Forward Motion: The Story Of Michelle Obama (Biographical Documentary) | Real Stories

I want people across this country to know that story the real story of the Southside in the history of the United States there has never been a more empowering intelligent or CRA's matic first lady as Michelle Obama on track to being the best-selling memoir of all time her book becoming allows readers an intimate look behind the doors of historic Pennsylvania Avenue address and enter the world of first lady and first family definitely the most modern first lady we've ever had success is not about the background you're from it's about the confidence that you have in the effort you're willing to invest Michelle Obama was able to balance the ambition of Hillary Clinton with some of the warmth and carrying this in ways that really hadn't been seen before you one of Michelle's greatest I think qualities is that she comes across as powerful but relatable people who have met her who have spent time with her say that she is aspirational but at the same time very relatable she puts people immediately at ease she shows a genuine thoughtful interest in people when she meets them she's also very down to earth and very much feels like someone you can talk to I was a sociology major I could just write a recommendation letter please Michele Levon Robinson grew up in the south side of Chicago it was primarily a white area when she moved in and then it became a mostly african-american area by the time she left she grew up with a very working-class family her dad was a shift worker he put on his uniform every day her mother went back to work in order to support the family help raise the kids she grew up with her brother Craig they lived in a very small apartment above a home that her aunt owned and basically the living room was cut up into like three living spaces and she had a very small single bedroom with it just a partition between her and her brother in fact it didn't actually go to the ceiling so she and her brother Craig would like throw a sock over back and forth at night and they'd be like you up Craig yeah I'm awake it was a very simple humble beginning but Michele says that it was fundamental to her growth and development her parents gave her the foundation and the the determination to succeed Michele says that her mom always said she was a little extra she remembers vividly even now I think she was in kindergarten and she got the answer wrong on a colors test and it bothered her so much that she went back to the teacher the next day and asked for a do-over was she got and she a stood from the very beginning Michele Obama wanted to achieve she wanted to get a hundred percent she wanted to be the best and growing up in the south Side of Chicago she was not gonna let her color her socio-economic position anything hinder her from getting to the top well how on earth did you ever raise kids like Michele and Craig in a place like South Shore and my mom looks at these folks like they're crazy and she says Michele and Craig are nothing special there are millions of Craig's and Michele's out there and I did the same thing that all those other parents did she says I love them I believed in them and I didn't take any nonsense from them their family was like beaver cleaver that it was so wholesome just they earned a little bit less money but this really was an important foundation for her and that she really loves family loves being around family and the you know family is really important to her and that really shined through her warmth and her maternal energy was considered to be a huge asset I didn't want to let my parents down so I worked hard in school I read everything I could get my hands on I did my absolute very best on every single assignment I did everything in my power to be a good student I dreamed of one day going to one of the best universities in America Michele relates a very very poignant story in the book about how when she was applying for colleges and wanted to go to Princeton one of the guidance counselors at the school even though she Michelle had the you know top of her class great grades she'd been active in extracurricular things she said to her I don't think your Princeton material and you know Michele what she did was she ignored it she went to the assistant principal and got a recommendation from them instead Michele says I wasn't going to let one person's opinion of me dislodge everything about me that I knew was true this is to me one of the most inspiring things about the entire book becoming in that from the very beginning Michele has been telling other women not to let someone's opinion of you too who you are not just women but everyone and the fact is Michelle herself faced people doubting her from such a young age even in high school but she didn't let it stop her from achieving her dreams and I wasn't even sure my family could afford the tuition I didn't have anyone to help me study for entrance exams and the fact that I was a girl and that I was black well that certainly didn't help things either Michelle went on to Princeton and very everyone knows of course after that she went to Harvard Law School and she rose to the absolute top of her field one of the other things that comes out in the book that's very compelling is that she hated being a lawyer you know she'd gone to Harvard Law she was at the top of her game she was at a law firm very prestigious and she was doing all these court documents day and day out and she said to her mom I hate it I hate being a lawyer and her mom actually tried to talk her into staying as a lawyer because of how much money she was making it was an incredible amount of money and she said you know okay make your money and then later do something you love because what an amazing opportunity but for Michelle she realized that she had to follow her passion which was helping people it wasn't producing court documents and of course we all know what happened fans of Michelle Obama people who've met hurt events always say the same thing she is on the one hand to their ideal on the other hand she feels just like them Michelle's incredible ability to embody something aspirational but also relatable reminds me of Oprah Winfrey actually where you have someone you see as a role model but also is able to make you feel that they're unpretentious and not intimidating in any way it's a great skill