"One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself
and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals."
- Michelle Obama -
We all have a part of our lives that people remember us most for. For some, it is a successful career. For others, it is being a parent. For others, it is the time they nailed that solo in choir after receiving the music only a week before. But often, the things that people do before they reach that point are just as inspirational and exciting. Often, their stories relate to others’ experiences, as well.
Livin' in the Bungalow
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson was born on January 17, 1964, to Fraser Robinson, a Democratic precinct captain, and city pump operator, and Marian Robinson, who first worked as a secretary at a woman’s clothing company then became a stay-at-home mom after Michelle was born. The family lived in the South Side of Chicago, a rather dangerous part of an already rather dangerous city. Soon, the family gained another new member--Michelle’s younger brother, Craig, born only 21 months after her. Michelle and Craig became very close growing up as they shared a room with only a sheet separating it into two sections, and they were often a dynamic duo of question-askers, petitioning their parents about the utmost important questions children have like “Why do we have to eat eggs for breakfast?”.
While children frequently find themselves at the butt of a “Because I said so...” response, the discussion that followed led to a debate about how protein was valuable and what kind of protein was really needed--and a debate that ended with her mother deciding that peanut butter was a source of protein just as good as eggs, a new stance that led Michelle to eat “a fat peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast each morning and [not consume] a single egg” (1, 4).
From a very young age, death presented itself to Michelle as it took the life of her fifth-grade classmate in a house fire. Her father was also diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, “a disease of the central nervous system that disrupts the flow of information with the brain, and between the brain and body,” (3). Of course, that did not stop her father from working as hard as he could to provide for his family. As her father was getting weaker and weaker, he soon had to use two canes to get around.
“Every day, without fail, I watched my father struggle on crutches to slowly make his way across our apartment, out the door to work, without complaint or self-pity of regret,” Michelle stated in a speech to Chicago high school graduates (6). Seeing her father’s struggles and relentlessness to keep working taught Michelle that there really was no limit to achievement, a lesson that led Michelle to accomplish many great things at an early age (5).
Top of Her Class
By the time she was just four years old, Michelle and Craig had already mastered the art of reading, and the two excelled in school. Both skipped second grade entirely, and by the time she reached sixth grade, Michelle was learning French and taking accelerated courses in biology and those provided by her school’s gifted program (1). She then attended Whitney M. Young Magnet High School and not only graduated as class Salutatorian but also spent time in school working as the student government treasurer and a member of the National Honor Society (7). After high school, Michelle attended Princeton University where she studied both sociology and African American studies.
While her commitment to hard work led her to one of the most prestigious schools in the world, the pain still came her way (8). “I was black and from a working-class neighborhood in Chicago, while Princeton’s student body was generally white and well-to-do,” she stated in a 2018 Instagram post, “I’d never stood out in a crowd or a classroom because of the color of my skin before” (9). At Princeton, Black students made up less than 9% of the freshman class, and overall, women were outnumbered one to two by men.
Many of her peers were simply more advanced than her as well, with many of them already having attended prep schools and worked extensively with SAT tutors. Also, at one point she lived with two white roommates--a number that soon turned to one after one’s mother demanded she change rooms on account of Michelle being Black. Michelle found solace through Princeton’s Third World Center, a center where minority students could meet and socialize and where she made a group of close friends (9).
Assistance
In 1985, after spending a great deal of time establishing a reading program for the children of the school’s manual laborers, Michelle graduated from Princeton University as cum laude (10). That same year, she attended Harvard Law School and pursued a Juris Doctor degree (5). Michelle excelled in her studies, but, while excelling and working day and night were earning her a spot at the top of her class, Michelle was becoming less and less herself. While her career and education were important, there was a constant feeling of disappointment; she not only wanted to find someone to love, she wanted to build relationships with the friends she had… but, like a great majority of those who find themselves in this situation, she needed a bit of assistance.
After graduating and finding work as a lawyer at a Chicago law firm called Sidley Austin, her college best friend, Suzanne, died of cancer, and, in that same year, she met a young man named Barack Obama. She explained, “I’d gained Barack and lost Suzanne, and the power of those two things together left me spinning. Suzanne’s death had awakened me to the idea that I wanted more joy and meaning in my life. I couldn’t continue to live with my own complacency” (2).
In 1989, Michelle became Barack’s mentor at the Sidley Austin Law Firm, and after a month of working together, Barack asked her out on a date (12). Barack Obama is widely considered as a unique president--you can always see him performing a balancing act. On one side, you have a Harvard law graduate--a master of his craft who inspired a nation, and on the other side, you have a man who likes to make people with some rather “corny” jokes. As both were charismatic law graduates/students, the arguments between the two were like no other--something periodically seen throughout the couple’s discussions about marriage.
