Michelle Obama's senior year thesis at Princeton University, obtained
from the campaign by Politico, shows a document written by a young woman
grappling with a society in which a black Princeton alumnus might only be
allowed to remain "on the periphery." Read the full thesis here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
"My experiences at
Princeton have made me far more aware of my 'blackness' than ever before,"
the future Mrs. Obama wrote in her thesis introduction. "I have found that
at Princeton, 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. Regardless of the
circumstances underwhich I interact with whites at Princeton, it often
seems as if, to them, I will always be black first and a student second."
The thesis, titled "Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black
Community" and written under her maiden name, Michelle LaVaughn Robinson,
in 1985, has been the subject of much conjecture on the blogosphere and
elsewhere in recent weeks, as it has been "temporarily withdrawn" from
Princeton's library until after this year's presidential election in
November. Some of the material has been written about previously, however,
including a story last year in the Newark Star Ledger.
Obama
writes that the path she chose by attending Princeton would likely lead to
her "further integration and/or assimilation into a white cultural and
social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of
society; never becoming a full participant."
During a presidential
contest in which the term "transparency" has been frequently bandied
about, candidates have buried a number of potentially revealing documents
and papers. In Hillary Rodham Clinton's case, there's been a clamoring for
tax records, White House memos and other material the candidate's team has
chosen to keep from release. The 96-page Princeton thesis, restricted from
release by the school's Mudd Library, has also been the subject of recent
scrutiny.
Earlier this week, commentator Jonah Goldberg remarked
on National Review Online, "A reader in the know informs me that Michelle
Obama's thesis ... is unavailable until Nov. 5, 2008, at the Princeton
library. I wonder why."
"Why a restricted thesis?" asked
blogger-pastor Louis Lapides on his site Thinking Outside the Blog. "Is
the concern based on what's in the thesis? Will Michelle Obama appear to
be too black for white America or not black enough for black America?"
Attempts to retrieve the document through Princeton proved
unsuccessful, with school librarians having been pestered so much for
access to the thesis that they have resorted to reading from a script when
callers inquire about it. Media officers at the prestigious university
were similarly unhelpful, claiming it is "not unusual" for a thesis to be
restricted and refusing to discuss "the academic work of alumni."
The Obama campaign, however, quickly responded to a request for the
thesis by Politico. The thesis offers several fascinating insights into
the mind of Michelle Obama, who has been a passionate advocate of her
husband's presidential aspirations and who has made several controvesial
statements, including this week's remark, "For the first time in my adult
lifetime, I am really proud of my country." That comment has fueled debate
on countless blogs, radio talk shows and cable news for days on end,
causing her to explain the statement in greater detail.
The 1985
thesis provides a trove of Michelle Obama's thoughts as a young woman,
with many of the paper's statements describing the student's world as seen
through a race-based prism.
"In defining the concept of
identification or the ability to identify with the black community," the
Princeton student wrote, "I based my definition on the premise that there
is a distinctive black culture very different from white culture." Other
thesis statements specifically pointed to what was seen by the future Mrs.
Obama as racially insensitive practices in a university system populated
with mostly Caucasian educators and students: "Predominately white
universities like Princeton are socially and academically designed to
cater to the needs of the white students comprising the bulk of their
enrollments."
To illustrate the latter statement, she pointed out
that Princeton (at the time) had only five black tenured professors on its
faculty, and its "Afro-American studies" program "is one of the smallest
and most understaffed departments in the university." In addition, she
said only one major university-recognized group on campus was "designed
specifically for the intellectual and social interests of blacks and other
third world students." (Her findings also stressed that Princeton was
"infamous for being racially the most conservative of the Ivy League
universities.")
Perhaps one of the most germane subjects
approached in the thesis is a section in which she conveyed views about
political relations between black and white communities. She quotes the
work of sociologists James Conyers and Walter Wallace, who discussed
"integration of black official(s) into various aspects of politics" and
notes "problems which face these black officials who must persuade the
white community that they are above issues of race and that they are
representing all people and not just black people," as opposed to creating
"two separate social structures."
To research her thesis, the
future Mrs. Obama sent an 18-question survey to a sampling of 400 black
Princeton graduates, requesting the respondents define the amount of time
and "comfort" level spent interacting with blacks and whites before they
attended the school, as well as during and after their University years.
Other questions dealt with their individual religious beliefs, living
arrangements, careers, role models, economic status, and thoughts about
lower class blacks. In addition, those surveyed were asked to choose
whether they were more in line with a "separationist and/or pluralist"
viewpoint or an "integrationist and/or assimilationist" ideology.
Just under 90 alums responded to the questionnaires (for a
response rate of approximately 22 percent) and the conclusions were not
what she expected. "I hoped that these findings would help me conclude
that despite the high degree of identification with whites as a result of
the educational and occupational path that black Princeton alumni follow,
the alumni would still maintain a certain level of identification with the
black community. However, these findings do not support this
possibility."
