{"id":46035,"date":"2016-03-14T15:28:25","date_gmt":"2016-03-14T15:28:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=46035"},"modified":"2016-06-13T17:27:40","modified_gmt":"2016-06-13T17:27:40","slug":"read-the-full-transcript-of-times-conversation-with-president-obama-and-misty-copeland%ef%bb%bf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=46035","title":{"rendered":"Read the Full Transcript of TIME\u2019s Conversation With President Obama and Misty Copeland\ufeff"},"content":{"rendered":"

Read the Full Transcript of TIME\u2019s Conversation With President Obama and Misty Copeland<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

TIME<\/a>
\n2016-03-14<\/p>\n

Maya Rhodan<\/strong><\/a>, White House Reporter<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

The first African American president and the first black principal dancer at the American Ballet Theater<\/a> have much more in common than their success. Both have risen to the pinnacle of institutions that have historically been led by whites. Both were raised by determined single mothers and born into multi-racial families. And both seek to use their unique positions of power to inspire a generation of kids who may not see a clear path forward toward success.<\/em><\/p>\n

They have also come to appreciate each other from afar, prompting a rare meeting at the White House on Feb. 29, when they sat down with TIME\u2019s Maya Rhodan for a unusually personal, 30-minute conversation about body image, raising daughters, empowering the young and fighting racial discrimination. \u201cAs the father of two daughters, one of the things I\u2019m always looking for are strong women who are out there breaking barriers and doing great stuff,\u201d Obama<\/a> said after they sat down. \u201cMisty\u2019s<\/a> a great example of that. Somebody who has entered a field that\u2019s very competitive, where the assumption is that she may not belong.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

By his own admission, President Obama<\/a> didn\u2019t realize how much social pressure women faced to look and act a certain way when he was younger. \u201cWhen you\u2019re a dad of two daughters, you notice more,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that pressure I think is historically always been harder on African American women than just about any other women.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Copeland<\/a>, a member of the President\u2019s advisory Council of Fitness, Sports and Nutrition, said she has embraced her role as a mentor for younger people, especially black women. \u201cI feel like people are looking at me, and it\u2019s my responsibility to do whatever I can to provide opportunities,\u201d Copeland said….<\/em><\/p>\n

Here is a full transcript of the conversation:<\/p>\n

TIME<\/strong>: Well thank you both so much for joining us today. My hope is that this is more of a conversation than an interview. So we\u2019ll just let you guys talk. I\u2019m going to be obviously jumping in with questions. But we want it to be natural and fun. And I want to start off by saying that you guys have a lot more in common than I\u2019m sure a lot of people know. You\u2019re both born into multiracial families, you were raised by single mothers. And you\u2019ve risen to the top of your respective fields as African Americans. Which is pretty notable. But I\u2019m curious, what do you see in each other that you recognize in yourself? Like what is it, and is there a common thread that has allowed you both to succeed?<\/p>\n

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA<\/strong>: Well first of all, I thought you were going to say that I\u2019m also a really good dancer. (Laughter.)<\/p>\n

TIME<\/strong>: I thought about it. I saw you dancing with a 106-year-old<\/a>. (Laughter.)…<\/p>\n

…TIME<\/strong>: And you both represent the African American community. As the President of the United States, as a principal dancer for the American Ballet Theater, do you ever think that \u2013 how does race come to play? Do you think that people still treat you differently because of race? Because you\u2019re African American?<\/p>\n

COPELAND<\/strong>: You know, my experience has been that a lot of what I\u2019ve experienced has not always been to my face, or it\u2019s been very subtle. But it\u2019s in a way that I know what\u2019s going on and I feel it deep inside of me. And I, being the only African American in almost every environment in terms of classical ballet, it weighs on you and it wears on you after a while. And I feel like a lot of it as well is what I\u2019m kind of putting on myself. And this just trying to not get too caught up and too wrapped up and too weighed down with being black and trying to just be the best person and the best dancer that I can be. And work, and work harder than, even if I see the person next to me that things may be a little bit easier for them, I\u2019m going to try and push myself even harder than them. But I think that being African American has definitely been a huge obstacle for me. But it\u2019s also allowed me to have this fire inside of me that I don\u2019t know if I would have or have had if I weren\u2019t in this field…<\/p>\n

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

Read the Full Transcript of TIME\u2019s Conversation With President Obama and Misty Copeland TIME 2016-03-14 Maya Rhodan, White House Reporter The first African American president and the first black principal dancer at the American Ballet Theater have much more in common than their success. Both have risen to the pinnacle of institutions that have historically […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24,63,8,26,20,842,25],"tags":[19921,6725,19785,19922,19784],"class_list":["post-46035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-arts","category-barack-obama","category-media-archive","category-politics","category-usa","category-videos","category-women","tag-ballet","tag-dance","tag-maya-rhodan","tag-misty-copeland","tag-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46035","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=46035"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46048,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46035\/revisions\/46048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}