There is a new viral e-mail floating around. It's not a virus hoax trying to convince you your keyboard will soon explode... although it's formatted almost that badly. This letter, which was just forwarded to me by a family member, is full of misquotes, pejorative speculation about Mrs Obama, and unverifiable accusations about her opinions and those of people around her. In other words, it's crap. After a quick search, I've just started to read her 1985 college thesis and I'll admit it's complex and as difficult to read at times as many other college thesis papers I've seen. It is not, however, what this awful, misleading e-mail makes it out to be. Unfortunately, the e-mail has the potential to rouse the irrational, race-paranoid side of American consciousness and that concerns me.
In it, she deals head-on with some of the heavy, heady issues associated with race and how Black people who integrate into larger (White) culture might run the risk of losing touch with Black culture. Lets face it, this is very dangerous territory. Taking lines of it out of context and slapping inflammatory accusations around them to rouse people's race fears is ludicrous and horrifyingly effective in getting many White people scared of her intentions. It would be sad if our knee-jerk reaction to this 22-year old paper causes a permanent shift in the nature of our political debate. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be a surprise if it did.
If you're curious about the document, feel free to read it (linked above) or check out the Snopes.com review of Michelle Obama's Thesis. I'm sure it will be coming to a radio, TV, or inbox of your's very soon.
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