While on a dinner date celebrating Barack passing the Harvard bar exam, he began the discussion as to whether or not marriage was actually necessary for a relationship. The two bickered as if they had been married for fifty years until dessert finally rolled around, and their server placed a platter with a small ring box on top. Michelle, utterly surprised, received a teasing remark from Barack regarding her reaction--“Now that ought to shut you up” (13). In 1991, the pair were married. Their wedding day was bittersweet for Michelle. While she had finally let herself relax and marry the man she loved, her wedding was not attended by her father, a man whose work ethic had inspired her and shaped who she had become, as he had passed away from multiple sclerosis. However, she was lucky to have her amazing brother Craig walk her down the aisle in her dad’s place (14).
Throughout the rest of the nineties, Barack and Michelle Obama’s careers did nothing but grow. Michelle soon found herself working with Chicago’s Mayor Richard Daley as she became Chicago’s assistant commissioner of planning and development. In 1993, she also created a leadership-training program for young adults while working as the executive director for Chicago’s Public Allies branch. After this, she developed the first community service program at the University of Chicago (10). Then in 1996, politics became a major part of her life--politics being something she has disliked from an early age.
Politics & Marriage Counseling
Michelle and her father had attended many political events while she was growing up. This discouraged her from ever partaking in politics as her father, a precinct captain for Chicago’s Democratic Party, constantly had complaints and criticism thrown his way even after he had devoted so much time and effort to his work. Reverend Jesse Jackson, the father of her friend Santita Jackson and a presidential candidate, also discouraged Michelle from getting involved in politics after she saw how strenuous a campaign could be: “The fanfare was fun and even intoxicating, but there was something about it, and about politics in general, that made me queasy” (2).
So, her reaction when Barack decided to run for the Illinois state senate was not surprising.
Michelle, while supporting her husband as much as she could, tried her hardest to get running for office out of Barack’s head. She even went as far as to convince a pair of the couple’s friends to come over for dinner one night for the sole purpose of convincing Barack not to run for senate--a dinner that saw Barack convince the two that his run for Senate was a fantastic idea without knowing of Michelle’s plot (15). After a difficult campaign in many different ways, Barack Obama became Senator Obama.
Within the next five years, Michelle and Barack became parents to two little girls--Malia and Sasha (7). After Malia was born, the couple found their marriage in a rough patch; Barack was working three different jobs and Michelle was not only a new mother but she was also the Associate Dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago and the Vice President of Community and External Affairs at the University of Chicago Medical Center (19). “At the end of each night, after feeding and bath time and story time and cleaning up the apartment and trying to keep track of whether or not she’d picked up the dry cleaning and making a note to herself to schedule an appointment with the pediatrician,” Barack Obama wrote in his memoir, A Promised Land, “she would often fall into an empty bed, knowing the whole cycle would start all over again in a few short hours while her husband was off doing ‘important things’” (15, 16).
The couple almost split, Michelle, telling Barack that this was not the life she had signed up for and Barack struggling to balance the life of a senator with being a father, but eventually, the two began going to marriage counseling (16). They were able to work it out and establish a partnership in their marriage--a partnership America would soon be grateful for less than a decade later.
The 2008 Campaign & the True Nature of America's Politics
Between 2001 and 2008, Michelle continued her career and excelled while working at both the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, where she served as vice president of the entire foundation, and the Chicago Council of Global Affairs. In addition, Barack began his campaign for president--a campaign that Michelle was not a fan of but a campaign that she still greatly supported (7). The criticism, media, and essentially all the other poisonous traits of American society came crashing down on the couple during the 2008 campaign.
Only six years before the campaign announcement, America had seen 9/11, a terrorist attack that elevated anti-Muslim rhetoric in the country, something that hit Barack very much as while he was a Christain who had no ties whatsoever with Al-Qaeda or any other terrorist organization, many found his race to be a great way to criticize him. It went so far that during a Fox News story a fist bump between Michelle and Barack during a campaign event was questioned as a potential “terrorist fist jab” (17). The fact that Barack Obama was going to be the first Black president in America’s history did not help ease the tension either, and many saw this as an opportunity to attack Michelle, as well.
“My whole persona was distorted--this is the time I was called an ‘angry black woman',” Michelle Obama stated in a 2018 interview with The Washington Post. “I was called ‘Obama’s baby’s mama’, I was called someone who didn’t love her country--and it’s important for me to paint all that because people don’t remember that, they see ‘Michelle Obama’, and especially young girls--they were too young to know that part of my journey” (18).
