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About Michelle Obama’s DNC Speech and the White House That Was Built by Slaves

Michelle Obama. Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama the GAWDESS. First of Her Name. Sasha and Malia’s mama. Barack’s wife. Queen of my Heart. Slayer of Haters. Shader of Intellectually Inferior Walking Cheetos. She Who Shall Not Be Outdone.

She stepped on the stage of the Democratic National Convention on day 1 and showed people why Black women are made of unicorn tears, essence of phoenix and a scoop of eye of newt.

Michelle Obama DNC

We are otherworldly in our awesomeness.

Michelle is unable to flaw. Flaw-deficient. No flaw left behind on her. Flaw looks at Michelle and goes “Nah, I can’t go there.” For 15 minutes, she commanded the stage, stole our hearts and spoke truth to power. She made folks jealous of Barack Obama for getting to stand in her glory. She spoke about her brilliant family, about her growing girls, and about her position as a Black woman who is living in a world that really doesn’t stand for us. She threw immaculate eclipse at folks and didn’t even have to name them for it to hit.

Her entire speech was one giant quotable, and me talking about my favorite lines would be me literally transcribing her whole speech. But the line that people cannot stop talking about is when she said:

Michelle Obama White House Built By Slaves

“I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves and I watch my daughters – two beautiful, intelligent, black young women – playing with their dogs on the White House lawn.”

That line is an instant classic, and it was piercing in its raw truth. That line is one folks have been “fact checking” for the last 36 hours. What the fuck are folks fact-checking? What is there to confirm? IT IS THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH. So help me, Father Gawd.

There are certain things that are facts. One of them is that cockroaches are the devil in bug form. The other is that the United States of America was built and sustained by the labor of enslaved Black people.

As the men who founded this country touted “All men are created equal,” they owned slaves, and those were the people who built the house that was supposed to represent freedom. Ground was broken to build the White House in 1792. Who do you think was doing the work? Gifted white laborers being paid a fair wage? HAHAHAHANO. It was Black people who had no agency over their own lives. It was Black boys, girls, women and men, who were being whipped into laying those bricks. It wasn’t some construction crew in hard hats. It was slaves.

Lemme repeat for the upper decks: THE WHITE HOUSE WAS BUILT BY SLAVES.

Its True Though gif

So it makes zero sense to me that white people could be clutching their pearls in shock about Michelle Obama mentioning that history. Well, then again, it makes perfect sense. Because part of the privilege of whiteness is not having to think of the malice of your ancestors. Because when you’re white, you don’t have to think about the fact that Black folks are here because the trans-atlantic slave trade imported Africans, like they were bags of rice. Because whiteness protects you from having to acknowledge that YOUR history, and your people are the ones who forced Black folks to be here in the first place. And that you owe us a hell of a lot.

The point of slavery was not because white people needed Black friends and needed to know what having rhythm and seasoned food was like. Nah. It was used to create the largest economy in the world. It was used to build an empire that is still reigning today. All that old money folks are sitting on? It’s because they used Black bodies as currency. The blood and sweat and tears of Black folks are in every piece of America.

But white people have managed to excel at fictional storytelling when it comes to history. It’s laughable that they think they did anything but whip this country into being built. They will go out of their way to talk about slavery like it was summer camp.

This is why numbnuts like Bill O’Reilly can fix their slack ass jaws and say that slaves were well-fed and had housing, so it wasn’t so bad that they were made to build the White House. BITCH slave labor built this country and the forefathers and their dusty wigs do not get props because they decided to do the absolute minimum to keep them alive!

sit down jesse williams

The fuck, yo? White folks have legit spent a lot of time revising history, and have convinced themselves that they haven’t spent 400 years exploiting, denigrating and killing Black people. There are Texas textbooks that call slaves “workers” like they had 401(k)s and benefits. You wanna spit shine slavery, you can try. There’s no gloss there. It was ugly. It was evil.

But the part that is most aggravating of all? The fact that white folks will turn around and call US violent. And lazy. They have managed to uphold a system that has convinced them (and some of us, unfortunately) that we are sloths who are prone to aggression when WE DID ALL THE WORK AS THEY SAT AROUND BEATING US. Who is lazy and violent? Because it surely ain’t us. 