and it's something that Michelle has used to great effect throughout her career in August 1989 Michelle LaVon Robinson was working as an associate in the Chicago Law Firm Sidley Austin when she was assigned to mentor a summer intern that summer intern was Barack Hussein Obama while Michelle was at Sidley Austin in comes a summer intern Barack Obama Barack was basically her mentee I mean she was his mentor so he had come in new to the firm she was already experienced and she was kind of his babysitter in a way showing him around introducing him to people she says now that she thought he was like handsome and bright and lovely but she never thought about dating him it wasn't that kind of connection in fact she even talks about thinking to set him up with one of her friends and then he wore some kind of weird outfit that looked like he was out of Miami Vice with a white linen jacket and that just went down the drain so she's very candid in her book about the fact that it wasn't love at first sight that he had this distinct whiff of geekiness about him and she saw him as being amazing and great but not dating marriage material I think he kind of grew on her but rather quickly because once they actually did have their first date Michelle says it was almost immediate that she knew that this was gonna be something pretty incredible he was definitely pursuing her and she had her reservations and eventually he won her over one of the things that really unites Michelle and Barack is they have a rather disruptive sense of humor they sort of are not mainstream they have their own kind of sardonic cynical views on things and they love to give each other a hard time but they were early on in their courting stage and they went to see Lyme is the musical together and you know everyone loves lima is the soaring music and the wonderful themes and she says it just felt like grunts and chains to her she hated it which is not normal but she hated it and anyway during the intermission she turns to look at Barak and he just looks at her kind of looks up but when I guess horrible right and it's just he knew that's what she was thinking and she knew that's what he was thinking and they really share that so they have their own shared sense of humor they have their own shared jokes they give each other a hard time they push each other to do better and I think that's one of the reasons they're still together and it's it's magic if I am worried about who liked me and who thought I was cute when I was your age I wouldn't be married to the President of the United States [Applause] [Music] well actually even now there is very famously a plaque outside the baskin-robbins in Chicago where Barack and Michelle had their first kiss Barack wrote in his memoirs that I kissed her and it tasted like chocolate and they had ice cream at baskin-robbins so there's a plaque actually outside to this day well I think one of the things that stands out in the relationship between Barack and Michelle Obama is just how close they are how much they are equal partners how they see themselves as a team that their relationship isn't perfect but they tend to be honest about whatever issues they have with one another but it's very clear to see that they have such a strong love for one another [Music] one of the biggest revelations in Michelle's book becoming is her own painful struggle to have children we find out that Michelle had a very painful miscarriage prior to having her daughters and then was forced to rely on IVF for the successful conception of her two girls Malia and Sasha this was something she writes about in in really breathtaking detail she talks about the loneliness of you know injecting herself at nine o'clock at night somewhere with the hormone she needed how the fact that Barack was often gone or traveling was difficult as she was contemplating the IVF and doing the IVF she's very honest about it and very candid about her own struggles to have her girls and this is something we never knew before Michela is very honest in her book becoming about her and Barack's marital difficulties she doesn't paint a perfect picture of their marriage in fact she actually said in an interview with Oprah Winfrey for Harper's Bazaar that yes I know people see us as hash tag relationship goals but it's not as picture-perfect as it may seem I think for Michelle it was important to paint a more accurate realistic picture of the fact that you have two very intelligent very driven very ambitious people who are trying to find a way to have a successful partnership and marriage one of the things Michelle talks about is how her way of loving and her feeling of security was different than Barack's you know Barack didn't grow up near his mother he was raised by his grandparents and yet he knew his mother loved him very much for Michelle she wanted him present she wanted her husband around her that's how she felt loved and secure but for Barak it didn't need to be that way so I think Michelle's very honest and open about the fact that she and Barack had to find a way to love each other and also be true to themselves and she openly talks about the fact that the pair underwent couples counseling shortly after the birth of their daughters Michelle Obama will never run for political office she has made that abundantly clear people I know who actually know her have said there's less than 1% chance that that would ever happen although there have been opinion polls which show repeatedly that Michelle Obama would be a popular candidate would have a lot of support certainly if you look at the response her autobiography becoming has had you would you'll see that she's incredibly popular however Michelle Obama has said repeatedly that she despises the kind of nastiness in politics which to a great degree in our current system seems to be necessary she has no interest or desire to hold public office in fact her husband Barack's even said very famously that he's sure of like three things in life death taxes and Michelle Obama will never run for office so we know that that is absolutely not one of her aspirations in the lead-up to the election campaign in the 2008 it was just tremendous turmoil discontent because the economy had been doing so badly there was one point in 2008 that 170,000 jobs were being lost in a month unemployment was almost at 8% and there was real pessimism and concern about the