Michelle: I've always been proud of U.S.
PRIDE IN AMERICA | No reason to apologize -- she had it right the first time
February 21, 2008
MARY MITCHELL
marym@suntimes.com
I understood exactly what Michelle Obama meant when she expressed a renewed pride in America. Look at what's happening.
Her husband, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, has racked up delegates from coast to coast -- not as a symbolic African-American candidate, but as a candidate who is being enthusiastically supported by people from diverse ethnic backgrounds, income brackets, educational levels and geographic locations.
Michelle Obama wasn't even born when Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and other civil rights martyrs were leading movements that generated excitement akin to what we are seeing today.
Finally, in a country that has long been divided by race, a black man is being judged by the masses on the content of his character rather than the color of his skin.
Of course she is feeling a renewed sense of pride in this country.
A lot of us share those feelings. We've never been here before.
We got pretty close when the Rev. Jesse Jackson ran for president in 1984. But never in our history has there been such a coming together of diverse citizens to back a black presidential candidate.
But after her comments ignited a firestorm -- including a response from Cindy McCain, wife of presumed Republican nominee John McCain -- Michelle Obama was forced to explain she didn't really mean she wasn't proud of America.
That's unfortunate. She should have stuck to her truth.
Having attended several rallies keynoted by Michelle Obama, I'm not surprised that she's now under fire for some of her remarks.
Michelle, as sisters say, "keeps it real." She doesn't try to dress up the facts, but usually speaks from the heart, without notes, before large as well as small gatherings.
So when she says: "[F]or the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country, or 'really' proud of my country," as she apparently said in a separate speech also delivered Monday night, many of us get it.
We know she is expressing genuine excitement over where this country is heading.
And we also understand the nuances of race in this campaign.
Michelle Obama may have gone to Princeton and Harvard, and she may have worked at a prestigious law firm, but she isn't blind to the plight of people who didn't have the same opportunities.
She is a black woman in America. There must have been days when she wasn't proud of how minorities were being treated in this country.
After all, who is proud that while we are one of the most diverse countries in the world, many of us still struggle with intolerance?
Who is proud that America has dealt with its poverty and underclass by concentrating it in pockets of urban areas?
Who is proud that so many black and poor children in this country are still stuck in inferior schools, and that too many children end up headed for prison?
Who is proud that slavery and Jim Crow are a part of our legacy, and that people had to die as martyrs before we turned away from those evil institutions?
Still, these are not the things that Michelle or Barack Obama talk about on the campaign trail. They both know these are the truths that could be easily twisted to paint Obama as "the black candidate." That political game hasn't changed.
Moreover, when blacks disagree with war-mongering politicians, African Americans are stereotyped as being "unpatriotic."
So it doesn't surprise me that Cindy McCain, who has had little to say throughout his campaign, jumped on Michelle's remarks.
"I just wanted to make the statement that I have, and always will be, proud of my country," she said.
Talk about empty rhetoric.
If Cindy's telling the truth, then she was the only person in America bursting with pride as the world watched former President Bill Clinton's presidency nearly get derailed over hanky-panky.
The trouble with politics is that we want candidates to pretend to be something they are not.
Like a lot of black women, Michelle Obama has probably had periods in her life when she felt anything but pride for this country.
What really matters is that at this moment, this time, her pride -- our pride -- is bursting out all over.
