Mrs. Obama: Changing The Story To Fit Narrative
[guest post by Dana]
Discussing personal experiences with racism, Mrs. Obama told this story during an interview. It’s one we’ve heard before:
“The only person who came up to me in the [Target] store was a woman who asked me to help her take something off a shelf. Because she didn’t see me as the first lady, she saw me as someone who could help her,” Michelle Obama told People magazine, recalling a trip she made to Target, according to excerpts released Wednesday.
She continued, “Those kinds of things happen in life. So it isn’t anything new.”
This was apparently an experience in racial prejudice for her. Obviously. Because it would be completely abnormal for a short person to ask a tall person like Mrs. Obama to help lift something down.
It seems the internet is indeed, forever, and as such sharp eyes noted this same story told by Mrs. Obama two-years ago – when it was nothing more than a charming, feel-good moment:
I thought I was undercover. I have to tell you something about this trip though. No one knew that was me because a woman actually walked up to me, right? I was in the detergent aisle, and she said — I kid you not — she said, ‘Excuse me, I just have to ask you something,’ and I thought, ‘Oh, cover’s blown.’ She said, ‘Can you reach on that shelf and hand me the detergent?’ I kid you not…And the only thing she said — I reached up, ’cause she was short, and I reached up, pulled it down — she said, ‘Well, you didn’t have to make it look so easy.’ That was my interaction. I felt so good. … She had no idea who I was. I thought, as soon as she walked up — I was with my assistant, and I said, ‘This is it, it’s over. We’re going to have to leave.’ She just needed the detergent.
What the First Lady of the United States did by publicly claiming racism behind an innocuous moment between her and a private citizen needing help was to willfully malign and shame an innocent person in order to push a narrative that serves her own interests and justifies her beliefs. It is utterly selfish and she should be ashamed of herself.
Can’t you picture that woman who did not realize it was the First Lady who helped her, going home and later seeing the story on the internet and slowly realizing just who it was who helped her? She probably called up her friends and family and shouted into the phone that it was the First Lady of the United States who helped her in Target that day! That would have been followed by a description of just how incredibly nice that Mrs. Obama is in real life.
–Dana
Hello.
Dana (8e74ce) — 12/17/2014 @ 8:27 pmI ask tall people (often strangers) to reach things for me on high shelves in stores all the time and no one has ever been anything but kind and nice about it and seemingly happy to help. The single criteria is that they are taller than me. I don’t know what they do for a living and I don’t care. I don’t know if they are “important” or not.
Hey, remember when Valerie asked a four star general in uniform to get her a drink at a function a while back assuming he was a waiter?
elissa (ac3f37) — 12/17/2014 @ 8:32 pm150 Iraqi women – many of them pregnant – slaughtered outside Fallujah for refusing to submit to marriage to ISIS sh*theels and Michelle Obama re-animates a 2 1/2 year old story to complain about being a victim of racism. These people hate this country and I shudder to think about 2 more years of this debilitating, moronic nonsense.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 12/17/2014 @ 8:34 pmI want to believe the Obama girls are being raised in a manner that they can come out of these White House years with a sense of decency and normalcy. But with these two narcissist storytellers as parents I’m starting to doubt there’s hope for them.
elissa (ac3f37) — 12/17/2014 @ 8:38 pmThis woman walks around with a constant dyspeptic, sour look on her face, almost as if she’s eaten off her own school lunch menu. What does she have to complain about? She’s been catered to her entire miserable life.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 12/17/2014 @ 8:38 pmOh, brother. Michelle sounds almost as full of herself as her notorious, big-ego husband is. So I’m not sure if what’s really bothering her is not so much any racial implications but the fact she wasn’t instantly recognized as a VIP — as big woman on campus — and swooned over accordingly.
I recall her also saying a few years ago that she, as a black woman, has to be wary about going about town because of her fear of running into a beer-swilling, tire-iron-carrying, KKK-loving redneck.
