(CNN) The "angry black woman" label that Michelle Obama has been tagged with by some is a caricature rooted in other people's fears, the first lady said in an interview airing Monday.

Speaking with Oprah Winfrey, Obama said she was taken aback when the insulting description of her first took hold while her husband was running for president eight years ago.

"That was one of those things that you just sort of think, dang, you don't even know me, you know?" she told Winfrey. "You just sort of feel like, Wow, where did that come from?"

"You think, that is so not me! But then you sort of think, well, this isn't about me," she went on. "This is about the person or the people who write it."

Racially-tinged accusations of resentment have trailed the Obamas since they entered the national political stage. In one example, to dramatize the attacks on the Obamas, the New Yorker placed an image of Michelle Obama, sporting an afro and toting a gun, on its cover. The President was depicted as a Muslim terrorist.

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