A recent news story has added depth to the story of an already incredible woman; Michelle Obama is the descendant of a raped slave. Five generations ago a slave girl named Melvinia, barely 15 years old, was impregnated by an unknown white male, most probably her owner, one Henry Shields, on his Georgia plantation. From those beyond meager beginnings a seed was planted, and the family tree grown from that seed has branches that reach to the highest levels of achievement and prestige. It required work, toil, struggle and more than a little luck, but four blood relatives of Melvinia now reside in White House.
Our First Lady's story is quintessentially American. She is living proof of the American Dream, a person, and a family, who pulled themselves up by bootstraps they didn't even start with. It is a story to be celebrated. So why are conservatives denigrating it? The answer, as is so often the case with these people, is rooted in the color of her skin.
Forgive my french here but who gives a rat'sass. I am so sick and tired of having my face rubbed in the fact that there were slaves in this country, i could puke. I didn't own any, my Dad didn't, my grandparents didn't. In fact NONE of my ancestors were well-off enough to properly support themselves much less have slaves yet HERE I AM. I work, i provide best i can and DON'T BEMOAN MY ANCESTORY. GET OVER IT !!! I DON'T OWE YOU ANYTHING !!!
So what? My ancestors were driven from Ireland by thugs. Time to quit whining; ante up & kick in
SO, Is that my or anyone elses problem. I was NOT a slave owner and don't feel that I owe her anything because she is black Get over it! FLOTUS is a angry black woman with a chip on her shoulder the size of a cow-pile.
The above are taken directly from the comment cesspool attached to the story at Foxnews.com, which I'll not link to. I cannot fathom why people would think of Michelle Obama as the whiny, affirmative-action stereotype. The woman has had nothing handed to her, yet she managed to attain a law degree from Harvard. She has never, to my knowledge, spoken about reparations, and yet the proclamations of not owing her anything come in all caps. I suppose the concept of a chip on her shoulder could come from her poorly-worded profession of pride in her country during the campaign, but the animus present seems far too great to come solely from that minor offense.
Michelle Obama is living, breathing proof of the American dream. She is the promise of our country made manifest. She came by her station through the same hard work the first commenter celebrates in himself and his ancestry, yet dismisses in her. The second holds up his immigrant forebears choice to leave Ireland to escape oppression while ignoring the fact that Michelle's were stolen from their home and brought into it.
Conservatives should be pointing her story as proof of their ideology. Work hard, play by the rules, and your history doesn't matter. Race should no longer be an excuse in America. Mrs. Obama didn't need Affirmative Action to succeed.
Granted, these points are based in misconceptions from the start, but it is telling that conservatives are not making them. I can only conclude that for these people, for these bigots, the American Dream is only exemplified by white people. Anyone else had advantages not offered to them, despite the opposite being true. Where the rest of us dream in color, they dream in monochrome.
This is the obvious result of decades of the Southern Strategy. For thirty years the conservative base has seen black people as nothing but Reagan's welfare queens and deadbeat dads. The have seen any successful black person as a product of Affirmative Action. Now a black woman who doesn't fit the stereotype has risen to the some of the highest heights our country can offer and the stereotype is still all they can see.
It's disgraceful, distasteful, and depressing. Knowing Michelle Obama's family came from such tenuous footing and still climbed to the peak of American achievement makes me simultaneously proud of my country and embarrassed of its history. I suppose that is too mature and complex an emotion for conservatives spoon fed soft bigotry by their leaders for so long. I find their continued existence to be dispiriting. Perhaps I should be comforted by the fact that their numbers are dwindling, and their power and influence is at an all time low, but I find that cold comfort indeed. Melvinia's bloodline deserves better.