If liberalism were a race or ethnicity — and its main feature being that such people are lousy, poor observers of reality — then that truly is the “race” that Michelle belongs to.
Mark (c160ec) — 12/17/2014 @ 8:39 pmI think I have Moochogyny.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 12/17/2014 @ 8:39 pmI’m a Moochogynist?
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 12/17/2014 @ 8:40 pmnasty bruja is nasty…
unexpectedly.
ant, absent divine intervention, their spawn are going to be just like them, or worse.
redc1c4 (a6e73d) — 12/17/2014 @ 8:45 pmHas anyone ever heard Condoleeza Rice complain—about anything related to personal treatment perceived or real? Of course not. She’s too classy.
elissa (ac3f37) — 12/17/2014 @ 8:46 pmWhat makes it worse is that when Michelle first told the story a couple of years ago she was quite charming in the telling of it. Oh well, guess that couldn’t last.
seeRpea (01f6d3) — 12/17/2014 @ 9:20 pmelissa – Michelle is prolly just creating composite characters, almost like stem cells. They can be anything she wants them to be.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 12/17/2014 @ 9:28 pm#12: which daughter was punished with the pregnancy they were harvested from?
redc1c4 (34e91b) — 12/17/2014 @ 9:34 pmits impossible to imagine that Queen Michelle would actually offer to help someone without being asked. She and her husband need to stop playing the victim. 2017 can’t come soon enough.
Funeral Guy (afbf7b) — 12/17/2014 @ 9:44 pmI did my own version of this post, but am asking (demanding, actually, since I am not allowing comments on my post) that all comments go here.
Patterico (9c670f) — 12/17/2014 @ 10:09 pmI think you guys will enjoy the picture at the end of my post.
Patterico (9c670f) — 12/17/2014 @ 10:10 pmI am just under five feet and asking tall people for help is quite commonplace for me. I had no idea that it could be even faintly construed as racist. My motives for asking are pretty pragmatic–I’m short, you’re tall. That’s all there is to it.
Just to be safe, I guess I’d better brush up on my climbing skills.
Terrie VanB (011fb1) — 12/17/2014 @ 10:35 pmWhen I first read this post, I was immediately struck by how petty this woman is. There was a picture posted of her in Target, pushing a cart. If I remember correctly, she had a scarf over her hair and sun glasses. Had I seen her in the store, I’m not all that sure I’d have recognized her (unless I noticed the Secret Service types – they would probably have been doing a loose follow since she didn’t want to be recognized I’d assume).
Many of us have been asked to help reach items on upper shelves. It’s no big deal. I have often even volunteered to help someone who is having difficulty reaching a shelf, or grabbing that last box all the way at the back of the top shelf. Guess I was raised differently from the way Michelle was raised. I was taught that being polite and helpful to others was a good thing. And frankly, it is, regardless of what our “betters” in the feminist world may think. Horrors, I’ll even open doors for people, regardless of their sex. I sure wish “some people” had learned politeness; the country would be a better place.
Bill M (906260) — 12/17/2014 @ 10:39 pmFound the like for the picture of Michelle – over at JustOneMinute.
Can’t get link to take! Here it is raw:
http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2014/12/raaaacism.html
Bill M (906260) — 12/17/2014 @ 10:49 pmit doesn’t matter how tall Moo-chelle is: she will always be low rent.
redc1c4 (dab236) — 12/17/2014 @ 11:35 pmJust last week I got asked to help someone unload a cart at Costco. Granted, the person asking me was a female about 5 feet tall, I’m a male over 6 feet tall, and she had a box in her cart that weighed about 40 lb. (yes, I helped her), but it’s racist or sexist or something. Right, Michelle?
Nick M. (f8e14b) — 12/18/2014 @ 2:38 amSo … the First Klingon’s problem is that another person treated her like just another person and did not notice that she was the First Klingon when she made efforts not to be noticed as the First Klingon and that was racist?
