Invoking the new silver screen legacy of three Black women who worked behind the scenes to help NASA send the first American into space, First Lady Michelle Obama said Thursday that the nation won’t advance unless diverse voices are at the table.
“Each of these women decided to believe in herself and stepped up when her country needed her,” Obama told an audience who got a private White House screening of “Hidden Figures.”
The forthcoming movie is described as the “incredible untold story of Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson,” who “served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history: the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit.”
Obama said the story portrayed in the movie is a prime example of how great things can be accomplished when America taps the talent and energy of all of its people.
“As we get access to these seats of power and these tables of power, I want you to look around and make sure there is diversity at the table,” Obama said. “Because you don’t come up with the right answer if everyone at the table looks the same, thinks the same and has the same experience. You never come up with the best answer.
“So when you get these seats at these tables of power, your obligation is to make sure that the conversation is diverse, because what we saw in this film is that when we pulled together men and women, people of every background and color and faith, immigrants who came here to make America their home, when we bring all of that brainpower to the table, anything is possible, even going to the moon.
“That is how America won the space race in the 1960s,” Obama continued. “And that approach is just as important today. Because make no mistake about it: That’s how we’re going to fight all the challenges that we face on this planet.”
