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Why are some of you convinced that being unrecognized at Target is at the core of Mrs. Obama's reference to being mistaken for the help? Could she not have been recounting a different incident?
What I find even more interesting is that she can't even keep her "incidents" of phony indignation straight. What was it...6 months ago that she crabbed about the same thing she mentioned at this commencement address?...being mistaken for "the help." Hmmm....yes. A woman shopper at Target was audacious enough to [gasp!] ask the 6-foot tall MO to retrieve an item from the top shelf and, of course, this shopper did so because MO is black and, well, that makes her "the help."
Mrs. Obama clearly forgot offering this same tale on Letterman 3 years earlier, after which she laughed when recounting how the shopper good-naturedly told her that she "didn't have to make it look so easy." Mrs. Obama then affably followed up with Letterman that she was happy to help a shorter woman. I guess that wouldn't have elicited the successions of Amen! and Yes! from the commencement audience.
Moral of the story: Should you see MO at your local Target, do not ask this "fellow shopper" for a hand the way you probably do with others. Instead, ask any of the many Secret Service agents that surely must have accompanied her into a public store ....Oh, nevermind.
A man once asked me to get something off a high shelf at the grocery store. I was completely amused. After I got one package for him, he asked me to get another. I happily got him another. He wasn't particularly short, but apparently he needed help. I can't imagine walking away from that experience with some sort of bad feeling about what happened. Quite simply, if I thought there was something wrong with the request, I could have said no. I'm still amused.
Bottom line, it's healthier to view it as "paying it forward" rather than as a slight. If only people like Michelle would realize that she is in a position to take the high road, and complaining that she is treated like "the help" when asked for help is not the high road.
Again, what leads some of you to be convinced that the incident at Target is at the core of Mrs. Obama's reference to being mistaken for the help? I've heard the story many times over, and it was clear that Mrs. Obama wasn't mistaken for being an employee. She was simply unrecognized, which, truth be told, is pretty amusing.
Last edited by randomparent; 05-17-2015 at 04:17 PM..
One thing I don't get about some conservatives. They are very quick to criticize governments/political systems with limited freedom of expression ("red" China, Chavez's Venezuela, Iran, etc.). Yet when people exercise that right in the USA and say something critical about the U.S. they are accused of being divisive or not patriotic.
Why do you assume that everyone who dislikes Michele Obama's speech is "conservative"? (if such labels even have any real meaning)
You speak of "freedom of expression". Yet you take issue with people who are expressing their opinion of Michelle Obama's public speech. Obama is a member of the government and speaking AS First Lady. Hence, the freedom of expression is more appropriate by those you seem to criticize.
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). That in and of itself is a worthy topic for discussion.
However, while not discouraging such a discussion in this thread, I want to also focus on something else that is troubling in this country. Let me explain.
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. By and large I need to know that emotion is not a deciding factor that cause fact and pragmatic action to be subverted.
When I hear a speech by the First Lady and it strikes me in the manner it did, I assume most other reasoned people would feel similarly. So it surprised me to be watching a report on the show "Today" where a black female reporter characterized the speech in a completely different way, almost praising it.
Granted being a white man I do not know what it is like to be a black woman, but how could we have heard that speech so differently
This was the First Lady, yet she sounded almost like a female version of the race merchant Al Sharpton(though not as bombastic). She made it seem as if she has held grievances (real and perceived) and that she has a massive chip on her shoulder.
Sure she has made some similar comments along the way, but I have tried to give her the benefit of the doubt. Now I am not so sure.
For example feeling it was a slight or racially motived when a fellow shopper asked her to reach up and get something off a store shelf that was high. Michelle Obama is after all a tall woman, so it would seem perfectly natural for a shorter person to ask a taller person for assistance. With me being 6'7", I am regularly asked for such favors/help, and I don't think anything of it. I guess if I were to think about it, my assumption is that being tall is the reason. She instead apparently defaults to race as the reason.
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.
PS - It would be interesting to know the race/gender of the posters if you so choose.
TIA
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Even back in the 60s when people spoke about racial injustice it was not received well by those who benefited from it. In her speech she does say that you keep doing what is right, and you should never aim to please those who will always find fault.
Even back in the 60s when people spoke about racial injustice it was not received well by those who benefited from it. In her speech she does say that you keep doing what is right, and you should never aim to please those who will always find fault.
Ironic since she is the one who is finding fault with the rest of America. What she refers to as "They".
Are you black? If not, have you ever really been around black people?
Yes, sir, Mr. fat lou.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fat lou
"Similarly situated?" Do you work for the Justice Department? That's a b.s. term that they like to use when they're trying to claim racial discrimination when it doesn't actually exist.
Even back in the 60s when people spoke about racial injustice it was not received well by those who benefited from it. In her speech she does say that you keep doing what is right, and you should never aim to please those who will always find fault.
I don't think anyone denies that, historically in the US, there were serious problems with people misunderstanding that, regardless of skin colour, people are the same. This is 2015. We can sit around, looking backwards and complaining about that which we cannot change, or we can look forward and make positive change. Michelle is in an excellent position to take the lead in looking to the future. If, at any time, Michelle gives credence to people that use the voice of violence and vandalism, then she has failed herself, her children, and her country.
Although she does not give credence to the voice of violence and vandalism in the convocation speech, she seems to be setting the table for playing the victim, and she does not map the high road.
I don't think anyone denies that, historically in the US, there were serious problems with people misunderstanding that, regardless of skin colour, people are the same. This is 2015. We can sit around, looking backwards and complaining about that which we cannot change, or we can look forward and make positive change. Michelle is in an excellent position to take the lead in looking to the future. If, at any time, Michelle gives credence to people that use the voice of violence and vandalism, then she has failed herself, her children, and her country.
Although she does not giving credence to the voice of violence and vandalism in the convocation speech, she seems to be setting the table for playing the victim, and she does not map the high road.
What part of "but this is not an excuse" escapes you? You know, the part of her speech that OP's link cuts off because it doesn't fit their agenda. Please go and watch the next 2 or so minutes after OP's link cuts off. The precise point of that segment of her speech is yes, this has happened and is likely to keep happening, BUT none of this is an excuse; you have to be a functioning member of society and build up your community like everyone else.
I get that some people have a problem with her alluding to the fact that racism exists at all, and that's fine I guess - there's been discussion on that and whether it's appropriate for the First Lady to bring this up. But the point of her speech, unlike what the OP and others are trying to imply, is not that black people are being brought down and are going to have to dodge "racist bullets" for the rest of their lives. It's that none. of. this. is. an. excuse.
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...being mistaken for "the help." Hmmm....yes. A woman shopper at Target was audacious enough to [gasp!] ask the 6-foot tall MO to retrieve an item from the top shelf and, of course, this shopper did so because MO is black and, well, that makes her "the help."
