Iman was one of the first black supermodels when she started walking runways in the 1970s. She’s authored a best-selling book on beauty and developed a cosmetics line for black, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, and Asian women.
So it seems uncharitable for her to scrutinize Michelle Obama’s looks in yesterday’s issue of Parade Magazine:
“Mrs. Obama is not a great beauty,” Iman says, startling me a bit. “But she is so interesting looking and so bright. That will always take you farther. When you’re a great beauty, it’s always downhill for you. If you’re someone like Mrs. Obama, you just get better with age.”
What a killer backhand Iman’s got.
It’s possible she meant this criticism positively, but why go to the trouble of tearing down the First Lady, who’s known as much for her style as for her intelligence? Why wield the “she has a great personality” line when you’ve dedicated your post-modeling life to building up self-esteem among young women of color?
Am I the only one who detects a hint of cattiness from Mrs. David Bowie?
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I don’t know her reasons for saying it, but I have to concur – the First Lady is not beautiful. I wouldn’t even call her pretty, and I detest her personal dress style. All of that said, I have no idea why that would have any bearing on anything. What recent First Lady *has* been a great beauty with a great style?
Iman is hot. Michelle Obama is not even close to Iman so it’s true. And who says Michelle Obama is a great intellect? Based on what exactly? Did she graduate from college? With what… a PHD in “Smartness”? I have a relative that went to “Big Fancy Science School” and has a PHD in some kind of microwave engineering, something, something, who the Hell knows. He can’t walk and chew gum at the same time.
Will this Obama honeymoon never end?
Maybe there was some cattiness there, but maybe it is just that she simply doesn’t understand why the media paints Michelle Obama as some style icon. She’s not. She’s not a great beauty and she looks kind of oafish with those gigantic arms and shoulders. I don’t think she’s hideous, but I am getting tired of hearing about how great she looks.
She certainly looked lovely in her black and red Narcisco Rodriguez victory party dress.
Not sure quite why the media looked the other way on that one?
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/fashion/stylephile/michelle_obama_k9v9kznc_450.jpg
I bet she could palm a basketball.
Acording to wikipedia Michelle graduated from Princeton and Harvard.
Yeah, I’m not really sure how this could be considered hypocritical. A little bitchy? maybe, but that’s what most Supermodels are.
But how can that be, QB? She’s an African-American… how did she achieve success before The Chosen One entered the White House and made everything so much better for non-whites?
Quite a conundrum, that…
According to Wikipedia, George Bush graduated from Yale, and Harvard Business School. No one calls him a great intellect. I guess it depends more on this (D), rather than this (R).
Michelle’s okay, but she’s no Eleanor Roosevelt. Hubba hubba!
Michelle’s is not even close to being attractive, unless you’re a Klingon looking for a warrior princess.
I don’t think Michelle is all that. And I certainly hope you were being sarcastic with regards to the red dress. That dress was awful. If she is considered a style icon, then things are worse than I thought.
PLEASE SOMEONE….WAKE ME FROM THIS NIGHTMARE.
WTF is with that picture of Iman? She looks bizarrely contorted, one breast looks big and bulgy and nipple-less, plus it seems to be coming out of her armpit, the other breast is almost not even there, it’s just really weird. Am I the only one disturbed by this photo?
Pastafarian, I think a law degree is a bit better than a microwave engineering degree
She graduated from Princeton and Harvard.
Bush DID have family connections HELP to get him into Harvard and Yale. However, I must add book smarts (which Bush probably had) aren’t everything, and perhaps his character was shown as being too down-to-earth and folksy for him to be perceived as an intellect, or the essence of Cheney just overshadowed Bush’s true capabilities. GHW Bush is more of an aloof character, whereas GW Bush came across as the everyday guy you could have a few beers with. He didn’t have the overbearing dignity like his dad did in office… but when 9-11 came around, it was GW Bush’s down-to-earth character that was so badly needed during that time (I shudder to think how Gore would have handled it). I will always remember him standing on the rubble pile with a megaphone. THAT is the GW Bush I’ll always remember
ANYWAYS back on topic… sure Michelle isn’t going to be walking down any runways but… does she NEED to? No. Most of us go through life not being great beauties and are just fine with that. I think it’s ironic how Iman wanted to build up self-esteem for girls of color and then turn around and say someone isn’t a great beauty…and that someone happens to be seen as a role model for girls of color (heck, ANY girls for that matter!).