We’re the ones you’ve tried to break. We’re the ones you’ve stolen from. We’re the ones you try to kill. But WE are the ones who are the problem? Nah, whiteness.

This is why SLAVERY is WHITE HISTORY. Just as much as it’s Black history. This is part of the legacy of whiteness and no amount of denial will change that. They surely have tried. Not acknowledging your bullshit is a great way to sit in bliss.

WE DID ALL THIS SHIT AND YOU ARE WELCOME, WHITE PEOPLE. This is why if we were to take everything we’ve contributed to this country for BLAXIT, all white folks would have left is birkenstock sandals and kale smoothies.

Oh and when Hillary Clinton wins the election and moves in to that White House for the second time – this time as Commander in Chief – she can thank Black women for making it happen for her.

We get shit done.

Black Girls Rock Michelle Obama

P.S. ALL HAIL MICHELLE OBAMA.

P.P.S. I wanna take this moment to brag that I went to the same high school as FLOTUS Shellie. Shoutout to the Whitney Young Magnet High School Dolphins!

I’m at the DNC all week. Follow me on social media (@Luvvie everywhere) for what I get into.


There is a chapter on racism in my debut book I’M JUDGING YOU: The Do-Better Manual. I cover this and more. BUY IT everywhere books are sold! |

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88 Comments

  1. Shar
    July 27, 2016 at 9:04 am

    Like Flotus’ speech, all of this is quotable but you exude the Khaleesi of realness with this line! “The point of slavery was not because white people needed Black friends and needed to know what having rhythm and seasoned food looked like. Nah.” #PraiseElohim

  2. July 27, 2016 at 9:08 am

    Am I only allowed a finite number of superlatives for everything you write? I may need to upgrade to the Commenters Gold Status if you create one. And is it bad that I want to fill out an application to be a BFF so we can meet for coffee and laugh like two insane teenagers? Keep it coming. – MDF (Melanin Deficient Fan); ALOTY (A Lot Older than You) BFNY (But From NY) ANIC (Although Now in Chicago)

    • Teona
      July 27, 2016 at 10:00 am

      Lol
      I love it

    • oldnewma
      July 27, 2016 at 11:20 am

      I love you, Nettie. You can be my BFF !!!!! I join you in praising the superlative writing of Luvvie. She is in a class by herself and I will kill a fool for messing with her.

    • Dr. Cindy DuBois
      July 27, 2016 at 1:09 pm

      After you have coffee with Nettie, will you have coffee with me? I’m melanin Deficient, too but I have spent a life learning and growing. My ancestors were slave owners and I have asked God to forgive them. I taught school for 30+ years and always from a social justice standpoint. For many years, in my 8th grade reading classes, I taught a 6 week unit on the Civil Rights movement and then another one on the Chicano Civil Rights movement. Once, I asked my Black student, Rocky, if he thought it was okay for a white woman to teach this stuff. He said, “If you don’t – who will?” Please have coffee with me.
      I’ll share my curriculums.

    • bert
      July 27, 2016 at 4:27 pm

      im luvvin’ this chick!

    • Casey
      August 2, 2016 at 1:40 pm

      You’re coming with us for #Blaxit, right??

  3. July 27, 2016 at 9:10 am

    “This is why numbnuts like Bill O’Reilly can fix their slack ass jaws and say that slaves were well-fed and had housing, so it wasn’t so bad that they were made to build the White House. BITCH slave labor built this country and the forefathers and their dusty wigs do not get props because they decided to do the absolute minimum to keep them alive!”

    Yass!! Yass!!! Yass!!!! Loved every word❤️

  4. BETTY
    July 27, 2016 at 9:10 am

    LAWDDDDDD
    I been waiting for this recap since FLOTUS strutted off stage.
    She was Brilliance in Blue.

    Thank you Luvvie.

  5. Shannon
    July 27, 2016 at 9:12 am

    Not to mention that we have an eyewitness account from no less than Abigail Adams, who was living in the White House while it was being built, and who referred to the slaves as being “half fed and deficient in clothing.”

    • July 27, 2016 at 9:28 am

      Well damn. Receipts!

