Did an April 2025 video show former First Lady Michelle Obama referring to herself "as a Black man"? No, that's not true: Obama was addressing Marlon Wayans, a Black man, and introduced her question to him with that preface. Obama and her brother, Craig Robinson, interviewed Damon and Marlon Wayans on their podcast "IMO."
The claim appeared in an April 30, 2025, post on X (archived here). The text component read:
Michelle Obama: "You're raising a trans kid. That warms my heart, as a black man."
The clip can be viewed below:
Michelle Obama: "You're raising a trans kid. That warms my heart, as a black man." pic.twitter.com/Kjvg8ncwNz
-- End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) April 30, 2025
The period punctuation mark at the end of the text in the X post amounted to a claim that in saying "as a black man", Obama was referring to herself. In reality, she was cueing up a question for Marlon Wayans and addressing him "as a black man."
Properly transcribed, the remarks appear as follows:
Well, speaking of parenting, I wanted to talk, Marlon, a bit about, you know -- just so proud of how you are being a role model for dealing with a child that's transgender. And that's, you know, that warms my heart, particularly as a Black man, would you care to share that journey?
That section of the full interview can be viewed in its original context, below:
