Nothing that interesting… But the whole thing about losing black identity because you’re successful is pretty pathetic. Does that mean the hope of mankind thinks that his primary support has to be unsuccessful and uneducated?

John_Locke on February 19, 2008 at 4:00 PM

Fear of being seen as “too white.” Potential First Lady. Feeling ill.

Akzed on February 19, 2008 at 4:01 PM

If there’s nothing important in it, why is it sealed until the day after the election? She’s inserted herself and her education into the campaign, but her thesis is off limits?

amerpundit on February 19, 2008 at 4:05 PM

I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don’t belong.”…

poor thing, at least she dealt with it at a nice mature college age where one can make sense of everything. im a puerto rican who went to elementary school in SCARSDALE NY! hows that for not belonging?

ernesto on February 19, 2008 at 4:09 PM

For one thing, they invite you to treat someone’s college thesis as though it’s a Rosetta Stone (or Rosebud) to their entire mentality. More than that, for it to be relevant you have to believe they haven’t evolved/matured politically at all since college.

Looking at the context of her recent remarks, it appears that political maturation has occured, and trails rather closely to that of her younger days. Similarly, one could make the case that Obama’s involvement with Saul Alinsky as an organizer, in Barak’s younger days, probably had no impact on his present mature political views. I suspect the mature views of both Michelle and Barak have not undergone much change from those of their younger days.

a capella on February 19, 2008 at 4:09 PM

By sealing it until after the election, she guarantees more attention will be drawn to it. Why have all the questions stopped about Billary’s White House records or tax returns? I bet the Clinton machine will welcome the deflection of the spotlight.

Les in NC on February 19, 2008 at 4:11 PM

I thought “But I’m a victim” was part of the script. Then again, if she endured the problems and became successful that would blow the….this is a racist country and you need the government to carry you…. liberal mantra. Can’t have that.

libhater on February 19, 2008 at 4:12 PM

This could blunt one avenue of self-righteous posturing, however. It’s hard to imagine a vigorous anti-corporate Change! administration without somewhere a demand for increased “corporate transparency”.

Motes and beams and all.

eeyore on February 19, 2008 at 4:13 PM

This Obama guy is real trouble. He sounds like a closet Black Panther.

Oh well, if he gets elected, at least the USA would never make that kind of mistake again. Sometimes you have to take a few steps backwards to move forward.

Sounds like the “Great Society 2″ is just around the corner. You know how liberals love to throw away money, but swelling the welfare class and creating millions more non-productive government dependents will take years to clean up. Maybe them and the illegals will battle it out for free taxpayer money. Either way, we taxpayers will be the ones that get screwed as usual in favor of non-thinking, non-working, democratic welfare addicts that make democratic vote farming pay off every time.

saiga on February 19, 2008 at 4:14 PM

Having visited many nations in my lifetime, I’ve felt the awareness of being different. But I wouldn’t criticize anyone for being aware that I’m different.

jgapinoy on February 19, 2008 at 4:15 PM

For one thing, they invite you to treat someone’s college thesis as though it’s a Rosetta Stone (or Rosebud) to their entire mentality.

I’ll have to agree there. Nine months after completion certain real-world events in 2001 caused me to rethink some of my musings about the implications of Aeneas’ reaction to the death of Pallas in the foundation of Rome as a divinely mandated state. ;)

Not that my basic attitudes went through a 180 degree turnaround or anything. Just added a decidedly new perspective on things.

Deety on February 19, 2008 at 4:15 PM

From what you put up, Allah, I read it as ‘education strips the black identity from people of my race’. Am I wrong? And is she lamenting that educated blacks see themselves as part of our overall society instead of a subset? Help me out here. Or is my whiteness blinding me?

Limerick on February 19, 2008 at 4:17 PM

Sounds like a fairly standard “identity awareness” treatise:

And you know what, allah, as someone with a degree in science (zoology) who has published papers in scientific journals, that’s what bothers me about higher education today. Not that Michelle Obama can submit an “identity awareness” dissertation, but that ANYBODY can. When you have had the experience of writing a manuscript on the nesting behavior of American coots and you have several noted ornithologists scrutinizing your every word and telling you you should change this, clarify that, organize your data so, and all for reasons of fidelity to science, you just shake your head when you read papers by students in sociology, women’s studies, black studies, etc. that are all about how someone “feels.”

radjah shelduck on February 19, 2008 at 4:18 PM

I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don’t belong.

Uncanny! It’s as though she’s tapped into a entirely Black phenomenon!

Lehosh on February 19, 2008 at 4:21 PM

Sounds like she was in favor of the Jim Crow laws of segregation. Nothing like black identity when you are drinking from the ‘colored’ water fountain.

Also, if she was so concerned about being at a white school (Princeton), she could have easily gone to a HBC. We have several HBC’s down here that are dynamite. NC A&T offers as good of an education as any white school. . . actually that’s where KSM went.

I guess it’s OK for blacks to be interested in their identity and culture, but whites should be ashamed (no Confederate Flag for you).

ThackerAgency on February 19, 2008 at 4:26 PM

just read the sidebar on obama’s mentor.
what do you know, barry is a commie.

jimmer on February 19, 2008 at 4:29 PM

“I wondered whether or not my education at Princeton would affect my identification with the Black community. I hoped that these findings would help me conclude that despite the high degree of identification with Whites as a result of the educational and occupational path that Black Princeton alumni follow, the alumni would still maintain a certain level of identification with the black community. However, these findings do not support this possibility.”…

Why not! The only way her “Princeton Education” would keep her from “identifying” with the black community, is if she herself snubbed the black community. For heavens sake! What she should be preaching is: “I’m just as black as you and if you want to succeed, the only think holding you back, is yourself!” (or possibly the dimacrats…that’s another discussion)

kcd on February 19, 2008 at 4:29 PM

My guess:

“90210 vs Melrose Place: Comparing the Hunk Factor”

Chuck Schick on February 19, 2008 at 4:31 PM

I think Michelle Obama should be allowed to talk more and more.

Terayyyyza Heinz Kerry has NOTHING on this woman!!!

Talon on February 19, 2008 at 4:34 PM

As a white girl in middle class suburbia i felt alientated from my peers in high school, that I didn’t quite “fit in.” Most of my friends also felt that way; A lot of the “Great Books” describe feelings of isolation and alienation; that is called being an INDIVIDUAL. we are not Borg.

Blight on February 19, 2008 at 4:34 PM

that is called being an INDIVIDUAL. we are not Borg.

Blight on February 19, 2008 at 4:34 PM

Just give them a few years, they’ll fix that for you.

Les in NC on February 19, 2008 at 4:37 PM

“I wondered whether or not my education at Princeton would affect my identification with the Black community. I hoped that these findings would help me conclude that despite the high degree of identification with Whites as a result of the educational and occupational path that Black Princeton alumni follow, the alumni would still maintain a certain level of identification with the black community. However, these findings do not support this possibility.”…

If this is Michelle explaining her current white-identified hairstyle, she should use less pretentious sentences.

thuja on February 19, 2008 at 4:39 PM

I nominate Mrs. Spc Steve for sharpest knife in the drawer!

+1

Deety on February 19, 2008 at 4:34 PM

Well, between me and the Missus, she ought to be the sharper. She has a degree from University of Mary Washington, and I’ve a GED and some college. Small wonder I let her carry the checkbook. :-)

Spc Steve on February 19, 2008 at 4:42 PM

they invite you to treat someone’s college thesis as though it’s a Rosetta Stone (or Rosebud) to their entire mentality. More than that, for it to be relevant you have to believe they haven’t evolved/matured politically at all since college.

True. But the young Mrs. Obama’s thesis illuminates is not her political views, it’s her narcissism. Her thesis, from what we can tell, is about her, her feelings, her identity and yes, her feelings about her identity. As a Princeton student she was her own favorite subject. A quarter of a century later and that hasn’t changed. She still the self-absorbed girl she was at Princeton. It’s all about her, how people treat her, how people view her, about her place in society.

The Obama campaign hasn’t gone to her head. She was always this insufferable.

Vote Sauron 08 on February 19, 2008 at 4:44 PM

Funny how Blacks like Rice, Thomas, Powell, Steele, etc. never seem to have this problem. Maybe being Black and Liberal causes these folks to feel disillusioned.

That’s what happens when you are brought up thinking your owed something, and then when you get, you feel “is that all there is”. The disenfranchised blacks somehow will never be happy, since they always think the man is putting them down. This goes for many liberal whites as well. It’s always someone else’s fault with these people.

Bob on February 19, 2008 at 4:51 PM

I think Michelle Obama should be allowed to talk more and more.

Terayyyyza Heinz Kerry has NOTHING on this woman!!!

Talon on February 19, 2008 at 4:34 PM

Actually, I thought Teresa Heinz Kerry was an African-American who was actually born in Africa.

JiangxiDad on February 19, 2008 at 4:53 PM

Maybe she’s not proud of her thesis? Oh, wait - if she was in college, was she an Adult by then?

sleepy-beans on February 19, 2008 at 4:56 PM

kcd on February 19, 2008 at 4:29 PM

Colin Powell?
Condi Rice?
Clarence Thomas?

Other then Mr. Thomas (I was not paying attention at the moment in time), I do remember Mr. Powell and Ms. Rice defending their backgrounds… from childhood to adulthood from the Democrats.
I wonder how M.O. really feels about these individuals. I have noticed she is dressing more like Condi Rice everyday. Jealousy comes to mind.

