At the risk of appearing even more ignorant than usual [View all]

I have a question. So here goes....during Michelle Obama's speech at the opening of the Obama Center, I was in tears. I started an OP about how great the speech was. But there was one incident she described that totally threw me for a loop.

She was listing things that President Obama was attacked for and one of them was saying (paraphrased) that if he had a son he would be black too. Everyone in the crowd and all the commentators afterword seemed to understand and/or remember this.

I don't. I was an adult during both of Obama's terms and I don't remember any such "controversy", nor do I understand why that statement is controversial in any way. Help me out here.