Why is Michelle Obama's thesis restricted until Nov. 5th 2008?

[boston bean]

http://libweb5.princeton.edu/theses/thesesid.asp?ID=9867

TITLE: Princeton Educated Blacks and the Black Community
(96 pages). (96 pages).
AUTHOR: Michelle LaVaughn Robinson (1985), Sociology Department
ADVISOR: Not available
LOCATED AT: Mudd Library.

[OzarkDem]

1. Odd. Why would that be?

[stahbrett]

107. You want her thesis? Here it is...

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8642.html

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Why do you want to read it?

[boston bean]

yes.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

14. That wasn't a yes or no question.

Literacy, people. It's needed to read theses.

[babylonsister]

46. ROFL! nt

[Barack_America]

51. Ah, the power of the comma.

;)

[Recursion]

74. Call me, Ishmael

:)

[proud2BlibKansan]

61. LOL!!

[rodeodance]

70. gee--cause its there??

[MADem]

3. Because they don't want anyone picking it apart between now and the coronation. NT

[dionysus]

83. awww, someones bitter they're losing, and plagiarizing "coronation" from team O...

:rofl:

[Name removed]

84. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[MADem]

91. How old are you? Eighteen? NT

[dionysus]

94. clever comeback...NOT

[Alexander]

95. Even if he was, he'd have a good ten years on you.

Judging from your posts.

[mckeown1128]

85. the coronation argument doesnt work when the coronated...

candidate has won the most votes, delegates, and states... and has all but wrapped up the nomination.

[MADem]

92. 2025 is the magic number. NT

[mckeown1128]

93. No it isn't 1617 is the magic number.

The super delegates will back the winner of the most pledged delegates. Hate to burst your delusional bubble.

[MADem]

99. Glad you know what they're thinking. NT

[mckeown1128]

103. First many have come out to say that they...

will support candidate with the most pledged delegates. Two Hillary or Obama would be fools to try to win the nomination that way. Talk about stealing an election. Do you really want your candidate to win that way?

[mckeown1128]

104. By the way Obama is +27 superdelegates in the last two weeks..

I don't think it is because they all of a sudden like him. It is because they see that he almost has this thing wrapped up.

[blm]

Why was BCCI report and its outstanding matters deep-sixed by a Dem president beholden to

the man who brought BCCI into this country?

eh?

You think Michelle Obama's thesis led to Bush2 and 9-11 and this Iraq war, or did Clinton's protection of BushInc throughout the 90s and BCCI named figures like Jackson Stephens, Marc Rich, Dubai and Saudi royals, James Bath, AQ Khan, and scores more lead to much of what is happening today?

[boston bean]

6. obsfucation. nt

[blm]

20. SENSE OF PROPORTION.

Try it sometime.

Is Michelle's thesis important to this nation's security? Was BCCI?

Maybe we all should have vetted BILL more closely and his relationship to BCCI criminals who were working for DECADES with Poppy Bush and the fascist agenda.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

4. Because that's when they initiate the Final Obama Plan To Kill Whitey.

It's all laid out in her thesis.

[femrap]

24. lol. thx. nt

[MADem]

43. You can get snippets of it if you Google for it. Apparently some reporter did a piece on it before

Princeton put it behind the wall.

[EffieBlack]

63. rofl!

you probably should have put a :sarcasm: in your post - there are plenty of people here who might get completely freaked out!

:rofl:

[EFerrari]

67. LOL!

:rofl:

[jeffrey_X]

78. lmao

eom

[MoonRiver]

5. Something in there she doesn't want we voters to see?

:shrug:

[stahbrett]

7. Obama camp will release it if Hillary and Bill release their tax records (nt)

[GarbagemanLB]

29. MassDem and the other hillbots will ignore this post, lol.

[no name no slogan]

8. Probably because they don't want to have to send a copy to every asshat

who wants to look at it, just because it's Michelle Obama's.

