I am not just an angry black woman, says Michelle Obama

A BOOK by a New York Times journalist packed with anecdotes about a short-tempered and insecure First Lady has been dismissed by Michelle Obama as just the latest attempt to paint her as "some kind of angry black woman".
 
Mrs Obama used an interview on CBS to deny the allegations made in The Obamas, an unauthorised biography of the First Couple by reporter Jodi Kantor said to be based on interviews with 33 White House staffers.
 
The book includes details of run-ins with two of the president’s most senior aides, chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and press secretary Robert Gibbs, both of whom have left the administration earlier than expected.
 
Emanuel is said to have chafed against the influence of a “deeply frustrated and insecure” First Lady, while Gibbs is alleged to have "cursed" her after she complained about the way he dealt with a claim that she told Carla Bruni-Sarkozy living in the White House was hell.
 
However, in Wednesday’s interview with Gayle King of CBS, Mrs Obama insisted that she and Emanuel – now mayor of Chicago - had "never had a cross word" and that their families remain dear friends.
 
Asked by King if she had ever felt frustrated or unhappy in her position, the First Lady said: "I love this job. It has been a privilege from day one … Me and Barack, we're grown-ups, all the ups and downs, we take it on." 
 
Referring to Kantor’s book, she said: "I guess it's just more interesting to imagine this conflicted situation here. That's been an image people have tried to paint of me since the day Barack announced, that I'm some kind of angry black woman."
 
Professor James B Peterson, director of Africana studies at Pennsylvania’s Lehigh University, agrees. 
 
"One, she's black," he told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "Two, she's assertive. Three, she's smart. Four, she's strong. Five, she's a great political mind. And we can't forgive her for it." ·