Is the Country Read for First Lady Michelle Obama?

It was in the wind last April when New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd criticized Michelle Obama for teasing her husband in public and acknowledging that he was a mere mortal. According to Dowd, "Many people I talked to afterward found Michelle wondrous. But others worried that her chiding was emasculating, casting her husband -- under fire for lacking experience -- as an undisciplined child." Dowd put herself in the weird position of being the understanding White woman defending Sen. Barack Obama against his mean old Black wife.

Most recently, Michelle’s comment that she was "now proud to be an American" stirred up accusations that she’s a loose cannon. The familiar smell in the air is the stereotype of the "Strong Black Woman." While Barack has been portrayed in the media as the cool, charismatic post-race spouse, Michelle is increasingly depicted as the sistah with a chip on her shoulder.

Since Barack appears untouchable, don’t be surprised if Michelle becomes the target of a smear campaign. There’s now talk that her college thesis is racially divisive. Who would object to such a strategy? It would simply go down as another crazy Black bitch dragging down a successful Black man.

Everyone is asking whether the country is ready for a Black President, but perhaps we should be asking if the United States is ready for First Lady Michelle Obama? Frankly most Americans have no context in which to place Michelle----a whip-smart graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School from the working class South Side of Chicago. She is not shaking her ass in rap music videos nor is she caring for little White children (or their parents). She is also not a baby’s mama or some wannabe model/fashion designer/singer who latched on to a wealthy Black man.

Michelle is comfortable in her own skin and wants people to get to know the real her and not a plastic consultant-generated version. In our society we have such low expectations for Black women that even our denigration is effortlessly justified. So people actually believe that Black women like Michelle who have brains, beauty, hefty salaries and loving husbands are anomalies. Embracing Michelle would mean acknowledging a radically different Black female persona—that of a thinking, loving, independent yet supportive Black woman. However in this election it’s more probable that Barack’s opponents will go old school by trying to paint Michelle as a Sapphire--- twisting her confidence into arrogance and her honesty into bluntness.

The Amos N’ Andy character "Sapphire" has come to represent the curt-tongued, ball-busting, emasculating Black woman. On the 1970s television program Sanford and Son she was personified by "Aunt Esther"---Fred’s combative, Bible-thumping sister-in-law.

Aunt Esther was often accompanied by her henpecked husband Woodrow. Woodrow was usually tipsy suggesting that it was the only way that he could deal with his overbearing wife. The modern Sapphire is the Strong Black Woman. She is angry, aggressive, defensive, and controlling. The SBW may have an impressive resume, but she can’t keep a man. The caveat is that if the SBW has a man, he’s got to be weak—like Woodrow.

Barack’s opponents have continually questioned his toughness and even called his foreign policy proposals naïve. It’s apparent that if Michelle can be portrayed as a stereotypical domineering Black woman, it’s easier to insinuate that Barack’s got to be soft to be with her. Unfortunately, some voters may fall for it and believe that a man can’t control the country if he can’t even control his wife’s mouth.

What Michelle’s detractors fail to understand is that many American women see it as a strength, not weakness, that Barack would marry an intelligent "keep it real" woman rather than a Stepford wife. In an April 2007 Chicago Tribune article Barack said of Michelle, "There’s something about her that projects such honesty and strength. It’s what makes her such an unbelievable professional, and partner, and mother, and wife." In this era where fake is the new real, Michelle Obama is a welcome breath of fresh air.

Originally printed on News One @ Giantmag.com