I’ll take a microwave engineering something something degree over a law degree an day. Just about anyone can be a lawyer. Coming from a family of them I know first hand that there are too many out there to begin with.
But as to Michelle: read her thesis. It’s online. Please do yourself a favor and read it. It’s stunningly bad. Clearly Princeton and Harvard admitted her to fill the empty Klingon catagories in their diversity admission process. She isn’t very smart.
We’ve all met people from Ivy league schools and wondered to ourselves about what exactly makes those schools have the reputations they have for smart people. Those degrees mean so little in the real world and have NOTHING to do with how smart or dumb a person is.
Ani – I agree. Bush with the bullhorn on that rubble is a memory that I will not forget. “We will not falter, we will not fail”. I also agree with Iman. Michelle Obama has been called the next Jackie Kennedy with her fashion. All I hear about are her LL Bean sweaters and her lovely (gag) dresses. I think the media and the celebrities hype her up and I for one, am sick of it. I thought that Laura Bush dressed nicely for her age. Michelle looks odd to me and those arms scare me.
oh, and while I am on a rampage, when Michelle was out in California this weekend speaking at a commencement, she mentioned that we all needed to give more. I remember that they rarely gave any of their money away to charities, so maybe this Obama admin should start practicing what they preached? Maybe? Bueller?
If Whoopi Goldberg had said that, then yeah, “hypocrite!”
I wonder if Narciso Rodriguez is really a conservative who was totally messing with MO.
http://pophangover.com/?p=1063
Slow news day much?
It’s a long weekend in Canada, the U.S. has to wait ’til NEXT Monday to slack off…sorry Holly, but I don’t see how this is up to Deceiver’s usual standard (nadir?) of hypocrisy. Jussayin’
Really Ani? You think lawyers are more important than engineers, and scientists?
Forgive her, Almighty Newton. She knows not of which she speaks.
My husband started going bald halfway between Molecular Simulation of Non-Ferrous Materials and Ion Beam Modification Failure Analysis.
Contract Law would have been a slice of cherry pie compared to Rheology.
That could probably go down as the most epic backhanded compliment
Pasta is, as usual, right on the money, and Simon, that just about made me pee my pants laughing. Hubba, hubba indeed…
I don’t see a disconnect between “building up the self-esteem of girls of color (?!?)” and speaking truth to fashion. MO is not a great beauty; she’s too bulldoggy to be. Assuming that building up self-esteem HAS to equal complimenting her looks is a problem, in my book. Then again, I’m not seeing MO as much of an achiever either, unless you count marrying the most successful empty suit in history.
Crap. The end quotation mark should have come before the first parenthesis. I wish there were an edit function…
As a person with a few degrees I will tell you that a degree does not mean that you are smart. It shows that you have a great memory and are able to pay the fees necessary to get credit for your memory.
There are people out there who are brillant, but Michelle is not one of these. Nor is she a style icon.
President Bush was greatly under-rated President. In addition he is showing what a good person he is by not making any public comments on the Obama administration.
Whatever you think of Michelle Obama’s looks and brains and whatnot, I’m wicked glad Iman’s not my self-esteem coach.
“MC Mom is not a great beauty,” Iman says, startling me a bit. “But she’s an okay mother, her small house is only slightly ramshackle and she’s still got all her hair. Having your own hair will always take you farther. When you’re a great beauty, it’s always downhill for you. If you’re someone like MC Mom, at least you don’t have to worry about female baldness. Probably.”
“Slow news day much?”
I’ve been thinking about this for a while. I blame Deceiver for a lack of stories about hypocrites. For real. I mean that in a good way.
Really? I thought it was legit. Ani summed my point up well in her comment, perhaps better than I did: Iman is the self-appointed poster child for “black is beautiful” and then goes and tears down a prominent black woman for not being conventionally beautiful. It seems to undermine her whole message that minority women should celebrate their beauty, whether they look like Iman or not.
