But what stood out in the photo gallery is this photo of a (ostensible) Secret Service officer escorting Mrs. Obama through the crowds:
I have no clue as to the bureaucratic decision-rules on the assignment of Secret Service personnel to the candidates and their wives. But given that Michelle Obama will be the most race-conscious first lady in American history, one can't dismiss the notion that she lobbied - even demanded - for black officers to dominate her security contingent.
As Linda Chavez pointed out last summer:
Michelle Obama’s life is a case study in affirmative action....Perhaps Mrs. Obama used her muscle (and her husband's electoral inevitability) to steer minority officers to her security detail, to add some street authenticity and send a message that race preferences will get an open house at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
At every step of her career, race has been central to her own identification and upward mobility. Judging from the quality of thinking and writing exhibited in her Princeton thesis, Michelle would not likely have been admitted to Princeton (and later Harvard Law) had she been white. And of course affirmative action opened up jobs, first in a prestigious law firm and later as the vice president of community affairs at the University of Chicago medical center-earning $300,000 a year. She made it her first task at the hospital to steer more contracts to minority contractors. “She revised the contracting system, sending so much business to firms owned by women and other minorities that the hospital won awards,” the Times says.
(Note: This could be a local police officer, so I have no idea as to the official position of the agent escorting Mrs. Obama. The post here simply assesses the logical implications of the situation in the photograph, considering Mrs. Obama's race-conscious ideology, and extrapolates to the future demographic composition of the First Lady-Elect's Secret Service detail).
More than anybody else, Michelle Obama reminds me of Winnie Mandela.
ReplyDeleteMr. Douglas, do your academic colleagues take you seriously? Or perhaps you leave this type of nonsense to blogging and do not consider it a work based on any academic integrity.
ReplyDeleteThe whole post looks kinda silly (& a little racist) to me...
ReplyDeleteYou have nothing but a photo as proof that a black man in shades, who may or may not be an agent or officer of any kind, let alone Secret Service, is following her. It could just as easily be an aide, an advisor, or a relative...
From this you extrapolate that she may've requested black agents as some kind of affirmative action ploy, and have no issue quoting Linda Chavez as saying (also with seemingly nothing more than speculation to lean on) that Michelle Obama didn't deserve her place at Princeton or Harvard, or her subsequent employment as a lawyer and then as VP of Community Affairs at the University of Chicago, but only got them because of the color of her skin. (One wonders whether Ms. Chavez feels (or would say) the same about her own accomplishments, given that she is a Latina woman, and surely must've gotten some help as a result of having those cards stacked against her, just like poor Michelle.)
This post is worse than worthless, as it stokes up false accusations with zero basis in fact, under the guise of "asking questions," or "speculating."
best man for the best job.
ReplyDeleteI find the position of the escort's hand to be the most interesting thing in the photo. Hmmmm....
ReplyDeleteI think, if it's true that Barack likes to have occasionnal affairs with men, then he should divorce Michelle. And remarry... with a man!
ReplyDelete