{"id":25225,"date":"2012-09-06T22:12:20","date_gmt":"2012-09-06T22:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=25225"},"modified":"2016-06-15T00:52:11","modified_gmt":"2016-06-15T00:52:11","slug":"parade-exclusive-a-conversation-with-the-obamas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=25225","title":{"rendered":"PARADE Exclusive: A Conversation With the Obamas"},"content":{"rendered":"

PARADE Exclusive: A Conversation With the Obamas<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Parade Magazine<\/a>
\n2012-09-12<\/p>\n

Lynn Sherr<\/a><\/strong>, Contributor<\/p>\n

Maggie Murphy<\/strong>, Editor in Chief<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
\nPresident and Mrs. Obama photographed in the White House Map Room on Aug. 10. [Photo: Ben Baker]<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

You hear him before you see him. After a hearty hello to the men and women working on the ground floor of the White House<\/a>, President Barack Obama<\/a> bounds into the Map Room<\/a> with a warm smile and an open hand. Soon the president\u2019s eyes fall on a shimmering but empty silver tea set that has been placed on the coffee table by photographer Ben Baker. \u201cTea? What about chips and salsa?\u201d With the tea service sent to the sidelines, the president settles down next to his wife, Michelle<\/a>, whose gift for easy elegance is reinforced by her Tracey Reese top and J.\u2006Crew skirt. On this day before Gov. Mitt Romney<\/a> would announce Rep. Paul Ryan<\/a> as his running mate, the first couple \u00adalternately kid and cuddle for pictures. But befitting a room where decisions about World War II<\/a> were once made, they quickly strike a more serious pose \u00adduring an interview conducted by PARADE<\/em> editor in chief Maggie Murphy and contributor Lynn Sherr. As they address questions from our readers about the economy, the political stalemate in D.C., and their family life, the couple hold hands, nod in support of each other\u2019s answers, and make a case for their first four years in office and what they hope to accomplish next….<\/p>\n

…PARADE: If you were female, we would ask, “How has being female affected your ability to govern?” So, how has being black affected your ability to govern?<\/strong><\/p>\n

President Obama:<\/strong> I\u2019m sure it makes me more determined in assuring that everybody\u2019s getting a fair shot\u2014in the same way that being a father of two daughters makes me want to make sure that every woman is getting equal pay for equal work, \u2019cause I don\u2019t want my daughters treated differently than somebody else\u2019s sons. By virtue of being African-American, I\u2019m attuned to how throughout this country\u2019s \u00adhistory there have been times when folks have been locked out of opportunity, and because of the hard work of people of all races, slowly those doors opened to more and more people.<\/strong> Equal opportunity doesn\u2019t just happen on its own; it happens because we\u2019re vigilant about it. But part of this is not just because we\u2019re African-American\u2014it\u2019s also because Michelle and I were born into pretty modest means. And so I think about my single mom<\/a> and what it was like to go to school and work at the same time. And I think about Michelle\u2019s dad<\/a>, who had a disability and was working every day and didn\u2019t have a lot of money to spare. But somehow our parents or grand\u00adparents were able to give us these opportunities partly because they lived in a society that said that was important. And as president, I want to \u00adaffirm that that\u2019s important and reject the idea that if we just reward those at the top, that somehow that\u2019s going to work for everybody\u2014\u2019cause that hasn\u2019t been how America got built.<\/p>\n

Read the entire interview here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PARADE Exclusive: A Conversation With the Obamas Parade Magazine 2012-09-12 Lynn Sherr, Contributor Maggie Murphy, Editor in Chief President and Mrs. Obama photographed in the White House Map Room on Aug. 10. [Photo: Ben Baker] You hear him before you see him. After a hearty hello to the men and women working on the ground […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,63,13743,8,26,20],"tags":[11774,11775,2099,24106,11773],"class_list":["post-25225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-barack-obama","category-interviews","category-media-archive","category-politics","category-usa","tag-lynn-sherr","tag-maggie-murphy","tag-michelle-obama","tag-parade","tag-parade-magazine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25225"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47649,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25225\/revisions\/47649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}