Well here’s some cattiness from me….David Bowie was supposed to be mine!!!! >:-(
Anyway, I’d have to agree that Iman was just reacting to all the gooshy MO hooplah, especially coming from Oprah’s direction (was she actually praying to MO on that recent cover of her magazine?!), i.e., that MO is the most beautiful woman in the world right now. She’s just not. At least not without the obvious airbrushing done on all those magazine cover photos of her lately. So she’s tall and lanky and can wear stuff, that doesn’t make her Jackie K-O by any stretch of the imgination. As far as I’m concerned, Iman just pointing out the emporer’s clothes.
Pasta and Minnow, I’m not saying one degree is more important than the other. I interpreted your comment on what her education was as you saying she had something like a vocational school education and microwave engineering as a slam (as in like… how a garbageman is a sanitation engineer but…ya). If that wasn’t what was meant then I interpreted it wrong
I’ve had a rough weekend and a big exam coming up and am running on caffeine… I don’t claim to be in top mental form right now 
Angry Army Wife… I wish more books would place THAT picture of Bush in their sections on him, that was him at his very best. Laura Bush = LOVE! She’s a classy lady and I loved her
I think the Jackie-Michelle connection keeps getting made because they’re both relatively young First Ladies, and both were also mothers to young children in the Whitehouse.
Miss O is frightening to me. Her severe features (cheeks & eyes) are very intimidating. If you get within 5 feet you probably turn to stone, and not just figuratively.
Shouldn’t this be on Perez Hilton and not Deceiver? Since you’re giving an opinion that Iman is somehow in the wrong on this, I’ll give my opinion. Michelle Obama is pretty…pretty ugly. Sorry to break the news to you guys. I hope you also understand that people talk about her style because she, again, isn’t pretty. And I also hope that you’d realize that this has nothing to do with her professional life, plenty of ugly people are also successful, and it doesn’t destroy them when they look in the mirror. If Iman said “she isn’t pretty, and that’s sad because she can never achieve real success,” then I’d be all up for this article, but she didn’t. The only reason I can think that this article would mean anything is that black women are praying for someone that their children can to look up to, and for some reason those women feel that female role model has to be beautiful??? Which would be messed up, to say the least. I hope that’s not what you’re saying deciever. I’m also sorry that people have to walk on eggshells when they voice opinions that break from the vocal eyes-covered but ears-open majority, or face criticism for some kind of made up hypocrisy that amounts to elementary school playground slap fights.
It’s because she’s jealous that David Bowie is prettier than her. Which he is.
Though I’ve never thought Michelle Obama was attractive, mainly because she looks as if she dines on babies.
Eh, not seeing the hypocrisy here. Building self-esteem among young women of color doesn’t mean you have to agree that every black woman is a raving beauty.
Michelle Obama’s style is either heinous (see that awful red and black dress) or a direct rip-off from Jackie Kennedy. I think her clothes are usually nice enough, but not to the extent where she deserves praise for being some kind of style icon.
No Ani I meant he has some kind of degree that has to do with microwaves…
An electrical engineer hows that.
I don’t care one way or the other, Iman simply said something that others have thought too. Mish O is NOT necessarily that fashionistally forward, and I wholeheartedly wish all the people who just loooooooooooooooooooove her and gush over every little thing she does could marry her, slap a big ol’ slobberknocker kiss on her weird over/under bite mouth……….and then shut up about the O’s in general.
If it didn’t look painful to her when she smiled, if she didn’t wear her anger – rage – in every facet of her face, MO could certainly be attractive. She just seems so… put upon in the photos; like the handlers told her that it wasn’t a good idea to have such angry eye brows and a murderous scowl when talking about finally being proud of her country. And it probably sucks to be told that her husband should be allowed to wear the pants and she might want to consider taking a more… submissive role to the limp biscuit.
Not if you want to have a job.
The MSM is going to give a pass to Iman for this, since she’s African. Imagine if someone like Carrie Prejean had voiced a similar opinion–the libs would demand a public hanging.
