Hana Scott tried taking Michelle Obama’s ‘go high’ approach. Baltimore’s first lady says she’s had enough
TheGrio...
Hana Scott says false claims and hateful messages targeting her and Mayor Brandon Scott have affected her career, mental health and family.
Whether you’re the first Black person to step into a role or following in footsteps already laid, holding public office comes with a particular kind of scrutiny. This week, Baltimore’s first lady, Hana Scott, opened up about navigating that reality as a politician’s wife.
Since her husband, Brandon Scott, was elected as the city’s mayor in 2020 and again in 2024, Mayor Scott has been open about the racist hate messages he’s received, particularly from conservatives. While the Mayor has taken to social media to call out the racist messages he receives, Hana admits that she has tried to turn a blind eye to the critics until recently. On Monday, Baltimore’s first lady posted a video on Instagram where she began by quoting Zora Neale Hurston, who once said: “If you are silent about your pain, they will kill you and say you enjoyed it.”
“I have been silent way, way too long,” she says in the video. “But it really is on my heart to finally say something and stop making myself an easy target for Sinclair broadcasting, Fox 45, Baltimore Sun, all their cronies, all of their bots, all of their supporters in the Baltimore area and nationwide.”
“I see the comments that say, ‘Just ignore them, just ignore the trolls, ignore the races. They’re just jealous. They’re mad that you and the mayor are doing such amazing things. Nobody pays attention to them anyway. Nobody listens to them.’ And I hear y’all, and I have been trying to be like our forever First Lady, Michelle Obama, and when they go low, I go high. But I’m only 5’2″, so I can only go so high. And it’s tough always being the bigger person,” she continued.
In addition to hate mail and messages, Hana explained how the headlines and narratives perpetuated by certain news outlets have been equally detrimental to her mental health, her professional life, and more. She particularly calls out a recently published article by Fox, which claims that she “received $51K taxpayer dollars through a youth fund,” which she says is a lie.
“They make up lies about me starting a nonprofit. I don’t have a nonprofit. I’ve never had a nonprofit. They talk about salaries that I’ve taken; I’ve never taken a salary. I’ve never been a W2 employee at any of these local nonprofits. I was a pay contractor every time,” she noted. “They said that I’ve stolen money, wrote grants that were funded by taxpayers to open spaces that never open, which is a lie…the current lie is that I took $51,000 in taxpayers’ money through BCYF through another organization, which is a lie.”
“I don’t know if the staff at Sinclair are doing this maliciously, or I don’t know if if it’s because they just are not that bright. And so when they’re presented with information, they themselves can’t accurately report about what it is they’re seeing. Either way, they do not operate with journalistic integrity, and it’s really something that an entity that does not operate with integrity wants to speak on other people’s integrity,” she added. “I’d like to think that this just kind of stays locally, it’s fodder, it’s like a glorified blog at this point. But that’s not true.”
Unfortunately, Scott says that she lost opportunities, business, and access to jobs because of the headlines that appear upon googling her name, which employers have previously said “is not a good look.” From stepping down from organization boards to having to take antidepressants during her pregnancy to manage the stress and depression triggered by these attacks, Scott emphasized the impact of her experience.
“I have lost weight because of the stress,” she shared. “I have been on anxiety medication because of how much it impacts my mental health. And not only does it impact me financially, it impacts me emotionally; it is impacting the safety of my family.”
And unfortunately, Scott’s experience is not singular. In the comments of her post, Jamila Smith-Young, the wife of Memphis Mayor Paul Young, echoed the scrutiny that comes with being the partner of a public official, writing: “Thank you for speaking your truth. Hearing another First Lady speak up reminds me that it’s not only ok, it’s necessary. There’s a particular kind of weight that comes with this role, the bullying, the slander, and threats that people rarely talk about openly. It can feel isolating, like you have to carry it quietly and keep smiling through it. Keep speaking your truth!! Sending you so much love and respect, from one First Lady to another.”
While former First Lady Michelle Obama has spoken publicly about the waves of criticism she received during her husband’s tenure in the White House, the conversation rarely extends to include the reality of being the wife or partner of a local politician.
“You can’t afford to get anything wrong because – at least until the country came to know us – we didn’t get the grace that I think some other families have gotten,” Obama said, reflecting on her experience in an interview with Robin Roberts. “Now, don’t get me wrong, every First Lady faces the kind of scrutiny, every woman in the public eye faces a certain level of scrutiny because of her physical appearance. We live in a culture, sadly, where if somebody wants to go after a woman, the first thing they do is go after our looks, our size, our physical being, as a way to make us feel small, to keep us in place.”
Throughout the years, the former First Lady faced criticism for nearly everything she did from the outfits she wore to the initiatives she led. And just as communities rallied in support of Obama during those times, people have banded together to share their support for Mayor Brandon Scott’s wife in the comments.
For her part, Scott says she’s done shrinking. “At this point, enough is enough. I have to stand up for myself. I have to stand up for the work that my husband is doing. I have to stand up for my family. So, yes, we’re about to get like Cardi B. They want to go low; we can take it to Hades,” Scott shared.
As we continue to navigate a political landscape where Black leadership is too often treated like a crime, it’s worth remembering the real toll this hateful rhetoric takes, not just on our leaders, but on the families standing beside them.