Michelle Obama: People Don’t Trust Politicians Because Republicans Are ‘All Men, All White’
M. OBAMA: “And the same is true, I mean, for — true for all of us. If we’re trying to get anything done and we look around and we all look alike, we’re all sitting around the same table and we feel really comfortable with ourselves we should question that, at any table that we’re at. And we should be working actively to mix it up so that we’re getting a real broad range of perspectives on — on every issue. But I, you know, shoot, I would see that in — in Congress. I mean one of the most interesting points — I told you about this is usually at the State of the Union address where, you know, you sit in the balcony and watch the State of the Union —“
HOST: “I know, like you do.”
M. OBAMA: “Yeah, like you do. (Laughter) You know, you — you see it on TV, I’m in the room. You know, but when you’re in the room what you can see is this real dichotomy that on one side of the room it’s also — it’s a feeling of color almost; on one side of the room it’s literally gray and white, literally, that’s the color palette on one side of the room; on the other side of the room, there are yellows and blues and whites and greens, physically there’s a difference in color, in the tone, because one side all men, all white. On the other side some women, some people of color. And whenever I was sitting I would always have a guest in that booth and I was always most embarrassed at the beginning when people would see that. Because I’d say that is it just me? Am I looking at how governance works? And people could look down at that and go, ‘Yeah, yeah, that looks good; that looks right.’ We’re probably getting a lot done and we’re doing it right. You know I look at that and I go, ‘No wonder. No wonder we struggle. No wonder people don’t trust politics.’ It’s not — we’re not even noticing what these rooms look like. But, it’s not just politics. I mean, I’m sure we can go in any C suite in this country and we’d see the same thing happening.”
HOST: “Yeah.”
M. OBAMA: “So, until we are ready to fight for that, which means that some people have to give up their seats to make room or you need to be ready to —“
