'She is so unbelievably authentic that at times it feels like you are looking at a reflection of yourself.'
On the way home, I kept replaying the announcement. I was going to meet Michelle Obama. Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama. From the South Side of Chicago. Princeton and Harvard Law graduate. Wife to former President. Mother to Malia, Sasha, Sunny and Bo. Push-up master. Gardener extraordinaire. My forever FLOTUS.
In those same eight years, I earned my bachelor’s degree as a single mom and then chose to pursue graduate education at a predominantly White institution in the South. I earned a master’s degree and a doctorate before going on to earn a tenure-track position in the academy. Every step of the way, I experienced fierce opposition and counternarratives; folks would scold me for how I wore my hair, how I walked and how I talked, or how my eyes sometimes rolled to the side.
When you work skillfully for years to emerge from the shadows of the stories others have written for you, people tend to wonder why you would want to embrace anything about that part of your life: So this is what it’s like to meet Mrs. Obama: She walks in the room, looking as flawless as ever, and for a moment you forget to breathe. Or, at least you think you do because you are actually shrieking in joy and gasping for air. She hugs you and then pulls up a chair to the table. She listens to your questions and responds with such sincerity that tears form in the corner of your eyes. Her answers are brilliant.
Her expression became more serious and after a brief pause, she responded: The America that you see on TV is not the America that I know, she said.
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