A tough first semester at Princeton taught Michelle Obama a career lesson that she’s passing down to young professionals.
The former First Lady appeared on a Thursday episode of “Diary of a CEO” where she spoke about the challenges she faced as a Black woman pursuing higher education — particularly achieving her two Ivy League degrees from Princeton and Harvard Law School.
As an affirmative action student from Chicago, Obama said, she felt “a little intimidated” by Princeton’s Ivy status when she arrived on campus in 1981 despite knowing she’d be underestimated.
After receiving all A’s her first semester, she realized her self-doubt was by design. It was based on notions produced by a “world grounded in racism.”
“I was like, ‘I get this now. You’re just trying to get into my head. You’re scared of me,'” Obama said.
While there were plenty of other people there due to affirmative action, many wealthy students were able “to gain access to these seats of power that have nothing to do with their raw academic ability,” Obama said.
From then on, she said, she stopped worrying about whether or not she deserved to be in powerful spaces. Now, she’s trying to save other young adults from falling for the same tactic.
“Do not let these people scam you. This is all a racket,” Obama said.
Host Steven Bartlett asked Obama to clarify what she meant by the term.
“That they know more; that they deserve this more than you do. It’s just not true,” Obama said.
Her revelation that she, as a Black woman, could thrive at an Ivy League school was both infuriating and freeing, she told Bartlett. However, not all teens get the same opportunity to overcome the underestimation, and that’s why she wants to pass the lesson along, she said.
“I came out of Princeton just feeling like, ‘Let me at ’em,'” Obama said, referring to the obstacles she’d face in the career ahead of her.
In 2023, the US Supreme Court ended affirmative action in college admissions.
