Michelle Obama: 'In America we don't build walls to keep people out'
NB: As our Prime Minister embarks on yet another feel-good trip to the USA, he should listen to this speech, and pay special attention to these words: She alluded to those who “tell us to be afraid of those who are different, to be suspicious of those with whom we disagree. They act as if name-calling is an acceptable substitute for thoughtful debate, as though anger and intolerance should be our default rather than optimism and openness.." - Anyone who has followed the utterances of various officials and activists of the RSS/BJP will know that Michelle Obama's words could as easily have been directed at them as at Trump. Here's a link to a prayer being said for Trump by self-styled 'Hindu' activists - DS
Michelle Obama has
delivered a withering attack on Donald Trump, warning a graduating class of New
York students, and through them America, that those who seek to rule by
intimidation and fear end up diminishing the hope and freedom of their nations. Without mentioning the
presumptive Republican presidential candidate by name, the first lady made one
of the most sustained and potent attacks on Trump since he began his bid for
the White House last year. She portrayed his brand of politics as un-American
and dangerous, comparing him to world leaders “who stifle the voices and
dismiss the potential of their citizens … who demonise and dehumanise entire
groups of people because they have nothing else to offer.”
Graduating students of the CCNY listen to Michelle Obama’s address during
the college’s commencement ceremony in New York. Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters
the college’s commencement ceremony in New York. Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters
Addressing the class
of 2016 at the City College of New York in her 23rd
and final commencement speech as first lady, she said: “Graduates,
that is not who we are. That is not what this country stands for.” She went on: “Here in
America we don’t let our differences tear us apart. Here in America we don’t
give in to our fears, we don’t build walls to keep people out.” She alluded to those
who “tell us to be afraid of those who are different, to be suspicious of those
with whom we disagree. They act as if name-calling is an acceptable substitute
for thoughtful debate, as though anger and intolerance should be our default
rather than optimism and openness that have always been the engine of our
progress.”
Obama’s speech,
possibly the last major public statement she will make as first lady, was a
tour de force of a form of quiet political activism that she has made her own,
almost without anybody noticing. At a time of unparalleled bitter partisanship
in American politics, Obama has managed to pull off the seemingly impossible:
while her husband has become a hate figure for the right and a subject of
sustained racially tinted trolling, she has managed to keep above the fray
while continuing to be a powerful advocate for greater racial tolerance.
Her favorability rating has remained steady
at an astronomical 70%, even at times when the president’s have slumped to 40%.
The public adoration towards her is reflected in her 5 million followers on
Twitter and Instagram, and by the crowd of almost 4,000 students before her
under a grey New
York sky who chanted “Four more years! Four more years!” as though she
were the president whose term limit is approaching.
Obama, who will be 52
when she leaves the White House, chose the venue for her final commencement
carefully. Founded in 1847 on a hill overlooking Harlem, City College was the
first free public college in the US with a specific mission to serve the
children of poor and immigrant families, in stark contrast to its rich
neighbour down the road, Columbia University. Today, it retains a
highly diverse student body. Among Obama’s audience on Friday were students
speaking more than 100 languages, 40% of whom were first-generation college
students. Some have been homeless, and many work two jobs to pay for themselves
throughout college. They join a body of alumni that includes Ira Gershwin,
Colin Powell and 10 Nobel laureates.
Obama said she had
chosen City College for this poignant moment in her own life – “this is a big
day for me too,” she said – for the very reason that it was what she called a
“dynamic inclusive place”. She said it represented “the power of our
differences, making us smarter and more creative. That is how the infusion of
all our cultures, generation after generation, created the matchless alchemy of
our melting pot and helped us build the strongest, most vibrant, most
prosperous nation on the planet.”
A melting pot, she
went on to imply in front of the students who at that point fell ominously
silent, Trump was determined to destroy. “Despite our history, some folks out
there today seem to have a very different perspective,” Obama said. “They seem
to view our diversity as a threat to be contained rather than as a resource to
be tapped.” She listed the
creations of immigrants to America: Google and eBay, the telephone and the
artificial heart, even blue jeans and the national anthem. “National landmarks
like the Brooklyn Bridge and, yes, the White House – both were designed by
architects who were immigrants.”
The underlying theme
of Obama’s speech – the value of racial, religious and ethnic diversity to
America’s future – lies at the core of how she has moulded her undefined role
as the nation’s first lady. The three great causes she has made her own –
encouraging young people, especially girls to take up higher education;
supporting members of the military and their families, and fighting obesity –
relate to problems and challenges that African Americans in disproportionate
numbers have struggled with over generations.
Yet she did so without
being accused of radicalism or anti-white animosity; rather she deployed humour
and the power of her own example to bring others along. Her followers included
not just liberals and human rights campaigners, but Walmart and big food
companies who were cajoled into making major changes that would benefit
particularly the poor and disadvantaged. Just last week she was
instrumental in introducing a new rule that will force companies to disclose on
labels how much added sugar their products contain – a reform that she helped
to achieve against considerable opposition from the food industry.
The same gentle yet forceful persuasion
epitomised her work on racial equality. She reminded the City College students
that her family had come to America “in chains” – but she said it not as an
admonition but as an exaltation that they follow her on to higher things. As Peter Slevin, who
teaches journalism at the Medill School at Northwestern University and is
author of Michelle Obama: A Life, puts it: “It’s hard to imagine any other
first lady shouting, ‘Black girls rock!’ as she did so joyfully on a BET awards
show last year.”
Though she’s mastered
the appearance of being relaxed and at ease as first lady, and at times has
been self-deprecating – famously saying that she was “prepared to make a
complete fool of myself” if it did good – the impression is misleading. She
approached the role with the precision and determination of the Harvard-trained
lawyer that she is. Slevin said that Obama
is “nothing if not disciplined. Aides say she is the most strategic person they
have ever met. She is not a ribbon-cutter or one of those political spouses who
gazes silently and adoringly from the wings.”
Before Obama spoke,
she listened to the address of the City College salutatorian Orubba Almansouri,
who was born in Yemen and after coming to the US had to persuade her
disapproving family that she should be allowed to break a tribal tradition and
go to college rather than marry. “They wanted me to go to the university of the
kitchen,” Almansouri said, “but I fought to be allowed to pursue an education,
for the right to be here today.”
Obama said that
Almansouri and her fellow Class of 2016 were “the living, breathing proof that
the American dream endures in our time – it is you.” As she ended the speech,
preparing to return to her final few months in the White House, she urged them
to find strength in the “power of our differences”. “Take an oath to make
your city and your world greater and more beautiful,” she said. “That is the
American story.”
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