Former First Lady Michelle Obama reportedly reveals in her memoir, Becoming, that she was upset and felt bullied when “certain people” and her “haters” labeled her as an “angry” black woman during former President Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns and her time in the White House.
The Washington Post obtained a copy of Becoming, and the Post notes in a Thursday evening review that Obama discusses “what she calls the angry black woman ‘trap’ that dogged her.”
“I was female, black and strong, which to certain people . . . translated only to ‘angry.’ It was another damaging cliche, one that’s been forever used to sweep minority women to the perimeter of every room . . . I was now starting to actually feel a bit angry, which then made me feel worse, as if I were fulfilling some prophecy laid out for me by the haters,” she reportedly writes in her memoir.
Obama, according to the Post, reportedly “felt, at times, bullied, stereotyped and underserved — particularly during her husband’s 2008 campaign” when her critics tried to write her off as “angry or unbecoming.”
“If I’d learned anything from the ugliness of the campaign, from the myriad of ways people had sought to write me off as angry or unbecoming, it was that public judgment sweeps in to fill any void. . . . I knew that I would never allow myself to get that banged up again,” she reportedly writes.
Obama also does not mince words when she writes about President Donald Trump, blasting his “bigotry” and saying that she will never “forgive him” for ginning up the birther controversy.
“The whole [birther] thing was crazy and mean-spirited, of course, its underlying bigotry and xenophobia hardly concealed. But it was also dangerous, deliberately meant to stir up the wingnuts and kooks,” Obama reportedly writes. “What if someone with an unstable mind loaded a gun and drove to Washington? What if that person went looking for our girls? Donald Trump, with his loud and reckless innuendos, was putting my family’s safety at risk. And for this I’d never forgive him.”
The Associated Press also got a copy of Becoming and reported that Obama writes that she tried to “block it all out” when Trump got elected and rips Trump for his Access Hollywood tape and “stalking” Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential debate.
To Obama, Trump was sending a clear message to women: “I can hurt you and get away with it.”
Obama will reportedly launch her book tour at Chicago’s United Center on Tuesday, and Oprah Winfrey will moderate the kick-off event. The former first lady is scheduled to stop at other arenas like the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, and the Los Angeles Forum. According to the Associated Press, celebrity guests on her book tour will include actresses Reese Witherspoon and Sarah Jessica Parker.