[EFerrari]

68. Exactly. n/t

[gateley]

9. I'm guessing so that the media can't twist it into meaning something other

than what she intended, and use it against Obama.

Besides, what does her thesis have to do with the presidential run? It's not like he's hiding his income tax return or anything. :shrug:

[K Gardner]

10. Hillary's was under lock and key for 8 or more years. OK for Hill, not OK for Michelle?

[boston bean]

12. really? can you give me a link so I can read about that. thanks in advance. nt

[K Gardner]

15. Here..

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17388394/

[boston bean]

22. hmmm..... looks like Hillary took a lot of flack for that. thanks! nt

[vireo]

98. She might want to resurrect this passage

“Democracy is still a radical idea,” she wrote, “in a world where we often confuse images with realities, words with actions.”

[nsd]

18. Story about Hillary Clinton's thesis can be found here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17388372/

[shaniqua6392]

33. Even if that Clinton statement were true...

Michelle Obama's was written in 1985 and can not be released in the year 2008 conveniently until after the November election.

[fightthegoodfightnow]

11. Who Cares?

She wrote it, she owns it and she never wrote it so you or anyone else could read it other than the intended audience. She is not running for President, unlike Billary.

[Lucinda]

23. Actually, a thesis IS intended to be read. That's sort of the point of doing one.

And that's why Universities keep them in their libraries. They are meant to be read by people looking for information about something that the thesis writer explored in depth.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

27. Sure.

And they're not meant to be read by pre-literates looking for dirt.

[fightthegoodfightnow]

36. Oh They Should Be Read

......... but it should be HER choice as to WHO reads it since SHE wrote it.

[Lucinda]

41. It isn't a diary. Its a thesis. They go into the university library archives.

Where they are usually never read, but are available.
:)

[MADem]

45. Yep, my lousy thesis gets checked out every so often! NT

[Lucinda]

53. It's a weird feeling. isn't it?

:D

[MADem]

60. It is....! nt

[CTyankee]

101. What was yours on?

Mine was "The Artist as a Relational Being." It was for a Masters in Liberal Studies.

[fightthegoodfightnow]

65. WHO OWNS IT?

It's on LOAN !!!!

Do you not understand that.

The intellectual property belongs to her.

Not you.

[CTyankee]

100. I was REQUIRED to have mine bound and was told it would be in a section of

the school's library. I felt rather flattered! My faculty advisor also asked for a copy to show to her grad students a method of doing it. It was actually a Final Project, not a thesis, but I was told to expect people to read it.

Obviously the campaign is doing this to keep the RW from pulling stuff from it out of context. They don't want the campaign to be about "Michelle's thesis blah blah blah". I don't blame them.

[Bluebear]

59. She wrote a thesis with the intentions it not be read??

OK.

[goldcanyonaz]

13. Can't imagine why with a title like that.

:rofl:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

17. What's wrong with the title?

:shrug:

[rodeodance]

73. nobody said anything abou it being wrong--just THINK about it for a bit.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

86. Spell it out for me.

:shrug:

[rodeodance]

72. yes , the title alone says a lot about it being closed. ho ho

[grantcart]

16. forget that when are we getting her kindergarten shit

tell me MassDemm that you have something more than this to say pls.

[TwilightGardener]

19. Hillary uses her First Lady experience on her resume as the actual CANDIDATE

without releasing her papers. I'm not voting for Michelle.

[Coexist]

21. why was Hillary's?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17388394/

I hate this stuff - can we all just cut it out.

[boston bean]

26. That was the nineties, we are in the 2000's and have a different kind of politics. out with the old

in with the new.

[ContinentalOp]

25. Here are some quotes from it...

In her 1985 Princeton senior thesis, “Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community,” Michelle LaVaughn Robinson lamented that white professors and classmates always saw her as “Black first and a student second.”

