Michelle Obama Was Right [View all]

[sheshe2]

But you can bet that, if conservatives freaked out over her remarks at the opening of the Whitney Museum, they would go apoplectic over all this. Of course, you would win that bet. The assumption behind all these critiques is that Michelle Obama is simply playing the victim because, when it comes to racism in this country, we're SOOO over that. Here's Ron Christie:

Who is the they the First Lady makes reference to? Presumably racist whites; but this sounds more like an indictment of our American society at large. What are the assumptions being foisted upon these new graduates of an all-black university—that Americans are bigoted and have a limited notion of blacks as being inherently inferior?

Of course Christie assumes that foisting those assumptions on young African Americans today is to tell them a lie. Which is exactly why this article by DW Gibson is such a powerful reminder. He is interviewing a Brooklyn landlord and hears - point blank - a recitation of exactly the kind of world Michelle Obama was trying to prepare these Tuskegee graduates for.

If there’s a black tenant in the house—in every building we have, I put in white tenants. They want to know if black people are going to be living there. So sometimes we have ten apartments and everything is white, and then all of the sudden one tenant comes in with one black roommate, and they don’t like it. They see black people and get all riled up, they call me: “We’re not paying that much money to have black people live in the building.” If it’s white tenants only, it’s clean. I know it’s a little bit racist but it’s not. They’re the ones that are paying and I have to give them what they want. Or I’m not going to get the tenants and the money is not going to be what it is.

As long as white people don't admit that this kind of thing is happening in America, it won't change. And people like Michelle Obama will be right to prepare young people for the racism they will face in this country.

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