RACE
Michelle Obama Frees Black Women From Stereotypes
WATCHING MICHELLE OBAMA ONSTAGE MONDAY NIGHT WAS LIKE THROWING OPEN A WINDOW AND BREATHING FRESH AIR.
The eloquent and elegant Mrs. Obama represents black women whom too often go unseen in our culture: those who live straddled between the black and white worlds. Because too often, those who have been the beneficiaries of economic success must forego their ethnicity.
Not Michelle. As she addressed the nation, I (and perhaps every black woman in America watching) held my breath and crossed my fingers. I prayed that every strand of hair was in place, that her neckline wouldn’t cut too low. I prayed that she sounded educated and independent, but simultaneously supportive of and in love with her husband.
Educated black women look to Michelle Obama to give face to an overlooked demographic. More often than not, I was the only black girl (or only black person for that matter) in my school room, and every time I opened my mouth it felt like I was speaking for every black person in America. For Michelle, the Democratic Convention was her classroom and her speech represented every black woman in America.
The very idea of Mrs. Michelle Obama, lawyer and mother, provokes a challenge to whites and blacks: she’s hard to make fun of, unlike Condoleeza, and she’s not self-loathing like Clarence Thomas. Michelle Obama is also not your average “white-washed” black woman in the political sphere. She is confident and comfortable in her own skin; she gives flesh to the ghost that is the black successful woman.
As a nation we question the “blackness” of affluent African Americans. The truth of the matter is, we have nothing to validate. It’s possible to be a black success story outside of the constraints of the stereotypical “black norm” (because, honestly, most of us aren’t rappers, athletes, or drug-dealers).
As a child of the new millennium, I’ve never had to use separate bathrooms or drinking fountains, or sit in the back of the bus. But I’m aware of the different America I live in because of my skin color. I’ve been asked numerous times to choose between my race and my success. I’ve been told that I’m not “black enough,” and frankly the only people I ever identified with in popular culture were the children from The Cosby Show.
For me, Michelle Obama is the 21st century’s Claire Huxtable in the flesh. She is the positive projected future of young black women. For the first time in my life, the television has become a mirror in which I can finally see people just like me.
Danielle Cadet is a Danielle is a journalism student Northwestern University who likes to write about fashion and popular culture catastrophes.
Posted August 28, 2008
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