Interesting video and also very revealing in several respects.
I suspect the issue was not really about potential for her, but it was more about the time-line she could afford for the potential benefits to materialise. She was not willing to take that risk, period!
I think we must be fair on people sometime and seek to understand why they make those choices, and not judge them.I am not trying to make excuses for her here, but rather I seek to further expand the boundaries of the debate.
Hill can make so many choices, or take so many gambles in life. After all, he comes from a middle class family and has gone to Ivy League schools, and along the way he has acquired the cultural and the social capital needed to succeed in life, he was not just your everyday Joe. This is important.
The idea of Hill Harper being a struggling actor looks good on his biography, yet what gets less mentioned is the idea he had more choices in life, and after school, he was now following his dreams. Acting was just one of the many options open. It explains why he is also an author now.
On the other hand, Sherri Sheppard was a struggling actress with little education, and had only her talent to live on. This woman had no insurance on the future. Both might be black, but clearly they were in two different situations.
Obama's example is a little bit off. Michelle was a highly educated woman who knew the value of an Ivy League degree. She was not a struggling woman like Sherri Sheppard She had settled down into a career.
She was willing to allow Barrack take his risks, yet she knew that if she wanted she could rein him in when he had exhausted his options. After all, he had his education as a fall back option. And she tried it when his political fortunes were beginning to look bleak, if you read the story about his marital troubles. Apart from that, I think, as a politician, he taught law at the University of Chicago.
If Sherri was not settled on a career, did anyone expect her to have the wiggle room to make the choices or take the chance that Michelle took? If we must come to equity, it makes sense to come with clean hands!
I am sure over generations and through cultural learning, the kind of 'damn the consequence' and all out money getting, and career first kind of consideration given to, in some cases by black women would reduce as wealth filters massively into the hands of black women.
It is interesting that Sherri said she was ready for a relationship with Hill in the video.But that suggestion is open to many interpretations, one of which would cast her as a gold digger.