Pastafarian, so true! (But, if EVERYONE follows suit then where will I get my shaudenfreude fix? ::sob::)
Holly, all I mean is that Iman, while seeming (like most celebs who’ve been touted as “Great Beauties”) to be a bit full of herself (but, hey, she IS boinking the Bowie, she’s earned a bit of her egomania) she wasn’t, in the full article, coming off as running down MO’s looks as much as she was trying (and failing) to point out that brains trump looks. I can see how they read kind of catty, but I do remember her stating in a long-ago interview that she herself was run down for her unique look when she was younger.
(And yes, I do see the inherently implied “but of course now I’m so gaw-juss neener, neener” in that previous statement too…)
Being a ‘woman of color’ entitles no ‘woman of color’ to any compliment from another ‘woman of color’, much less a false compliment.
I’m with db on Michelle. She’s always looked kind of scary and mean to me. Iman’s statement may be a backhanded compliment, but it’s also a generous stretch.
“Michelle’s is not even close to being attractive, unless you’re a Klingon looking for a warrior princess”
Thats some funny sh*t there, I bust out laughing whenever someone talks about how good looking she is and I say, yeah for a klingon and it takes like 5 seconds for them to make the connection. When they smile I know I have put that mental picture in their heads and whenvever they see her that will be the first thing that they think of. lol
You people sound like a bunch of fools! How dare any of you, especially if you are Black (American or otherwise) publicly and so disdainfully criticize OUR 1st Lady. Those of you who engage in this way are obviously of VERY limited intelligence and too caught up in securing white acceptance. Michelle is a beautiful woman who looks like so many of us (Black Women). We have enough white folks who will take glee in criticizing us and our standard of beauty. How dare you wanna be “intelligentsias” feed into the hype and promote the very idea that Black women who don’t look white women are somehow not beautiful. You are the people who are raising Black children who still choose white dolls because they are “good and beautiful” unlike the “bad” black doll (ostensibly themselves). You are the parents of the African women who have absolutely ruined their skin and their beauty as they unsuccessfully tried to bleach in themselves in their pursuit to look white. You are the parents of the young ladies who wear weaves to their butts, who bleach those weaves or their own beautiful hair some hideous shade of blonde and who then further mutilate their image by donning blue contacts all in some ridiculous effort to embrace white beauty or to “Look white”. Who in the hell cares what Iman thinks, a woman who is married to a white man and who has lived her entire life reliant on white acceptance and her whole career pimping and promoting a white concept of beauty. How likely is it that she simply did not get a much sought after invitation to the white house? How likely is that she is threatened by Mrs. Obama and the fact that her standard of beauty might just have to move aside? She has opened her mouth and proved why she is a SUPERmodel and not a SUPERbrain. She missed that boat and so it seems did many of you! Again, how dare ALL of you, many whom I suspect is not Black American, but that is another topic for another day. Shame on ALL of you!
If Michelle smiled, her face would crack. Same with Pelosi
Ahh How Dare All Of You!… always fun when someone preaches on about their perceived racism in others while sounding totally racist, themselves.
How Dare, you sound like the flip side of a Klansman’s wife: A black racist, who hates anyone and everyone who’s white. Way to solve your problems, there. Way to unite everyone under a banner of love.
This is AMERICA, honey. Until Obama starts sending out hired thuglets to shoot us for speaking our minds, we’re going to keep doing it. And if we think MO is homely–and many of us do–we’re ALLOWED TO SAY IT. We dare to say it, in other words. If you don’t like it, don’t read it. You’re allowed that privilege.
If there are black girls out there trying to look “white”, that’s their problem. Last I checked, there weren’t any vans full of armed white kids patrolling the streets and gang-weaving black girls or shoving blue contacts in their eyes. But keep wailin’, keep whining, keep blaming white people for everything you do to yourself. See how much THAT fixes.
The more you play the racism card Dare the less likely we are to get past it. How dare you.
Here ya go. Although I guess we shouldn’t get too used to it.
And another thing: “‘OUR’ 1st Lady”? What, you’ve got deed and title?
Double standard again. We have to think she is beautiful because she is black? We cannot think that Iman is right in this because she has to be beautiful? I know alot of African American ladies who are very beautiful. Michelle is not one of them. Sorry to burst your bubble on that one. I suppose you voted for her because she was black? Well, you created ageism and sexism for not voting for the old white guy or the lipstick wearing girl.
