Coming on the heels of a “lay off my wife” demand from Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., the Chicago-based Alpha Kappa Alpha, Inc. sorority is speaking outûand upûfor Michelle Obama too.
The Tennessee GOP launched an attack against Michelle Obama after she said, “For the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country.” The comment came in February while she was campaigning with her husband in Wisconsin. After her remark, Tennessee Republicans published a video blasting Michelle Obama, calling her unpatriotic.
The video’s comments drew the disdain of, among other people and organizations, the AKAs, whose leader offered a stern scolding and called the GOP’s posit an intolerable no-no. “The impulse to take a statement of hers out of context and make it a focus of an unpatriotic ad is to trivialize her and to attempt to devalue her,” AKA president, Barbara A. McKinizie, said of Michelle Obama in a written statement.
“This is unacceptable.” The sorority leader said she felt “compelled to speak out when injustice is so blatant,” and said she would wage a counter attack, encouraging members of her 200,000-plus organization to write letters, speak out and issue statements. McKinzie aims to curtail what she considered an emerging trend and called on local and federal political leaders, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to denounce the GOP ad and “the climate of intolerance that prompted its creation.”
“The very real possibility of having an African American woman as First Lady of this nation underscores progress that a small number of America’s citizens continue to ignore. Yet, they have a voice that should be heard when it is tempered with truth, not transmitted through offensive sound bites,” she said.
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