No one, I realized, was going to look out for me unless I pushed for it.
MICHELLE OBAMANo one, I realized, was going to look out for me unless I pushed for it.
MICHELLE OBAMAIt’s remarkable how a stereotype functions as an actual trap. How many angry black women have been caught in the circular logic of that phrase? When you aren’t being listened to, why wouldn’t you get louder? If you’re written off as angry or emotional, doesn’t that just cause more of the same?
MICHELLE OBAMAThe easiest way to disregard a woman’s voice is to package her as a scold.
MICHELLE OBAMAI’ve learned that it’s harder to hate up close.
MICHELLE OBAMAWhen they go low, we go high.
MICHELLE OBAMAThey didn’t own a house. We were their investment, me and Craig. Everything went into us.
MICHELLE OBAMADo not bring people in your life who weigh you down. And trust your instincts, good relationships feel good. They feel right. They don’t hurt. They’re not painful. That’s not just with somebody you want to marry, but it’s with the friends that you choose. It’s with the people you surround yourselves with.
MICHELLE OBAMAI wasn’t going to let one person’s opinion dislodge everything I thought I knew about myself. Instead, I switched my method without changing my goal.
MICHELLE OBAMAAt fifty-four, I am still in progress, and I hope that I always will be.
MICHELLE OBAMALook how I’m managing, I wanted to say in those moments, to my audience of no one. Does everyone see that I’m pulling this off?
MICHELLE OBAMAThe burden of assimilation is put largely on the shoulders of minority students.
MICHELLE OBAMAFulfillment, I’m sure, struck her as a rich person’s conceit.
MICHELLE OBAMATime, as far as my father was concerned, was a gift you gave to other people.
MICHELLE OBAMAInspiration on its own was shallow; you had to back it up with hard work.
MICHELLE OBAMAThere’s a power in allowing yourself to be known and heard, in owning your unique story, in using your authentic voice. And there’s a grace in being willing to know and hear others.
MICHELLE OBAMAIt was painful, but time pushed us all forward.
MICHELLE OBAMA