Becoming

by Michelle Obama

For the better part of our history, Black women’s stories have either gone untold or been told by others—by those who haven’t walked in our shoes and sometimes by those who haven’t even cared to imagine what it might feel like to do so.

Since childhood, I’d believed it was important to speak out against bullies while also not stooping to their level. And to be clear, we were now up against a bully, a man who among other things demeaned minorities and expressed contempt for prisoners of war, challenging the dignity of our country with practically his every utterance. I wanted Americans to understand that words matter—that the hateful language they heard coming from their TVs did not reflect the true spirit of our country and that we could vote against it.