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Monday, January 19, 2009

So exactly what do you want with the first Lady?.....



Donelly and her mother back in her Princeton days....
Donelly with her mother and grandmother upon her graduation from Princeton

Someone sent me a link to the following article. It is about the college roomate of Michelle Obama. The woman claims her mother was a racist (like she did not share her views) and claims that her mother had her room moved in Princeton U. 25 years ago because of her racism. You see, she used to be Michelle Obama's roommate in college. She now claims to be a *reformed racist* and want to apologize to Michelle for the racism and untoward behavior she was forced to endure back in the day.... She claims to be *open* and basically portrays herself as an innocent pawn of her mother. I have to admit being baffled by this woman's intentions. She says she just wants an open dialogue concering racial relations-and that she is not seeking any publicity in any way. I have to disagree. Why would she not contact Michelle quietly and apologize. Why do it in such a public way. I would ask her.
"What do you want from the first lady? Do you want her to greet you with open arms? Do you want her to acknowledge you, and call you friend? What do you want at this time-25 years later?"
I have to admit a persistent distrust of anyone who shows up 25 years later to bestow upon you an apology that should have bestowed decades earlier (if it was owed) I see no reason for her to contact Michelle now, or go to the papers claiming her racism is now defunct. I just do not buy it. But what is even scarier to me is the fact that her very racist mother was a teacher! Can you imagine all the children she infected with her bias, and racism? I shudder to think of the damage this woman has done to all the black children who were unfortunate enough to cross her classroom. As for her daughter. The K-mart shopping lesbian who thinks she's too good to room with a young intelligent black woman, who later becomes first lady- I say good riddance! And if you and she have not communicated in all these years, the reason probably is because she found you to be inconsequential, and not worth worrying about..............
Read her story below.......

Published on: 04/13/08
Catherine Donnelly shopped at Kmart, settled into her dorm room and soaked up the Gothic stone buildings where, over the next four years, she would grow into her own woman.
But her first day at Princeton held a surprise, too. And Donnelly knew it would mean confronting the past.
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She walked into the historic Nassau Inn that evening and delivered the news to her mother, Alice Brown. "I was horrified," recalled Brown, who had driven her daughter up from New Orleans. Brown stormed down to the campus housing office and demanded Donnelly be moved to another room.
The reason: One of her roommates was black.
"I told them we weren't used to living with black people — Catherine is from the South," Brown said. "They probably thought I was crazy."
Today both Donnelly, an Atlanta attorney, and her mother (retired school teacher) are ready for dialogue.
But their willingness to talk isn't a response to the candidate born to a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya. It's more about Obama's wife, Michelle.
She's that roommate from a quarter century ago.
Shock to the stereotype
The acceptance letter from the Ivy Leagues was really the culmination of two peoples' hard work. "My mother was thrilled," Donnelly jokes, that she got into Princeton.
Divorced and living paycheck to paycheck, Brown found a way to get her only child into New Orleans' elite Isidore Newman School: She taught 8th-grade science there. They were a mother-and-daughter team, then with the surname Rodrigue.
Donnelly, now 44, captained the basketball and volleyball teams. She was the homecoming queen. And she racked up science and math awards, often with the help of her mother.
But the "Three R's" weren't the only thing Donnelly learned from an early age. There was a fourth one. Her mother and grandmother filled her head with racist stereotypes, portraying African-Americans as prone to crime, uneducated and, at times, people to be feared.
Brown, 71, explains that she was raised to think that way. She recalls hearing her grandfather, a sheriff in the North Carolina mountains, brag about running black visitors out of the county before nightfall. And Brown's parents held on to the n-word like a family heirloom.
In fact, upon learning that her daughter had a black roommate at Princeton, Brown's first call was to her own mother. Her suggestion: yank Donnelly out of school.
Girl was likable, but black
The fourth-floor room had three beds, three desks and space for little else. The ceiling sloped in concert with the roof, creating a cramped perch atop the upper crust of American education.
Quick-witted and nearly 6 feet tall, Michelle Robinson had no problem filling the room, Donnelly recalls. The future Michelle Obama, from Chicago's Southside, would playfully tease the third roommate, who was white. Obama's long fingers still narrate stories in Donnelly's mind. "From the minute we met," she says, "I liked her."
Donnelly doesn't think Obama ever picked up on her mother's behind-the-scenes maneuvering. She remembers nothing but friendly words. Only now, looking back, does she see the wall between them.
Donnelly was surprised to find something familiar – segregation – alive and well on a prestigious campus in the Northeast. The university's private eating clubs, host to frat-style parties, were largely white. The social scene for many minority students, including Obama, revolved around an activity building called the Third World Center.
When Obama began hanging out with other black students on campus, Donnelly never thought to join them. "Here was a really smart black woman who I found charming, interesting and funny," Donnelly says with disappointment. "Just by virtue of having different color skin, we weren't going to be friends."

