Becoming Me: Journey from the ‘South’

Abstract

The rallying cry of “Black Lives Matter” that reverberated all through the U.S. after the George Floyd murder case brought to light the reality that racism is a living reality in the American soil. It is no legend of the past. It is not a bygone history. Therein lies the significance of the inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States. Michelle Obama’s Becoming is more than a memoir. It is a social document that faithfully portrays the ground reality of ‘Being Black’ and ‘Becoming Black' in a “White Society”. In her memoir, while recounting her rise from modest origins to the closest this country has to nobility, Michelle is taking the readers on an intimate tour of everyday African-American life. Her book illustrates how all Americans must part with the idea of post-racial society, the quaint notion that race and racism are relics of the United States’ long-ago past. In the memoir, she establishes that prejudice is so woven into the fabric of America that it won’t be gone in her lifetime, or even longer. The article“Becoming Me: Journey from the ‘South” traces the early stages of her life as a “striver”, residing in the ‘South’ side of Chicago, identified with the city’s African American population