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Former first lady Michelle Obama said President Donald Trump's aggressive immigration crackdown is striking "fear" into people of color in America.
Obama made the comments during an appearance with her brother, Craig Robinson, on Monday’s episode of “On Purpose with Jay Shetty,” a popular podcast focused on mental health and other issues.
After a conversation about the siblings’ upbringing in Chicago and their experiences with racial discrimination, Shetty asked the former first lady what was the “hardest recent test” of fear she has experienced because of the color of her skin.
I worry for people of color all over this country.
Michelle obama
“In this current climate, for me it’s ... what’s happening to immigrants,” Obama replied. “So it’s not the fear for myself anymore. I drive around in a four-car motorcade with a police escort ... My fears are for what I know is happening out there in streets all over the city.”
“We have leadership that is sort of indiscriminately determining who belongs and who doesn’t, and we know that those decisions aren’t being made with courts and with due process,” she said.
“And knowing that there’s so much bias and so much racism and so much ignorance that fuels those kinds of choices, I worry for people of color all over this country,” Obama added. “And I don’t know that we will have the advocates to protect everybody. And that makes me — that frightens me. It keeps me up at night.”
“I see that when I’m driving around L.A.,” she continued. “I’m just looking at the faces of folks … and I’m wondering, how are you feeling? How do you feel standing [at] the bus stop? How do you feel comfortable going to work, going to school, when you know that there could be people out here judging you, who could upend your life in a second? That’s who I worry for right now.”
Obama’s comments came less than a week after publicly speaking about her decision not to attend Trump’s inauguration. During an episode of her podcast, “IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson,” Obama defended her decision and said she was simply “making the choice that was right” for her.
“[M]y decision to make choices at the beginning of this year that suited me were met with such ridicule and criticism,” she said. “People couldn’t believe that I was saying no for any other reason, they had to assume that my marriage was falling apart, while I’m here really trying to own my life and intentionally practice making the choice that was right for me.”