In her thesis, Obama wrote that Princeton made her more aware of her "Blackness" than ever before. "No matter how liberal and open-minded some of my White professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don't belong," she wrote. "Regardless of the circumstances under which I interact with Whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, I will always be Black first and a student second."
Donnelly, meanwhile, was struggling with her own identity. She came out that first semester, chopped off her hair and partied with other lesbians on campus. Soon she, too, learned what it feels like to be part of the "other" group, to be seen as a student second.
Donnelly said she and Obama had established separate circles of friends by second semester. That's when another room – the one her mother had requested – opened up. By then, it just made sense to trade cramped quarters for roomier ones.
Donnelly doesn't remember having another meaningful exchange with Obama. She graduated with a psychology major in 1985 and forgot all about that tall roommate from Chicago.
'I was inspired .... I was envious'
More than two decades passed, and Donnelly, who normally doesn't care much for politics, found herself intrigued by one of the Democrats running for president. She was a little surprised to hear her mother liked Barack Obama, too. Brown had never voted for a Democrat. But she's a sucker for Harvard grads, especially eloquent ones.
"He thinks well," Brown said recently, though she and Donnelly are still undecided voters. "He seems to be a thoughtful person. He considers everything."
When Donnelly first saw Obama's wife on TV, she was struck by how tall and graceful she looked. Then she studied her more closely. Michelle Obama looked so familiar, down to those long fingers. Could that be Michelle Robinson?
A Google search gave Donnelly the answer. Obama was far more than a first-lady hopeful. She had gone to Harvard Law School, had been an associate dean at the University of Chicago and rose to vice president at the University of Chicago Hospitals. Like Donnelly, she was mother to two children.
"I was inspired," she says. "I was amazed. And I was envious of all she had accomplished."
Donnelly called her mother, who in turn phoned the friend who had traveled with her to Princeton all those years ago. The friends had stayed up that night calling everyone they knew with a connection to the university, hoping to get Catherine moved. "We thought this is so ironic," Brown says. "[Obama] could be the first lady, and here we wanted to get my child out of her influence."
Some empathy for lingering anger. As her 2- and 5-year-old boys play on the front porch, Donnelly flips through a photo album of her own childhood. Brown, in Atlanta for her monthly hair appointment, looks over her daughter's shoulder.
"There we are," Brown says, "at your graduation."
In the photo, Donnelly clutches a bouquet in front of her white dress, smiling next to her mother and her grandmother.
When Brown heard about Barack Obama's former pastor — his angry rants against white America — she didn't like it. But she understood. "If I had been treated the same way blacks have been treated," she says, "I'd be resentful, too."
It was Donnelly, however, who understood Obama's response: "The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static."
Society changed, and Donnelly has seen her mother nudged along with it. Says Brown: "It's become politically incorrect to talk about black people in a negative way. It's like smoking."
Brown quit smoking in 1996. She's still working on the other.
Brown says she wouldn't mind if her child or grandchild roomed with a black person today. But she's far from colorblind. "Where I draw the line is interracial marriage," Brown says. "That I can't quite deal with."
She holds firm to the belief that African-Americans don't take enough responsibility. "Bill Cosby says the same thing," she says. "Get off your rear end and work hard and improve yourself."

Living as a gay woman has made Donnelly far more aware of what it's like to be judged by a trait beyond your control. "Being gay is such a small part of who I am."
Now she wishes she had reached across racial lines at Princeton. "I don't think I ever set foot in the Third World Center," she says of the popular hangout for minority students. "It's like this mystical place."
Since then, Donnelly has worked and socialized with African-Americans. Yet she hasn't grown close to any of them. "I've just never had an opportunity," she says, "to have a good friend who was black."
"You did with Michelle," Brown snaps.
Donnelly rolls her eyes.
She believes the cycle of racism can be stopped.

27 comments:

Welcome said...