How about this hint, Moo-chelle. Maybe people up close don’t see you the way you see yourself in the mirror, or the way an adoring press photoshops you? Or maybe they see you as just another human being. You dumb f***ing cow!
nk (dbc370) — 12/18/2014 @ 3:39 amshe thinks she’s kate middleton except without the core breeding duties
happyfeet (831175) — 12/18/2014 @ 3:42 amInterestingly unmentioned in both accounts is the ‘flavor’ of the person asking…
rtrski (2e2489) — 12/18/2014 @ 3:55 amOK so even if the white woman thought Mrs Obama worked there, how would that be racism?
Is working at Target beneath dignity?
There are probably tens of thousand of times that Republican voters have not asked Mrs Obama for help in a store. According to the studies cited by the UM professor all of those might be for racist or stereotypical behavior. Because everyone knows that Republicans do not ever want black hands to touch the styrofoam ice chest on the top shelf unless the proper protocol is follwed: “You there, Miss Giant Negro get that ice chest down off that shelf for me or I’ll take you and that big caboose back into Clothing and have you beaten with a plastic belt from Vietnam” Then of course it is OK to have had black hands touch the ice chest. You can always have your Mexican slave wash the black off of it with some Simple Green when you get back home to the plantation all white people own.
steveg (794291) — 12/18/2014 @ 4:17 amI’m trying to work up something funny to say, but I’m having trouble.
papertiger (c2d6da) — 12/18/2014 @ 4:30 amRevolving around thin skinned, racism is only skin deep, and the First Lady should be happy, but it’s not coming out right.
Can’t wisk the yoke up to a proper whip topping.
Is this story even true? The lovely Mrs Obama claimed that this occurred after she became First Lady. I have some difficulty believing that the Secret Service would ever allow one of the peonage that close to Mrs Obama, and there’s virtually no way on earth that Mrs Obama could have visited a Target store incognito; the trail of Secret Service agents, along with the huge motorcade, would give it all away. There’s no way on God’s earth that any commoner could have gotten that close to her without knowing who she was.
The incredulous Dana (f6a568) — 12/18/2014 @ 4:46 amH8ters gotta H8.
So… did Lady M have her credit card date stolen from Target?
ErisGuy (76f8a7) — 12/18/2014 @ 5:02 amMichelle ma belle
nk (dbc370) — 12/18/2014 @ 5:07 amYou’ve got a face
That rings a bell
Why don’t you pull on the rope instead?
Mr Feet wrote:
Mrs Obama is not Kate Middleton, and never will be Kate Middleton. The Duchess of Cambridge is not only much better looking — not that she could be worse looking without being physically deformed — but simply a much nicer person.
Oh, weit, did I insult people with physical deformities? I hereby denounce myself.
The Anglophile Dana (f6a568) — 12/18/2014 @ 5:53 amWhat’s fascinating about this anecdote (assuming that it’s even true) is how it reveals how utterly un-self-aware the diva Marie Antoinette Obama is, not to mention, her abject narcissism and arrogance. She believes herself to be such royalty that the ultimate insult is for a member of the proletariat to not recognize her during a transparent “let me pretend I’m middle class” photo op PR stunt and to ask her for assistance in reaching an item on a shelf, as opposed to assuming the standard fawning, obsequious posture of obeisance that she is no doubt accustomed to. The nerve that a common plebeian would have, to not recognize her Majesty and bow down in reverence!
What’s even more galling and deceitful here is that it is now revealed that this twit apparently played this totally innocuous incident for laughs on late-night TV, two years ago. Now, she’s using it as an example of allegedly racist treatment? That, my friends, is the behavior of a totally dishonest sociopath.
Guy Jones (173efd) — 12/18/2014 @ 5:58 amOur esteemed host, in his non-commentable post on this subject, had a picture of our honored First Lady, which he took from the White House website, showing the lovely Mrs Obama reaching high to touch a sign encouraging people to reach for excellence. Hasn’t anyone noticed? This discriminates against munchkins! My darling bride (of 35 years, 6 months and 30 days) could never have touched that without jumping, and, of course, the differently abled amongst us who have to use wheelchairs are being totally discriminated against!
