In 2008, Michelle Obama Wasn't Sure America Was 'Ready' For A Black President

Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank

It turns out America did elect a Black president, but former first lady Michelle Obama pointed out that a Black presidency did not mean the end of racism.

Breanna Edwards Dec, 05, 2018

It’s a feeling I’m sure many of us were familiar with, and apparently forever first lady Michelle Obama felt the same way when her husband, Barack Obama, was running for President in 2008. America wasn’t “ready” for a Black president.

“One of the reasons why I agreed to support Barack’s run for president was that deep down I was like, ‘there’s no way he’s going to win.’ And we can just sort of get this out of the way, and I can be that supportive wife going ‘oh, honey, you tried. Um, OK, now let’s go back to our lives as usual,'” she recalled Monday during a London event to promote her new book, and all-around best-seller Becoming according to CNN.

“That was my whole plan, you know, because I didn’t believe that America was ready for a black president, let alone a black president named Barack Hussein Obama,” she added.

Turns out she had to eat her words, but at the event, which was hosted by author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Obama also noted that it was not wise to take her husband’s presidency as the end to racism in America (which we can clearly see it was not.)

“My grandparents’ lives were affected by Jim Crow. We mistakenly thought that Barack Obama was going to erase hundreds of years of history in eight years. That is ridiculous,” she said. “We are putting down markers, we make progress and going backward doesn’t mean the progress wasn’t real. It just means that it’s hard. What we are trying to do is shift culture.”