      • Monique
        July 27, 2016 at 10:12 am

        +1

    • Jessica
      July 27, 2016 at 11:08 am

      Which of her letters does she mention this? I’m asking because I’d like to read it. Thanks for bringing it up!

      • Shannon
        July 27, 2016 at 12:48 pm

        Hi Jessica–

        It’s a letter from Abigail to Cotton Tufts dated November 28 1800. “The effects of slavery are everywhere…it is true Republicanism (ha!–interjection mine) that drives the Slaves half fed, and destitute of cloathing, for for Mayfaire, to labour, whilst the owner watches about Idle, tho his one slave is all the property he can boast.”

        • Jessica
          July 27, 2016 at 3:22 pm

          Thank you very much for your response!!

        • Danni's mom
          July 27, 2016 at 3:30 pm

          Thanks for sharing Shannon – I just printed out the letter and will be taking it home for my babies to read.

  6. CourtneyH
    July 27, 2016 at 9:13 am

    My husband and I just watched the movie “All the Way”. It is a story about LBJ and the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Watching that movie, in this climate, simply made me angry. The movie showed how the Republican party became who they are today. They left the Democratic party all because they didn’t want black people to vote. The South became Republican because they didn’t want black people to vote. They beat people, killed people, with the protection of the police….all because they were trying register people to vote. Yet black people are violent. GTFOHWTBS

  7. whilome
    July 27, 2016 at 9:13 am

    Bout to smooth LINK this to my Facebook where a friend of a friend just pulled a, “Well, actually…if you fact check O’Reilly’s statement, he’s TECHNICALLY not —”
    MANNNN, if you don’t shut you gadtdamb piehole!
    I can’t this morning with this bullshit. Thank you, Luvvie for expressing what I need to say but can’t because my “can’t” malfunctioned. My can’t is on hiatus. It’s in Ibiza chillin in azure waters because some of this folks try too damb hard to use pedantry, semantics, and straight up revisionist lies to assuage themselves of some well-earned white guilt.
    Whitefolks in the audience, I’m American. I gotta deal with the vestiges of American imperialism wherever I travel. My daughter is half-vietnamese. Imagine if I go to Vietnam and start, “Well, actuallying” the My Lai massacre and shit! NO. I would not. Why? Because my black ass knows that my country fucked some shit up! You don’t equivocate, ameliorate, or otherwise deny your own fuckedupedness. It’s bad form, my friends. Bad form.

    • Mnemosyne
      July 27, 2016 at 12:09 pm

      I am an Official White Person who has ancestry that goes back to colonial times on my mother’s side, and you can tell your friend from me that he is full of shit.

      I can pretty much guarantee that most of my ancestors owned at least a couple of slaves even though they lived in New England before the American Revolution because EVERYONE owned slaves. If you needed a maid, you bought one. That’s just reality. And the fact that some of them were treated better than others doesn’t change the fact that THEY WERE SLAVES. Property. Not free. People who were not allowed to make their own decisions about their own lives.

      Now, in my case I’m sort of lucky because my ancestors stayed in the North, where courageous people like Elizabeth Freeman of Massachusetts sued to gain their freedom and the courts agreed with them and decided they only had to be second-class citizens and not actual pieces of property. So at least I don’t have the additional burden of supporting the vile Southern plantation system weighing down that half of my family. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t have slaveholding ancestors just because my family stayed in the North.

    • Saffron
      July 27, 2016 at 12:54 pm

      You know when you hear a sentence starting “well, ACTUALLY” that you’re about to hear some bullshit.

    • Rebecca August
      July 30, 2016 at 9:18 am

      “You don’t equivocate, ameliorate, or otherwise deny your own fuckedupedness. It’s bad form, my friends. Bad form.”

      Saving this!!! 🙂

  8. Tracy Brown
    July 27, 2016 at 9:19 am

    Luvvie you are the real MVP!!!

  9. July 27, 2016 at 9:38 am

    It’s funny that her comment is only just being noticed. I could have sworn I heard an old speech where she said this before( probably a serious case of deja vu!).
    Then this Mr B Reilly uses the word ‘participate’. I couldn’t listen to anymore coming out of them lips after that sentence.
    Best post I have ever read on this blog. I am officially a huge fan (the way you tell it is epic!).
    Best wishes!