USS future I mean there was a general consensus that the invasion of Iraq had not been going well that the US had over stretched itself I think there was a general malaise and suspicion of politicians we'd been kind of mired in this murky war in Iraq and it didn't even seem like we've done that for the reasons that we were told we even lied to and I think a lot of Americans were deeply angry and suspicious so here comes this guy who seems kind of anti-establishment Barack was it was a young senator he didn't have a lot of political experience up until that time he was the presidential candidate with the least amount of experience and I think that people found his dynamic young optimism he seemed like a black JFK we are all committed as a people all of us share something that these children right here lined up waiting for the Red Hot Chili Peppers then I've got an investment in them even though they're not my children just like you have an investment in the children in the southside of Chicago a decent education and people were longing for something like that the kind of old rich white men had really done us wrong we were tired of feeling like we were part of some white elitist Yale University you know guy that passes it down to his son and it just felt very old school the Obamas were a breath of fresh air literally and even people who were diehard Republicans diametrically opposed to every single policy position like my other loved them because she said this is what we need we need this kind of breath of fresh air we need this kind of new energy that to be brought into the White House I think it was difficult for Michelle to come to terms with the fact that Brock wanted a political career she's very civic-minded but she hates politics and so she really didn't want to get into any kind of career whether it be mudslinging and all the different things that come with it but as always she wanted to support Barak and whatever aspirations that he had I think she understood that he had aspirations for greatness and was capable of achieving these types of things and that he's sort of a once-in-a-lifetime type of person that a type of candidate that the world had never really seen before definitely the u.s. had never seen before and that she was going to need to support him and that that didn't necessarily mean that she had to let go of her own ambitions it just meant you know that she needed to be side by side with him and supporting him all along the way I'm sure she was one of his biggest fans but also one of the people that he trusted the most in terms of offering him advice Michelle herself has always been very ambitious and career driven and she's been very open about the fact that it was really difficult to subjugate her own desires and ambitions in order to support his there were many points during the early election campaigns and his run for Senate where she had to kind of suck it up and and deal with the family stuff deal with the IVF deal with the girls and the girls schedule and he wasn't home he was not present he was out campaigning on the campaign trail or he was in a meeting it was in Washington and she did and she said it was not an easy decision and it was not an easy thing to do because she had her own dreams and ambitions and she had to sublimate those in order to support him but she doesn't regret it and it was the right thing to do and she found her own voice as first lady but I loved the fact that she was so honest about the fact that she had her own degree she had her own law degree she was his boss and now she had to kind of put that aside to some degree in order to help him achieve his dream she tells a famous story in her book about they were lying in bed together one day and he was looking off into the distance and she's very famously said to him you know a penny for your thoughts and thinking perhaps he might be thinking about their relationship or their impending marriage and instead he said very truthfully I'm thinking about income inequality so he was a very serious-minded smart guy and Michelle knew he had great political aspirations but she's very candid about the fact that she didn't actually think he would win or could win the presidency she says you know ultimately he was a black man in America and I didn't think he could win she supported him but she had reservations and doubts she doubted whether it would be good for their family whether it would be good for him and her and their marriage and all kinds of things however when it became clear to Michelle that her husband was really set on running she decided to support him wholeheartedly in fact there was one stage where she did something like 38 campaign appearances in just a number of weeks she was very much behind him in his drive for the White House even if she had her own private doubts both about whether it was something good for them and also about whether it was even possible for him to get elected when she was originally campaigning with Barack in 2008 was impossible to think of now is that she was thought of as a liability because of several things that she had said she was being interviewed by reporters in early 2008 and and she had mentioned this is the first time in my adult life that I am proud to be an American and this really didn't play well people didn't like the fact that she was emphasizing race too much then her dissertation was published when she was a student which emphasized how difficult it would be to be an african-american in a white university that also didn't play over very well and there were caricatures of her as this angry black woman who was militant and was overly focusing on race and they decided today we're gonna basically give her a complete makeover a complete image makeover because they felt that she was coming across as too forceful the world as it should be so tonight in honor of my father's memory and my daughter's future out of gratitude for those whose triumphs we mark this week and those whose everyday sacrifices have brought us to this moment let us devote ourselves to finishing their work let us work together to fulfill their hopes and let's stand together to elect Barack Obama president of the United States of America thank you god bless you and God bless america we see kind of a softer gentler version of Michelle like a lot of first ladies including Hillary Clinton she had been told in no uncertain