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  • 2008-03-31 (xsd:date)
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  • Was Michelle Obama's Thesis Restricted Until After the 2008 Election? (en)
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  • In every U.S. presidential election campaign, the two major parties' candidates become the subjects of prolonged and intense scrutiny, with seemingly everything they've ever said or done becoming fodder for endless analysis, interpretation and criticism. The scrutiny doesn't always stop with the candidates themselves, however — their parents, siblings, children, and other close associates sometimes find themselves the subjects of fervent investigation as well. Candidates' spouses, in particular, are often a subject of great interest. Not only are they relatives that candidates have chosen, but they live with the candidates day in and day out, and they sometimes serve as political surrogates by stumping for their husbands or wives on the campaign trail. They probably know the inner workings of the candidates' minds better than anyone else, and they're presumed to be important sources of advice, counsel, and influence. All of this means that the senior thesis of Michelle Obama, wife of Illinois senator (and leading Democratic presidential contender) Barack Obama would naturally be a subject of considerable interest, especially since the subject of that thesis is itself a significant political topic. The former Michelle LaVaughn Robinson, who graduated from Princeton University in 1985 with a B.A. in sociology (and later earned a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1988), wrote her senior undergraduate thesis on the subject of Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community. Michelle Obama's thesis became a matter of controversy (outside of its subject matter) in early 2008 when some interested parties who attempted to retrieve its content were informed by Princeton that access to the thesis had been restricted until after the presidential election in November 2008. Regardless of the reasons behind it, such a restriction naturally engendered suspicion that someone or something (in this case, presumably the Obama campaign itself) had a vested interest in keeping the information from reaching the public, which in turn served to heighten interest in the contents of the thesis. The Daily Princetonian noted that prior to 26 February 2008 callers to Mudd [Manuscript Library] requesting information on Obama's thesis were told that the thesis has been made 'temporarily unavailable' and were directed to the University Office of Communications, but the university lifted that restriction after the Obama campaign made a copy of the thesis available through the web site Politico. As for the content of the thesis, the Daily Princetonian summarized it thusly: Much scrutiny and discussion has been focused on a single phrase contained within the thesis, the statement that blacks must join in solidarity to combat a white oppressor. This phrase has repeatedly been quoted out of context and presented as if it reflected Michelle Obama's own philosophy, but in its full context it is clearly her speculation about what she thought some of the respondents she surveyed for her thesis (i.e., students who had attended Princeton in earlier years) might have been feeling: (en)
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