    • T
      July 27, 2016 at 9:56 am

      She said it during her commencement speech @ Jackson State university. But they don’t care when we speak the truth among ourselves….

    • Kacee
      July 27, 2016 at 10:04 am

      Actually she’s said it several times that’s why I was baffled by the shock and controversy. But it may have to do with some stories going around on social media meant to diminish the slavery of Africans by claiming the Irish were enslaved and it was really them who built the WH and the Blacks only painted the outside and they got paid! Smh…but it is a growing narrative.

      • notconvincedgranny
        July 27, 2016 at 2:21 pm

        Those other locations did not have the audience this one did.

  10. Alicia
    July 27, 2016 at 9:45 am

    I should’ve known you were from Chicago by how you slay with word choice and perspective. I too sing of the Southside. Elizabeth Seton H.S. In the house with several friends who hailed from Whitney Young!

  11. July 27, 2016 at 9:50 am

    I love how after hours of booing and chanting against other speakers, every single protester shut up with a quickness to hear FLOTUS speak. And the tweet Barack sent out after…my heart!

  12. Wendylous
    July 27, 2016 at 9:53 am

    Just this morning FAUX NEWS showed the black mothers of deceased children at the DNC and called them.the so called group of mothers… I had to walk out of the store that was playing this shit. A black woman’s tears don’t mean shit.
    Michelle rocks and Luvvie THIS IS EVERYTHING!!! Thank you for your words. People need to know.

  13. July 27, 2016 at 9:57 am

    Really, I’m always suspicious of anything that comes out of the mouth of someone with absolutely no lips. (Sorry, Lester Holt). Bill O’Reilly’s slack jaws are ready-made for the lies that slip out.

  14. Ayah
    July 27, 2016 at 9:58 am

    I was all co-signing till I got to the part about Birkenstocks and kale smoothies, cuz I been rockin’ the hell out of my metallic Birkenstocks this summer and I loves me a nice kale-coconut water-pineapple-mango smoothie, because health. *record scratch* Wait whaa’? I can’t take those with me in the #Blaxit? I guess I could swap out the kale for some other greens from the list of Blaxit approved produce. But I’m hella googling the origin of Birkenstocks though. I bet that German man got the idea from an African somewhere in time! Shoot, all this time we thought Henry Ford invented the car.

    • whilome
      July 27, 2016 at 10:57 am

      Girl, kale ain’t nothing but greens. We taking that, too.
      They’ll have to make their smoothies with arugula.
      We’ll have to come up out them Birkenstocks, tho. Those are theirs.

      • Nilly
        July 27, 2016 at 11:44 am

        This whole comment has me dead this mawnin lmaoooo

      • Danni's mom
        July 27, 2016 at 3:36 pm

        Why can’t we just steal the Birkenstocks they way they try to steal everything else?!?

        • Kadase
          August 3, 2016 at 7:08 am

          Nah, not worth stooping to their level. We can make something better. To paraphrase the incomparable Michelle Obama “…when they go low, we go high”

  15. TJ
    July 27, 2016 at 10:02 am

    I didn’t know you were a dolphin, Luvvie! No wonder you’re so awesome! And yeah, kids are sitting at Young now with books talking about black slaves were “workers.” Worse than the evil that was done is this attempt to bold-faced lie about it. Fortunately, more people are waking up and ceasing to buy it.

  16. Bettye Smith
    July 27, 2016 at 10:03 am

    Thank you Luvvie…just started following you. Loving the journey. Keep up the awesome work.

  17. Diana
    July 27, 2016 at 10:05 am

    1. Mrs. Obama’s speech made me want to be a better mother, lawyer, woman, and GD human being.
    2. Some assclown this morning was trying to give me the same history lesson as Bill O’Reilly. “Well actually, the slaves were treated pretty well and –” Bupbupbup. NO. Stop. We’re done here.
    3. Didn’t ACTUAL SLAVE OWNERS use that same reasoning? “Hey, we take care of our slaves!” Do you really want to be in that company, Bill O’Reilly?