I thought that Laura Bush had grace and style and I do not feel that way about Michelle. She does not have a warm, welcoming smile. Comeone! When she spoke to school children she stood behind a podium instead of sitting in a chair close to them.
Racism exists with all races and colors, not just African American and Black. It seems someone needs to take a chill pill and go back to knocking on doors for ACORN.
Beige, some feel they do. Kindof goes along with their “Messiah and Savior”
More like knocking DOWN doors for ACORN.
“Some feel they do”. Yeah, I noticed that.
I happen to agree with Iman here. I think she’s got the fashion industry figured out: it’s not about beauty (although there are beautiful models, obviously), but it’s about looking “interesting”. I don’t think Obama is particularly stylish, but if you knew me you’d know not to trust my fashion sense.
I don’t know what to make of this, myself. I don’t know if it’s hypocritical or not, since I don’t follow Iman or care about her one iota. But she does have a point, even if it’s an unimportant one: Michelle Obama is mucho overrated. Well, she AND her ass-backwards husband.
“And another thing: “‘OUR’ 1st Lady”? What, you’ve got deed and title?”
*starts laughing uncontrollably*
Oh noes, Iman is married to a white man! This…this is MISCEGNATION! Dear me, I do declare I have the vapors! I suppose, How Dare All Of You, that you also have issues with your beloved Michelle’s husband’s parents, then.
The funny part is that we’re the ones looking past race and you’re the one who seems to think that all members of a certain race must be treated a certain way. If Michelle Obama had ten warts on her nose, you’d probably still think people who didn’t fall over themselves praising her beauty were racists. There are lots of beautiful black women. Michelle Obama’s just not one of them, and not because she looks “too black”. It’s more because of her harsh, mannish features. She doesn’t “have” to be beautiful, but it’s ridiculous to expect us to say she is when we don’t think it’s true.
BTW..Dare…..not everybody on here has any daughter or 2 with a weave. Don’t screech at posters here about being judgemental, your post reeks of judgment. Iman happens to be a businesswoman in her own right, and was successful on her own before David Bowie came along.
A beautiful black woman whose blood AFAIK has not been diluted: Jennifer Hudson. And truth be told I think Halle Berry is just OK. So, no, beauty has nothing to do with skin color. Aren’t there plenty of ugly white people (Gawoofalo!).
Stonegrigio, what is AFAIK? Like Beige, I am Amish about some internet abbreviations.
And is there anyone in the world (beyond maybe tribes living deep in Amazonian jungles) whose blood hasn’t been “diluted”? The whole notion of racial “purity” has always been utter bullsh*t but especially in this day and age.
As Far As I Know (learned it recently).
I’m sure all American blacks have “tainted” blood one way or another. I was responding to Dare–she seems to think it’s something bad.
All I can say to that is this………….look what happened the last time a person tried to make a country for pure bloods.
The tables have turned where some African Americans seem more concerned about racial “purity” than other races. Obama himself rarely acknowledges that he is exactly 50% Caucasian. In the interest of political correctness, rather than having used the word “diluted,” which BTW was meant ironically, I should’ve just stated that JHud is a very attractive, relatively deeper-shaded African American in refuting Dare’s post about the standard of beauty.
I am so frigging sick and tired of idiots latching onto the “black = noble, downtrodden royal victims”/”white = loathsome oppressors” paradigm. It’s reductionist thinking at its worst, it’s lazy, it’s self-serving, and it’s patently untrue. You think Barry would have gotten into the WH without help from whites? Think again, honey. You think whites are out holding guns to the heads of black criminals? Say hi to the Tooth Fairy for me.
The sad part is that blacks who try to make better lives through their own hard work and ingenuity–people like our former family doctor, people like the engineers and physicists I used to work for–are hobbled and held back by that kind of stupidity.
Y’All need to lighten up on Dare. Can’t you tell that this person has a complex a mile wide about being African-American living in America?
Dollars to doughnuts that this person did NOT immagrate (sic?) from Africa, lives in a single-wide, has six tile toads, a Caddy, and never misses a meal or a welfare check.
Get over yourself Dare! You didn’t come from Africa so you are an American. Just because you’re a person of color, does NOT give you the right to play the race card. Get out of the projects/slums/bario, whatever and join the rest of us in the 21st century and get a life. I’m sure you have something to contribute instead of waiting for handouts!