Voting for B.O. may be voting another clinton protege!

upinak on February 19, 2008 at 5:08 PM

snaggletoothie on February 19, 2008 at 5:06 PM

I feel the same playing Basketball. Was ashamed to admit it. It made me feel ashamed of my nation.

JiangxiDad on February 19, 2008 at 5:15 PM

For one thing, they invite you to treat someone’s college thesis as though it’s a Rosetta Stone (or Rosebud) to their entire mentality.

Really? Of course, you have to have gone to college to believe it doesn’t.

Andy in Agoura Hills on February 19, 2008 at 5:36 PM

Its all about Michelle Obama. The poor victim. What utter bullcrap. But her fine whine is no different than any other socialist. To wit:

WASHINGTON – Just when liberals thought it was safe to start identifying themselves as such, an acclaimed, veteran psychiatrist is making the case that the ideology motivating them is actually a mental disorder.

“Based on strikingly irrational beliefs and emotions, modern liberals relentlessly undermine the most important principles on which our freedoms were founded,” says Dr. Lyle Rossiter, author of the new book, “The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness.” “Like spoiled, angry children, they rebel against the normal responsibilities of adulthood and demand that a parental government meet their needs from cradle to grave.”

While political activists on the other side of the spectrum have made similar observations, Rossiter boasts professional credentials and a life virtually free of activism and links to “the vast right-wing conspiracy.”

For more than 35 years he has diagnosed and treated more than 1,500 patients as a board-certified clinical psychiatrist and examined more than 2,700 civil and criminal cases as a board-certified forensic psychiatrist. He received his medical and psychiatric training at the University of Chicago.

Rossiter says the kind of liberalism being displayed by the two major candidates for the Democratic Party presidential nomination can only be understood as a psychological disorder.

“A social scientist who understands human nature will not dismiss the vital roles of free choice, voluntary cooperation and moral integrity – as liberals do,” he says. “A political leader who understands human nature will not ignore individual differences in talent, drive, personal appeal and work ethic, and then try to impose economic and social equality on the population – as liberals do. And a legislator who understands human nature will not create an environment of rules which over-regulates and over-taxes the nation’s citizens, corrupts their character and reduces them to wards of the state – as liberals do.”

Dr. Rossiter says the liberal agenda preys on weakness and feelings of inferiority in the population by:

creating and reinforcing perceptions of victimization;

satisfying infantile claims to entitlement, indulgence and compensation;

augmenting primitive feelings of envy;

rejecting the sovereignty of the individual, subordinating him to the will of the government.

“The roots of liberalism – and its associated madness – can be clearly identified by understanding how children develop from infancy to adulthood and how distorted development produces the irrational beliefs of the liberal mind,” he says. “When the modern liberal mind whines about imaginary victims, rages against imaginary villains and seeks above all else to run the lives of persons competent to run their own lives, the neurosis of the liberal mind becomes painfully obvious.”

Andy in Agoura Hills on February 19, 2008 at 5:41 PM

Sounds like she is playing a victim.

Chakra Hammer on February 19, 2008 at 5:49 PM

You don’t have to read Michelle Obama’s thesis to get a sense of her Afro-centrism. Just read the web site of the Obamas’ church. It’s as racist as can be.

aero on February 19, 2008 at 5:50 PM

I’m thinking there’s a pony in there somewhere, else why would they embargo it. Maybe time for a second look?

petefrt on February 19, 2008 at 6:01 PM

radjah shelduck on February 19, 2008 at 4:18 PM

To pick up on your point, and that of Les in NC:

Without reading the thesis, it is difficult to know what criteria she used to establish that profs, etc. viewed her as “black first and a student second.” How could that possibly be objectively determined? Couldn’t she just be projecting her own feelings?

mikeyboss on February 19, 2008 at 6:29 PM

The attempt to hide this is what makes it more of an issue than what may be in it. At least anything embarassing could be explained away by an evolved opinion that comes to all of us with age. At least I hope we get smarter as we age, Bill and Hill may be an exeption.

Les in NC on February 19, 2008 at 6:32 PM

Exactly.

mikeyboss on February 19, 2008 at 6:34 PM

Not sure why this would warrant embargoing the thesis

This was probably preemptive, and I doubt it was Barack’s or Michelle’s idea. Someone in the campaign might have decided to do it, or perhaps someone at Princeton, based not on content but on the inevitability that someone would scan every line for the hint of something controversial. There’s a (slim) chance neither of the Obamas even knew about it. If it “becomes a story,” they’ll swoop in and the embargo will likely end. If it doesn’t, they won’t care. Anyway, the undergrad musings-for-credit of the wife of a Presidential candidate are probably about as relevant as they sound.

calbear on February 19, 2008 at 6:36 PM

Anyone fell free to correct me if I’m wrong, but how did Michelle Obama get into Princeton? I will guess affirmative action. If so, it makes sense that she’d identify as “black” first since that’s how she got in to start with.

