Working On Womanhood

It was such an honor to have been a part of yesterday’s WOW Circle—a Working on Womanhood program at Hyde Park Academy that creates space for young women to reflect on how to own their narrative in a world that isn’t always set up to empower them.
 
I’m so proud of you all! pic.twitter.com/4o8XU9LUzB

— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) October 18, 2022

I’m so happy to be back home in Chicago—and even happier to have spent the afternoon on the South Side with students at Hyde Park Academy! pic.twitter.com/qcd7DiYEij

— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) October 18, 2022

Have we gotten any better?

Channing Kennedy unearthed a little tidbit from 1982, in which President Ronald Reagan’s spokesperson Larry Speakes is asked about the disease which had been recently declared an epidemic by the CDC: AIDS. Amid much laughter from Mr. Speakes and the White House Press Corps, all parties participate in a callous back and forth on what the Reagan Administration’s position was on the new disease.

One part of the dialogue stuck out to me:

Q: Does the President, does anybody in the White House know about this epidemic, Larry?
MR. SPEAKES: I don’t think so. I don’t think there’s been any—
Q: Nobody knows?
MR. SPEAKES: There has been no personal experience here, Lester.
Q: No, I mean, I thought you were keeping—
MR. SPEAKES: I checked thoroughly with Dr. Ruge this morning and he’s had no—(laughter)—no patients suffering from AIDS or whatever it is.

“There has been no personal experience here.”

No one in the White House, or among the White House Press Corps, knew anyone who was afflicted with AIDS. It hadn’t touched them. And the concerns of a despised minority reaping what they had sown were not their concerns.

the logo

December, 2008

eh, a quiet night out

Secret Service agents stand watch on a roof while President Obama and Michelle Obama eat at the Komi restaurant in Washington, DC

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama dine at the Komi resturant, May 7, 2010 in Washington, DC.

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When the couple left at 9:13 p.m., they were greeted as they entered their motorcade by a crowd of about 200 onlookers who burst into applause. (Politico)