Michelle Obama: This Is A Scam! People Were Running From Us Because We Were Black!

People in power who haven't understood their why can lead us down some dark tunnels. We are in a really tough time right now.

The one and only Michelle Obama...

The former First Lady...

And her brother, Craig Robinson, are sharing their rare perspectives into a world very few ever get to see. I grew up in a predominantly Black neighborhood, and we were taught foundational values so that we could function in our society. But growing up, I was just checking boxes, and then I met Barack Obama. He showed up in my life as the opposite of a box checker.

You rejected him at first, right?

Yeah. I was even trying to introduce him to some of my friends. He said, "Well, why don't we go out?"

And what did you think of him?

Honestly, I was like, "He may last two months." I remember my mom saying, "Well, at least he's tall."

(laughs)

(laughs)

But the next thing you know, we were on our way to building our lives together. And my initial reaction was, "Don't do this." There'd be death threats. How do you raise kids in the White House? How would we afford it?

Did you ask for any promises if he were to win?

I didn't know what that journey was gonna be and what I would need to negotiate for myself. And if I had known what I know now, I should have said...

Michelle, I was watching the coverage of your decision-

Yeah.

... to not go to Trump's inauguration. What was the thinking behind that?

The truth was, is that...

This has always blown my mind a little bit, 53% of you that listen to this show regularly haven't yet subscribed to the show. So could I ask you for a favor before we start? If you like the show, and you like what we do here, and you wanna support us, the free simple way that you can do just that is by hitting the subscribe button. And my commitment to you is, if you do that, that I'll do everything in my power, me and my team, to make sure that this show is better for you every single week. We'll listen to your feedback, we'll find the guests that you want me to speak to, and we'll continue to do what we do. Thank you so much. Michelle, Craig, what do I need to know about your earliest context to understand the adults? And I use that word intentionally because I know that's what your, your parents were intent on raising, the adults that are in front of me today.

Mm.

Wow, that's-

It starts at 7436 South Euclid, you know, the, the, the hub of it all. That was th- the home that we grew up in, on the South Side of Chicago. And it was a teeny, tiny house. Uh, we lived, uh, above our Aunt Robbie. It was a single family home, a bungalow, on the South Side of Chicago. And our Aunt Robbie was married to, uh, her husband, Terry, and they owned the home. Uh, and they had a little bitty, if, almost one bedroom, two bedroom apartment over the home, so it was a two-family home. We were surrounded by extended family. That community of people that you, y- y- probably 'cause people didn't have a lot of resources, people lived with each other. You know, you shared spaces, you lived next to one another, and we lived with our great aunt because it helped our parents save some money and get us in a better neighborhood. Because my father was a city worker, he was a working class guy, didn't have a college education, and working for the city was a really stable job because it gave you benefits and some stability, and my mom wanted to stay home, uh, and, and raise kids. So in order to save that kind of money, we banned together and lived with our Aunt Robbie. And all of the adventures and the lessons learned, when I think about my foundational values, that house really, and all of the experiences and conversations, the beginning of my kitchen table happened on 74th and Euclid. And I, I talk about it because you'd think it was a palace, but this was a little home. We shared a bedroom most of our lives, because there w- just wasn't room for us to each have our own room. And we shared the space, one bathroom. There was no dining room, there was just a kitchen.