Black. Female. Accomplished. No Longer Attacked.

Last summer I wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post titled, "Black. Female. Accomplished. Attacked," in which I addressed the New Yorker Magazine's controversial and offensive depiction of Michelle Obama as a gun-touting, afro-wearing, fist-bumping Angela Davis 60's radical. The magazine cover generated great outrage among many Americans, but black women found it particularly offensive since it employed the worst stereotypes of us found in our American pop culture; the ultra ethnic (afro wearing), aggressive, angry, radical, controlling, and overbearing black woman.

At the time, Michelle Obama was a very controversial candidate's wife who was seen as outspoken and strident and a political liability. She was attacked for writing a candid thesis on race at Princeton University, and for saying that "for the first time as an American she was really proud of her country."

At the time, she had not yet had her 2008 Democratic Convention make-over (e.g. the soft blue pastel dress, perfectly coiffed hair, and warm speech emphasizing her husband as a man and her love of family.) That moment seems to have transformed her from the straight talking, tough, sister-girl from the South side of Chicago, to the more demure figure. It was the beginnings of the Jackie-Kennedy-meets-Laura-Bush kind of First Lady we now see in her today.

But this was not just some typical political makeover: Michelle Obama's approval ratings are now in the stratosphere -- 76% according to Gallup before the Europe trip. She seems to have won the hearts of Americans, and now Europeans, across both racial and political lines. As someone who listens to conservative talk radio from time to time, even the most conservative of radio-personalities now embrace her as a "great first lady and great mom." Consider also the following from CNN's cranky Jack Cafferty "My Crush on Michelle Obama":

I think I am developing a crush on America's first lady. Michelle Obama is more compelling than her husband. He's good, but she's utterly fascinating. Mrs. Obama has blown away the stale air in a White House musty from eight years of the Bushes. It's like the sun came out and a fresh spring breeze began wafting through the open windows. It's the people's house, and Michelle Obama totally gets it. So much so that she has taken to inviting people in from the streets to see her home. Nice touch -- one completely lacking in her recent predecessors.

Why the dramatic shift in public opinion?

In the last two and a half months, Mrs. Obama has had the unique opportunity to single-handedly correct and contradict a litany of tired stereotypes about black women. She has had to do it by showing how to successfully hold down a career and nurture a family at the same time; by being beautiful and compassionate. By showing that we are not what people tell us we are -- loud, angry, intimidating, overbearing, etc. We are not a group of women who shake their booties on BET videos and who have their babies out of wedlock with various different men as the fathers.

Mrs. Obama has done more than just become America's first black first lady. She has softened the edges for all professional black women. She has exposed the country to the "other" side of sisters. She has quietly shown black men that having a strong black woman at your side is an asset, not the albatross that so many brothers seem to think it is. She has gracefully demonstrated that the qualities that matter in a relationship have little to do with physical characteristics, social standing or material wealth, and everything to do with the honesty, loyalty and respect that people have for each other.

And that's why she is the most popular woman on the planet right now.

Comments

[snesich]

Sophia,
Would Michelle Obama agree with you that the children of Arabs---once they grow up and are deemed "suspiciou­s"---shoul­d be snatched up in secret, taken away to dark prison cells, and tortured repeatedly while their families desperately search for them?

Do you think our First Lady would agree with you on that?

Would you like that to be done to a member of your family? No trial, no formal proceedings, and unspeakable torture? You like that, Sophia? Would you approve of that if someone decided you or a member of your family was a suspect?

Shame on you.

[pensivenubian2]

Brilliant article! Michelle Obama has won over the hearts and the minds of 76% of Americans. She has won me over completely - 100%. I pay attention in my gut and I take my emotional cues from her. The President is the president and will act, say and do what is in the collective political interest. However, I truly believe that Mrs. Obama will not lie to us, nor to her husband. It is like she is the "young" mother of the country.