She had surveyed alumni to see whether they sacrificed their commitment to other blacks on the altar of success, and foresaw for herself an uneasy future: “further integration and/or assimilation into a White cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never becoming a full participant.”…

As Michelle Obama wrote in her thesis introduction, “My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my ‘Blackness’ than ever before. I have found that at Princeton no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my White professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don’t belong.”…

Michelle Obama was guided in her choice of thesis topic by a consuming concern that her success might compromise her black identity. As she wrote in her conclusion:

“I wondered whether or not my education at Princeton would affect my identification with the Black community. I hoped that these findings would help me conclude that despite the high degree of identification with Whites as a result of the educational and occupational path that Black Princeton alumni follow, the alumni would still maintain a certain level of identification with the black community. However, these findings do not support this possibility.”…

Michelle Obama’s fears of losing touch with her roots without ever being embraced into the mainstream led her to promise, in her thesis introduction, “to actively utilize my resources to benefit the Black community.”

from http://isteve.blogspot.com/2008/02/mrs-obama-as-ivy-league-schoolgirl.html

[Mz Pip]

35. Wow

that's scary stuff. :sarcasm:

[ContinentalOp]

38. My take, based on those quotes:

She was young and was having some identity issues that are almost private in a sense. Would the media really be able to understand where she was coming from with any degree of sensitivity or sympathy? A lot of what she said would probably blow right over most Americans heads and be endlessly trotted out, out of context, like her "pride" comment. "Michelle Obama doesn't really feel like she belongs in America!" "Michelle Obama doesn't feel comfortable around white people!"

[Seabiscuit]

48. The media or I should say the Limbaughs of the world will twist it into some militant rhetoric.

Yes twisting the comments out of context is what they do best.

[cottonseed]

88. So, in some way, here experiences today proves here theory wrong.

I'm just making a fly by here, but this is kind of a good thing.

[Tatiana]

28. Because it's about race which is a lightening rod topic.

They don't want people picking it apart and twisting her words (as in the "really proud" sensation). If I'm not mistaken (and I may be), I thought it was available 3 or 4 years ago.

[ProSense]

30. Absolutely nothing unusual about that. A school's policy can restrict these documents for years. n/t

[tandot]

31. I can't blame her for that. Neither did I blame Clinton for doing the same.

The campaigns are already nasty enough without having each campaign and the right-wing smear machine go over it with a fine-toothed comb to find anything that could be misconstrued or quoted out of context.

[madrchsod]

32. hillary restricted her Wellesley paper in 1991 or 2

it was released in 2000...it was supposed to be locked up if she ran for president but it was released on the internet.

[boston bean]

37. Yeah, I just read that, and she was crucified for it. Also,

isn't barack offering a new type of politics, open government? Why would they use Clintons tactics?

[ContinentalOp]

40. Openness is critical...

when it comes to what goes on in the White House! Are college papers written by the first lady at the age of 21 really a concern to you? Personally I want to see who signed Obama's high school yearbook.

[boston bean]

42. I think she might have been a little older than 21. nt

[ContinentalOp]

50. She wrote it in 85 and was born in 64.

I'm really bad at math but I think she may have been 21 at the time.

[boston bean]

54. oops my bad. thanks. nt

[BigDaddy44]

34. Is Michelle Obama running for President?

N/T

[boston bean]

39. No.

[CyberPieHole]

44. Maybe she inadvertantly wrote that she was "PROUD" of America...

and she doesn't want anyone to read that? :evilgrin:

[bunnies]

47. Because she wrote about...

her future cyborg-muslim husband and his plan to take over the universe! bwwwaaaahahahaha.

[unblock]

49. michelle was a classmate of mine at princeton

i can't say that i knew her at princeton, but i do know she was active in the black community at princeton and i do know a few things about the ACADEMIC philosophies that were current at princeton at that time.

now, understand, princeton is a very ivory tower kind of place, and senior theses in particular are meant to be academic explorations. students usually explore an area of interest, but often study a view they find of academic interest but do not necessarily agree with.

for instance, there was a big separatist strain in academia at that time. many people who would never in a million years actually advocate creation of an exclusively black nation in america nevertheless found that idea empowering and of great academic interest.

i'm not saying that her thesis touched on this particular strain, but i can easily see that there might be some exploration in the academic thesis of an enthused 21 year old that could be easily twisted into advocacy of something she never even believed in.