However, even with all the criticism the family faced, Michelle continued supporting Barack and his messages even when "I won't know until I get there" was her answer whenever she was asked what kind of first lady she would be (20). But of course, the end of the 2008 election is a happy one for the Obama's as they beat John McCain by over 7% in the final election results--a testament to both just how inspirational and moving the 2008 campaign was. With a brand new president came a brand new first lady--a position that would see Michelle advocate for poverty awareness, the environment, healthiness, and children, and a position that Michelle was more than ready for.
To be continued...
Reflection
One of my favorite parts about Michelle Obama is something we share--the more I truly think about it, the more I dislike the world of politics.
But Vinny…! You literally have a political website!
Heh… Ironic innit?
I myself have spent a good deal of time pushing rhetoric I am not proud of… and while I do not entirely apologize for some of the things I said to people on the other side of the aisle in the year 2020--a period in my life that has ensured I will never forgive these people for some of the things they’ve said or done--I very much could’ve taken all that time I spent logging onto Facebook and beginning arguments with people who will never attempt to walk in my shoes or see the world the way I do and instead put it towards writing for this website. I had the idea for this website back in June of 2020… nearly seven months before I’d publish an essay or do any research outside of school work because I wanted to continue being divisive, critical towards anybody who was not on the left. When I first began pursuing a degree in political science, it was so I could run for office. Now, while I admire and respect those who do run for office, I don’t think I could ever actually see myself doing it.
However, that could also be the wrong way to go about things--if you don’t seek to make the change or at least participate in the process of making change and striving towards a better tomorrow… how is completely avoiding the task really going to fix anything? While Michelle Obama may not be the biggest fan of politics, it’s not like she completely abandoned her husband when he ran for office or spent all day in the White House residence during her time as first lady, she embraced it. You could tell she loved being there, and that’s not even due to her saying so; it’s due to just how hard she worked and just how much she did (which of course, is a topic that will be discussed later on this website). When I think of Michelle Obama, I of course think about all the girls and women that saw a very strong first lady, and I think America is pretty lucky to actually have a long list of strong first ladies. It is such a unique position… technically, it isn’t even a position. But Michelle Obama is perhaps the best first lady I think America will ever have.
Her story of persistence in her career and education truly is inspiring, especially when we think of where she came from. Even if you are like me and you knew all of this information about Michelle Obama before writing it, tackling Michelle Obama’s story is not an easy task. All of the information and stories present in this article? I probably could have just glanced over all of this in a few paragraphs and focused on her time as the first lady--a time we all know so well and a time I’ll be able to dive deeper into when part two is published--but, I think it’s really nice to dive into how one became the thing they are most famous for because when you really think about it… just how unlikely is it that a poor Black child from the South Side of Chicago would ever find themselves able to attend Princeton University and Harvard University?
And that’s simply just how it is in America.
According to a 2020 article by MarketWatch published on June 25, 2020--exactly one month after the murder of George Floyd, a historic event that put America’s anti-Black police brutality problem on full display--8% of students in Ivy League and other prestigious schools are Black. In the 40 years since Michelle Obama first walked into Princeton University, nothing has really improved. If you’re an avid reader of The Vinny Demme Portfolio (all three of you are the best day-oners someone could ask for), you’ve heard me time and time again explain how prehistoric legislation known as redlining barred Black and other minority communities from receiving the same fortunes and amenities as white communities.
And without those same fortunes and amenities, it has been far more than a botheration for these communities to bounce back to where they should be… if you had no money in the beginning and nobody gave you money for a hundred years, how are you supposed to ever bounce back? And with issues like voter suppression and environmental racism constantly hurting these communities paired with people telling me personally that focusing on these communities and the harsh realities they go through is “systemic racism” because I’m not focusing on everybody in America, it has become an unhealthy mixture of me personally believing that, as MLK prophesied in one of his final speeches, I will never live to see the day all Americans are treated equally. (Remember how happy this post was like two minutes ago… but, I shall let you learn more about those issues and topics by pressing the links to some of my other essays on this website I’ve put in this reflection.)
If you are to take one message out of this, I’d like it to be this one: when the odds are against you like they were for Michelle, the obstacles in front of you--whether they be your community, your country, your family, or even your health--can still be overcome, and you can make it to the finish line. If a Black girl from the South Side of Chicago can graduate from two Ivy League schools, become an esteemed lawyer, and excel her career to heights many would find too soaring to ever attempt to reach… the only thing in your way is you thinking you’ll never get there. Become the person you know you can be.
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