terms to kind of soften her approach she was already getting criticized as an angry black woman and the misogyny and racism and not is very apparent but for Michelle in terms of helping her husband and not being a negativity to the campaign she was told to well her advisers clearly we're working to soften her appearance make her come across as more motherly more gentle it's something that Hillary Clinton had to do as well you have this incredibly educated in Michelle's case Harvard lawyer who has to appeal to all people in all women and being a smart career woman apparently was off-putting to a large demographic of women in America I think the problem was the sides of her that were maternal and warm weren't really shining through and and they felt that they needed to tap into these sides it wasn't that they completely changed her personality is that they sort of edited personality it's an edited version of the way she really is which she was the able to later reveal you know just being a little bit more frank more honest about things and her honesty actually just appealed to people now you know why I asked her out so many times even though she said no you want a persistent President Michelle Obama's famous for a lot of things not the least of which is her enviable arms one of the things we saw from hers first lady was the first time a first lady started wearing high street brands she was wearing j.crew she was wearing other brands which were very mainstream it wasn't like Nancy Reagan and her Oscar de la Renta all the time she was mixing and matching designer labels with high street mainstream brands which is what of course most women do we very famously saw her supporting J Crew from the very beginning which is a very quintessentially American brand and she wore a lot of sleeveless tops and of course the whole world took notice of the fact that she had such great arms Michelle Obama's arms in fact were requested of Plastic Surgeons around the land by women who wanted to emulate their their beauty really Michelle Obama has a great wardrobe and the fact that she's 511 has incredible height and stature in which to show it off she took risks in terms of fashion she were outfits that were a bit sexy and glamorous she wore Versace very famously and looked very slinky and straightened her hair she was not afraid to take risks with fashion and she loves fashion and it shows [Music] ladies and gentlemen the First Lady of the United States Michelle I realize that if I worked hard enough I could do just as well as anyone else I realized that success is not about the background you're from it's about the confidence that you have in the effort you're willing to invest when Michelle Obama realized she was they actually were going to win the White House she spent a lot of time talking to former First Lady's about the effect it would have on her daughters she talked to Laura Bush she talked to Hillary Clinton specifically about how she could protect her two girls from the glare of the national spotlight and how she could raise them to be well-adjusted women in the White House for Michelle the daughter her daughters were always a major priority to her and giving them a sense of normalcy in the midst of the glare of the world in the White House was really important to her a friend of mine who worked at the White House in the Obama years said that she only ever saw Malia at once on the White House grounds and she was carrying a laundry basket so it seemed like she had certainly had like normal chores Michelle was very protective of her girls and tried to keep them away from the national international spotlight they didn't do a lot of big formal events she tried very much for them to have a normal school life and family dinner hour at 6:30 was absolutely imperative in fact people who worked at the White House say that at 6:15 they would all kind of be checking their watches because they knew that by 6:30 Barack had to leave to go to the family residence to have dinner with his girls every night at 6:30 for Michelle I think she took her role as protector and mother as seriously as she took anything else or maybe more seriously than she took anything else whilst she has called being first lady the greatest honor of her life there was no question that her girls her daughters were her biggest priority and protecting them nurturing them fostering a great childhood and and adolescence for them was definitely something that got her full attention most first ladies are expected to be supportive to stay out of politics to stay out of controversies to choose to get behind policies that are non-controversial and they weren't expected necessarily to have a career other than being a supportive political wife and that really was the mold Hillary Clinton broke the mold before Michelle Obama in some ways because she herself was such an ambitious person but the key difference here is Hillary Clinton always had political aspirations and this would dog her time period while she was Bill Clinton's wife because of all the different scandals going on there were questions as to why they were even together and many were very cynical about the fact that well this is because she one day wants to be you know a politician a senator the president and so forth Michelle Obama was able to balance the ambition of Hillary Clinton with some of the warmth and caring this that previous first lady's were able to exude in ways that really hadn't been seen before Michelle Obama's approach to being a first lady was different than say Hillary Clinton but she was not part of Obama's administration she did not try to take the lead as a political leader but she had her passions in her causes and she was very vocal about those things the theme really of Michelle's causes is really about inclusivity she was looking for people and demographics that might have been marginalized and trying to give them a seat at the table so we're talking about people of color we're talking about girls we're talking about gays and lesbians transgender she was looking to increase inclusivity and that was definitely a theme of her passions and the causes that she really cared about our glorious diversity our diversities of faiths and colors and creeds that is not a threat to who we are it makes us who we are now Michelle Obama's five eleven she's extremely tall and she wore heels all the time she was