Politics
Michelle Obama Says She was Held to Different Standard in ’08 Campaign Due to Her Race
(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Allie Malloy and Sunlen Serfaty, CNN
(CNN) — Michelle Obama gave an impassioned and personal commencement speech Saturday on the trials she’s faced as the first African-American first lady of the United States, saying she was held to a different standard than other candidates’ wives during the 2008 campaign because of her race.
Speaking at Tuskegee University in Alabama, Obama told the audience that when her husband was running for office in 2008, she faced questions which she said were not typical for other candidates’ wives.
“As potentially the first African-American first lady, I was also the focus of another set of questions and speculations, conversations sometimes rooted in the fears and misperceptions of others,” she told the class of 2015. “Was I too loud or too emasculating? Or was I too soft? Too much of a mom and not enough of a career woman?”
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