I recommend that you take your work and and make it into a contemporary issues workbook and sell it to schools, churches - outlets for formal and informal education. The young and wise Obamas are a walking case study and lesson plan in self awareness and social studies. What is it about Michelle that hits us at a spot down deep.

Your work can inspire us to ask, think and to take note of what it is that the Obamas are stirring up in us. It is like there is a hunger and a thirst -- and that their lives have prepared them and made them available to attend to the desperations of a nation of the wounded. The Obamas will be here and help us to heal and recover, and they will walk us back to a place where we again know ourselves as a country. They are -- the two of them -- just what the big Doctor upstairs has ordered for the healing of

[Ronny Walden]

Very insightful--yet this has always been Michelle Obama. She has always been a role model--she has always been strong--long before she was in the public eye.

She is epitomizes the American Dream; knocking each and every negative stereotype down.
We are truly moving forward as a nation and as a people.

[Sophia A. Nelson - Huffpost Blogger]

Thank you Ronny I agree.

[luvangelHussein330]

First Lady Michelle is the same woman she was then as she is today. And her story isn't unique at all. The horrible thing during the campaign was that she was an easy target being an obvious black woman. The right and thier enabeling media talking heads adnozium used tired old stereotypes to chracterize her. First lady Michelle din't do anything to "correct" herself...she just continued to be who she alwasy has been. The only thing different is there isn't some right wing media filter during a campaign season

[republicants]

Exactly!

[Sophia A. Nelson - Huffpost Blogger]

I disagree with your premise and the history of our nation's treatment of black women simply does not support what you say herein. You should read my original article in the Washington Post last summer it will give you a far better context.

[republicants]

With all due respect to the author - I had the opportunity to see our future First Lady on the campaign trail at an event in York, Pennsylvania during the much ballyhooed Pennsylvania primary. She spoke before a sold out crowd of men and women; young and old; and people of diverse ethnic backgrounds. She brought this observer to tears with her honest and heartfelt presentation on behalf of her husband. Michelle hasn't had a "makeover". She is what she is - an honest, intelligent, well spoken woman - who has achieved much with her God given talents and her hard work. She didn't need a "makeover" - only an honest appraisal of the woman she is.

[Sophia A. Nelson - Huffpost Blogger]

By makeover I mean and stated that she was remade by the campaign to show more of her motherly, wifely, supportive side versus the strident sister that she was being tagged as by the media and others who saw her as "anti-American" -"angry", etc.

[ForeverHopeful]

Thank you for this positive article about our First Lady and black women in general, that dispels the stereotypes of black women as stated in your article. I'm proud of Mrs. Obama and am thankful for the example she is portraying as an intelligent, strong, loving wife and mother. She is someone I can identify with and hopefully many other women in the African American and ALL communities will embrace her core family and human values.

[canfemlib]

I'm glad Michelle Obama is being more fairly by the press. That's great. I'm sad that the press required her to get a different wardrobe to get fair coverage. However, its still pretty hard to get the respect you deserve as an intelligent, focused woman no matter what your ethnicity. I think that the press's treatment of Hillary during the leadership race was really, really bone-headed, and McCain's selection of "See, we found a woman too" who was blatantly unqualified for just about ANY job, let alone President, was the biggest slap in the face that the women of the US had seen in a long time. And yes, there' only one woman on the supreme court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and the Repub's are preparing a shindig for the day she succumbs to cancer. Come on ladies, there's a lot more work to do!

[Sophia A. Nelson - Huffpost Blogger]

good points

[dwedge]

I think Mr. Cafferty provided an eloquent description of the impact of Michelle Obama on the White House and the Country. What you might have mentioned that it is also remarkable that her resume is more impressive than her husband's and he is totally unfazed by that. With her "Victory Garden", the Angela Davis stereotype has hopefully been laid to rest.

