On Tuesday at the Obama Foundation Summit in Chicago, former first lady Michelle Obama accused “white folks” of running from “us,” while recounting her childhood on the South Side of Chicago.

Discussing “white flight” in Chicago neighborhoods, Obama said, “As families like ours — upstanding families like ours who were doing everything we were supposed to do and better. As we moved in, white folks moved out because they were afraid of what our family represented.”

She continued, “I want to remind white folks that y’all were running from us. This family, with all the values that you read about, you were running from us. And you’re still running because we’re no different than the immigrant families that are moving in, the families in Pilsen. The families that are coming from other places to try and do better. But because we can so easily wash over who we really were — because of the color of our skin, because of the texture of our hair — that’s what divides countries, the artificial things.”

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