Michelle would have told me to put it on the table.
Instead, I let it fester inside.
All week I’ve tried to dismiss an anonymous email I recently received as nothing more than someone’s spur-of-the-moment outburst.
But words matter. And they don’t just slide off.
As a former first lady, Michelle Obama is the queen of “going high” when things get ugly.
Which is coincidental, since the email sandwiched “Obama” between various expletives.
I’m guessing the email came in response to an opinion piece I recently ran urging Congress to raise the U.S. debt limit.
The columnist’s point was that it’s imperative the U.S. heal its divisiveness because it plays right into the hands of authoritarians such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping who like nothing better than to see Americans tear each other apart.
I’m also guessing he/she wasn’t necessarily disputing the opinions of the columnist, rather that she is former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — a lightning rod for misogynists.
As the first Black family to occupy the White House, the Obamas were under a microscope like no other first family during the president’s two terms from 2009 to 2017.
And though I’ve never envied the role of first ladies — look pretty and stay quiet — anti-feminists immediately typecast Mrs. Obama, a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, as an “angry Black woman” whenever she addressed serious issues.
To a lesser extent, all women can relate to such discrimination.
So, go high, she reminds us. Don’t demean yourself by going in the gutter with your detractors.
Which isn’t to say that you don’t do the work of processing the offense. But save that for around people you can trust. Put it on the table and talk it out.
We simply cannot afford to indulge our innermost ugly, she writes in her new book, “The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times,” because it is tearing our country apart.
