Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Excuse me Ms. Obama, there is another perspective that needs to be explored

Michelle Obama talks about South Side Chicago ‘white flight’ at Obama Summit
Boosting the Obama Presidential Center, to be built in Jackson Park, Michelle Obama said, “Barack and I wouldn’t bring some crap up in our neighborhood.”
By Lynn Sweet Oct 29, 2019, 2:58pm CDT


Former first lady Michelle Obama speaks during the Obama Foundation Summit at the Illinois Institute of Technology on the South Side, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2019. Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times



Former first lady Michelle Obama recalled her dawning awareness about white flight after her family moved to 74th and Euclid when she was a youth, speaking Tuesday about growing up on the South Side during an Obama Summit session with her older brother, Craig Robinson.

“We were doing everything we were supposed to do — and better,” she said as she discussed witnessing a painful chapter in Chicago’s history. “But when we moved in, white families moved out.”

She added, “I want to remind white folks that y’all were running from us. And you’re still running,” Obama said, comparing the situation to what immigrant families arrive in neighborhoods are experiencing today.Former first lady Michelle Obama (center), her brother Craig Robinson (left) and journalist Isabel Wilkerson speak during the Obama Foundation Summit at the Illinois Institute of Technology on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2019. Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

Obama and Robinson, now an executive with the New York Knicks, reunited for a session of the third annual Obama Summit where the former first lady talked up the benefits of constructing the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park.

Noting that she is “South Side” by birth and former President Barack Obama “South Side” by choice, she said, boosting the center, to be built on 19.3 acres in the historic park, “Barack and I wouldn’t bring some crap up in our neighborhood.”


Michelle Obama grew up at 7436 S. Euclid Ave. and white flight from her South Shore community was a topic she wrote about in her best selling memoir, “Becoming.”

As I wrote when her book was published, “Being a South Sider has always been a central part of Obama’s story – specifically, growing up in a close-knit family of modest means, the daughter of Fraser and Marian Robinson, whose own lives were impacted by the Great Migration and racism in the north and south.”

At the Obama Summit, taking place on the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology, Obama made clear that the white residents were not moving because of crime.

When the Robinson’s settled on Euclid, Obama had friends from all races. “There were no gang fights, there were no territorial battles. Yet one by one, they packed their bags and they ran from us. And they left communities in shambles,” with subsequent disinvestment in schools and parks.

Barack Obama will speak later Tuesday.

GRID VIEW

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Dancers with the Joffrey Community Engagement perform during the Obama Foundation Summit at the Illinois Institute of Technology on the South Side, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2019. Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

20 comments:

  1. Anonymous10/30/2019

    My family lived in Englewood and was happy there. Suddenly there was an eruption of senseless violence. We had to leave. We didn't want to live like that. May 1964.

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  2. There is no doubt that the Wrightwood-Ashburn neighborhood was a victim of white flight, my god,barely one black family moved in and the running started. Really was unnecessary

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    1. Anonymous10/31/2019

      Tell that to my mom's friend who was shot off 82nd and Sacramento years ago in her garage after she complied with burglar's demands you know who still shot her really was unnecessary.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous10/30/2019

    Some Whites wanted to stay, as shown in past integrated Douglas Park pictures and a White woman's Garfield Park autobiography.

    After a while it becomes futile, when city services, schools, businesses and safety declines.

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    1. Anonymous10/31/2019

      Then your kids have to run home from school beat up by older fellow students held back 3yrs.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous10/30/2019

    Ms Obama must have thought all those spray painted Black P Stone Nation taggings in South Shore were advertisements for an African American Jewelry store chain, "y'all"

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    1. Anonymous10/31/2019

      Blackstone Rangers HQ was the Southmoor Hotel. Kinda hard to miss in my opinion. I was just a kid at the time and it was very well known. MO or MR at the time musta been oblivious to what was going on around her.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous10/30/2019

    Where the mudman goes nothing grows, except crime.

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  6. Anonymous10/31/2019

    What is she saying? Neighborhoods need Whites to sustain themselves? Isn't that racist?

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  7. Anonymous10/31/2019

    Community organize Martha's viyard .Why you suckers sleep in your bath tub so you don't get shot. Vote Democrat again fools

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous10/31/2019

      I don't vote democratic.

      Delete
  8. We lived at 76th and Morgan. There were five girls in my family. My dad worked nights. In the middle of the night, my mom received phone calls stating they were coming to get her pretty little girls. Clearly spoken by black men. Needless to say, we moved at great expense to my parents. Y'all.

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  9. Anonymous10/31/2019

    who wants to live next to 'them".....

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    1. Anonymous11/01/2019

      Not even "them" look at what is happening to the south suburbs and even Merrillville is basically Gary South now. Wait until the next census comes out.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11/06/2019

      Former Gary Mayor Richard Hatcher still complains about Merrville's secession from Gary.

      Delete
  10. Seeing that Mooch didn't just appear out of nowhere, what was she leaving behind?

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  11. Anonymous11/01/2019

    All this commentary from the former 1st lady who would make comments like "this is the first time I'm proud to be an American".. Valerie Jarrett, who herself had a string of high paying, no-show jobs, got Ms Obama a high paying gig at the University of Chicago Hospital. Her coke snorting boyfriend was swinging on the down low in the choir at Jeremiah Wright's church. One of BHO's boyfriends in the choir ended up dead, as did Lawrence St. Claire, who tooted coke with Obama as well as tooting Obama's Johnson itself. He published a detailed book about all this, naming names, dates, places and times. The book was published. No libel or slander actions were taken against him for publishing these incidents. He was mysteriously run over by a hit and run driver and killed. Kind of like the same stuff that happens in Arkancide.

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  12. I think the Obamas should move back to just a regular ole house in South Shore. Y'all

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  13. Anonymous11/02/2019

    Big Mike that's a man baby!

    ReplyDelete