Did former first lady Michelle Obama say "There are too many white people"? No, that's not true: several websites have published stories with that headline but they all seem to be mangled copies of a now-retracted story with a headline that misrepresented comments Michelle Obama made about the color and gender balance in Congress by making it look like she was talking about whites in general.
The story recently went viral again via an article published by Today Trump News on August 21, 2019 titled "VIRAL: Michelle Obama Says "There Are Too Many White People"" (archived here) which opened:
Prеvіоuѕ fіrѕt woman Mісhеllе Obаmа hаѕ dереndаblу appeared to ѕее the world through a bоrеd fосаl point of rасіаl іnсlіnаtіоn -- ѕіmрlу like hеr bеttеr half, рrеvіоuѕ Prеѕіdеnt Bаrасk Obаmа.
Whіlе іnѕtаnсеѕ оf hеr predisposition еxіѕt fоr ԛuіtе a long tіmе, thе most rесеnt оnе hарреnеd Oсt. 3, when she соnvеуеd a dіѕсоurѕе at thе Pеnnѕуlvаnіа Cоnfеrеnсе fоr Wоmеn іn whісh she erroneously blаmеd thе Rерublісаn Pаrtу fоr being "аll mеn, аll white," аѕ реr Fоx News.
She put tоgеthеr this рrероѕtеrоuѕ end with rеѕресt tо hоw the gathering оf реорlе dереndаblу ѕаw hеr ѕіgnіfісаnt оthеr'ѕ Stаtе of thе Union lосаtіоnѕ.
"On оnе side of the rооm, it's actually dаrk аnd white," she ѕаіd. "Truly, thаt іѕ thе ѕhаdіng palette оn one ѕіdе оf the room."
"On thе орроѕіtе ѕіdе оf thе rооm, thеrе аrе уеllоwѕ аnd blues аnd whites аnd greens," ѕhе іnсludеd. "Phуѕісаllу, there's a dіѕtіnсtіоn іn ѕhаdіng ... in lіght оf thе fact that оnе ѕіdе -- all mеn, аll whіtе. On thе opposite ѕіdе -- a few lаdіеѕ, a fеw nоn-whіtе individuals."
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
VIRAL: Michelle Obama Says "There Are Too Many White People"
Prеvіоuѕ fіrѕt woman Mісhеllе Obаmа hаѕ dереndаblу appeared to ѕее the world through a bоrеd fосаl point of rасіаl іnсlіnаtіоn -- ѕіmрlу like hеr bеttеr half, рrеvіоuѕ Prеѕіdеnt Bаrасk Obаmа. Whіlе ...
If you think the text of the story looks weird or nonsensical in places, you'd be right. It is the result of "article spinning", a practice used by shady websites to hide plagiarism by automatically replacing words in a text with words that have roughly the same meaning. Sometimes this leads to unintentionally hilarious results, for example when "Previous first lady" gets replaced with "Prеvіоuѕ fіrѕt woman" or when "a jaded lens of racial bias" becomes "a bоrеd fосаl point of rасіаl іnсlіnаtіоn".
The original article seems to be this one from Conservative Tribune, published on October 16, 2017:
Watch: Michelle Obama Says "There Are Too Many White People"
Former first lady Michelle Obama has always seemed to see the world through a jaded lens of racial bias - just like her husband, former President Barack Obama. While examples of her bias exist for days, the latest one happened Oct.
The introduction to that version read:
Former first lady Michelle Obama has always seemed to see the world through a jaded lens of racial bias -- just like her husband, former President Barack Obama.
While examples of her bias exist for days, the latest one happened Oct. 3, when she delivered a speech at the Pennsylvania Conference for Women in which she falsely accused the Republican Party of being "all men, all white," according to Fox News.
She based this absurd conclusion on how the audience always looked at her husband's State of the Union addresses.
"On one side of the room, it's literally gray and white," she said. "Literally, that's the color palette on one side of the room."
"On the other side of the room, there are yellows and blues and whites and greens," she added. "Physically, there's a difference in color ... because one side -- all men, all white. On the other side -- some women, some people of color."
The story points to this article as its source:
Michelle Obama: 'Too Many WHITE Republicans in Congress - No Wonder Black People Struggle!' (Video)
Michelle Obama expressed her disgust for all of the white Republican men in Congress: "We need to fight for their seats - or they need to give up their seats!" Michelle Obama delivered a racist keynote address that was suppose to be based on 'diversity' at the Pennsylvania Conference for Women in October and went off on how many white people there are in Congress, specifically referring to Republicans.
While that story also does not accurately reflect the literal words spoken by Michelle Obama at least it indicates she is speaking about the racial and gender balance in Congress and not about "whites" in general.
The Conservative Tribune later rebranded itself to The Western Journal so the article is no longer online under the old link:
https://conservativetribune.com/michelle-obama-too-many-white/
archived 27 Aug 2019 11:52:29 UTC
On the new website the article has been removed for not meeting editorial standards:
Page not found - Conservative Tribune
The article you are looking for has been archived. Some older content has been removed from this site after The Western Journal implemented stricter editorial standards. The vast majority of the archived content does meet the new standards, but we are committed to providing you with only the most accurate and truthful content we can, and therefore have archived some articles pending further review.
It is of course perfectly fine to disagree with Michelle Obama on a range of topics but it sure helps the debate to only disagree with her on things she actually said. Too many websites (often foreign-run) are copying the story with the manufactured quote in the headline to make a quick buck by reaping the advertising revenue generated by angry people liking and sharing the story without checking if it is actually true.