[Sophia A. Nelson - Huffpost Blogger]

what I think is best about Cafferty's rant of love on Michelle is that he is sincere and it is obvious he is an older white male from the Boomer Generation and if she can win him over that is progress

[chitown8]

We need good models like this in the AA community. We have seen for many years that a black woman who spoke her mind and handled her business was regarded as not black man worthiness. Most claimed that we were to demanding and we need to "find our place". Look at most professional black men 60% of them would rather have anything but a black woman on their arm as they go through this world. Young men should take notice. We are Strong beautiful and provide a solid foundation to our mates. We lift them up and will not allow the world to crumb within their homes. Michelle has gone through some much with her husband just to get here today. Yet her love for him is strong, you see in the way she looks at him. Michelle has never changed the media perception has and still needs to.

[MalikMitch]

This article is about the removal of stereotypes. As a blackman married to a woman of mixed race (white/micronesian) what you just wrote is just reinforcing another stereotype of blackmen, which is not true. A man or woman must have a solid foundation within themselves before they can build a joint foundation with someone else. Also that person needs to find someone that best fits them (for lack of a better word right now). Whether that person is black, white, asian, or whatever ethnicity should not concern you or anyone else, Especially if they are happy and love one another. Why would you begrudge a families happiness just out of spite? I have never understood this mentality within my own community and I still don't.

[Sophia A. Nelson - Huffpost Blogger]

Yes, Yes and Yes!

[rikyrah]

This is the Michelle Obama that I paid 3 times to see during the campaign season. She hasn't changed. I know a lot of Black women like Michelle Obama. Her story is the story of the invisible Black America that has never been acknowledged.

For the women out there, think about this: Until Barack Obama sold his books, MICHELLE OBAMA was the main breadwinner in the family.

She invested in a man who was broke, living in a hovel above Harold's Chicken Shack, had a car with holes in the floor, and who told her, that, even after graduating from Harvard Law, at the top of his class - he wasn't going for the money. She saw his gifts. His potential. And decided to build a life with him.

Think about that when you pass up the guy who has potential for the one that is flashy now.

[Sophia A. Nelson - Huffpost Blogger]

This is a great point! Very well said and I agree.

[southernsepia]

Great article. The only thing I would add is that Michelle has shown accomplished Sistas that it's not all about status, but giving back. The Obama's both took paths that were not the most financially lucrative in order to help the less fortunate. Eventually by doing good they became successful. So many middle class Blacks today are caught up in how fabulous their house, cars and clothes are. How many go back to the hood and volunteer as Michelle does? I recently had a girlfriend who goes to a huge high status church in the Black community tell me that the members were upset because "neighborhood kids" were coming to their functions. It's getting pretty bad when Blacks don't want lesser status Blacks around.
It seems to me that the Obama's get that we all need to progress together and those that have need to lift up those that need.

[moonchild71]

Great article...couldn't agree more, you said it perfectly! Michelle represents for all women particularly African American women. She single handedly showcases how our strength, beauty, integrity, honesty, and nurturing qualities are an asset to be desired and respected. A man who is confident, intelligent, and secure in himself would want a woman like this by his side as his partner, lover, and friend.

[sheikwil4]

The thing is Michele Obama is the norm in the AA community. We see women like her everyday in the community, down the street on our block, sit next to them at church, run into them at the grocery store and work with them. The rest of America just chose to close their eyes when they see them and listen to the lies put out by the Republican party and other haters. Just stop and look around, they are everywhere. Now Michele has help open up peoples eyes to what has been there all along.

[Sophia A. Nelson - Huffpost Blogger]

Yes she is but those images are not what we see portrayed by the media and others on a daily basis.

[IndyReader]

I don't think Michelle has changed. I think that people just didn't want to see HER, opting instead wanting to see something they made up that they insisted was her.

[moonchild71]

I agree... I think this is who she has always been. But some in the public and media tried to make her fit into their narrow definition of who they thought she was... and they were so off the mark.

[mlr710]

Totally agree

[newtonsapple]

I think Michelle Obama is a role model for many AA women. In her the stereotypical "sister" is put to rest. Good for her.