But she's far from colorblind. "Where I draw the line is interracial marriage," Brown says. "That I can't quite deal with."
She holds firm to the belief that African-Americans don't take enough responsibility. "Bill Cosby says the same thing," she says. "Get off your rear end and work hard and improve yourself."

What's funny is hear she is talking about how she's changed then she says this crap. What she doesn't realize is that yes bp have our issues, but we ain't stupid. I mean seriously if the woman knew anything about bp getting their act together she would know it's mostly the women. And frankly maybe I'm just being mean, but I hope her children date or marry interracially. And what does interracial have to do with just black and white? There are Indian, hispanic etc.

Living as a gay woman has made Donnelly far more aware of what it's like to be judged by a trait beyond your control. "Being gay is such a small part of who I am."
Now she wishes she had reached across racial lines at Princeton. "I don't think I ever set foot in the Third World Center," she says of the popular hangout for minority students. "It's like this mystical place."
Since then, Donnelly has worked and socialized with African-Americans. Yet she hasn't grown close to any of them. "I've just never had an opportunity," she says, "to have a good friend who was black."

I'm sorry, but unless this woman has a stamp or a big neon sign saying I'm gay she won't experience the racism and prejudice that bp and other people of color experience. When people look at her she will still look, talk, walk like a white woman to them (not that there's a walk or talk.lol) To them she will be just a white woman until she says something.

Plus if she has no black friends then that's her fault!!!!!!! She's a damn grown ass woman. She has work, she has other social arenas where she could meet bp.

What a opportunist!!! That's really all she is.

LostGirl#1 said...

"I was inspired," she says. "I was amazed. And I was envious of all she had accomplished."

________________________________________

I think the above statement says it all. Sooooooooo..........

Dear First Lady -

Please don't give these simpletons an acknowledgment. Clearly this is a desperate attempt for these folks to try to get into your social circle; AS IF you would want to be associated with them. SMH.

Sincerely,
Pinky

Anonymous said...

Clearly this woman wants and has gotten her 15 minutes of fame - next. She is serving her own agenda - most likely to bring attention to gay and lesbian issues and causes with this very public mea cupla. Perhaps it is sincere but it is also self serving. Michelle Obama will no doubt graciously move on with her life.

Clarice

Anonymous said...

Typical. A white woman wanting to gain some attention off the fact that she 'housed' with the first lady...this does not surprise me one bit.

*SMH*

Anonymous said...

Although, Ms. Brown is originally from North Carolina, being a New Orleanian I am ashame of Ms. Donnelly and her mother's attitude. Since they were so racists they probably actually lived in Metairie or some other nearby city and NOT New Orleans.

Their attitude is why I say,
"Antiqued racial attitudes are SLOWLY changing in the South".

Her mother taught at Newman High School because there was no way she could afford Newman's high price tag. I do not want to imagine the crazy ideas Ms. Brown probably told those young and impressionable students. The article states that her mother helped her daughter to win various awards...I bet Ms. Brown probably did a majority of her daughter's work so that she could win a scholarship.

Good grief Ms. Brown and her friend stayed up all night trying to get her daughter, Ms. Donnelly a new roommate. Reflecting back Ms. Brown says, "I wanted my daughter not to be influenced by her?"...even Ms. Brown cannot believe how ignorant she was.

Ms. Brown says, she stopped smoking in 1996; but, she is still working on not being racists. The woman is 71 yr. old what is she waiting for?
She doesn't like ir marriage...
what about your gay daughter? She was rather quite on the gay part.
LOL...Ms. Brown's negative attitude is probably one reason why she was divorce.

I would be too embrassed to tell people that my grandfather or uncle used to run black visitors to their county off in the middle of the night.
Tell the truth Ms. Donnelly your family were part of the KKK. Her grandfather was probably a grand wizard.

I wonder who named the predominately black hangout/ cafeteria, "The Third Word Center?"

Ms. Donnelly is a big old lisbian and doesn't want people to judge her simply by her gayness.
Yet, she and her entire family judge an entire race of people.

Ms. Brown says doesn't mind her grandkids going to school with AA kids. Well, Ms. Brown I would mind my grandkids going to school with your grandchildren.

LOL...Donnelly says she wished that she had reached out to Michelle and her mother said, "You had an opportunity"...are we turning on each other?

IMO, these two women are more covert racist.

Ann

Beautifully.Conjured.Up said...

Michelle can meet with her in eight more years...until then, Michelle's schedule is booked with more important things like taking care of her children and helping her husband run America.

