Scott,
I’m sure you’re a great guy and all, but I really didn’t like this article nor the threads that followed it and I just registered to your forum just so I could speak up.
I’m white. conservative, I like PowerLine, I’m a Republican, I’ll likely (very likely) vote for McCain over Obama, though I think Obama has alot of admirable qualities (compared to say - that schizoid liar Hillary Clinton). I went to Princeton a little after Michelle Obama but not by much, I got a 1510/1600 SAT score, and a 2360/2400 GRE.
I think y’all are acting like a bunch of jerks.
A few points here:
First, Michelle Obama speaks her mind, and you have to admire that, as it’s a rarity in political couples.
Second, Michelle Obama obviously cares a great deal about family, being supportive of her spouse, and those are core conservative values.
Third, she has that Jackie Kennedy hairdo in place of an Afro (that was thrown in just to stir things up, I’m not serious).
Seriously, actually Princeton was a pretty hard place for some African Americans. It’s a very snobby place in many ways with a bunch of selective eating clubs, which go hard on alot of students’ self-esteem. It’s a very wealthy place where wealth is flaunted in many ways (I’ll never forget how they spray painted the lawns a perfect green for the alum reunions, or the maids coming in bright and early to clean up the throwup off the bathroom floors after a party, or the tennis courts right in front of my dorm, ready for play, day or night).
One of my best friends at Princeton was black and he had a hard time ‘choosing’ between the black community and the ‘white’ one. Ironically, he was raised partly in Africa and this made him less self-conscious about having mostly white friends. There was a real schism in some ways during that time at Princeton. I don’t know exactly why, but it was there. There were not so many black students and it was not so easy for them.
The Princeton thesis is a hellish (though majorly rewarding for some) experience which has no equivalent so far as I know at any other school - kind of a mini-Ph.D. Talk about pressure ... just stay off her back about her thesis unless you actually did one at that tender age.
Princeton is a great place with a lot of strengths. But it makes sense to me that Michelle had some issues there and came out with a less than beautiful unified world view. There are many other schools that do a much better job at successful racial integration or co-living. Princeton may have moved up in this regard since that time, but that time was actually not so easy. It’s a very ‘preppy’ place where it’s hard to be different.
I think Michelle Obama has a lot of admirable qualities. Anyways, if anyone has the right to be a little bit ‘bitter’ in America, it’s the African American community which was actually enslaved forcefully for quite some time. American blacks are 20% white genetically largely because their ancestors were raped. They started off the Republic counting as part of a person, if that. It’s been a long, steep climb for them. It’s ironic, but Obama does better in the lily white states than those with small black populations. I’m not excusing all the various failures of the black American community, but Michelle Obama is leading in the right way there and can only do alot of good within her own community. The white community should probably just learn to listen more and really hear what she’s saying. And I’m no liberal and I really mean that.
I think you folks owe her more respect.
jojojo