[WinkyDink]

56. You went to the most beautiful school in America! The stone bldgs are fab!

Not to mention I envy you your brain-power! :)

[unblock]

58. i have brain-power? please tell that to mrs. unblock!

[MoonRiver]

64. So, are you saying that this was probably an element of her thesis?

If I read the OP correctly, her thesis was written in 1985. That's 23 years ago for God's sake. Why would a thesis still be unavailable to the public after that long a time???? Most people who write that kind of document are proud of it and WANT it to be public.
:wtf:

[unblock]

66. i'm saying that there's probably something politically unfortunate in it

yes it was a quarter century ago and it was written by the would-be first lady, not the would-be president.

as for the rules on making it public, i didn't write a thesis myself (long story, but the short version is that it was optional in my department) so i don't know how this is handled. perhaps she has to explicitly give permission to make it public. perhaps it once was public but she revoked permission. some sleuth might be able to find a copy from when (if) it was available earlier. i don't know.

all i know is that it seems obvious that their campaign saw more downside than upside risk in having it be public. i'm sure michelle IS proud of it, but i'm also sure she can appreciate problems with things in it being taken out of context and used against barack.

[blm]

80. Thanks for speaking to this aspect....looks like some are willing to distort even before they

know anything.

[Bucky]

52. You can read it here, actually....

By the way, I have no idea why they would restrict this...

Eating Puppies on the Fourth of July:
A Guide to Family Fun During the Devil Worshipping Season
by Michelle Qaddafy Obama

No one enjoys spitting on the sidewalk more than me and my secret second husband, Regis Philben. But when it comes to the holidays, nothing brings our Cultic Coven closer together than a good old fashioned puppy barbecue....

[proud2BlibKansan]

62. ROFL!!

[Enrique]

71. lol

I like her lively writing style, academic prose is usually so dry. :-)

[tammywammy]

77. bwahahaha

Thanks, you actually made me laugh. :)

[WinkyDink]

55. Waiting for my birthday? :)

[Nailzberg]

57. Opposition researchers suck at returning stuff to the library.

[rodeodance]

69. no contraversary allowed

[tigereye]

75. hmm, I seem to recall that she isn't running for President

just a thought.

[fightthegoodfightnow]

82. Exactly

Thank you.

[rodeodance]

97. no she is not---now remember that when Obamabots hit on Bill. and all will be ok

[AX10]

76. Interesting.

[DURHAM D]

79. Could this be a Lani Guinier situation?

Just for the record - to this day I remain pissed at Bill Clinton for withdrawing her nomination.

[Occam Bandage]

81. To keep oppo researchers like yourself away.

[scheming daemons]

87. Why are Hillary and Bill's tax records restricted until after the nomination campaign?

....

[UALRBSofL]

89. MassDemm If you look at the title of her thesis

It might give you an idea what the subject matter is. I'm just making a supposition that they are keeping it from the public in the concerns that the MSM might try to make it into something it really isn't, just from looking at the title.

[rodeodance]

96. I suspect they would.

[indimuse]

90. i bet the rw and msm..

have All THEY NEED...

this will be good...

[RoadRage]

102. They're timing it with the release of the Clinton Tax Returns.. NT

[Bucky]

106. !

Mee-yow... and yet, bravo.

[Vinca]

105. She probably doesn't want to release the cult secrets. nt

[UALRBSofL]

108. MassDemm Did you get a chance to read Michelle Obama's thesis?

I have a copy of it and intend to read it when I get a chance. I read a summary of it and it seemed interesting.

If anyone has Hillary Clinton's would you let me know?