Diary of an Angry Black Woman

It’s January 16, 2012, Martin Luther King Observance. What should I be angry about today? I am of course a Black woman in the White House, just being Black and a woman I must be angry about something. At least I am the first angry Black woman. All the other angry women in the White House were white. I guess I can start off by being angry about being Black this morning.

This could be 1985. My senior thesis – wow! My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my 'blackness' than ever before. I have found that at Princeton, no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my white professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don't belong. Regardless of the circumstances under which I interact with whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, I will always be black first and a student second. Senior thesis, Princeton University (1985), quoted in "Michelle Obama thesis was on racial divide" by Jeffrey Ressner at Politico.com (23 February 2008)

Well I have been depicted as not being able to interact with people in the White House by source I won’t name because it makes me angry. What can I expect if Jackie O had issues and she was white? She is quoted as saying, “The trouble with me is that I’m an outsider. And that’s a very hard thing to be in American life.” Quoted in The Unknown Wisdom of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1994) edited by Bill Adler

I know that there will always be negative reactions to a Black man in the White House, which is quite a dishonor. I am reminded, this late morning as time ticks away, of the speech introducing my husband at a campaign rally in Des Moines, Iowa (16 August 2007), To Live Beyond Our Fear.

...Fear, again, raising its ugly head, in one of the most important decisions we would make. Fear; fear of everything... But you know, the reason why I said yes was because I was tired of being afraid. I am tired of living in a country where every decision that we’ve made over the last ten years wasn’t for something, but it was because people told us we had to fear something... I am so tired of fear. And I don’t want my girls to live in a country, in a world, based on fear.

Eleanor Roosevelt said in You Learn by Living, “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. ...You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” (January 1960) p. 29 – 30.

Well my husband running for a second term gives me much to think about. If Mitt Romney gains the Republican nomination, will we see a Mexican-American run against an African-American? “The thing that I want you all to remember: please, please, don’t base your vote, this time, on fear. Base it on possibility. Think. Listen. The game of politics is to make you afraid so that you don’t think. And what we need right now isn’t political rhetoric, it isn’t game-playing.” Wow I remember that from the same campaign rally in Des Moines, Iowa.

Funny how none of the Birthers and Tea Party people say anything about Romney’s father being born in Mexico. Now that makes me an angry Black woman! These people dogged my husband and he was born in Hawaii! Romney campaign slogan – “Believe in America.” Romney is the son of a Mexican father who crossed the border to the north when he was five during the outbreak of war in Mexico in 1912. El Presidente Romney was your father documented? Did your grandfather take time to go through immigration before crossing the border into the United States? Fleeing violence in Mexico, Mexican Revolution, as so many immigrants have done over the years, was your family legal? Only in America could an undocumented Hispanic become governor of Michigan, and then his son promises to have no mercy for immigrants if elected president of the U.S. Former Michigan Gov. George Romney, was born in Chihuahua, Mexico. The Romneys of Mexico live in two remaining settlements: Colonia Juarez and Colonia Dublan, just 175 miles south of the border.

Will people ever be wise enough to refuse to follow bad leaders or to take away the freedom of other people? My Day (1935 - 1962) Eleanor Roosevelt’s daily newspaper column (16 October 1939)

Romney would cut federal funds to “asylum” cities, make English the official language and veto the DREAM Act, which would benefit immigrant children brought to the U.S. through no fault of their own. Mexican Mitt would deport them. He still has family living in Mexico which he totally disavowed. What kind of man denies his family and heritage? WOW that really makes me angry! BRITHERS where are you now?

