White America acts like Black Women don’t exist, but that might be a conversation some aren’t ready for.
During a Thursday podcast, the forever first lady Michelle Obama said that white America acts like black women don’t exist. She said this pertained to her as well, even though she has held one of the highest titles in the world.
“When I’ve been completely incognito, during the eight years in the White House, walking the dogs on the canal, people will come up and pet my dogs, but will not look me in the eye. They don’t know it’s me,” the former first lady said in “The Michelle Obama Podcast.”
”What white folks don’t understand, it’s like that is so telling of how white America views people who are not like them. You know, we don’t exist. And when we do exist, we exist as a threat. And that, that’s exhausting,” Obama continued.
Friends Danielle Pemberton-Heard, Kelly Dibble, and Dr. Sharon Malone joined Mrs. Obama’s podcast episode as she also addressed the idea that what “the white community doesn’t understand about being a person of color in this nation is that there are daily slights, in our workplaces where people talk over you, or people don’t even see you.”
According to Newsbreak, she also recalled the time she went to get ice cream with her daughters Sasha and Malia, friend Pemberton-Heard was also in tow. And just like the genuine normal person she appears to be, Mrs. Obama said she told the Secret Service to stand back because “they were trying to be normal.”
“When I’m just a black woman, I notice that white people don’t even see me. … I’m standing there with two little black girls, another black female adult; they’re in soccer uniforms. And a white woman cuts right in front of us to order. Like ― she didn’t even see us,” she said.
“The girl behind the counter almost took her order. And I had to stand up because I know [Pemberton-Heard] was like, ‘Well, I’m not gonna cause a scene with Michelle Obama,’” she continued. “So I stepped up, and I said, ‘Excuse me? You don’t see us four people standing right here, you just jumped in line?’”
She then said the women didn’t even apologize.
“She never looked me in my eye, she didn’t know it was me. All she saw was a black person, or a group of black people, or maybe she didn’t even see that. Because we were that invisible.”
This is America!
