Michelle Obama College Thesis Muses on Race

Michelle Obama’s 1985 Princeton thesis—whose unavailability at the university has prompted blogger suspicions—discusses the concerns of a black woman in a sphere dominated by whites. In the 96-page document, scored by Politico from the Obama campaign, Mrs. Obama writes that to white students, it seems “I will always be black first and a student second."

“I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus,” Obama writes. She feared that after Princeton, as she mixed further into white structures, she would be forced to “remain on the periphery of society.” And a particularly relevant section discusses challenges facing black politicians, “who must persuade the white community that they are above issues of race and that they are representing all people.” (More Michelle Obama stories.)