And another thing - I witnessed some talk-show host from the Right on Dan Abrams' program tonight getting eviscerated by other guests because he let his real feelings slip out: that this country "gave" Michelle Obama her education and her "do-nothing" job, as the guy called it. One of the other guests was quick to correct him - she EARNED it. I'm an Ivy League grad myself, and I certainly can attest from my experiences and those of other African-American students that someone is always trying to assert that things were "handed" to us. As if we were some intellectual hoodlum, holding a sign that said "Will Study, Write Theses, Take Exams and Get Good Grades for Food". Please.

I've had up to here with folks that want to brand me as one of America's charity cases, and I certainly don't want to see them do it to Michelle Obama on a national scale. But it's happening.

As usual, great post, Scientific. I am also an Ivy League grad (Harvard college and law school) and continue to live with the burden of having to prove myself. I am tired of having to reassure some white people that I know what I am talking about and that I am not an angry, militant black woman. At work they've finally gotten comfortable with my braids. Lord help me if I decide to lock my hair. I am hopeful that more of the people who harbor suspicions about Michelle will find a way to see beyond their prejudices. I've found that getting my skeptical friends to focus on her story makes a difference -- especially, when I tell them that it is similar to my own.

As if we were some intellectual hoodlum, holding a sign that said "Will Study, Write Theses, Take Exams and Get Good Grades for Food". Please.

Hear, hear. I'm an Ivy League grad too. I'm so fucking tired of that.

Rec'd.

The only problem I'm having with Michelle Obama is that, having heard her speak, it's led to an inability to suppress all sorts of uncharitable, unfavorable comparisons in my mind whenever I tune into the important messages that the current occupants of the White House are trying to get out.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1319126,00.html

BOULTON (to MRS. BUSH): Did you think it was an unfortunate statement when he used the Wild West language?

THE PRESIDENT: Tell the truth. (Laughter.)

MRS BUSH: Sort of. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: Let me just say, when I got home she made a few comments.

BOULTON (to MRS. BUSH): Why, because it was just inappropriate?

MRS. BUSH: Well, I don't know why exactly. Just didn't sound serious, really, I think.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, because it makes it look like I like war, and I don't. And that's why. I mean, it's --

BOULTON: And it was the wrong message.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. Look, it was unscripted, I spoke my mind, and it just sent the wrong signal. I didn't realize it at the time, obviously; otherwise I wouldn't have said it.

He's gonna try harder to sound more serious, OK? In the meantime, if Michelle can help out by sounding less serious, I think that'd be a nice gesture to the First Couple and all profoundly silly people everywhere.

Squeamish lot, aren't we?

If I'm scouting a new CEO for a Silicon Valley company, and the candidate's spouse says, "I don't really like California, I really much prefer New England falls", warning bells go off. If it's interviewing for Microsoft and the spouse says, "but Microsoft is so corporate and greedy, I think the open source movement put them in their place", I would similarly wonder whether the candidate shares his/her spouse's views, and whether that's the appropriate person for this important, high-profile position (and whether the spouse will provide some huge embarrassment for the company further down the road).

I'm amazed when you say Michelle comes from a "different culture". Funny, blacks at 4th of July picnics seem to be doing about the same thing as whites, blacks post-9/11 seemed to react the same way as whites, from my generation we were all watching Partridge Family and Room 222 and seeing white and black bodies coming home from Vietnam on TV. In my 6 months living with a black family in a lower middle class black neighborhood with a parade of musicians coming through daily we ate the same kinds of cereal and hamburgers, drank the same kind of beer, watched the same kinds of movies, had the same kinds of mobile phones, told the same kinds of jokes, etc., etc., etc. We have the same conceptions of free speech, the same conceptions of property and MYOB, and a relatively similar world view. I've lived around the world where it took me a year to even get my bearings on a place, much less feel comfortable, but in that half year I don't ever recall feeling like I was in a different culture other than knowing that a clique of black musicians will be a bit different than a group of jocks or white engineers or whatever. I'm sure the reverse situation would be more difficult because of more racial intolerance the other direction, but that doesn't mean a different culture.

