An inflammatory post claims former first lady Michelle Obama once said, "White folks are what’s wrong with America." The post displays an image of the former first lady, with words at the bottom saying, "Now imagine Bush saying ‘Black folks are what’s wrong with America.’ Still think there is no media bias?"
There are other versions of the meme that replace Bush with Trump.
The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)
We could find no instance of Michelle Obama saying those words, or any variation of that quote.
The rumor can be traced back to a 2015 commencement speech Obama gave at Tuskegee University, a private, historically black university in Alabama.
Following the speech, JewsNews.com, a right-wing website that often pushes conspiracy theories, published an article with the headline: "White Folks And America Are The Problem – Michelle Obama Addresses All Black University With Divisive Message." A few months later the site repurposed the same story, but this time with the headline: "Michelle Obama says ‘White Folks’ are what’s Wrong with America"