Give Michelle Obama credit where credit is due. While a number of prominent liberal politicians have used the recent race riots in Baltimore–a city with a black mayor, black city council, and a large number of black police officers–to bemoan so-called “white privilege,” Michelle struck a different tune.
In essence, she told the graduating class at historically-black Tuskegee University in Alabama they essentially had to stop complaining and get over it.
She starts by addressing that, in essence, there still is some discrimination in America today:
“Those nagging worries that you’re gonna get stopped or pulled over for absolutely no reason. The fear that your job application will be overlooked because of the way your name sounds. The agony of sending your kids to schools that may no longer be separate, but are far from equal. All of that, it’s gonna be a heavy burden to carry.”
But while these continue to be problems, she told them not to use this as an excuse for low expectations.
“I want to be very clear that those feelings are not an excuse to just throw up our hands and give up. They are not an excuse to lose hope. To succumb to feelings of despair and anger only means that in the end, we lose.”
Of course, Michelle Obama’s husband has presided over a yawning wealth gap when it comes to blacks vs. whites–hindered by the record number of blacks not in the work force, and a record number of blacks on welfare.
Michelle’s sentiment is right: there’s still some discrimination in this country, but burning down Baltimore isn’t going to fix anything. The next generation of black leaders are going to have to just work hard and not excuse poverty and the breakdown of the black family, but rise above it.
It remains to be seen if liberals will put their money where their mouth is–or whether they’ll continue to talk shallowly about “white privilege” as they continue to give hand-outs, rather than a leg up, to the African-American community.