Romney's Mormon great-grandfather, Miles Park Romney, fled from Utah to Mexico to avoid anti-polygamy laws. So his great-grandfather was a law breaker and fugitive. Romney's great-grandfather, Miles Park Romney, married his fifth wife in 1897. That was more than six years after Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, church leaders banned polygamy and more than 30 years after a federal law barred the practice. Church genealogical records, among the most detailed and complete of any religion, show that two of Mitt Romney's great-great-grandfathers, Miles Romney and Parley P. Pratt, had 12 wives each. Why does Romney try to deny his roots? Romney's father, George Romney, was born in Mexico. Under Mexican laws, Romney could become a Mexican citizen, even though he is not ethnically Mexican. (Genealogy)

Paternal grandfather Gaskell Romney married Anna Amelia Pratt, the daughter of polygamists and the granddaughter of Parley P. Pratt, the apostle with 12 wives. Their marriage took place Feb. 20, 1895, in Dublan, Mexico. Anna Pratt was born in Utah but had immigrated to Mexico and lived in one of nine colonies established by the church over the border. Just to be fair, Romney also has family ties from the other border country - Ontario, Canada.

Interesting that Jon Huntsman Jr. left the White House service, now ends his run for the Republican presidential nomination and endorse longtime rival Mitt Romney – who happens to be his cousin. On August 11, 2009, he resigned as governor of Utah to accept an appointment by Barack Obama as the United States Ambassador to the People's Republic of China. Huntsman quit as ambassador on January 31, 2011, to enter the presidential campaign. Was that a political game between Romney and Huntsman?

Ok it’s afternoon already and I want to write about a “lighter” topic – my wardrobe. People must really want to criticize me because I wear more than a bear skin and moose hat I shot in Alaska. Really? Really! I laughed when I read, “A newspaper reported I spend $30,000 a year buying Paris clothes and that women hate me for it. I couldn't spend that much unless I wore sable underwear.” Jacqueline Kennedy, The New York Times (15 September 1960) Before I was in the White House as Michelle Obama, First Lady, I was making more than $250,000, enough to look as well or better when representing the United States as First Lady.

Rosalynn Carter brought her own sewing machine when she came to the White House. I don’t sew. Why is there so much generated controversy with my gowns and accessories? Julia Tyler acted like a queen, flouncing around Washington trailed by ladies-in-waiting and wearing satin headdresses embroidered with feathers and diamonds. Mary Todd Lincoln was a veritable shopaholic, even during the war with her splurging at Lord & Taylor in New York City. Nancy Reagan hosted 55 state dinners, wearing couture gowns by Galanos, and she was always camera-ready, coordinating her clothing to the color scheme of places where she would be photographed.

Well it’s late afternoon and time to check on dinner. I’m not feeling too angry at the moment. I just rubbed the dog’s head and stomach. I know someone is going to take that out of content and swear I abuse the dog. Anna Eleanor Roosevelt once said, Do what you feel in your heart to be right — for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be "damned if you do, and damned if you don't." She added, “One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes... In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And, the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility. Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn by Living, Foreword (January 1960).

Hillary was quoted by the Boston Globe, “I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession which I entered before my husband was in public life.” Response to reporter's questions (16 March 1992), reported on "Making Hillary an Issue" Nightline (26 March 1992).

Well I majored in sociology and minored in African American studies and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts from Princeton. I went on to earn a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Harvard Law School in 1988. So much like Hillary, I am a professional and lawyer.

I will always have my husband’s back. If that makes people uncomfortable – so be it. “You know, I'm not sitting here like some little woman standing by my man, like Tammy Wynette. I'm sitting here because I love him, and I respect him, and I honor what he's been through and what we've been through together. And you know, if that's not enough for people, then heck, don't vote for him.” Hillary Rodham Clinton, 60 Minutes interview. Why would anyone think I would do less for my husband?! If that makes me look like an “angry Black woman” – Oh well.

We must know what we think and speak out, even at the risk of unpopularity... In the long run there is no more exhilarating experience than to determine one's position, state it bravely and then act boldly. Eleanor Roosevelt, Tomorrow Is Now (1963) p. 119 – 120

Have to close now diary. Back later. I am sure there will be much more to write.