You may think this is a question of semantics, but America is a brand and a culture. If you don't support the two, you may be still accepted but you're not going to run it. We may have a lot of improving to do, but we have no ambition to be Japan, Germany or Kenya. We're America, it's the Presidential election, it's big stakes - get used to it. I don't hand the keys to the Porsche to a guy coming in off the street holding a beer and cursing society either. It's basic common sense and self-preservation.

I just joined TPM, I usually just come in to read the posts and articles.
I had to comment because i was flipping through the channels when i caught the exchange. My heart broke because there were 3 males including Dan Abrams [an atty] who could have silent that language right away. I don’t know why I am so emotional but I think its venom and hate. I actually cried. Where is the feminist outrage?

Scientific, I love your posts. I was livid when I watched Abrahms tonight and that odious Lars person started going on about Michelle's "make-work" job. How dare he, and the right-wingers denegrate such an accomplished woman who has earned evry GDthing that she has in her life. How f**king dare they?!!!

The longer I thought about it though, the less pissed I got. I'm a Harvard legacy, I didn't attend because of finances, but I got accepted because a relative was an alumn. Neither of the Obama's had my "in" into that world, they both earned their way. Sure they got scholarships, but they also had to take out massive student loans to pay their own way.

George W Bush was given every chance in this world because he was the son or grandson of powerful people who were also alumns. He never earned his way into anything, except his fight as a spermatozoa breaching an egg. See Andover and Yale.

John McCain went to the best schools. Private HS and then on to Annapolis, one of the most elite schools in the nation. All because his father and grandfather were alumns and Admirals. As he performed at the lowest of his college class, he was still accepted into the most prestigious branch of his service, not because he was worthy, but because his forefathers were worthy.

Cindy's father built a business and became very wealthy and bequeathed to her his empire. I'm not doubting for a second she's very good at her job, because she probably is. But she didn't earn it through her own merits, hard work or innovative ideas. She got where she is because she inherited it.

The undeserved/ minority opportunity equalization charge, the Obama's can fight. Neither of them came from money or name or history to give them a legacy "in" into that world. And they can shatter that particular "crystal ceiling", the one where the wealthy take care of their own. Michelle and Barack both broke that ceiling in very individual ways. (And if they didn't break them, themselves, they sure threaded that needle, especially Barack and the Harvard Law Review.

Anyway, I can see Obama fighting the earned/unearned and given stations in life argument and how that 95% of the population can and will relate. But the "lazy black negress" meme that the Lars "person" was trying to establish last night on Abrahms show is something more pernicious.

The only thing they(Republicans) have that might pull in the votes is affirmative action and reverse racism. And that is all. It's going to get much,much uglier between now and Nov 4.

Anyway, Scientific, please keep up with the provacative posts. I appreciate them.

Dee

"[l]et's take the opportunity to get familiar with Michelle Obama".

Let's do. I think folks around here can appreciate Michelle Obama, her accomplishments, where's she has come from, and her potential to be a real role model and partner as first lady. She is undoubtedly one of the most accomplished women ever to be a potential occupant of that position. America should be proud of Michelle Obama, and this crotchety cynic can only hope that his daughters grow up to be like her.

It is so easy to blame the racist across the street. But don't lose sight that outside of the TPM halls of groove, Michelle, principally because of the sexism that is all a figment of the imagination of Hillary Clinton's deadend supporters, is now being made over by blockheads, smart campaign handlers but still blockheads in a long-term cosmic sense, who will strip her of all of the traits that folks like us are proud of, divorce her from her rightful place as an independent and accomplished woman, and she will become the very nice wife of the Democratic nominee, and soon we shall know her cookie recipes (if we don't already know them).

Again, people, meet that new boss. . .no different than that old boss, but through no fault of his own. Change is, more and more, just a word, and again it's nobody's fault. But don't just blame Boobus Americanus and their petty-ass stereotypes, because our candidate and our party are playing right along with the way things are, and our champions right now are doing nothing but helping to perpetuate the stereotypes we've learned to detest.

P.S. Duck! Two women with headscarves are trying to be visible at an Obama campaign rally. Hide them, quick! [cuz the refs are cowering and you won't read about it here, but it fits right into the point I'm making about Michelle--we are sooooo progressive, but we have no problems with the fact that our change candidate is being forced to live with the kinds of decisions that every other candidate has had to live with, even decisions that are blatantly filthy and discriminatory and a bow to hate]

It is going to be a long campaign.