‘Racist’ Is the Wrong Word For Line-Jumpers, Michelle
THE ISSUE: Michelle Obama’s comments on white Americans ignoring black women on her podcast.
Michelle Obama’s insulting remarks about “white folks” on her podcast made my blood boil (“Michelle tells of ‘slights by whites,’ ” Aug. 29).
She asserts that people of color “don’t exist” to whites, or if they do, they exist “as a threat,” and she finds this “exhausting.”
Her presumption that as a group, white people think people of color are a threat is insulting and an indulgence in harmful stereotyping. When did this become OK?
These remarks are particularly offensive coming from an accomplished woman who has achieved vast success in our society. How terribly disappointing. Michelle Graham
Oceanside
According to The Post’s article about Michelle Obama claiming “white folks” treat black women as if they don’t exist, she uses the examples of someone cutting in front of her and her children while in line for ice cream.
Are you kidding me? That happens all the time — and the “r” word for it is “rude.”
So please get off of your soapbox and enjoy your wonderful life in this beautiful country of ours, which has taken countless people, of all races, religions and ethnicities, out of poverty to realize their dreams.
Ron Tipa Sunny Isles, Fla.
I am shocked and appalled by Michelle Obama’s recent comment on her podcast that “white America” acts like black women don’t exist. Politics is politics, but this is going too far.
By the way, I’ve been on lines before where people jumped ahead of me and didn’t look at me — both people of color and white people.
They are called “rude people,” and they come in all colors. Stop the nonsense.
The Obamas were in the White House for eight years. What did they do to improve the lives of anyone, never mind the black communities that are still living in horrible conditions with no help from the Obamas? P. Fletcher
Massapequa Park
I can’t help but wonder whether anyone else found the article about Michelle Obama as offensive as I did.
This is a former first lady, in the midst of incredible nationwide racial unrest, who is trying to equate someone cutting in front of her in an ice cream line to a racial slight.
Pardon me, but isn’t part of her legacy supposed to be unite rather than divide? Heal rather than hurt?
I’m a white woman. I can tell you from the bottom of my heart, there have been many days that I’ve come home red-faced from being disrespected in a store, restaurant or other public place.
Because I am not black or a member of another racial minority does not mean that other people, both like me and different from me, don’t attempt to cut in front of me in line, ignore me, talk over or around me. I live in the metropolitan New York area. It is a way of life.
It’s not racism: It’s rudeness. It’s entitlement. It’s self-centeredness. Pure and simple. Dorothy Ferrara
Bay Shore
The generalities Michelle Obama chooses to use about white people are both wrong and offensive.
This constant beating of the race drum is so destructive and really has no end game. I have had people that look like me attempt to skip ahead of me in lines or give a disparaging look.
Obviously it had nothing to do with race. It’s simply because they’re ignorant idiots — and they come in all shades. Gary Kaelin
Commack
It is nothing less than shameful that Michelle Obama declared white Americans as racist, while ignoring or forgetting vast numbers of white voters who helped elect her husband twice to the presidency.
Michelle, how about a statement that all dreams are possible in America regardless of skin color and/or political beliefs?
Such an opinion by a former first lady might help to deter those who believe assaulting, burning and looting is the right way to behave. Martin Welch Bolton Landing