Former First Lady Michelle Obama shared a powerful reflection on her experiences with racial and class prejudice during her time at Princeton University. In a 2018 interview with CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King, Obama recalled being told by a school counselor that she was “not Princeton material.”
Despite the discouraging words, she ultimately enrolled in the Ivy League institution but found herself disillusioned by the racial and color prejudice she encountered. “I’m expecting brilliance. Genius. And then what I discover is, wow, there’s a lot of arbitrariness to this stuff, you know?” Obama shared.
During the same year, Obama posted an inspirational message on Instagram alongside a throwback photo from her college days. She opened up about feeling “scared” and “vulnerable” as a first-generation college student. “This is me at Princeton in the early 1980s. I know that being a first-generation college student can be scary because it was scary for me. I was black and from a working-class neighborhood,” she wrote.
Obama reflected on how her working-class upbringing in Chicago stood in stark contrast to Princeton’s predominantly white and affluent student body. “I’d never stood out in a crowd or a classroom because of the color of my skin before,” she said. Yet, she expressed gratitude for the support she received from close friends and mentors, who helped her find her confidence. “But I found close friends and a mentor who gave me the confidence to be myself,” Obama noted.
She also encouraged students to persevere through self-doubt, adding, “Going to college is hard work, but every day I meet people whose lives have been profoundly changed by education, just as mine was. My advice to students is to be brave and stay with it.”
In her interview with Gayle King, Obama recalled a painful encounter with a high school counselor who judged her based on her race. “I had grown up with love, and support, and encouragement, and high expectations. But here I walked into this room with a woman who really didn’t know me… she didn’t even know my brother went to Princeton,” Obama recounted. ‘Grade point average? Yeah, you’re a good student. You know, your scores are good. You’re black. You’re here in this public school. Maybe you’re stretching.”
Michelle Obama emphasized the widespread experience of being judged based on race, status, or community, saying, “We could probably go into any room of black women, or people of color, or people who grew up in poor communities… and you’d ask them, ‘Has anybody ever told you you couldn’t?’ And everyone would raise their hand.”
Obama was promoting her memoir Becoming, which was released on November 13, 2018, and delves into her life prior to becoming First Lady, including these formative experiences.