The 2nd Thread For 12/11/13: Some of You Looked Real Foolish

Here is the photo of the First Lady, Michelle Obama, that most didn't show today. Her laughing with the Danish PM: pic.twitter.com/HaEJvbWYsj
— Andrew Jerell Jones (@sluggahjells) December 11, 2013

I hope everyone who both freaked out over a "selfie" being taken at a memorial, or thinking that Michelle was really mad at both her husband and Prime Minister Schmidt yesterday, is feeling real stupid today.

The first thing that needs to be addressed is the dumb, tired "Michelle was mad" stereotype. Just forget the typical angry black woman stereotype that people either intentionally or unintentionally help spread again yesterday in careless fashion. It's just the fact that people were so happy to be gullible and wrong that they just ran with the "Michelle is angry at Barack and Schmidt" narrative and yucked it up all day in laughter.

Didn't they all get tired of the whole "Michelle is mad at Carla Bruni" stuff? I guess they didn't. And they also wanted to easily paint the picture of the philandering husband. How wonderfully irresponsible.

The second thing that really upset me yesterday was those so outraged that Obama would take a "selfie" at a memorial, in fact saying he was wrong to take it a funeral even.

It's fun to imagine that she's totes jealz of the Danish PM, but maybe Michelle Obama is irritated her husband is goofing off at a funeral?
— Erin Gloria Ryan (@morninggloria) December 10, 2013

First, again, it wasn't a funeral, it was a memorial. And in certain memorials, especially both black and South African, it is more a jovial celebration of life, not a downtrodden and melancholy devastation that takes place at a regular funeral. Especially if it's a celebration for a person like Nelson Mandela who lived for so long.

That's how black homegoings/memorials can be, and it is not a shame that Obama took a selfie there. At all. Your moral, miserable anger or inability to actually view memorials of a person as more than just doom and gloom can take a proper seat right now over this.

The tragic thing about all of this is the fact that Desmond Tutu and even Obama's great words yesterday have been placed to the background, all because of this nonsense.

But nonsense is what some do so well, especially in the age of the ridiculous viral story.