So here I am minding my own business, scrolling through Twitter, when all of the sudden a video of Malia Obama pops up on my feed. Wait, what?
Why is Malia Obama on my feed? I click on the video and see her blowing smoke rings. I immediately sigh with defeat and think of all the people who’ll blow this out of proportion.
Without even searching further, I see multiple other tweets on my feed regarding this video and I find myself thinking: who cares? Why is everyone so worried about what this girl is doing? Seriously, what is the big deal?
Barack Obama isn’t president anymore and at this point in her life, Malia Obama is a normal college student.
Sure, her father was the last President of the United States, but why does that matter? Malia is still considered a kid. Why should her father’s occupation have any affect on how she lives her personal life? Malia did not ask for her father to be president. This poor girl probably just wants to live a normal life like the rest of us.
The way we subject the children of prominent adults to the public eye is a little absurd. Malia is a college student, plain and simple. She is not in any position of power or any sort of professional setting. There is no reason for her to be getting such attention and backlash for an action that is common among college students. She is not doing anything out of the ordinary. So why is this video getting so much attention?
One glaring factor that I just can’t ignore in this situation is Malia’s race. It’s no secret that black people are charged and even imprisoned for marijuana possession at a significantly higher rate than white people.
So I have to wonder: would this video have received such a high level of attention if Malia were white? Someone looking to get reaction must have posted this video. Whoever made the video public had to know the kind of attention it would receive. The question is, why? Why subject Malia to this kind of public scrutiny? What is there to gain from doing so?
I don’t know what kind of people Malia is hanging out with at school, but it seems to me whoever posted this video does not have her best interest in mind.
This person doesn’t seem like a friend but someone taking advantage of Malia’s prominence in society. There is no reason that this video should have been made public and I hope for her sake, Malia finds some better people who truly care about her as a person.