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.”