someone who is proud of her stature and bine in no way a shrinking violet by any circumstance people who have met her have said that she's incredibly impressive for her strengths and her height and her persona and her presence but she also like to sneak out of the White House and she would do it frequently in disguise despite her height and her elegance in stature she was very often able in fact to do just that there's a wonderful story in Michelle's book about how she and her daughter's wanted to celebrate the moment that same-sex marriage was legalized in the u.s. it was an historic moment for gay rights and this was a subject and a topic that Michelle had been really passionate about from the beginning you know she said we teach our children about equality and fairness and I want she wanted so much for the u.s. to acknowledge that gays and lesbians have the right to get married she compared it to the civil rights movement and how this was a human fundamental right that they deserved and she was so excited when it was finally made legal the White House was actually dressed in all the lights the colors of the rainbow flag and she said to her girls come on let's go see it she wanted to be a part of that historic moment so they actually snuck out of the White House and stood in front of it so that they could see the White House bathed in the colors of the rainbow flag it was a great moment and it was a very fun part of the the story of the book and now today being back here in London by looking out at all of your faces I'm once again filled with the same feeling I had six years ago I see a room full of business leaders and surgeons and barristers I see women who are going to win elections and science competitions and Arts Awards I see leaders who will inspire folks not just here in Tower Hamlets but all across the country and all around the world and that's what I see because I know what's inside of girls like you and like me I know how hard will fight for our families how deeply we care about our communities how much of a difference we can make for those around us if you look at her career as a first lady she chose issues that were really apolitical she wanted to improve the livelihoods of veterans and their families she worked to improve nutrition for children and to improve their mobility and physical fitness and she really cared you know about families and that's what she emphasized in the end something that really wasn't going to be controversial in any way shouldn't have been controversial at times it was controversial just because the first family did was on the receiving end of criticism from time to time but in the end you know she had a very high popularity ratings higher than Barack Obama's popularity ratings and now as people are looking back on her career as a first lady she's one of the most well loved first ladies in history and one of the most admired people in the u.s. just recently [Music] you Michelle Obama's famously tactile and warm and we've seen that over and over again but in 2009 at the g2 summit there was a faux pas heard around the world when Michelle actually put her arm around Queen Elizabeth everyone was shocked because this is a firm break with royal protocol Michelle and the Queen had actually been having a bit of a giggle because they were both talking about how uncomfortable their shoes are Queen Elizabeth apparently complimented Michelle on her Jimmy Choos and Michelle confided that they were incredibly uncomfortable and Queen Elizabeth said apparently hers were as well and they had a bit of a laugh and Michelle put her arm around the Queen which caused gasps which could be heard around the world the thing is Queen Elizabeth seemed to like it there was a stage later on where Queen Elizabeth invited Michelle to sit in the back of her Range Rover with her on the way somewhere and when Michelle hesitated the Queen said to Michelle have they like warned you that you can't do this and when she said yes the Queen said rubbish you can sit wherever you want so it seems like despite the fact that everyone in the world freaked out that Michelle put her arm around Queen Elizabeth Queen Elizabeth was in fact charmed very much so by Michelle Obama you know we saw the very famous friendship that developed between Michelle Obama and George W Bush a very unlikely pairing but what happened was Michelle was invariably always seated by the former president george w bush at funerals public events and they've got to become friendly George Bush very famously gave Michelle Obama a cough drop which was at John McCain's funeral and everybody saw that and actually Michelle said he was an old cough drop but had been there a long time in the bottom of Laura's purse but she took it and they became really firm friends there's a lot of photographs of them and events where she has their arms around him you know embracing him and she has said I don't agree with him on everything but I have so much love for this man you know George Bush george w bush has said you know she likes my sense of humor and anyone who likes my said humor I like them immediately I think one of the things Michele has done so beautifully is to show that friendship and warmth does not have to stop when you come to different political views the red and the blues the Republicans and the Democrats it doesn't have to be a barrier to good conversation and goodwill and good relations and her friendship with George W Bush has really embodied that Michelle Obama has said over and over again I can't ask something of our children of our future generation that I don't embody myself this has fed into the way she acts all the time when it comes to campaign tactics when it comes to personal relationships and when it comes to the way that she speaks about her political opponents it was clear to the world each and every day that the Obama administration held office that the Obama's as the first family shared an unparalleled love and closeness Michelle Obama's mother Mary Ann shields Robinson lived in the White House to maintain those strong family bonds in an interview with CBS and 2018 Marian Shields Robinson shared her reasons for moving into the White House and keeping the family as close as possible Michelle Obama is incredibly close to her mother and she always admired her mother her mother was always there for her you know at home cooking every meal and she