    YAMDF (yet another melanin-deficient fan)

  18. Gail
    July 27, 2016 at 10:09 am

    “First, the White House was not built solely — or even primarily — by slaves. In addition to the slaves, the labor force consisted of local (from Maryland and Virginia) white laborers and artisans and a number of immigrants from Ireland, Scotland, and other European nations.

    Second, the government paid the slaves who worked on the White House. While many of the surviving records only indicate payments made to their masters, at least one slave — Philip Reid — was paid directly, a sum of $1.25 per day ($31 per day in 2016 dollars).”
    Virginia Kruta

    here is your whitewashing…
    paid slaves?
    who works for $2.35 per hour in 2016~slave wages!

    dese folks!

    oh yeah
    #dolphin4life!

    • Saffron
      July 27, 2016 at 1:38 pm

      Slaves did get paid sometimes – sometimes skilled artisans/craftsmen got to sell their own labor or products in their free time and save up their own money. Some eventually bought their own freedom that way. Some masters allowed their slaves to earn and save their own money.

      None of that really matters, though. The vast system of torture and mass murder that was American slavery doesn’t go away just because a few slaves had decent lives and a few masters were nice people. There were a few nice people among the Nazis in the death camps, too, but you know what? STILL GENOCIDE.

  19. Michele
    July 27, 2016 at 10:18 am

    Get out of my head Miss Luvvie! Get out right now!

    No seriously, as usual you cut to the nonsense and get right to the point. Racism will always be a huge hurdle that keeps America from reaching its full potential for the simple reason that white people in general just don’t have the will and moral fiber to face the truth about slavery (inserts “If it don’t apply, let it fly” disclaimer for the white folks that do get it). Especially hilarious to me is this whole trying to pass off Irish indentured servants as slaves, as if they didn’t eventually climb up the rungs and become slaveowners and overseers themselves (ask me about my Irish great-great grandfather yo, and I will laugh in your face if you tell me he was having a consensual relationship with my great-great grandmother sometime in the 1860s).

    And I have to laugh that on Monday night 98 percent of my twitter timeline was ready to hop on the first thing smoking to Philly to curbstomp the Berniestans if they heckled FLOTUS. You notice that was the one part of the evening they behaved themselves, so they must have gotten an extra special warning from their fellow delegates LOL.

  20. July 27, 2016 at 10:23 am

    Co-sign, co-sign, co-sign, co-sign, CO-SIGN!!!!!!! #yassssssssss

    to all of the above.

  21. Sarah
    July 27, 2016 at 10:41 am

    I am white. Some of that was uncomfortable to read and I had to check myself thinking excuses – the yes, but, not ALL of us.
    No. You’re right. The whole shebang. Every one of us. We stand on the infrastructure Black people built.
    Reading your blog is an education, Luvvie. I found you so I could read about Game of Thrones without actually having to watch it. I’m staying because I am learning about much bigger things.

    • ginger watson
      July 27, 2016 at 11:08 am

      Yes Sarah – me too! What you said – except I do actually watch GoT as well as read Luvvie’s commentary. I’m here for the education. This “slavery wasn’t so bad” mess is killing me.

  22. Drea823
    July 27, 2016 at 11:29 am

    “The fuck, yo? White folks have legit spent a lot of time revising history, and have convinced themselves that they haven’t spent 400 years exploiting, denigrating and killing Black people. There are Texas textbooks that call slaves “workers” like they had 401(k)s and benefits. You wanna spit shine slavery, you can try. There’s no gloss there. It was ugly. It was evil.”

    That paragraph made me so emotional. This entire post needs a standing ovation! Please continue to use your platform to say what needs to be said and heard, Luvvie. The Keeblers (my term for WP) have truly convinced themselves that the bullshit they are spewing is truth.

  23. Nichole
    July 27, 2016 at 11:40 am

    Can someone tell Bill O’Reilly all slaves had room and board, because room & board is probably what he really wanted to call it.

    If they couldn’t turn in their resignation without an ungodly consequence, being well fed (so you could do the work) and having lodging (because you needed to be close, working probably 20 hours a day) means nothing. It was still slavery.

    Michelle Obama slayed that soeech, dropping nuggets left and write. If I was still in high school and in speech club I’d be practicing her speech for my next competition.

