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I see nothing wrong with her speech I'm not at all offended.
I'm a white male I have witnessed some of the things she mentions in her speech, some white people are uncomfortable around black people. I see it but I don't take responsibility for it I treat everyone with respect.
How was it divisive, though? Michelle Obama, an educated black woman, was speaking to an audience of mostly, if not entirely, black people at a historically black university. I think it's naïve of you, a white man, to think that her "racial context" isn't something that she isn't reminded of every day. When you (general you) are of the majority and you can assume that people like you are the majority, it can be difficult to understand what that is like. Had she been giving a speech to a small Midwestern liberal arts college or to a military academy, she would have targeted her speech to the audience in the same way.
I am getting the distinction you are making, and maybe that is part of my disconnect with likeminded posters such as yourself.
I guess I understand targeted political speeches, though I abhor them if they pander to one, then turn around and say almost the opposite to another group just to lie and get votes.
Yet when the First Lady is speaking at a college commencement, I would not expect her to treat it like a political rally. Remember, gone are the days that speeches at small events do not become open for the general public to see.
Here is something that just popped into my head regarding another well educated and prominent black woman.
Do you or anyone else reading this thread think Condolezza Rice would have made similar comment regarding racism?
The Fox news/rush Limbaugh crowd wants to have their cake and eat it too. They want to say the most disgusting, racist, evil things about the First Lady, but claim it is undignified for her to call them out. I'm glad that most Americans quickly saw through the rights faux outrage over the Mrs. Obama's speech. It looks like this has become Bengazi-esque for a handful of extremists
Maybe your comments fit certain critics of Michelle Obama, but they don't apply to me. I rarely have anything bad to say about her, and generally I think most First Lady's should be off limits. I have only cringed when she makes comments like not being proud of her country and the like.
Frankly, when Michelle sticks to themes not involving race/gender, she comes across as likable. I also generally support her programs of nutrition & fitness.
Heck I think I have liked and supported every First Lady up until Hillary when she tried to come off as a feminist with her "not baking cookies" comment, then her attempt at socialized medicine. That goes back well before FOX came along.
If she thinks things are bad here why not emigrate back to Africa?
Her ancestry in the US traces back farther than most people's. If you can't get along with the diversity here, maybe you're the one who should consider going "back", wherever that is.
If she thinks things are bad here why not emigrate back to Africa?
Chances are her lineage reaches back further in the USA than yours does, that's a dumb ugly comment, shame on you, comments like yours actually support the content of her speach.
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.
How does one 'eagerly' fail to treat patients for syphilis?
We each live in our own vacuum with our own past experiences. Our personal experiences are ours to own. Everyone else's is as you perceive it. In 55 years on this earth, my mind has been clouded by the media. I can only listen to a speech and believe what I want to believe. No one knows when a person speaks if it comes from the heart, or pages on a script.
This speech resonated from the heart. That's my take. It was real, and other than historical reference to the past in this country, I sensed nothing negative. Sometimes humans want to dig too deep, and in doing so lose meaning.
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?
Vector1, your thoughts are very rational. I agree that many times (most?) our present administration pits white and blacks against one another, when we in fact should all be treated as Americans. Had you asked a different question, I would have responded differently. I thought you were only asking about Michelle's speech. I will go so far as to say I can't wait for the Obama's to leave our White House. We don't need any president, black, white or whatever, kicking dirt in the face of any race. Race relations are stressed enough.
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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So, the first lady points out (accurately) that prejudice and discrimination are chronic issues.
And you get your knickers in a knot?
pull-EEZ!
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Relax, would ya?
