor blacks over whites, etc.
They say things that if reversed would cause an uproar in the liberal press/media, and among the race merchants. Yet somehow Obama & Co seem to get a pass everywhere except on FOX and conservative talk radio.
I can't tell if it is akin to blacks being able to use the "N" word and others cannot. Or if it is out of fear of being called racist for the mere mention of how Obama & Holder come off as racist themselves.
Any thoughts?
White woman here Yes there is discrimination but being asked to get something is not racist. I've been asked to reach for things too and people have often thought I worked at masny places notably Best Buy.
So your point is what, exactly? Are you making a statement about Mrs. Obama based on the fact you and she had different experiences? She wasn't talking to us, you're aware of that? I'm white too but I still fail to see the point of this thread.
I didn't like her in the first place, still don't like her crying. At first I liked her husband and voted for him but he's proven like most presidents I vote for (white ones) that I made a huge mistake!
I haven't liked 1/2 the White House wives since I've been old enough to pay attention.
I'm Korean/white. I'm a Liberal. I don't take sides, I judge for myself. In my opinion she does nothing to help end racial problems, she encourages people to take sides just like the media. I think she enjoys racial conflict as much as the rest of them. I'm getting a bit sick of it. I am also getting sick of this tit for tat game.
She talked to them like they were all poor, not black. Working two, three jobs to pay for your education? Some do and some don't regardless of race.
I'm the first to defend prejudice when I see it, including when someone is prejudice against white people.
We are all just people, and as a woman who once could not vote, don't let your past hold you down. I'm just glad they got an education.
What she needed to talk about is poverty, and thank them all for not adding to it because her and her husband can't fix it, they just make it worse.
In the present we don't have racial issues, we have fiscal issues. That divides Americans more than race. It's a common bond. Healthcare=fail, jobs=fail, inner city violence due to POVERTY not RACE=FAIL!!!
Last edited by PoppySead; 05-16-2015 at 02:06 PM..
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?
Obama grew up in a two-story house on Euclid Street in Chicago's South Shore community area. Her parents rented a small apartment on the house's second floor from her great-aunt, who lived downstairs. She was raised in what she describes as a "conventional" home, with "the mother at home, the father works, you have dinner around the table." Her elementary school was down the street. [...] She and her 21-month older brother, Craig, skipped the second grade. Her brother is a former basketball coach at Oregon State University and Brown University. By sixth grade, Michelle joined a gifted class at Bryn Mawr Elementary School (later renamed Bouchet Academy).
Education and early career
Obama attended Whitney Young High School, Chicago's first magnet high school, where she was a classmate of Jesse Jackson's daughter Santita. The round-trip commute from the Robinsons' South Side home to the Near West Side, where the school was located, took three hours. She was on the honor roll for four years, took advanced placement classes, was a member of the National Honor Society, and served as student council treasurer. She graduated in 1981 as the salutatorian of her class.
Sounds like she was from a working-class family, was exceptionally bright, and worked hard in school to get through college and into the the law profession. We don't know that she didn't work minimum wage at some point in her life--highschool or college, and I doubt she had everything handed to her. She probably went to Princeton and law school on scholarships and work-study programs. Instead of posting speculation and hearsay, do research.
From the Chicago Sun-Times;
Obama took out $42,753 in loans to pay for his Harvard Law School tuition. Michelle signed notes for $40,762 in loans for her Harvard Law education. That’s on top of their undergraduate loans. The couple carried their college debt 25 years—even as they were making decent incomes.
She also got a merit-based scholarship for her undergrad studies at Princeton.
Last edited by Ruth4Truth; 05-16-2015 at 01:02 PM..
So you didn't get the support you wanted about the speech, so let's pull 10,000 things out of her background....agenda much? Commenting on the speech was possibly a Current Event, but now all you're doing is trying to have a thread about how racist Mrs. Obama is, which IMO belongs on Politics. Make up your mind what the thread is about.
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.
OP, I thought that it was uplifting and at the same time pragmatic.
I don't understand the negative reactions.
Because it is considered devisive and inappropriate.
Can you imagine Laura Bush giving a commencement speech at a all white college (do they even exist?) about the evil black race murdering, raping, and robbing innocent white people? She then goes on to say that because of black people, property values go down, taxes to support welfare queens goes up, and white kids dont get the education they need because of disruptive black students in class?
Would you be ok with that? I dont really see any difference from what she did and the fictional scenario i created...do you?
Because it is considered devisive and inappropriate.
Can you imagine Laura Bush giving a commencement speech at a all white college (do they even exist?) about the evil black race murdering, raping, and robbing innocent white people? She then goes on to say that because of black people, property values go down, taxes to support welfare queens goes up, and white kids dont get the education they need because of disruptive black students in class?
Would you be ok with that? I dont really see any difference from what she did and the fictional scenario i created...do you?
You really don't get the difference, do you?
She was inspiring students to be the best they can be in spite of obstacles they may encounter, and society's ignorance about Black high-achievers.
Because it is considered devisive and inappropriate.
Can you imagine Laura Bush giving a commencement speech at a all white college (do they even exist?) about the evil black race murdering, raping, and robbing innocent white people? She then goes on to say that because of black people, property values go down, taxes to support welfare queens goes up, and white kids dont get the education they need because of disruptive black students in class?
Would you be ok with that? I dont really see any difference from what she did and the fictional scenario i created...do you?
Are you trying to make a statement about black people through your hypo?
Was Laura Bush repeatedly labeled a "monkey," or whatever equivalent, derogatory, animalistic terms that are usually applied to white people (or DO THEY EVEN EXIST?!) and a c*** for speaking out about her personal experiences? The answer is no, and this is precisely why Michelle Obama can speak to the issues in that video.
By the way, we're all still waiting on that source showing that Michelle Obama lived a life of privilege and had everything "handed to her." I know you want to move on to your next rant, but if you want to be taken seriously you should be prepared to support the stuff you're spewing with evidence.
What a way to start a thread. Why would you assume "most" would feel the way you do?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vector1
I consider myself a fair minded person who is willing to listen to the other side of an issue provided it is based on fact rather than emotion.
This has not been my experience when you've posted in other threads I was a part of.
Anyway, the speech was okay, a couple things maybe were questionable but overall I didn't have at all the same visceral reaction you seem to have had.
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