Divalocity said...

I found this article in the AJC in April. What we have now is that since Obama has won she wants to make amends. The way that her mother acts is something that a lot of black children went through once schools were desegregated in the south. Their attitude was that they were forced to teach us but they did not have too and many of them did not. We went through pure hell with teachers just like her. Many caucasian people and others don't realize we want the same things as they do and all of us don't sit on our rear ends and being Black is such a small part in who we are.

Taylor-Sara said...

Exactly Diva!!!
Could not have said it better myself! I don't even know more than a handful of bw who sit on their behinds all day! Almost all the women I know are go-getters, or at least striving (regardless of their economic positions) so I don't know where she finds all these lazy bw, because I sure as hell rarely see any....

Anonymous said...

I suppose donnelly is also responsible for Michelle's academic achievements.

a.f.

Anonymous said...

to be honest, i didn't even read the article that ww wrote. i have to admit, i just can't stand the MAJORITY of ww, i just can't, too passive aggressive and b*t*chy for my taste, so yeah, really not my cup of tea. but


ladies ignore ww that badmouth bw. in my experience, i feel like ww either want to impress us bw (so we can admire them or lavish attention on them) and if that doesn't work (watch out) extreme passive agressive alert. it's like if you're not willing to smooch on their behinds, you're a raging B as far as they're concerned. is it obvious that i had one too many ww roomates in college?

Anonymous said...

Oh goodness...well, here's the first thought that popped into my head when I read this (in the oh-so-eloquent words of Mike Jones), "Back then they didn't want me, now I'm hot they all on me".

I think that explains it all. I pray that G-d protects the Obamas from sick people and opportunists like this woman.

Anonymous said...

If I was michelle obama, I would not entertain idiots like this one.

Anonymous said...

to be honest, i didn't even read the article that ww wrote. i have to admit, i just can't stand the MAJORITY of ww, i just can't, too passive aggressive and b*t*chy for my taste, so yeah, really not my cup of tea. but


Then you must really not like white men, because one begets the other.

PVW said...

Yes indeed, why in the world would M. Obama have anything to do with that loser character???

On another note, Anon's comment:

Michelle Obama is clearly a woman who would have never gone with a white man. She had pride in her blackness, and saw how different it was from the white world.

My reply:

It is unfortunate that her brother didn't feel the same way. Although his wife never seems to appear in any of the photographs, she is talked about on occasion. M. Obama's brother Craig married a white woman. Her own mother-in-law was white...

Candy said...

Totally unreal... and typically expected from anyone who,, back in the day, didn't like, want, or need Barack or Michelle. But now that they run your damn country... you find a way to manuever yourself back in. Get outta here!!!

As Sara stated... this apology, letter or whatever the heck it is, should have come a lot sooner than now! Why do it publically too? How come you couldn't have found a way to contact Michelle privately, just between the two of you and air it out then? I mean damn, you're a lawyer are you Mz. Donnelly? Use your resources! As a matter of fact, how 'bout you use those same resources to crawl back under the "reformed racist" rock you came from under! How 'bout that for 3 R's!!!

Anonymous said...

Craig Robinson was married twice. No, pics of the former wife. It is probably on purpose that there a few pics of craig's 2nd wife. More than likely she is a stay at home mother...how fortunate he can afford for her to do that.
BTW, who really care about him.

a.f.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
to be honest, i didn't even read the article that ww wrote. i have to admit, i just can't stand the MAJORITY of ww, i just can't, too passive aggressive and b*t*chy for my taste, so yeah, really not my cup of tea. but


Then you must really not like white men, because one begets the other.

January 23, 2009 5:24 PM

...............

I am assuming the second part of this comment was written by another person, and maybe presumably even by a ww.....

I do think it is counterproductive to actively seek disharmonious (or assume an us v. them type scenario) relations. It is important to treat all people the way you would when you vet a man for marriage and love...IOW..take every person on an individual basis. I certainly don't hate every ww I come in contact with. In fact, SOME I am rather fond of (I am trying not to sound as though I am talking about a pet..lol) I treat other bw the same way...SOME I am rather fond of..... It is clear I think, what the other part of the equation is.

Just take everyone on an individual basis. We need to look at what we have in common with our white sisterfriends. I know everyone is not going to be on board, but creatures like First Lady Obama's ex roomate (an attention seeking sexually confused (maybe,) racist, sad pitiful, unsuccessful (as a human being) pathetic, conniving idiotic sea hag)are really rare....

