SEE WHAT SHE HAD TO SAY ABOUT HER ROLE AS AMERICA’S FIRST BLACK FLOTUS
At the Essence Festival in New Orleans this past Saturday, former FLOTUS Michelle Obama sat down before an audience with Gayle King of CBS “This Morning,” to discuss her life as a mother, wife, and political figure. She opened up about a range of topics, including what it’s like being a black woman in the political arena and how she felt looking out at the crowd during Donald Trump’s inauguration.
On campaigning alongside her husband:
“For a minute there, I was an angry black woman who was emasculating her husband. As I got more popular, that’s when people of all sides — Democrats and Republicans — tried to take me out by the knees and the best way to do it was to focus on the one thing people were afraid of: the strength of a black woman,” she said.
On defining her role:
“I would have to earn my grace and I knew I would have to quickly define myself and I want all young girls out there to know — we all struggle with that, people of color, working-class folks, women of color — people try to define us in a negative way before we get a chance to get out there and tell our own stories.”
On the crowd:
“So look around of a crowd that was not reflective of the country and I had to sit in that audience, one of a handful of people of color, all that I had sort of held on to for eight years watching my husband get raked over the coals feeling like we had to do everything perfectly so that by the time I got on that plane it was a release of eight years of having to show up as we all know we have to do not only perfectly,” she said, “but a little bit better than perfect to even be considered equal.”
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