Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama will have amazing impact on African-American women because of the depth and character she shows in her new role.
She smoothes out a stereotype of the loud, opinionated, bossy, black woman. It’s a stereotype that has plagued many African-American women like me.
At the same time, her poise, intelligence and strength shatters the idea of being the wilting- flower wife, standing silently behind her man. She speaks up when necessary. At a political campaign event during the primaries, she said, “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country.” With that, she offended some and set off a political controversy. Yet, they only heard the words and not the context.
I understand why she spoke those words. Like her, I had many opportunities that a lot of African-Americans didn’t have. I went to Colorado Springs District 11 schools, which gave me access to a good education and helped me get a scholarship to a prestigious college.
I worked in various jobs throughout Colorado Springs, including one that allowed me to travel internationally. Yet despite those successes, I live in a reality where racism still exists. Like Michelle Obama has stated in previous interviews, I know what it is like to be the only minority in a room, a restaurant, a job, a store.
Yet, Colorado surprised me. I got to see how this once-red state embraced Michelle and her husband and became blue. Their votes brought a woman once invisible to most into the spotlight. Now, she can leave a wonderful legacy for her daughters and other young African-American girls. These girls can imagine what can be instead of staying in the boxes and labels that keep them trapped. They can be career women, wives, mothers, daughters and leaders despite any obstacles and challenges they may experience.
Like most women, Michelle Obama tries to find balance between her work and her family. She sacrificed her career as a corporate lawyer to support her husband’s presidential ambition. It takes a strong woman to make a choice to leave the workforce. Some may see her choice as archaic, others see it has feminism playing itself out. Yet she lives in a time that allows her choices, choices that her mother and grandmother didn’t have.
For African-American women like me, it’s a historic celebration of feminine strength. For Michelle Obama, it’s a strength molded by both advantage and adversity: the death of her father; attending a predominantly white Ivy League university; and helping her husband with community organizing in Chicago neighborhoods. She has also redefined marriage, fist-bumping her partner as she supports and encourages his dreams and standing at his side, defending him adamantly when needed. He knows that he has a soft place to fall with a firm foundation.
My friends and I look for positive role models who break stereotypes, especially when labels are confining. The odds are against you when you are not the epitome of beauty, when “loud” and “bossy” are the usual adjectives used to describe you, and role models are typically nowhere to be found (outside the entertainment industry, anyway).
Then, along comes a woman who shatters myths and provides a new hope for a more accurate portrayal of an African-American woman, proving that certain dreams are no longer impossible. In this historical moment in time, Michelle Obama can influence the many that look up to her. As these four years unfold, she will find and promote her platform, support her husband, be mommy to Malia and Sasha, daughter to her mother, and be the many other roles that women play.
The brown-skinned girl from the south side of Chicago will take her place in history and become a remarkable woman in her own right. And it makes this brown-skinned Colorado girl proud.
Denise Washington (denise.washington@yahoo.com) of Colorado Springs works in marketing and advertising.