They really are....so take heart.

PVW said...

Although Craig Robinson is not in the public eye, and no one is commenting on his familial status, it is interesting the way M. Obama is being called a true "race woman" who would have never dated outside of her race.

This is an example of the litmus test that black women are traditionally given to prove their race loyalties. Yet, black men don't have to prove their racial loyalties in the same way.

Black women might want them to, ie., in light of the fact that more black men date/marry interracially than black women do, but black men might not feel as obliged.

Anonymous said...

I'm no white woman, thank you..

My point is this: White men are no different than white women. The beauty standards of America have been created by white men!! White women aren't put on a pedestal by themselves; their men put them on that pedestal. What's wrong with that? Nothing! Men are supposed to put their women on a pedestal. Yet, separating white women from white men makes no sense, they work hand in glove.

Anonymous said...

To Anonymous who posted at 1:25 am, white men and white women are no more necessarily the same as black men and black women are necessarily the same. You are lumping people together on the basis of race in America, but race isn't always the be-all. Sometimes it is shared experiences and shared values that bring people together. I find as a BW that I often have more in common with WM than I do with BM or WW. If you haven't already done so, you might want to read a blog called "White Women Suck" (I know the name can be a bit off-putting, but the blogowner has chosen this name for a reason).

Anonymous said...

Sandra,

I realize that white men and women are not the same; however, white women are where they are at becuase of white men elevating them. Beauty standards are really set by white men. Who do you think owns all the media and companies the put out commericals and beauty magazines?

Anonymous said...

Back in the day you could talk about real pedestal but I think today WM put WW on this "pedestal" these days because that's where the money is. They're trapped in something they created in the first place, now they have no real "choice" if they wanna make real money. Not to mention, many executives in the media are WW. Truth is, EVERYBODY has to appeal to WW to make cash, the music, fashion, cosmetic, film industries. That's also why movies like "Something New" have less chances of being #1. The real majority of this country is WW. That's why most TV shows, talk shows, reality TV shows, movies and magazines are geared towards them, money TALKS. But there are more and more WM of this generation (between 20 and 35 years old) saying that BW need to be more open to interracial dating and there are too few AW (in fact, asians represent about 4% of the population). WM are the most open minded group when it comes to interracial dating, statistics show it. People are mixing more and more and it seems that in spite of the majority, the media cannot ignore what's going on (new ads/commercials with BW/WM).

Anonymous said...

I see we have been invaded by WW protectionists.


SIGH.

Anonymous said...

Why must people act like it is such a damned crime if a Black woman says she does not like White women? So what?!? That is NOT a crime! White women don't like us, and NOBODY is getting all huffy about it, so why can't we have the same courtesy. I am a Black woman, and I can't stand White women because of their trifling, racist mess towards us. If you don't like that I have that opinion, well TOO BAD!

Anonymous said...

The people who are trying to blame White men for putting their women on a pedastal are making no sense. Men of every race are SUPPOSED to hold up their women as the fairest of them all. Why crucify White men for this? How about crucifying White women for being so ungrateful about it? I think it is just a thinly-veiled attempt at letting Black men off the hook because they have been such utter and complete miserable FAILURES at holding up Black women as the fairest of them all.

Anonymous said...

To Late! I'm sure she wouldn't be singing this same song if Michell Obama had not turned out to be 1st lady, and such a dynamic first lady at that. It is clear that had the first Lady been someone else, this woman would have never come out. Now that her mother's racism messed up her opportunity to be closed friends with the future first lady she wants a discussion on race. Isan't that a great lesson learned. Never judge a person based on race because greatness is within, not based on external complexion. I suppose now she will judge people based on character instead on color.

I know her mother is really regretful, because in the South, hey love to know important people. The Antibelum South loves to host parties and be in high society status. Look what a mistake her mother made. She sent her daughter all the way to Princeton to surround her daughter with movers and shakers. She had a mover and shaker sharing her daughters room, who turns out to be a prominent ivylegue success and later the first lady; but the mother moves her daughter because that mover and shaker is black. If that is not an episode from the TwilightZone I don't know what is. How ironic, it's priceless..lol.

Anonymous said...

Anon. @ 7:29 a.m...." know her mother is really regretful, because in the South, hey love to know important people. The Antibelum South loves to host parties and be in high society status."

You are 100% correct.


ann