  24. Solange
    July 27, 2016 at 12:28 pm

    Long time lurker first time poster here. I just had to say Luvvie, you’re just all kinds of awesomeness! Keep on fighting the good fight, God knows we need voices like yours.
    Much love and respect, All the way from Montreal.

  25. LicoriceAllsort
    July 27, 2016 at 12:35 pm

    Let the record show that #Blaxit will also result in the removal of the White House, the Capitol building, and all of the fancy buildings in downtowns. The new national capitol shall be known as the Double Wide. City zoning ordinances have been adjusted to allow for groupings of manufactured homes and tiny houses. Approved construction materials include Formica, pressboard, and Ikea cubes.

    • TJ
      July 27, 2016 at 12:50 pm

      ???????????????????????????????????????? #DeaderThanDead

  26. TJ
    July 27, 2016 at 12:48 pm

    “Made of unicorn tears, essence of Phoenix, and scoop of eye newt!” Is going in my bio on Facebook. My Gawd, do I live for and love the Obama Family. I truly treasure their time in office and the example they’ve set as a BLACK family!

    It’s disheartening to observe how people attempt to water down slavery to indentured servitude or working for low wages. The f**k is O’Slimey talking about, but then again I’m not surprised.

  27. July 27, 2016 at 1:09 pm

    Excellent post. And Michelle’s speech was perfect.

  28. Julieth Moli
    July 27, 2016 at 1:56 pm

    Lord, yes! Yes to everything you have written. Yes! to the truth! And on the blaxit, this is a request for an Afrikan babe, take our gold back mmk all our wealth that they keeping in some storage space somewhere and in their houses to show off and drop it off here. And take the museums, yes, the museums, well rather all our Afrikan artifacts which they know no shit about, take that too and drop it off here. The Asian and Native American items in the museums as well should be bagged and returned. They can stay with the stone age things and their paintings, mmk? Thanks xo

  29. July 27, 2016 at 2:02 pm

    That thing you do with words is amazing!!! Girl, this was good as ummm. Let’s just say I needed a cigarette and I don’t smoke LOL!! GREAT JOB as always!!

  30. lstyson
    July 27, 2016 at 2:43 pm

    Michelle Obama said at the democratic national convention that you should not let anyone tell you this country isn’t great, but earlier in her husband’s term as president, she gave a speech talking about how she herself was not proud of her country, but now all of a sudden she wants to talk about how great it is. That is a joke. All she, her husband, the Clintons, & all the other democrats are doing, is just trying to play the race card to try to win this election for the democrats. They couldn’t care less about the American people or the long term consequences of their actions on this country. It is all about winning this election at any cost as long as a democrat wins. You know that they were just sitting around the Whitehouse saying, how can we possibly get people to vote for this lying, white, rich, over-privileged, female criminal as the next president? Well a lot of women will vote for her just because she is a woman. True, but that might not be enough to win the election. We need a back-up plan. We need to figure out how to get the black people to vote for her like they did with Obama. I know we can say Trump is racist, but Trump hasn’t said anything racist against black people. I know but all you have to do is say it & without any real proof, they will still believe it. Then blacks will vote for her, & whites won’t speak-up against her or for Trump because they too will be labeled a racist. So yes that will work. Let’s turn this into a black/white thing. But Hillary isn’t black & Trump isn’t racist. That doesn’t really matter, all you have to do is say Trump is racist & Hillary loves the black community. Even if it is not true, don’t worry about the truth. Trust me this will totally work. They will eat this racism crap up like it is candy.

    • Alex
      July 27, 2016 at 3:20 pm

      Ampersand usage disqualifies you from any meaningful argument. Apart from the fact that you are an ignorant cracker.

      • Simmer
        July 28, 2016 at 11:23 am

        How the hell does this person know how to correctly spell “consequences,” but can’t punctuate or properly capitalize and doesn’t know what a run-on sentence or paragraph break is?

        Also, “apart from the fact that you are an ignorant cracker” had me howling.

