Quote from her book:
This passage is just disappointing as hell and problematic for many reasons. In 2008 footage of the Obamas' pastor Jeremiah Wright's sermons, in which he was critical of the US government and White America in general, leaked and the news media went crazy with it by replaying the clips ad nauseum. Candidate Obama had to play dumb and distance himself from Rev. Wright because White Americans had to feel safe with the Obamas and America loves to dictate who "good" Black public figures can and can't be friends with. Agree with him or not, Barack downplaying his relationship with his pastor of 20 years and pretending he was unaware of Rev's real talk was arguably understandable- attaining the Presidency was at stake.
A decade later, Barack is out of office and Michelle will never run herself... so what's the purpose of a passage like this? If she wanted to talk about the Wright controversy she could have done so without gaslighting the hell out of his and a good chunk of Black America's valid grievances with this nation. In his "God Damn America" sermon, Wright addresses a lot of America's racial fuckery and institutional racism in a *gasp* 'fiery' manner (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix-AMYos0Js). There's nothing but facts in the sermon but for some reason a Black vet in his 70s calling out America is the same as some dumb racist ass White lady, Obama's grandma, being an asshole that was fearful of Black people.
Further, Michelle Obama has a huge platform and saying something like this gives any willfully ignorant and diet racist Liberal fans of hers a reason to reinforce their problematic behavior when in the face of Black grievances. "The Best Black Woman" just told off a "loud and angry Negro" and dismissed his feelings, however valid they may be. This is such an unforced error and I would never have expected this #bothsides and #notallwhitepeople nonsense from someone like Michelle. Discuss.
This passage is just disappointing as hell and problematic for many reasons. In 2008 footage of the Obamas' pastor Jeremiah Wright's sermons, in which he was critical of the US government and White America in general, leaked and the news media went crazy with it by replaying the clips ad nauseum. Candidate Obama had to play dumb and distance himself from Rev. Wright because White Americans had to feel safe with the Obamas and America loves to dictate who "good" Black public figures can and can't be friends with. Agree with him or not, Barack downplaying his relationship with his pastor of 20 years and pretending he was unaware of Rev's real talk was arguably understandable- attaining the Presidency was at stake.
A decade later, Barack is out of office and Michelle will never run herself... so what's the purpose of a passage like this? If she wanted to talk about the Wright controversy she could have done so without gaslighting the hell out of his and a good chunk of Black America's valid grievances with this nation. In his "God Damn America" sermon, Wright addresses a lot of America's racial fuckery and institutional racism in a *gasp* 'fiery' manner (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix-AMYos0Js). There's nothing but facts in the sermon but for some reason a Black vet in his 70s calling out America is the same as some dumb racist ass White lady, Obama's grandma, being an asshole that was fearful of Black people.
Further, Michelle Obama has a huge platform and saying something like this gives any willfully ignorant and diet racist Liberal fans of hers a reason to reinforce their problematic behavior when in the face of Black grievances. "The Best Black Woman" just told off a "loud and angry Negro" and dismissed his feelings, however valid they may be. This is such an unforced error and I would never have expected this #bothsides and #notallwhitepeople nonsense from someone like Michelle. Discuss.
