Just spent some time helping a young African-American girl to print out photos for a school project she's doing about Michelle Obama. Once we got the pictures to print, she held one of the pages up to me and said, "Awwww... She's so beautiful. I can't believe Michelle Obama is the President!" Who am I to argue with that?
Hillary, librarian
You do not have to have voted for Barack Obama to be proud of our country for electing an African-American as president. (These people really do exist!) If the arc of history truly does bend toward justice, as Martin Luther King, Jr. said, then our country's long arc from slavery to Jim Crow to a semblance of equality among the races is something to feel good about.
Public libraries were not immune from institutional racism, sadly. In Oklahoma more than 60 years ago, the librarian Ruth Brown led the fight for integration in her town (Bartlesville) and her library. She was fired for it. Today we recognize her heroism (the Oklahoma Library Association even has an award dedicated to honoring it) -- and work in libraries where everyone, of all races, truly is welcome.
Including African-American girls who look at the First Lady and see themselves as presidential material.
Now, should Hillary have corrected the girl's impression that Michelle Obama is the President?
I don't think so. The girl might have misspoken (my guess), but even if she didn't, she'll learn pretty quickly, especially as she writes her report.
No, the girl was just sharing her delight at a simple step forward in our country's history.
Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Green Party-ian, how can you deny that delight? The "Awww... She's so beautiful." that recognzies she won't be barred from becoming a public servant at the highest level because of her race? Michelle Obama's beauty is also, in one sense, the promise of this child's future.
Who are we to argue with that, indeed!
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