Question: What do The New Yorker, bloggers, certain cable news pundits, and late night television hosts have in common?
Answer: They all got it wrong about Michelle Obama. Even before she became the first African-American first lady, an obsession with what the Obamas would do and be as the nation’s first family was brewing.
Thus began attempts to not only define the would-be-president, but to make his wife of 17 years into something they could understand. Having never imagined a black woman, especially one who is “black from a distance” (not ethnically ambiguous), in such a socially and culturally powerful position, they looked for clues in thread-bare stereotypes: “she’s a fist-bumping radical;” “she doesn’t love her country;” “she’s an elitist.”
Now, after just three months in the White House, another stampede is on. The blogosphere and pundits on cable news, among numerous others, debate whether Michelle is more Jacquelyn Kennedy than Eleanor Roosevelt, and bloggers both condemn and praise her fashion choices, sometimes in the same breath. The meaner ones add racist tinges to their criticisms.
While the recent foreign trip garnered headlines in Europe such as “Michelle takes Paris by storm,” some of the homebound media declared it a major faux pas that she touched the royal person, even though the royal person, Queen Elizabeth, touched her first, and seemed to invite it.
Meanwhile, David Letterman and Jay Leno, in a drought of presidential humor since the departure of George W. Bush, are pushing stale mother-in-law jokes. Marion Robinson’s move into the White House to help care for her grandchildren ignited the latter.
The bit of cultural misreading that their misfired jokes revealed could not have been more revealing about what we don’t know about each other. In many black families, the presence of the grandmother in the home is a long-held, honored tradition.
As with the Obamas, grandmothers bring added stability and grounding to the family unit. While there is usually some humor in such family situations, it is not the broad one-liners of the “take my mother-in-law, please,” variety that the television hosts coughed up.
Their miscues were friendly fire, meant only for a few yuks. Not so are the not-fit-to-(re)print comments that are casually popping up on mostly right-wing media sites. To them, the first lady ideal has been irreparably violated.
Truth be told, Michelle Obama is different. She is neither a Kennedy or Roosevelt wannabe, nor even a feminist icon like Hillary Clinton.
As first lady, she is charting her own path. She is an original — and the best argument we have that an American meritocracy, though tarnished by racism and classism, does exist.
Having grown up in a loving, working class family in southside Chicago, and through hard work, earned a first-class education, Michelle Obama is self-assured and confident. Not hoisted by economic advantage, political lineage or dynastic entitlement, as first lady, she is an American milestone. Her husband is, too, but that is another story.
Without Michelle at his side, in spite of all his many gifts, Barack Obama would not have been elected president of the United States. Within the black community, Michelle helped to ease doubts about his ancestry and his loyalty. Among some whites, she diminished stereotypes about black women (although some linger). But the deal maker for a lot of us, was the Obamas’ totally equal partnership.
Michelle is as smart as Barack, and as tall. She has no need to show how intelligent she is by taking on policy questions. She is a feminist with nothing to prove. (Hillary deserves some props for the bruises she took on the road here.)
Michelle is free to set her own style — to wear JCrew and couturier fashions. She is free to plant a vegetable garden, although her predecessors thought it “unbecoming” to the White House. She can visit inner city schools and bring, without a negative word, a spotlight to the unequal conditions that produce unequal results. She can lead an “A” list of caring celebrities into the ’hood to inspire economically disadvantaged girls.
Having partaken of the best that America has to offer, and having seen, up close, what it is like for those who have been denied a chance to achieve their American dream, Michelle Obama is transforming and energizing the first lady idea.
There is probably no way to win over those stuck in a time–warped dark tunnel, but for the majority of Americans who are ready for change, Michelle Obama is holding up the light.
This guest column was written by Audrey T. McCluskey, who is the director of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center and a faculty member in the Indiana University Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies. Her latest two books are “Richard Pryor: The Life and Legacy of a ‘Crazy’ Black Man,” and “The Devil You Dance With: Film Culture in the New South Africa.”
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