Michelle Obama has opened up about how she was stereotyped as an ‘angry black woman’ during Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.
In an interview with Gayle King at the 25th Essence Music Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana, the former First Lady recalled having to fight the label many black women are often plagued with.
Addressing the audience at The Mercedes-Benz Superdome, Michelle revealed how she coped with the vicious opinions that were in the air about her after she rose from being a Chicago lawyer to the FLOTUS.
Michelle has also jotted down a detailed account of this topic in her best-selling memoir, Becoming.
‘It was important to tell that part of the story because they see me and Barack now, but they don’t know how many punches it took us to get there,’ she said of her autobiography, which has already become the most popular memoir in the United States.
Michelle acquired the services of a ghostwriter to penned down her and her husband’s combined $65 million publishing deal made with Penguin Random House in 2017.
‘People from all sides, Democrats and Republicans, tried to take me out by the knees. And the best way they could do it was to focus on the strength of the Black woman, so they turned that into a caricature,’ she added.
Michelle had to work really hard to beat the typecast so as to garner love from across the globe. ‘For a minute there, I was an angry black woman who was emasculating her husband,’ she said.
The mother-of-two had to go above and beyond to prove herself worthy of her status.
‘I had to prove that not only was I smart and strategic, but I had to work harder than any First Lady in history,’ the mom to Sasha and Malia Obama said.
‘People have found and recognized themselves in the stories of this little black girl who grew up on the South Side of Chicago…’ she added.
‘I knew it was important in writing Becoming, that I had to sit with the fact of how rare it is, that a black woman gets to tell her own story in a book that will be read by millions.’
Michelle also told King how Sasha and Malia were crying while leaving the White House. Part of the reason was the identities of the group that was about to replace them.
‘And then we had to meet the Trumps,’ the former First Lady said. ‘That day was very emotional and then to sit at that inauguration and to look around at a crowd that was not reflective of the country, and I had to sit in that audience as one of the handfuls of people of color, all that I had to hold on to over those last eight years, and it was a lot emotionally.’
‘Our upset wasn’t over our legacy,’ she added. ‘We weren’t there to instill our legacy, but the upset it would cause the country. What saddens me is what it’s doing to the country as a whole.
‘What we have to be really conscientious of is what kind of country we’re leaving for our children or grandchildren.’
When King asked her the qualities of a good president, she joked how nobody paid heed to her when she spoke about it in the last election.
‘I talked about this in the last campaign but nobody listened,’ she quipped. ‘It’s a hard job y’all.
‘This isn’t a joke, this isn’t a game – the leader of the free world with a tweet can start a war, can crush an economy, can change the future of our children.’
She said this important job requires ‘operating with a clear base of facts and ideas,’ and needs a person with ‘deep seriousness and focus.’
‘Someone who is careful with their words, somebody is who is trustworthy, someone who is loyal and honest,’ she told the audience that enjoyed performances from Pharrell, Nas, Missy Eliot, Normani, Timberland, Teyana Taylor, and H.E.R. in the three-day festival.
‘I fear at times Barack made it look easy – I guess it’s kind of like if the black guy can do it, anybody can do it … and that’s not true. It’s a hard job.’
When King asked Michelle if she had ‘any idea how much you are missed?’ she replied: ‘I miss us too.’