We’ve been learning a lot about Michelle Obama’s personal life on her new Spotify podcast.
The latest episode featured her brother Craig Robinson, 58, and their mother Marian Robinson, 83, and they discussed police brutality.
Craig spoke about his personal experiences with police in Chicago. When he was just 10-years-old, they accused him of stealing his own bike that his parents bought him.
“It was terrifying only because I was always taught that the police are your friends and they’ll believe the truth,” Craig said on Wednesday’s episode.
He recalled the officers stopping him while he was riding the bike. “This guy grabbed my bike and he wouldn’t let it go,” Craig said, adding that they were grilling his then-10-year-old self with questions to purposely accuse him.
“I was like, ‘Oh you got this all wrong, this is my bike, don’t worry, this isn’t a stolen bike,’ and he would not believe me.”
“I was absolutely heartbroken,” he continued, “And I finally said to him, ‘Listen, you can take me to my house and I will prove to you this is my bike.’”
The officers brought Craig back home and Marian answered the door with the traditional tight-lip that all Black women inherit when they become a parent.
Marian confronted the police, who both happened to be black, about why they put her son through such trauma, and one of the cops admitted that he knew little Craig was telling the truth.
Craig described the interaction as “heartbreaking” and said the worst part was the officers trying to get him to lie.
Michelle Obama talked about the realities of being Black in America. “When you leave that safety of your home and go out into the street, where being black is a crime in and of itself, we have all had to learn how to operate,” she said.