MO still looks like a Klingon warrior princess.
Why does Michelle Obama’s attractiveness have anything to do with her race?! There’s some ugly, Klingon-like white people too, man. Iman missed an opportunity to state her point that everyone wants to go on about MO’s looks when that’s not everything (at least, that’s kind of how I took it). Now, whether Michelle has smarts going for her either, is a whole other ball of wax.
Man, I don’t care if this article fits the hypocrisy theme of Deceiver or not. I think Holly just wanted to give us a place to rail on MO. And she could use some railing after all the lopsided, undue praise she’s been showered with. Gotta balance it out! And you guys are all so clever and entertaining to read. Klingon…I bust up every time someone makes that comparison.
“tile toads”…………..ROFLMBO!!!!
A tip of the hat to you, Swede0319!
Thank you all very much! I’ll be here all week! Try the veal and don’t forget to tip Deceiver!
Kablaaa (Klingon for “I LOVE you MO”)
stonegrigio, I agree, Jennifer Hudson is gorgeous. If God told me that tomrrow I would wake up as a black woman, but He’d let me pick what I’d look like, I’d pick to look like Jennifer Hudson.
“The sad part is that blacks who try to make better lives through their own hard work and ingenuity–people like our former family doctor, people like the engineers and physicists I used to work for–are hobbled and held back by that kind of stupidity.”
Yeah. Unless you’re the child of extremely rich people, pretty much everyone has to work for what they have in life, from people who work their way up from extreme poverty to even just people who have to have a part-time job in order to pay for college. Plus, if you think the deck is naturally stacked against you, why bother to work hard? The idea that black people are perpetual victims just allows some of them to think, “heck, I’m not going to bother to go to school and get an education, because black people just can’t get ahead in life.” Luckily my mother’s old gynecologist didn’t have that attitude, or else he would have never become a gynecologist, he would have never helped my mother through years of infertility treatments, and I would never have been born. (Funny story: The women who told my mother that their husbands would never let them see a black gynecologist were all self-proclaimed liberals.)
Becoming an educated person is not difficult if you put your mind to it. As long as you have an address, you can have a library card, and even homeless people can sit in the library and read. Frederick Douglass taught himself to read by daring white kids to name more letters of the alphabet than he could, so, black fatalists, what’s your excuse?
“Get out of the projects/slums/bario, whatever and join the rest of us in the 21st century and get a life. I’m sure you have something to contribute instead of waiting for handouts!”
A bit late to the party here, but that’s ridiculous to say. The whole world’s a pyramid scheme, and you need us poor folks at the bottom slaving away so you can live in the 21st century. You can’t pull yourself up by the bootstraps if you don’t have shoes. And even if you, for example, have a mother and father who work 40+ hours a week as a nurse and a police officer, you may still qualify for those “hand-outs.” Heck, practically the entire military is in the same boat. Just because you’re better off doesn’t mean people on the lower rungs aren’t working, or are even entirely dissatisfied with their lives. And it also doesn’t give you the right to thumb your nose. Remember the last time someone had the attitude of “the peasants are out of bread? Then let them eat cake!”?
That person,
What does one’s mother and father have to do with anything? It’s a person’s own responsibility to go out and do something for oneself. True, I would have liked to get some “handouts” back when applying for college scholarships with FAFSA. It’s quite annoying to see “Expected parental contribution: $36,000″ while thinking to yourself “Actual parental contribution: $0.” And as far as other circumstances go when starting for college I didn’t exactly have anything to my name except a fairly old Nissan Altima and about $800 in the bank. Yet here I am 3 years later and working on my doctorate already (and an estimated $150,000 in debt once finished, but adequate means to get out of it in just a couple years after graduating). Now, I’m not saying that society can fully exist with everybody being well educated (or rather it could, just not with enough jobs requiring education), but those who want to get out of the dredges of society can do something about it for themselves. Even those a bit farther advanced in life can still make a change. I have at least a couple of classmates right now in their 40s and older who hadn’t even gone to an undergraduate school until deciding to become a DC and are doing quite well in the program now through hard work even without a prior background of being a studious sort.