had a really really idyllic upbringing and this close-knit family in some ways it was something that Barack Obama lacked because his parents had split up and he moved around quite a bit but I think that the decision for Michelle's mom to move into the White House with them illustrates how close they really are how much Michelle relies on her mom to support her and to just be there for their daughters and to provide the family a foundation and some normalcy the media even nicknamed her the first grandmother I think some families having your mother-in-law live with you wouldn't be ideal but that you know you really don't understand how close this family is and how supportive you know she is to to their daughters but also to Barack and Michelle and I've seen it again and again and again that what our parents told us really is true that if we get our education we can do anything we can lift up ourselves to Heights we could never imagine we can pay forward all of the love and support that our families have poured into us and we can truly be builders of a new day that is your work one of the things Michele did which was unusual was that shortly after she moved into the White House with her girls she moved her mother in Mary Ann shields Robinson became the first grandmother of the White House for Michelle she knew she was going to be unavailable to her girls sometimes whether she was accompanying Barack on a trip overseas or she had meetings and she wanted someone she knew and trusted to help her raise her daughters you know as busy as she got she never took her eye off the ball when it came to raising Malia and Sasha and I think moving her mother in was something that families do but it's not typically something that first families do I think but a lot of people who know Michelle Obama say about her is she's hilarious she has a great sense of humor and she's really funny one of the great dynamics between Michelle and her husband is there's a friendly competitiveness they are famously competitive with each other a friend of mine who was actually at the 2004 convention when Barack's keynote speech thrust him into the national spotlight just before he went onstage Michelle gave him a big hug and said don't screw it up buddy so Michelle has very famously competitive very kind of funny competitive relationship with her husband and in her book becoming it's really remarkable how much shade she throws at her husband where she talks about his whiff of geekiness on their date and other things that make him seem very human I think for Barack and Michelle's children Sasha and Malia growing up in the White House probably wasn't easy they had some advice from the previous first children the Bush twins Jenna and Barbara Bush they they actually took them under their wing and gave them a lot of helpful advice but one of the things that made it easier for them was that they had such a strong family they had their their grandmother living with them they had their mother ensuring that you know they're able to live as normally as possible and something that is notable about those eight years for them was that there was never anything negative leap reported on them ever it could be you know the media was you know exercising some caution there but even since they have now you know become younger adults and are no longer living in the White House they have earned a reputation for just being really solid well behaved girls that have been really raised well and a lot of this has been attributed to the work that you know Michelle had done in the White House but also Michelle and Barack as a family just ensuring that they had some level of stability and normalcy you know in spite of the fact that they were living in very abnormal conditions earlier today as you heard Malia and Sasha and I visited the long room at Trinity College as you know if I don't know if many of you had been there it's like Hogwarts as sasha pointed out it's a huge room with shelf after shelf full of books beautiful place and I hope that all of you aspire to go there if not study there but just to go and experience what it's like to be surrounded by so much history and so much power and the girls had the chance to explore those shelves and trace their iris and lineage which was a very powerful thing to find out that these girls that were born on the south side of Chicago can trace their roots back here to Ireland way back to the 1600s that was very powerful for me as their mother and hopefully it will something be something that they cherish for the rest of their lives one of the things Michele is best known for is the fact that she's an incredible public speaker and some say that she's even better or let's say as good as her very famous husband Michelle and Barack were actually quite competitive about their speeches when Michelle was prepping to give her 2016 Democratic convention speech which is the very famous one where she says when they go low we go hi Barack heard her in one of the rehearsals and ended up going back to his notes to work a bit harder to make sure he was as good or better than his wife Michelle is a famously good public speaker she has great presence she has great Authority and at the same time she manages to be interesting and relatable it's one of her best skills you know it's it's hard to believe that it has been eight years since I first came to this convention to talk with you about why I thought my husband should be President remember how I told you about his character and conviction his decency and his grace the traits that we've seen every day that he served our country in the White House I also told you about our daughters how they are the heart of our hearts the center of our world and during our time in the White House we've had the joy of watching them grow from bubbly little girls into poised young women a journey that started soon after we arrived in Washington when they set off for their first day at their new school I will never forget that winter morning as I watched our girls just 7 and 10 years old pile into those black SUVs with all those big men with guns and I saw their little faces pressed up against the window and the only thing I could think was what have we done see because at that moment I realized that our time in the White House would form the foundation for who they would become and how well we managed this experience could truly