The Dana who noticed (f6a568) — 12/18/2014 @ 6:00 amApartheight!!!!!!
Eric Wilner (3936fd) — 12/18/2014 @ 6:04 amAlas, the Apartheight sketch (I was thinking The Two Ronnies, but it was actually The Goodies) seems not to have made it onto YouTube, so I’m left with a vague recollection and a few Google results identifying the show and vaguely describing it.
From time to time, I’m asked to assist with getting items from shelves. I had never assumed that I was merely being mistaken for African-American. I was being oppressed!
Actually, I’ve never been asked by anybody who had not acted extremely apologetic about asking. I regard it as a small matter, and try to reinforce this perception. It’s just a part of life. As inconveniences go, on a scale of 1 to 10, it’s a 1. On a scale of 1 to 100, it’s still a 1.
tek (2063de) — 12/18/2014 @ 6:05 amPersonally? I think it was possibly all fake, Jackie level contrived – to promote that reach higher campaign. Or more likely the campaign was meant to be based on the first story, it didn’t take off, so now is the time to push it again with a new spin, when everybody is stopped breathing and stuff.
SarahW (267b14) — 12/18/2014 @ 6:27 amThe Obama’s can thank this perceived racism because it is why he was elected. Voting for Barry was redemption for asking him to valet your car.
AZ Bob (34bb80) — 12/18/2014 @ 6:33 amHello.
Denver Todd (5f001f) — 12/18/2014 @ 6:41 am“Tall Black Woman In a Ball Cap” by the Follies
Saturday night I was downtown
Shoppin’ at the Target store
Sittin’ at the end of the top shelf
’bout 8 feet offa the floor
Was the thing that I knew I just had to have
But I’m short and my arms they ain’t long
Just about to call up the PA man
When I heard this woman sing a song
A pair of fat thighs made me open my eyes
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 12/18/2014 @ 6:50 amMy temperature started to rise
She was a tall, black woman in a ball cap
Just-a 5′ 10 sour puss, tall
an’ I’m a white guy holdin’ a bad rap
‘Cause that mean gal wants me to crawl
For Michelle, #bringbackourgirls is the only thing she is willing to do to help someone else. And if it does not help at all, so much the better.
Jack (a742cc) — 12/18/2014 @ 7:21 amShe’s asked to do something helpful for a citizen and she immediately reaches for “racist?”
She should check her tallness privilege.
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Usually, in fact.
Dan (00fc90) — 12/18/2014 @ 8:36 amlet’s be honest: our First Harridan is delightfully tacky, yet unrefined.
in fact, she’d have to class up just to fit in with your average trailer park or Section 8 housing complex.
redc1c4 (dab236) — 12/18/2014 @ 9:48 amthis story might have just gotten better!
allegedly, the woman in the story is a big Obola fan who’s hubby w*rks at MSLSD…
please let this be true. 😎
redc1c4 (dab236) — 12/18/2014 @ 10:19 amTarget also has age discrimination. I can’t remember how many times I visited Target and NO ONE came up to me! I suffer from that all the time. I probably need a multi million dollar vacation at taxpayer expense to get over it.
Jim (84e66d) — 12/19/2014 @ 9:52 amThe incredulous Dana (f6a568) — 12/18/2014 @ 4:46 am
I”m not sure. She’s only the First Lady, not the president. Security is less. they just go out in a special way.
When she was First lady, I got this close to Hillary Clinton:
http://i58.tinypic.com/2jfg3le.jpg
I took the picture too late.
Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 12/19/2014 @ 9:54 amWhich Obama speechwriter is doing the primary negotiating with Iran?
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 12/19/2014 @ 10:20 amWrong thread
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 12/19/2014 @ 10:20 amGovernment sponsored food labels aren’t really very good: (example from the UK)
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2014/12/red-light-green-light-nutritional-labels-can-mislead.html
Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 12/29/2014 @ 12:23 pm