Beige,
“I am so frigging sick and tired of idiots latching onto the “black = noble, downtrodden royal victims”/”white = loathsome oppressors” paradigm. It’s reductionist thinking at its worst, it’s lazy, it’s self-serving, and it’s patently untrue”
Not to mention that many who latch onto such an argument forget to make a distinction between white people who even their ancestors obviously had nothing to do with American slavery and race oppression back in the day compared to those who theoretically could have ancestors who were involved and those who definitely did. No, all white American’s apparently come inherently from a history of oppression. Even my great- great grandparents who came to America during the homestead act (after slavery was made illegal) from Germany and Norway (which historically had very small black populations and even less that were slaves) and worked for generations onward until my parents now as family farmers thus avoiding even workplace oppression. Yet I’m blamed today for the actions of my ancestors because they were white.
Tal: and she’s really talented, too. She’s a better role model for young people than a lot of what’s out there, regardless of race, gender and creed. AFAIK, I don’t believe she’s ever played the race card, unlike that “paragon of African beauty” in the White House.
(Note the quotes–insert the exact opposite of what’s in there to avoid any misunderstandings).
That Person, some of your points I agree with! Some I don’t. The fact that first responders, teachers (K – 12), military are under paid and sometimes must rely on food stamps, WIC, relief organizations or a second job is a gross travisty in my eyes. However, when I was active duty and stationed on the warships homeported in Jacksonville, FL, I saw first hand the abuses that certin individuals foisted on the welfare system. Having more kids to increase the welfare check. Why work, when you can do an Octomom? Yes, “The whole world’s a pyramid scheme, and you need us poor folks at the bottom slaving away so you can live in the 21st century”. Well guess what? While I’m not poor, I’m not rich either. There are times when I hope that I have enough money to fill the gas tank so I can get to work or will I have the money to pay all my bills. That was especially apparent when I was active duty. So don’t you dare to assume that I’m rich and that I’m standing on the poor to get ahead in this world. If I get ahead in this world it’s because I have no problem WORKING my ass off to make my life and my wifes life better than what it was for 21 years while I was in the US Navy.
Unfortunately, Judge Smells stated “Well, the world needs ditch diggers too.” Don’t want to be a ditch digger? Get off your ass and learn a viable trade.
BTW, MO still looks like a Klingon!
Swede, thank you for your service, in case I haven’t said that before. You definitely have my respect, and I don’t give a crap what color you are.
I live in a town that is about 65% black, and in which about 70% of the population is on public assistance. Jobs go begging here because people. Will. Not. Work. Why put in an honest day’s work at a job that isn’t glamorous or fun when you can get a check for doing nothing? The blacks here who do want better for themselves and their families get taunted (and worse) for “acting white” (?!?). That’s why our family doctor moved out of town. Meanwhile, the welfare recipients here don’t seem to get that they’re still sharecroppers, still slaves–only now it’s the Democratic party who can buy and sell them, not the man in the big house. Or wait–it IS the man in the big house: The WHITE HOUSE.
This is America. You want to go to school, there are ways for you to get there. I know someone who is on welfare and food stamps. She was going to go get a 2 year degree, filled out the Pell grant info and then never went down to the school to apply. One way or the other, you have a way to better yourself. I am tired of people blaming others for their status in life. Get off your duff and do something with your life instead of whining about it. At age 37 I just completed my Masters and now owe $41000 to Uncle Sam. I hate that fact, but I knew what I was getting into when I started. My husband and I are making sure that debt is reduced quickly. We do not and will not rely on others to do it for us.
“gang weave”
OMG the funniest thing i’ve read in YEARS.
Thanks Beige. You and AAW seem to be able to calm the rage that sometimes hits me. It just royally pisses me off when people complain about their situation and try to play the race card to explain away their lot in life.
AAW congrats on getting your masters!
Thanks Swede – big accomplishment
and thanks for thinking that I help calm the rage. My in-laws play the system and makes my blood boil. My husband often says that if you want to get to college, there is alaways a way and a means. It just means that one has to want to do it. However, there are many out there that just wants to keep on blaming others for their stature in life. This is the land of opportunity people. Wake up and smell the opportunity. Quit whining, suck it up and drive on.