make or break them that is what Barack and I think about every day as we try to guide and protect our girls through the challenges of this unusual life in the spotlight brooke and michelle obama had an excellent relationship throughout the presidency i meanyes any relationship is going to be tested when you're dealing with high levels of stress and so it's not to say that their relationship didn't experience some bumps and some you know tense discussions along the way and they've admitted that but they see themselves as a team they see themselves as much stronger together than apart and they really respect each other they see each other as equals and I think during the entire presidency they were able to weather a lot of storms difficult storms that he faced just just being present and all the taxi faced they were able to weather this together and their relationship is probably stronger as a result but it's really one of the few political marriages that was just completely scandal-free that was really about a deep love that they shared for one another that wasn't really about a marriage of political convenience and you know both Republicans and Democrats alike would have to acknowledge that this was a very solid relationship it was a model relationship and one that a lot of other people could learn from [Music] the issues that Michelle focused on in her reign as first lady which were like healthy kids education these were not just for show people I know who spent time with Michelle say that she was incredibly passionate even in her private life about these issues she would meet a teacher at an event where there were no cameras and no reporters and spend time really engaging them to talk about how we can do better for kids education or how we can do more to get kids moving and healthier her drive to help fight childhood obesity was unprecedented it was something that is obviously a very serious issue worldwide and particularly in the US and Michelle's let's move campaign was something that tackled it head-on she was very famously photographed at many okay on many occasions jump roping skip roping dancing all kinds of things to help children be encouraged to get away from their tablets and screens and get out there and get moving she also very famously planted a vegetable garden at the White House in the past you know they have so many beautiful flowers and landscape gardeners but going back to Eleanor Roosevelt this was the first time they'd had a first lady plant vegetables and she was very much behind this campaign to encourage healthy eating to encourage eating locally sourced produce organic when possible and so she made kind of a big deal about that and actually insisted that they plant a vegetable garden that they could actually eat from on the White House property we love good food too that's why I always say there is nothing that the first family loves more than a good burger right and look my favorite food in the whole wide world are french fries I love them dearly deeply I have a good relationship with french fries and I would eat them every single day if I could I really would you know kids you guys young people you guys have my heart and I said this in Belfast early it's so true look my girls know I can embarrass them and love them to death but young people you guys move me in ways that you don't even imagine Michelle Obama's views were in line with Barack Obama about inclusivity and equality and she knew that there were very high levels of inequality in the u.s. still that really affected children and one way of improving this was to ensure that children had access to healthy foods and she made that one of the issues of her time as first lady was to improve access to healthy lunches in schools which is really critical for kids who are learning and need to have proper nutrition in order to absorb information well she wanted to make sure that kids who were sedentary were moving better because this would these improvements to their physical health she knew how critical that would be to improving their mental health she was a champion of you know exercising and being healthy and waking up early and eating healthy to the best of her ability and she would go on talk shows and talk about this and generally you know this was well received and she cared about children she showed she care about children she cooked she cared about people who had been neglected in the past and she's also supported Barack Obama's policies that fought for marriage equality and other forms of inclusivity and both of them also were fighting for equal pay rights for women and that was actually one of the signature pieces of his legislation during the first 100 days let girls learn was one of her big causes and she was instrumental in creating a campaign and a program that encouraged girls especially girls at risk in minority and poor communities to go to college to have a great access to education and to become leaders unfortunately in Donald Trump's administration the program was completely discontinued and I'm here because when I look out at all these young women I see myself I may come from a country that's an ocean away but me I'm a bit older than you all yeah I am I know I don't look it but I'm just a little older when I was growing up there were very few black women at high levels and business or politics or science on TV so I didn't have many professional role models to look up to and I have a feeling that my experience might feel similar or familiar to some of you right now there are more than 62 million girls around the world who are not in school girls whose families don't think they're worthy of an education or they can't afford it girls who live too far away from the nearest school and have no transportation girls like Malala yousufzai who are assaulted kidnapped or killed just for trying to learn and this isn't just a devastating loss for these girls it's a devastating loss for all of us who are missing out on their promise one of these girls could have the potential to cure cancer or start a business that transforms an industry or become the next president or prime minister who inspires her country but if she never sets foot in a classroom chances are she will never discover or fulfill that potential as I tell girls whenever I meet them I wouldn't be here sitting here not just in this chair but in the life that I have if it