Barack Obama Said…

I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible. Watch the entire speech in the sidebar.

Michelle Obama Said…

Michelle Obama gave her last commencement address as first lady at City College of New York. She stated, “This is not who we are. That is not what this country stands for, no. No, here in America we don’t let our difference tell us apart — not here,” she said, as she bashed narrow-minded people who “tell us to be afraid of those who are different.” She continued, “They seem to view our diversity as a threat to be contained rather than as a resource to be tapped … They act as if name-calling is an acceptable substitute for thoughtful debate: As if anger and intolerance should be our default state rather than optimism and openness that have always been the engine of our progress.”

“All of you know for centuries this city has been the gateway to America for so many striving, hope-filled immigrants,” she said, adding that the school has long been a place where students “didn’t have to hide their last names or their accents.”  Watch the entire speech in the sidebar.