An Alternate Witness

I recently received one of those Republican propoganda emails full of vitriol and innuendo trying to discredit the Obamas as un-American. It came from the same person who sent me the infamous and very damaging email speciously claiming that Barack Obama is secretly a dangerous anti-American Muslim terrorist, because his father is a non-American and a Muslim, and because Barack went to early elementary school in the Philippines. This email, however, was not even about the candidate himself. The subject was "This is NOT First Lady material!" and it was about the Senior thesis of one Michelle Obama, nee Michelle LaVaughn Robinson, written 23 years (half her lifetime!) ago.

In stark contrast to the authors of this suspiciously anonymous forwarded email, I don't see anything abut Michelle Obama's thesis that's controversial. Let me give you a few examples.

What is Michelle Obama planning to do with her future resources if she's first lady that will elevate black over white in America ? The following passage appears to be a call to arms for affirmative action policies that could be the hallmark of an Obama administration.
'Predominately white universities like Princeton are socially and academically designed to cater to the needs of the white students comprising the bulk of their enrollments.'

Universities like Princeton DO cater to the needs of WASPs over all other ethnicities, because WASPs (and a few Catholics) established and still run these universities. It's a fact that has been proven over and over in academic studies, just as it's a fact that the SATs are culturally biased towards white middle and upper class high schoolers, which hinders minorities from getting into universities like Princeton (or Goucher, or even Indiana University) in the first place.

Here is another passage that is uncomfortable and ominous in meaning:
'There was no doubt in my mind that as a member of the black community, I am obligated to this community and will utilize all of my present and future resources to benefit the black community first and foremost.' (emphasis not mine!)

Ominous? Michelle Obama is hardly unusual in wanting to channel her abilities and resources towards the improvement of her own community, just as white evangelicals give preference to the white evangelical community, Latinos give preference to their community, Jewish America protects its own interests, and Republicans prefer to give to Republican causes. This doesn't make her a racist. It merely means that she has a strong sense of community and social responsibility, and as First Lady her community would expand to include all of America. I believe that a First Lady with a strong sense of social responsibility can only be good for American society. I would call this quite the opposite of ominous; I would call it hopeful.

Obama writes that the path she chose by attending Princeton would likely lead to her 'further integration and/or assimilation into a white cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never becoming a full participant.'
Michele Obama clearly has a chip on her shoulder.

I think she has less of a chip on her shoulder than she has a right to. She's absolutely right that most white Americans see her as black first and American second, just as they see Barack Obama as black first and American second. If that wasn't the case, no one would care about her college thesis or her "ethnic allegiances," because they would recognize that Michelle and Barack are Americans. Just as American as any Mayflower descendent or DAR member, and just as dedicated, if not more, to making sure that all Americans succeed.

If you want to talk about what we DON'T want in the White House, take a look at Sarah Palin, who tried to !ban books in her local library in Alaska, who didn't tell her children that her baby would have Downs Syndrome because she wasn't sure she would keep him, and who thinks that dealing with the Yukon Territories of Canada is significant international policy experience. *I* have more foreign policy experience than Sarah Palin, as do these nearly 54,000 people. Oh, yes, and she's under investigation for corruption in her home state ... but I wouldn't worry too much about that: Innocent until proven guilty (or Muslim).

There were other even more specious and out-of-context quotes in this email I received, but I'll just leave you with one more:

P.S. We paid for her scholarship.

Damn right we did! That's what America's supposed to be all about:

...Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome.... "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore...."
--Emma Lazarus, 1883, on the Statue of Liberty