weren't for my education I know that when you hear the phrase and knowledge is power it's true through my education I didn't just develop skills I didn't just develop the ability to learn but I developed confidence we were not put on this earth just to be good mothers or good wives we were here to be good citizens and good individuals and that takes investment and I want girls to start practicing that at a very early age not being so selfless that they can't look out for themselves well I think Michelle Obama was the first first lady we've ever had that quoted Beyonce I think she's the first first lady who seemed cool you know we had the kind of Stepford wife persona of Laura Bush we had the glam or the kind of old stuffy glamour of Nancy Reagan we have the kind of abrasive persona of Hillary Clinton and the pantsuits but Michelle kind of took a bit of all of that she was strong powerful woman with great arms who looked great whether it was in a j.crew sweater set or something by Versace she quoted Beyonce she was friends with Beyonce and jay-z she wore balance yoga boots she is someone who is far more relatable I think in modern definitely the most modern first lady we've ever had I think Melania has taken us back a bit but Michelle was very much of the now one of the things Michelle said which was controversial was when she said that she struggles with the fact that the White House did the house she lived in all those years was a house that was built by slaves she said you know I wake up every morning in a house that was built by the sweat of slaves and it was a comment that upset a lot of people but it was an honest reaction reflection on her part as to the history the troubled history of America and slavery there was another moment where Michelle talks about her very grumpy face at Donald Trump's inauguration you know she's very unsmiling and she actually looks annoyed to during most of it Barack is kind of affable smiling trying to be nice but she just looks mad and she was asked about it and she said she was looking around and whereas at her and Brock's inauguration there had been a sea of faces of all minorities of all colors of all both genders and here it's was looking at Donald Trump's inauguration very very white and very of a certain age and very male driven and she said it looked like other kind of corridors of power that she'd been in before where there weren't very many people of color and it made her really sad because she thought we were riding a new wave and that the world had changed but when Donald Trump came in and the people who supported him showed up for the inauguration she saw that it was not the world that she thought we were now in there's tremendous nostalgia for the Obamas I mean look what the u.s. is dealing with at the moment it's just complete government disarray investigations disunity polarization it's very stressful for most Americans today in dealing with the current administration and this is even though the US economy is actually doing fairly well as a result you know a lot of Americans are really nostalgic about the Obamas those that were probably a little bit too critical of the Obamas either on the left or on the right at least recognize that it was a period of direction calm prudency where the US could say that they were a world leader that they held some moral high ground and I think as we move on into this new era a period of politics that is more polarized than ever you're seeing the need for a type of chief executive who can comfort people who can unite people who's articulate who's educated who knows how to say the right things in the right moments and doesn't try to divide us I think the Obama is ultimately try to please both sides they tried to please the stalwart conservatives and also the modern liberal minded Democrats and I think they failed I think what they proved is that it's not possible to please both sides and now we're in an era where everyone's an extremist you are really like a white supremacist or your socialist there doesn't seem to be a lot of strength in the middle and unfortunately in these very divisive political times the Obama approach just isn't work so don't be afraid do you hear me young people don't be afraid be focused be determined be hopeful be empowered empower yourselves with a good education then get out there and use that education to build a country worthy of your boundless promise lead by example with hope never fear one of my favorite details in the book if not my favorite is when Michelle talks about making herself cheese toast it was after they'd left the White House she was no longer the first lady and Barack and Michelle and the girls moved to a house in suburbs of Washington DC and she writes about the fact that it was one of the first times in a very long time that she'd actually been alone she was alone in her kitchen she said at the White House she couldn't even open a kitchen cupboard because someone's always there saying what do you need what can I get for you but here in her own kitchen it was like her and her dog she opened her cupboard and she made herself cheese on toast she toasted it and she sat outside on her stoop there were dogs barking in the distance and she she actually said to her dog because the dog was shocked there were dogs barking in the distance that her dog had never heard other dogs and she said yeah this is really it this is our new reality when Michelle talks about making herself cheese on toast and that moment where she sat backyard on the stoop it's a moment of reflection on how her lives have changed how all of their lives had changed it would never be the same I want to close today by simply saying thank you thank you for everything you do for our kids and for our country being your first lady has been the greatest honor of my life and I hope I've aged proud [Music]

Channel: Real Stories

Views: 123,054

Keywords: Real Stories, Real Stories Full Documentary, Real Stories Documentary, Full length Documentaries, Documentary, TV Shows - Topic, Documentary Movies - Topic, full documentary, full episode, michelle obama, barack obama, first lady, white house, biopic, biography, michelle obama speech, michelle obama interview, michelle obama biography, president obama, full biography, american history

Id: Ec8P9PAyjS8

Length: 60min 37sec (3637 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 18 2020