Via Hot Air:

 Michelle Obama: America the Ignorant 

Jim Hoft links to this speech from January of this year by Michelle Obama to students at the University of South Carolina, presumably just before their primary. It shows how Mrs. Obama can utter some truth but put it in such a tone-deaf manner that she obscures the truth with hostility and sneering condescension. In this case, she starts by challenging students to actually embrace diversity by having the courage to reach beyond their social comfort zones, and winds up calling America ignorant:

We don’t like being pushed outside of our comfort zones. You know it right here on this campus. You know people sitting at different tables- you all living in different dorms. I was there. You’re not talking to each other, taking advantage that you’re in this diverse community. Because sometimes it’s easier to hold on to your own stereotypes and misconceptions. It makes you feel justified in your own ignorance. That’s America. So the challenge for us is are we ready for change?

Anyone who spent time at a college or even a high school with a diverse population knows that the first part of her statement is absolutely true. I discovered this for myself in college, ironically when I took an African-American Studies class at Fullerton State. We had a debate over diversity in public schools, and I said that my high school was a good example of how diversity could work — and I got challenged by a student who had gone to my school whom I had barely known. Despite the diversity, the populations didn’t interact much socially at either level of school.

Good points, but then again, her church prefers that same chosen segregation, so how meaningful are her comments?.

However, the second part of the statement doesn’t follow from the first. America is not about being “justified in our own ignorance”, no matter how Mrs. Obama feels about campus life. America has been about fixing its flaws, sometimes haltingly and imperfectly, but always working towards that end. If she feels otherwise, then how can we explain the efforts made by many people of all backgrounds to end racism and protect civil rights? If anything, America is about hope, not ignorance. Her husband didn’t invent hope and change.

I would be more tolerant of her and her husband if they ever gave Americans some credit for being decent.

Besides, after the exposure of Rev. Jeremiah Wright as a racial demagogue, the Obamas are the last people to talk about reaching beyond their comfort zone. They financially support a church that excoriates black conservatives such as Clarence Thomas and Condoleezza Rice by using playground-level names such as “Clarence Colon” and “Condoskeeza”. The Obamas supported Wright as he called the nation the “US of KKK-A”, not exactly a formula for outreach and understanding. The Trinity United Church can hardly be considered an inclusive environment, given the nature of its pastor’s tirades.

And there you have the real issue.  Who is she to speak of diversity? 

When I read this, I sent it to a mailing list I subscribe to.  A friend of mine there pointed out that she was including herself in the speech.  Perhaps so.  But it seems to me that if she is, she needs to drop her "do as I say, not as I do" approach and stop treating racial unity and diversity as a NIMBY concept.

She and her husband have invested 20 years and tens of thousands of dollars in that church that to this day still preaches an Afrocentric message that is hardly welcoming and diverse.  And that does not even touch upon the church's support of anti Semitic people and anti American rhetoric.

For their whole lives their daughters have been in that environment, and one has to wonder what lesson they learned.  Did the Obama's whisper to them that these people are bad examples of the concepts they claim to hold so dearly?  In truth I have seen no proof that they have had any discomfort over the extremism that passes for dogma there, so I have to doubt it.  In fact, they have spent a great deal of time defending that culture. 

If that truly is the reality of the black community, that they are a community self ghettoed and filled with distrust and loathing, then maybe America has not actually grown as much as I thought.  But it is not white America that is closing the doors to diversity.  The black community leaders for their own selfish reason keep their own people trapped in a nightmare of hate and paranoia.

Bottom line, Michelle is paying lip service to something she won't even advocate in her own church.  And we are supposed to take her seriously?  A hypocrite is a hypocrite. 

In other words, the day either Michelle or Obama preach that exact message form the pulpit of Trinity, and exhorts their faith community to embrace diversity, I will respect them.

In a related matter, Obama simply wants to make it go away.  Sister Toldjah has a nearly perfect blog on why it hasn't and shouldn't:

Obama again tries to boil down Wright’s incendiary comments to a “half-minute sound clip” in hopes controversy will just go away

Here we go again (emphasis added):

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Wednesday sought to quell concerns over anti-American remarks by his former pastor, saying people are paying too much attention to a small number of “stupid” comments.

...

“This is somebody that was preaching three sermons at least a week for 30 years and it got boiled down … into a half-minute sound clip and just played it over and over and over again, partly because it spoke to some of the racial divisions we have in this country,” Obama told an audience in this central North Carolina city.

“There are misunderstandings on both sides,” the Illinois senator said. “We cannot solve the problems of America if everytime somebody somewhere does something stupid, that everybody gets up in arms and forgets about the war in Iraq and we forget about the economy.”

First things first: Rev. Wright has been preaching black liberation theology since he became pastor of TUCC in 1972, so his racist, anti-Semitic, anti-American preaching style is not new.

Second and most importantly, while I do agree that the back and forth handwringing and whining about every little nitpicky comment coming from the opposition (like his campaign’s implication that Gerry Ferraro is a racist and their pre-SC Dem primary demagoguing of Bill and Hillary Clinton as closet racists) takes the focus off the more important issues, the focus on his 20+ year mentorship with Rev. Wright is not just nitpicking. If I were a Barack Obama supporter, right now I’d be very disillusioned with him, because for the last year or so, he’s been telling everyone how he is this great ‘healer’ (and don’t get me started on how he uses religious overtones in many of his campaign speeches to ‘elevate’ and ‘motivate’ supporters) who will heal the partisan, racial, and religious divides in this country, yet he had a primo opportunity to start bridge those very divides in his OWN CHURCH and never once tried because, supposedly he never heard directly the remarks in question (even though he has heard “some” controversial remarks - not anything he’s gone into specifics about).

Note, she correctly illustrates the source of the lingering doubts about his beliefs:  He has never really addressed it head on, he comes at the issue obliquely, and offers soft general statements, instead of addressing this in specifics.

That plus his refusal to leave the church despite its overall positions, and his inability to take a stand for diversity leaves me no choice but to assume he is paying lip service to the concepts he and Michelle claim to stand for.  He offers no hope, no change, just more deception and status quo. 

Bottom line:

He neglected to stand up in his own church community where it would have mattered the most, especially in his early days of serving in the Illinois state government. If he can’t even stand up for his country against the hateful, racist, anti-Semitic, anti-America types in his own church, I have no confidence in his ability to stand up for this country against those in this world who are much more hateful, racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-America than his “former” pastor - and who are also willing in the hundreds of thousands to become martyrs for their jihadi “cause.”

Well said.  Pop over to her blog to read the whole thing and see the video she posted.

 Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, The Virtuous Republic, Rosemary's Thoughts, Right Truth, Adam's Blog, Shadowscope, Big Dog's Weblog, Cao's Blog, Conservative Cat, Adeline and Hazel, Pursuing Holiness, D equals S, third world county, Woman Honor Thyself, DragonLady's World, The World According to Carl, Pirate's Cove, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, A Newt One, Tilting At Windmill Farms, Right Voices, Eric's Writing Corner, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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