Sunday, May 6, 2018

larsen nichols- Michelle Obama on Running for Office

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/michelle-obama-running-office-i-dont-think-im-any-hillary-1109004

On Saturday, May 5th, Michelle Obama was interviewed  by Tracy Ellis Ross at the United State of Women conference in Los Angeles. Some topics discussed by the pair were being mentors, mothers, and finding hope in the current social and political climate. Michelle Obama shared a story from her childhood of standing up to her grandfather, who bullied her grandmother, at only 4 years old. She spoke about ambition and how the responsibility is on both men and women to inspire young girls to  have ambition and dream bigger. When she was questioned about running for office, she shut it down with the comment that "It's not about finding one right person who can save us, it's us."

This article was written this morning by Booth Moore at Hollywood Reporter. It aims to convey the events and messages of this conference and the specific interview between Ross and Obama. Before reading the article, I had seen social media posts about the conference, but wasn't aware of any of the events that took place. I'm so incredibly glad that conferences like this are taking place, and I hope there was high attendance and media coverage. The topics that Michelle Obama spoke about, especially regarding her childhood, were eye-opening for me. She was so bold about her achievements and how she knew she was intelligent and brave from a young age. You don't see women being able to make self-praising statements like those a lot, even though self-recognition and appreciation is incredibly important, especially for women.  You see men being able to make comments like this quite often, without criticism, but I know lots of women don't feel secure enough to appreciate themselves publicly due to a history and fear of being disrespected for it. I agreed with everything that Obama said during this interview and I'm incredibly pleased she's continuing to promote change after her time as first lady. While I would love for her to run for president in 2020, she's correct when she says that it's not about finding one person to save us. There's a common underlying belief that if we find a hero, we don't have to put in the work to fix any wrongs. All kinds of people are guilty of that belief; it's human. Change is about overcoming that subconscious feeling and doing your part to make a difference, and Michelle Obama reflects that in everything she does.
Big shoutout to Michelle Obama I love you queen <333

Synthesis: This article can be connected strongly to the Seneca Falls Convention (I know I connect like half of my blog posts to the Seneca Falls Convention but this time it's actually very legit). Both events were  a uniting of women (and men) to discuss issues facing women and how we can overcome them together to reach a greater level of equality.

4 comments:

  1. I agree, the strongest system of government is when citizens are constantly participating in creating the law and a system in which government supports said participation.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. me too, more involvement, especially from younger people, we could see more of a change.

      Delete
  2. Olivia Wall- I think it is vital to the community and government system to have citizens in the know which is a good thing and it is good that these are subjects being talked about.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Michelle opening and sharing that shows so much character and leadership and then going in and synthesizing how the government needs to improve is amazing, my queen

    ReplyDelete