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But it’s not really as easy as blaming Michelle Obama for not being as radical as we want her to be. Racist constructions of black motherhood play a large role in how she is perceived, and she has to work double time to avoid being cast as an “angry black woman.” Michelle Obama had to win the appeal of the American mainstream with qualities that make her seem like she’d be a good First Lady: being feminine, appeasing, and focused on home; being successful in her own right (but willing to give it all up for her husband’s career and her children’s well-being) is just an added bonus. Her choice (even if on behalf of their PR team!) to play up her more traditional leanings has a lot to do with the fact that American conceptions of black motherhood not only are racist, but harmful in how they position black motherhood in opposition to white motherhood as a type of failure.

Don’t believe me? Think about how differently Sarah Palin’s campaign coverage would have looked had she been a black woman. Palin was a working mother with five children, one of whom, Bristol, was a teenager and pregnant while Mom was on the campaign trail. If Palin had been black (or Latina for that matter) she would have been cast as ignorant and uneducated and characterized as a drain on the system. Heteronormativity is not just about being straight; it is also about class, race, and lifestyle choices.
Samhita Mukhopadhyay (via wretchedoftheearth)

Filed under Samhita Mukhopadhyay Outdated: Why Dating Is Ruining Your Love Life Michelle Obama racialized misogyny gendered racism racism stereotypes to read

1,402 notes

womenwhokickass: Michelle Obama: Why she kicks ass She is the first African-American First Lady of the United States. She is an advocate for poverty awareness, nutrition, and healthy eating. At school she was on the honour roll for four years, took advanced placement classes, was a member of the National Honours Society and served as student council treasurer; she graduated in 1981 as the salutatorian of her class. As part of her requirements for graduation at Princeton University, she wrote a thesis entitled “Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community”. She majored in sociology and minored in African American studies graduating with a Bachelor of Arts and earned her Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School. At Harvard she participated in demonstrations advocating the hiring of professors who were members of minorities. She has visited homeless shelters and soup kitchens, sent representatives to schools, advocated public service and begun advocating on behalf of military families. She has planted an organic garden and put bee hives on the South Lawn of the White House to supply guests and her family with organic produce at dinners and gatherings. The vegetable garden she planted is the first since Eleanor Roosevelt was First Lady. As a part of her advocacy for healthy eating she wrote a book, “American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America”.

womenwhokickass:

Michelle Obama: Why she kicks ass

  • She is the first African-American First Lady of the United States.
  • She is an advocate for poverty awareness, nutrition, and healthy eating.
  • At school she was on the honour roll for four years, took advanced placement classes, was a member of the National Honours Society and served as student council treasurer; she graduated in 1981 as the salutatorian of her class.
  • As part of her requirements for graduation at Princeton University, she wrote a thesis entitled “Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community”. She majored in sociology and minored in African American studies graduating with a Bachelor of Arts and earned her Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School.
  • At Harvard she participated in demonstrations advocating the hiring of professors who were members of minorities.
  • She has visited homeless shelters and soup kitchens, sent representatives to schools, advocated public service and begun advocating on behalf of military families.
  • She has planted an organic garden and put bee hives on the South Lawn of the White House to supply guests and her family with organic produce at dinners and gatherings.
  • The vegetable garden she planted is the first since Eleanor Roosevelt was First Lady.
  • As a part of her advocacy for healthy eating she wrote a book, “American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America”.

(via bare-life)

Filed under woc michelle obama all my respects for her

1,203 notes

oumkhartoum:

white-brite:

oumkhartoum:

smidgetz:

Can we talk about how Michelle Obama, the First Lady life was threatened by her own police escort, yeah the ones that are supposed to protect her. Can we talk about how one of them threatened her life, and go put on administrative leave, no fired, not outted to the media, not killed, but put on administrative leave or duty. The Presidents wife, can we talk about that hm?

There is no position on this Earth that makes you immune to Anti-Blackness.

It has more to do with her being a woman, than black. You’d never here a police escort say such things about Obama, but his female wife, yea…it’s a real chuckle fest.

People have threatened to take President Obama’s life multiple times as well. You have no right to derail this conversation with attempts to divide her identity in a way that will enable you to implicate yourself as a victim. Her life was threatened and the man who showed her an image of the gun he’d kill her with has been protected by the media. Women do not all experience sexism in the same way or to the same degree. Michelle Obama is a Black woman. You cannot remove her race from her gender. She is Black at all times. She is a woman at all times.

(via musaafer)

Filed under Michelle Obama racism