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November 12, 2007
Michelle Obama and the "Fear of Possibility"
"What we're dealing with in the black community is just the natural fear of possibility. There's always that doubt in the back of the minds of people of color... that you believe that somehow someone is better than you... I think that it's one of the legacies of racism and discrimination and oppression."It's not clear what Ann thinks of the quote; she has posted it without her own commentary. But her readers are mostly scoffing at it.
Obama's comment seems to me to reflect something that is possible. I have read that one consequence of this nation's institutionalized racism against African Americans is that that community has itself come to internalize some of the negative images that the white majority has imposed on it.
And I've not only read it, but I once heard it, quite directly. It's a moment that shocked me and that I therefore remember quite vividly. It was in September of 2001 -- just a couple of days before 9/11, actually -- and I was in a van on the way from BWI airport to downtown DC for a meeting. There were two other passengers -- an African-American man and an African-American woman who had also flown up from North Carolina but whom I did not know. Both looked to be in their early sixties. They were talking with each other about air travel, and sharing the sorts of complaints that travelers typically share. I was not part of the conversation; I was a row ahead of them.
The man then brought up the subject of some new airline that was then under development and that was to be owned by black entrepreneurs. The woman then said, and I remember her words precisely, "that ain't never gonna work; no way I'm ever going on no plane flown by a black man." The man agreed, and they both laughed heartily.
I couldn't believe my ears at first. And then, when the import of what she'd said sank in, it made me very, very sad.
Maybe this is what Michelle Obama was talking about?
Posted by Eric at November 12, 2007 11:56 AM