In an interview with CBS news today, First Lady Michelle Obama sought to straighten the record after excepts of Jodi Kantor’s just released book, “The Obamas” were leaked to the New York Times last week. In the article, Kantor characterized Mrs. Obama as an anxious yet fierce ally of her husband who often clashed with the President’s inner circle.
“That’s been an image that people have tried to paint of me since, you know, the day Barack announced, that I’m some angry black woman,” She said when asked about her thoughts on the book’s description of her. Her statement is nothing but the truth too. I’ve heard it and read it myself about the FLOTUS.
“Why doesn’t she ever smile?”
“She looks so mean!”
“She seems like a Grouch!”
“She looks angry because she’s not proud of her country.”
I know the instinct to protect precious brain cells prevents most people from subjecting themselves to the Yahoo comments section or the message boards of FoxNews.com, but just stop by one day if you are in doubt. There is some serious First Lady hatred going on and it has yet to let up in the three years since the election. For black women, it is par for the course and I could just sense a collective head nod occurring when she talked about the criticism that has been aimed at her.
“The Angry Black Woman” meme has become the gold standard stereotype leveled at African American women. It’s as if people think it’s been imprinted on our DNA to mean mug and roll our necks. Nothing could be further from the truth, especially in the case of Michelle Obama. She’s one of the most photographed women in the world. There are plenty of pictures out there of her smiling, laughing, and hugging people. But the critics of the administration and thirsty journalists aren’t trying to put that bit of fact out there.
Then again, even if they did who would believe them? Even if a picture of Michelle Obama was published on the cover of USA Today that had her cheesing like a Cheshire cat, it still wouldn’t make that much of a difference. Some people would still find something wrong, just like they do with the rest of us. How many sistas have been pulled aside and told by a boss or a co-worker and told that they have a bit of an attitude? When was the last time some random stranger veered out of their lane and directed one of us to, “SMILE!”? I have a dozen examples, and those are just my own. It’s tiresome to say the least.
Maybe the focus should be on , “The Tired Black Woman”. She’s real and she’ll tell you that she is sick of the lies. Black women are as diverse in their dispositions as they are in their body types. It’s too damn sad that the First Lady of the United States has to defend herself for being who she is, like so many of us have had to do.
