Always with the race issues ...
First lady Michelle Obama – who famously said during her husband's presidential campaign that she was proud of America, for the first time in her life – has once again honed in on race as a central speaking point, telling graduates at Oberlin College in Ohio the nation's now accustomed to seeing her two black daughters wander the White House lawn.
She first said in her commencement address students should "get in there" and "shake things up," the Hill reported.
"That is how you will rise above the noise and shape the revolutions of your time," Obama said.
By way of example, she spoke of her own family's rise to White House power and suggested it was a sign of black America's hard-won accomplishments.
"Today, it is no longer remarkable to see two beautiful black girls walking their dogs on the South Lawn of the White House lawn," she said, the Hill reported. "That's just the way things are now. This is what happens when you turn your attention outward and decide to brave the noise and engage youself in the struggules of our time."
Obama also mentioned Martin Luther King Jr., who spoke at the school 50 years ago, and said "climate change, economic inequality, human rights, criminal justice – these are the revolutions of your time."
The first lady first made national headlines with perceived race-laced remarks in 2008 when she told a Wisconsin campaign crowd: "People in this country are ready for change and hungry for a different kind of politics and ... for the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country because it fells like hope is finally making a comeback."
Shortly after, the press reported on her Princeton thesis from 1985, entitled "Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community," and her written views: "My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my 'blackness' than ever before. I have found that at Princeton no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my White professors and classmates try to be towards me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don't belong. Regardless of the circumstances under which I interact with Whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, I will always be Black first and a student second."
First lady Michelle Obama – who famously said during her husband's presidential campaign that she was proud of America, for the first time in her life – has once again honed in on race as a central speaking point, telling graduates at Oberlin College in Ohio the nation's now accustomed to seeing her two black daughters wander the White House lawn.She first said in her commencement address students should "get in there" and "shake things up," the Hill reported.
"That is how you will rise above the noise and shape the revolutions of your time," Obama said.
By way of example, she spoke of her own family's rise to White House power and suggested it was a sign of black America's hard-won accomplishments.
"Today, it is no longer remarkable to see two beautiful black girls walking their dogs on the South Lawn of the White House lawn," she said, the Hill reported. "That's just the way things are now. This is what happens when you turn your attention outward and decide to brave the noise and engage youself in the struggules of our time."
Obama also mentioned Martin Luther King Jr., who spoke at the school 50 years ago, and said "climate change, economic inequality, human rights, criminal justice – these are the revolutions of your time."
The first lady first made national headlines with perceived race-laced remarks in 2008 when she told a Wisconsin campaign crowd: "People in this country are ready for change and hungry for a different kind of politics and ... for the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country because it fells like hope is finally making a comeback."
Shortly after, the press reported on her Princeton thesis from 1985, entitled "Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community," and her written views: "My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my 'blackness' than ever before. I have found that at Princeton no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my White professors and classmates try to be towards me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don't belong. Regardless of the circumstances under which I interact with Whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, I will always be Black first and a student second."
No comments:
Post a Comment