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Read other letters about this article
Maureen O'Donnell: "In her thesis on race in the United States (specifically in Princeton), people cannot know whether she advocated a sparate black state, as Malcolm X had done, or disagreed with the concept unless her complete thesis is available for reading."
You can know that if somebody from a reliable publication provides a reliable summary of the information contained therein. You don't have to read the entirety of "War and Peace" to know it isn't about killer clowns. However, apparently the entire thesis is available. Check the links in the article.
Maureen O'Donnell: "There's no point at all in Michelle Obama's detractors or defenders using snippets from her thesis without getting her over-all view and that can only be seen by reading the full thesis."
Actually, there is a point in Obama's defenders using snippets of her thesis, when those snippets demonstrate how the original email is taking things out of context. You don't debunk an email by saying, "Here's the entire thesis, read it." You debunk it by showing specific instances of falsehood. But sure, people should read the whole thesis if they want to know, first-hand, for absolute certain, that Michelle Obama is not advocating that white people all be rounded up and imprisoned and then turned into Soylent Whitey.
Maureen O'Donnell: "I thought there was a Freedom of Information Act in the USA, so much admired that it's been copied by many governments in western Europe."
Yes, but the Freedom of Information Act applies primarily to government institutions. I am not sure if Princeton falls under that umbrella. Anyway, the question is moot since the thesis was released.