      • KateyBerry
        July 29, 2016 at 8:03 am

        I both co-sign and approve Alex’s call out on ampersand usage. Also, a more appropriate term to use when referring to this country’s Commander in Chief, is PRESIDENT Obama. To use only his last name, or refer to him as ‘her husband’ is kinda disrespectful. That’s how people get popped in the mouth, or catch random backhand throat shots from anybody’s black grandma.

    • Michele
      July 27, 2016 at 3:24 pm

      Thanks for stopping by. Bless your heart.

    • Alex
      July 27, 2016 at 3:28 pm

      Also, look into punctuation.

    • Daniel
      July 27, 2016 at 8:58 pm

      The level of stupid in your post is *painful*.

    • Saffron
      July 27, 2016 at 10:43 pm

      Paragraphs, honey. Learn to use them.

      Bless your heart.

    • Krista
      July 28, 2016 at 1:10 am

      Somewhere there’s a tin foil hat and a prescription of Thorazine with your name on it.

    • Julieth Moli
      July 28, 2016 at 7:42 am
    • DuPree
      July 28, 2016 at 1:05 pm

      Dammit – who left the asshole flap open?

      Hate when they just wander in, being all asshole-y all over the damn place.

      • Serenity
        July 29, 2016 at 6:16 pm

        Word. I don’t like to be exclusive…. But why do white folks feel the need to insert their opinions when clearly no one asked for it. We didn’t ask you to play.

        White people… Do some research and know who is in the room

      • Mz Dee
        August 6, 2016 at 3:02 am

        Lol!

    • Mary Burrell
      July 30, 2016 at 10:41 am

      @Istyson: I would like to drill a hole in your head and let all the stupid out.

  31. Susie
    July 27, 2016 at 3:03 pm

    Paid slave is an oxymoron

    • LicoriceAllsort
      July 27, 2016 at 3:17 pm

      Why is this concept so difficult for so many people? Slavery is about owning a person. It doesn’t matter if you pay them, if you give them nice things, if you don’t beat them—if you own them, they’re still fucking slaves. FFS.

  32. AuntyA
    July 27, 2016 at 3:32 pm

    Letyson,
    Politics is always a game. Not sure if Clinton cares more for Black people, but Trump has nothing to offer and is now bordering on treason asking Russia to hack a fellow American citizen. Not sure what people think Trump is going to do for them…he’s clearly a fan of outsourcing.

  33. July 27, 2016 at 3:43 pm

    This entire post is quotable. I co-sign all of this!

  34. Jay
    July 27, 2016 at 4:37 pm

    Thank you for shouting it out to the folks in the cheap seats who are still stuck on stupid.

  35. blackprofessor
    July 27, 2016 at 4:59 pm

    Fellow dolphin right here! FLOTUS is my shero; I want to be her when I grow up.

  36. Sarah Friedman
    July 27, 2016 at 5:48 pm

    Can I tell you I had a lump in my throat the size of Mt. Rushmore and the hair on my arms was standing up the entire time…and I don’t even have hair on my arms! That was one of, if not the best, political speeches I’ve ever seen. She spilled gallons of overdue tea on Trump, Slavery, Barack’s heritage, Black oppression, Bill C being a philandering fool, Bernie…Gaht dayum. Classiest woman ever ever. I weep. I will miss these past glorious 8 years.

  37. Marcia
    July 27, 2016 at 6:42 pm

    Girl Preach, I just stood up at my desk and said, “Yas”! I feel everything you said. Some of these crazy azz folks act like they don’t know how vile their people were.

  38. Amy WB
    July 27, 2016 at 7:15 pm

    Ha! As usual Luvvie you speaketh the TRUTH. Chicago pumping through your veins. We leave the city but it never really leaves us.
    I worked at Whitney Young for 10 years (2002-2012)– I witnessed firsthand the education that the students received. I should’ve known you went there….
    #ShouldabeenaDolphin

  39. Jane Laplain
    July 27, 2016 at 7:43 pm

    And can we please talk about HOW these slaves were supposedly so well fed and HOW they were allegedly decently lodged? Fed and lodged how? By whom?? You think Betsy Ross took a break from sewing flags to cook for the slaves?? You think Thomas Jefferson an’ nem was cobbling together huts and cots in the hot sun for their slaves to sleep in? No, they had to feed their damn selves and build their own damn huts and beds. So no and hell no, even if it *were* true that the slaves who built the White House were well feed and lodged (they weren’t).

