As I write this article, it is May 7, 2016. We are seven years, three months, and 17 days into the presidency of a certain Barack Obama. And still the United States refuses to believe in the concept of black excellence.
Case in point: many Americans refuse to believe Malia Obama earned her admission to Harvard. Pick a random article from the publication of your choice about Malia's matriculation to Harvard and check the comments section. Chances are high you'll see someone attempting to qualify her accomplishment, saying she was admitted solely because she is the daughter of the president or a double legacy or, more generally, the daughter of two Ivy League educated lawyers. (Both Barack and Michelle graduated from Harvard Law School; they earned their bachelor's degrees from Columbia and Princeton, respectively.)
I could systematically and thoroughly invalidate each of those objections with multiple examples, but I don't feel particularly obliged to do so. However, I will say this: Malia is not the first child of a president who went to a selective institution that followed in their father's (and perhaps mother's in six months) footsteps. In the specific case of Ivy League colleges, both Kennedy children, Chelsea Clinton (B.A. from Stanford, M.P.H. from Columbia, Ph.D. from Oxford), and Barbara Bush all followed in their parents' footsteps. On the point of finances: the Kennedys, Clintons, and Bushes were all wealthier than the Obamas. On being a legacy: John F. Kennedy graduated from Harvard and Caroline went to Radcliffe; George W. Bush and Barbara Bush went to Yale. And I went through all of this without mentioning George W. Bush, who went to the same school as his father (Yale, albeit before Bush the senior became president) and benefited from his father's wealth.
Admittedly, Malia is probably the first double legacy daughter of a president to go to Harvard (at least in U.S. history; if anyone finds examples from other countries and/or institutions, please let me know). And some people will comment on the deservedness of an acceptance to Harvard when it belongs to a legacy or a rich person's child. But doing that presumes having those privileges is an automatic green card to Harvard. Legacies are denied admission all the time, as are wealthy children. If Malia hadn't taken the opportunities her parents worked extremely hard to give her and Sasha and run with them, it wouldn't have mattered. If she was a B student or didn't do well on standardized testing, it (almost certainly) wouldn't have mattered.
What's happening here is this: the public is questioning Malia's achievements the same way they did those of her father. When Obama was first elected in 2008, many people said it was solely because he was black. When he was reelected in 2012, those same people raised the same objections. Some conspiracy theorists believe Obama never actually attended Columbia University. (Look that up yourself; I'm not giving legitimacy to those rumors by linking to them.) When has a president's educational background credentials ever been questioned like that?
To be sure, there is a conversation to be had about the role privilege plays in getting people into institutions like Harvard. Said privilege, however, does not make students with it, such as Malia Obama, less deserving of their acceptances into selective colleges. This is the latest in a tradition of erasing the accomplishments of the Obamas and, more generally, the accomplishments of black people in this country. Every joke I've heard along the lines of "You got into Harvard because you're black" comes to mind when I think about this, which is why I feel for her so much. I also think of my friends who are student athletes and have their legitimacy at Harvard questioned. Somehow, I can't help but think these type of accusations come from envy and insecurity. Welcome to Harvard, Malia: despite what some might say, you very much earned your spot here.
