Hello, I am Claire Lending and I am going to talk youtoday about Michelle Obama’s early life based on her book Becoming. As I talk, I ask you to think about the racist system she had to face.
Michelle Obama grew up in Chicago’s South Side living with her parents and brother on the top story of a house owned by her Mother’s Aunt and Uncle. Her father worked for the government, but they could not afford their own house. As a young child her neighborhood was middle class and racially mixed. In Michelle’s kindergarten class a boy was earning gold stars for being able to read the names of colors. Michelle was very competitive so she studied at home so she could earn gold stars too. In second grade Michelle’s teacher was incompetent; the children were unruly and labelled bad kids. Michelle complained to her mother who then went to the principal and Michelle ended up moving with one other girl in the class to a newly formed joint 2nd/3rd grade class of high performing students. (Now she looks back and wonders how the rest of the children in that second grade classfared.) Every year when Michelle showed up for school there were less White kids on the playground. Some transferred to the Catholic school but more left the neighborhood altogether and the schools reflected this.
Michelle tested into a magnet school for high achieving high school students. She had to take a one hour city bus ride each way which meant she gave up sports and family time. She was at first not sure she belonged in the new school, but she worked hard and ended up in the top 10% of her class. She went to her counselorearly in her Senior year to discuss college. Michelle said she wanted to go to Princeton; the counselor discouraged her and said Michelle was not really Princeton material. But Michelle was stubborn. Her brother went to Princeton on a track scholarship and Michelle knew she was smarter than her brother.
Michelle applied and got into Princeton. When she firstarrived, she thought other students were looking at her and thinking she was just an Affirmative Action choice. However, when she earned an A- average her first semester, she knew she belonged. Michelle found a community at Princeton and did well, then applied and was accepted at Harvard Law School.
After graduating from law school, Michelle got a job at a prestigious law firm in Chicago doing intellectual property law work. One summer she was assigned an intern from Harvard Law. As soon as she saw him, she knew why he was assigned to her; he was Black. However, this turned out well as the intern was Barrack Obama.
Michelle did not stay in the job with her high salary. She wanted to give back. She took a big pay cut to work in Mayor Daley’s office and has continued to work for the public good since then.
As I read Michelle Obama’s story, I wonder how different my life would have been If I were Black and had grown up in South Side, Chicago. Even though I am a college professor in the male dominated field of Finance, I very much doubt that I would have had the courage and determination to overcome the barriers that Michelle Obama faced.