OMG!!! Did any of you see the article in The Sun about MO? She’s showing off her chicken legs.
** shakes head to clear the mental etch-o-sketch**
Ya’ll are preaching to the choir here. My hubby’s brother-in-law (he is nothing to me) lives to play the system. His game now is to sign up for classes at the local community college, get a Pell grant, take the minimum required classes……then change his degree major. Has been doing this for 5 years now, year ’round. Goes to class year ’round and has yet to graduate as anything. He says he can’t make up his mind what to do because he was braindamaged during the 9 months his mother carried him while she drank.
People who ride the coattails of the taxpayers ought to be shipped to a 3rd world country and LEFT to fend for themselves. Cockroaches manage to survive, these human ones could do that and show their true colors.
The government is one giant game show w/Obama as its host. Everyone’s a winner, as long as they play. Non-players, however, WILL be penalized. So if I pay my monthly credit card bills in full every month, I’m going to be penalized now w/fees and possibly even interest. So WHY NOT just join the game and max out my cards and pay $10 a month. Responsibility is so last century.
Granted, governement handouts existed long before Obama came on the scene, but here’s a guy, if left to his own devices, would probably outlaw private ownership of anything so that we could all stand in line for six hours to get a roll of toilet paper.
What traumatic childhood events trigger socialistic/communistic ideologies? Or is it some kind of genetic mutation?
“Tal: and she’s really talented, too.”
Yeah, I think it’s pretty impressive that she got an Oscar for her first movie role ever.
“Not to mention that many who latch onto such an argument forget to make a distinction between white people who even their ancestors obviously had nothing to do with American slavery and race oppression back in the day compared to those who theoretically could have ancestors who were involved and those who definitely did.”
Either way, though, there are no white Americans today who have ever had black slaves. We don’t expect the children of criminals to have to atone for crimes they didn’t commit.
Swede, Hmmm…, et al:
Sorry I couldn’t reply. Time zones change response speed quite a bit.
What I meant by the parents thing is this: if you’re underage, and cannot work, it has a heck of a lot to do with your income/”handouts.”
And I realize that some people are ditchdiggers, and I never accused you of being rich, merely better off. I always try to use conditionals; however you yourself used language that led me to believe you are not in the projects/slums/barrios. What I have issue with is the people who are higher up demanding that those lower make their lives better. Sometimes it literally is impossible. If it were simply hard work, then *most* of us would be rich, or at least comfortable. I would venture a guess that, while good honest work, office work isn’t nearly as difficult as scrounging around a savannah to get enough food to survive or being a civil servant in the capacity as a police officer/fire fighter/serviceman or servicewoman/paramedic/etc.
There is a slew of resources and luck that are required in addition to hard work. Did Michael Jordan work his butt off? Yes, but so do thousands of other aspiring sports stars. Did Bill Clinton climb from a tiny Arkansas town, then to govenor, then to U.S. President? Yes, so why not the millions of other people who work and study? It has a lot to do with luck, circumstance, and chance. The old adage of “not what you know, but who you know” stands quite true.
Long story short: Though some (maybe many) do, not everyone in the projects deserves to be there, as not everyone in the upper eschelons does. It’s unfair to group people together when they are put there in places out of their control. If those in the barrios took your advice, who would dig your ditches? If the slums were emptied, someone would have to take their place. If the projects were given the same opportunites, and they were able to take them, what then? It would change the entire system, and flip America on its ear. Not that we’re in danger of that.
In conclusion, she really does look like a Klingon, and I can’t stop flinching in fear every time she moves that she’ll whip out that crazy Klingon blade thing and kill and eat someone.
ok, really, iman. stop hating on michelle obama.
If it’s luck, or fortune, or whatever, then why blame those of us who weren’t born in a barrio/ghetto/project for the misfortunes of those who were?
In other news, Iman wasn’t “hating on michelle obama”. WE are.
There’s some credence to the “luck” theory of success–just look at the beautiful couple in the White House.
And who will be digging ditches? I’m guessing, all of us?
Too bad for Mrs. Bowie, being a “Great Beauty” won’t help you at all when you leave this world and enter the next. But, being a “Great Person” just might.