Either way, I suspect we’ll be seeing more of The Oprah, and hearing less of Mrs. Obama in the coming days.

SouthernGent on February 19, 2008 at 6:38 PM

Talk about White Guilt, this woman has Black Guilt! and is genuinely ashamed by her success. She hides it by blaming it on how poorly she integrated into a white majority liberal college. All that white Princetoinan self-loathing open-minded guilt trip smearing must have rubbed Michelle the wrong way. Not enough discrimination to suit her fancy I guess.

Talk about a high maintenance liberal.

Kini on February 19, 2008 at 6:55 PM

Let’s face it. There are only two types of people that support Obama:

1. Black racists and/or victims
2. Sufferers of white guilt

Anybody else is voting Republican. Game over.

Andy in Agoura Hills on February 19, 2008 at 7:00 PM

I knew she was nuts, but it just keeps getting better. This kind of racist trash might get you an “A” from Whitey, but it reads like a paranoid rant from a very nutty woman that uses the color of her skin as an excuse for hatred.

AKA: “Change”

Hening on February 19, 2008 at 7:26 PM

As someone who works in higher ed, I will say that she would never have had her thesis approved had she written something positive about her experience. In her case, though, the resentment seems to have continued and informed her and her husband’s limousine liberal status.

PattyJ on February 19, 2008 at 7:38 PM

Buy Danish on February 19, 2008 at 6:45 PM

A bit on Barak’s foreign policy advisors.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/02/samantha_power_and_obamas_fore_1.html

a capella on February 19, 2008 at 7:59 PM

Sounds as lightweight a thesis as her hubby.

Do they publish these things on mylar balloons?

“How I Determined My Own Race Before Birth”
is the one I’m waiting to read.

For all these people so enamored with their color / race / ethnicity.

As if they had anything to do with it.

What’s to be “proud” of?

The Uncontrollable?

Blind Chance?

Mere Flukes?

profitsbeard on February 19, 2008 at 8:47 PM

The same way any minority gets into a highly competitive institution: quotas.

Andy in Agoura Hills on February 19, 2008 at 7:04 PM

I think that sentence could use a rewrite.

There is no doubt that quotas give women and minorities an unfair advantage, but there are plenty of minorities who would have advanced without these mandates.

Your reaction is precisely why Ward Connelly and many other conservative blacks loathe affirmative action.

a capella on February 19, 2008 at 7:59 PM

Thanks for link. Ugh. Why does it not surprise me that the most Leftist Senator in Congress is drawn to advisors like that? No doubt he would take their bad advice to heart and act on it too.

Buy Danish on February 19, 2008 at 9:08 PM

I wonder whether the MSM will pick up this man’s youtube accusation that he did coke and had sex with Obama in 1999.

As for Obama’s communist ties, in an LAT interview, he listed Occidental College prof Roger Boesche as the most influential thinker in his life. Boesche is a genius, no doubt, but he is also the resident Marx/Hegel/Nietzsche man on campus.

I actually like Obama and would vote for him over Hillary and McCain just on the basis of likeability and brains, but if the above are true, there is still enough subversive left in me that I think it would be kind of funny to have a crack-smoking, commie, bisexual black President. Ya say ya want a revolution… and ya got one. If he actually came out of the closet once he was elected, legalized drugs, and threw big gay drug parties in the White House, now that would be some serious comedy there. Like Putney Swope meets Network meets Boogie Nights meets The Boys in the Band meets Head of State, but different.

wordwarp on February 19, 2008 at 9:44 PM

This narcissistic dribble is the basis for a doctoral thesis?

I think I wrote something that shallow in Speech 101 as a Freshman, entitled “Redneck First, student second”.

faraway on February 19, 2008 at 10:54 PM

My thesis I wrote as a Jr in HS was…

Whether or not technology creates a barrier between God and man?

(Not a bad topic for a 17 year old kid if I do say so myself).

I would hate to have to defend what I wrote back then today (I am comfortable with my conclusions I expect the body/objections could use some re-work).

That said what I wrote back then (1988/99) does not necessarily reflect my view today, however hiding it from everyone until after the election is a pure BS move.

F15Mech on February 19, 2008 at 11:11 PM

Wordwarp you’re a hoot. Thanks for the laugh.

Does Michelle want us to feel guilty because we notice that she’s black? Just what does this woman want?

UnEasyRider on February 19, 2008 at 11:52 PM