  40. SIPort
    July 27, 2016 at 8:32 pm

    you are so wonderful Luvvie.

    It’s been absolutely, positively HILARIOUS watching the 2520’s try and actually QUESTION whether or not what FLOTUS said was true.

    YES, Slaves built the White House.

    And, pretty much everything else in this country.

    We have that clown Bill O trying some more nonsense, and Shonda Rhimes had to check him.

    Love your post. On point.

  41. Siima
    July 28, 2016 at 3:10 am

    Oh Luvvie. You are all shades of awesome. Everything in this post is quotable, I’d have to just highlight the whole thing.

    But I had to walk away with this. ”There are certain things that are facts. One of them is that cockroaches are the devil in bug form.” I howled.

    Thank you for your incredible writing and the fact that you share your gift with us. In my head you are my Naija cousin who comes over and we sit in the kitchen cackling over food and palm wine.

  42. Lisa
    July 28, 2016 at 6:38 am

    I saw a tweet about long time ago that said White have been calling us “lazy” ever since we stopped working for free.

  43. Julieth Moli
    July 28, 2016 at 7:24 am

    “The point of slavery was not because white people needed Black friends and needed to know what having rhythm and seasoned food was like. Nah. It was used to create the largest economy in the world.”
    Yes, and to show you this point ain’t a joke nor a damn lie, here: https://www.popularresistance.org/deep-racism-the-forgotten-history-of-human-zoos/
    The powerful economy the U.S and European countries have was created in more ways than one, this is just one of them

  44. Lauren
    July 28, 2016 at 9:15 am

    Slaves didn’t build the white house, it was aliens! Well fed aliens! #pyramids

    But seriously, O’Reilly needs to read “A Slave In the White House” because not only were slaves working there during the Madison administration (10 years after the place was built) slaves were being sold right in front of the place. Also, the book takes a very rare cynical approach to the founding fathers and the whole “good masters” concept.

    It’s a good book, and I would say recommended reading for the woke.

    Also, I’m going to miss the Obamas so much!!!!

    -from another melanin deficient fan

  45. Amy Boyer
    July 29, 2016 at 11:24 am

    …plenty of us privileged white people think Bill O’Reilly is ridiculous and have for a loooonnnng time. White, black, brown, or purple, if you know anything about American History you know that the White House was built with slave labor and that slavery was not created to benefit black people living in Africa. It’s not like it’s a secret, is it?!!!

    (My daughter Lauren Casper is a fan of yours and sent me the link to this. After I read it I replied to her and she told me to post it in a comment for you..so did 🙂

  46. Mary Burrell
    July 30, 2016 at 9:23 am

    Luvvie I love you and this spot and all the commentators. FLOTUS was beautiful and amazing. I loved the part of the speech “When they go low we go high.” I shall miss her she is flawless and amazing. I love how you keep it???? straight no chaser.

  47. Rebecca August
    July 30, 2016 at 9:33 am

    I wish there was a “like” button to respond to all these wonderful comments!

    I am “melanin deficient” or (as we properly should be called) a “pink person,” 🙂 and I think it’s disgraceful that we need to have a Black History Month instead of teaching the history of this country ALL year round, which decidedly includes all of the ways black folk have been treated, past and present. “Eyes On the Prize” should be required viewing in all high schools.

    Wonderful article. FLOTUS FOR POTUS!

  48. Autumn
    September 12, 2016 at 8:51 pm

    “But the part that is most aggravating of all? The fact that white folks will turn around and call US violent. And lazy. They have managed to uphold a system that has convinced them (and some of us, unfortunately) that we are sloths who are prone to aggression when WE DID ALL THE WORK AS THEY SAT AROUND BEATING US. Who is lazy and violent? Because it surely ain’t us.”

    I wish I could just bring this quote with me everywhere and anytime I see or hear my fellow white people disparaging black people, I can just shove this in their faces.

  49. October 11, 2016 at 8:27 pm

    […] summer and fall of Black Lives Matter, I’ve been reading people like Te-Nehisie Coates, and Luvvie Ajayi. Trying to listen to calls for white people to not just be […]