Michelle Obama Watch

Oh My GOD!!! I am SOOOOO glad you beat me to this post this morning! Because when I tell you this afternoon I am going to break all this foolishness down like a FRACTION !!!!

What she id doing in the article is pitting a man against his wife ( Sisters have we ever heard that before) She is using Michelle’s “Blacker” against Obama’s mere “Black” I mean did you read her quote about Obama not speaking “Ghetto.”

This writer did this on purpose. Nichelle it can’t be a landmine because this reporter is “liberal” and therefore can’t be racist or a bigot. Liberals are immune remember. Its just the Republicans that engage in identity politics.

I will be covering it this evening at WhatAboutOurDaughters.com

I read this article last night, went to bed pissed, and woke up pissed just thinking about it.

The whole thing about Michelle ‘acting White’ around White folks, I was like WTF?

And Obama dropping the ‘N’ word around Black folk- HUH?

I’m with Town, and I hope this article is skewered at WAOD.

This was an offensive piece of tripe.

I’m still so disturbed by this article that I don’t know what to think or write. I just know that I ticked off that this woman would have the audacity to write such a commentary. She is one who obviously thinks she knows Black women – and no doubt – in her small pea-brained mind wants us to think she is an ally. But we know better and always have!

Lynne don’t lose your jobs behind some reporter’s foolishness.

Let’s all join hands and gather in a circle and Pray that Lynnye does not lose her J.O.B.

But lynne you touch on the underlying theme of almost all of the coverage of Michelle. SHE ain’t supposed to be with this man.SHE isn’t supposed to be FIRST Lady of the United States. They could deal with him, but not HER. The whole article is insidious. The reporter probably thought she was being DEEP, but just ended up being your garden variety bigot.

The message from the article is that Black women are not suitable mates for successful Black men and you can’t trust him because he married HER.

Exactly. That is always the undercurrent in coverage of Michelle Obama. I guess the media is so used to seeing successful, educated Black men like Barack with women who are non-black or very light-skinned if they are Black. Historically, that has been the case so to see Barack with brown-skinned-clearly-black-not-mixed Michelle is making a lot of people lose their conservative AND liberal minds.

Good:)

Like ADMIN, I am so glad somebody beat me to this post. I’m reading the article right now, and I feel my head coming unscrewed.

The whole idea that Michelle “acts White” during certain functions makes me sick.

How many White folks go home and act like baboons but come to work looking and acting their Sunday Best? Are they “acting” when it comes to those two faces, or recognizing that “there is a time and a place for everything?” If they’re “acting white” in both cases, why aren’t we “acting Black” when having social fun and then in our Sunday Best? The underlying reasoning is that Blacks can never own reasonable and professional behavior, so “acting White” can be the only explanation.

I don’t think I’ll finish reading that article right now. Like Lynne, I have a workday to get through… ::sigh::

Thank goodness I got the new Essence yesterday in the mail, I needed that to calm my nerves before I went to work this morning. The cover is beautiful and that Sasha and Malia are just too gorgeous!!

What is “acting white” anyway? Because she likes baked fish and pasta as opposed to fatback and chittlins?? Because she likes a nice Merlot instead of red kool-aid? Is it because she likes watching HGTV instead of “The Parkers” reruns? I swear….this reminds me of the time my co-workers looked at me like I had two heads simply because I said I could play the piano and no that did not mean Sister Jenkins at the church taught me on the side, but that I was a classically trained pianist and had 14 years of formal lessons. It was like I was telling these folks I was from planet Orgut in the galaxy of Nepazul. I swear I think they really believe we are all either living versions of The Color Purple or Good Times, but that Cosby Show…well…that was just MADE UP.

I read the full article and came away with a sense that the author, Vanessa Grigoriadis, was pretty catty and somewhat insecure in her own identity as a Greek woman.

Barack, for the most part, got a pass by Grigoriadis.

However, Grigoriadis seems convinced that Michelle Obama is not quite what she seems and is up to something. Grigoriadis studied every eye flicker, head turn, smile, laugh, breath, and piece of clothing of Michelle’s to get the “real story” of what made this Black, Black, Black, Blaaaaaaack woman tick.

But why?

It comes down to a phenomena that is not new. Someone who is an ethnic (say Irish, Italian, or GREEK) immigrant or the daughter of ethnic immigrants, arrives to North American. Immediately, to deflect attention away from their own ethnicity, they quickly “other” African Americans, in order to solidify their own ethnic identity with White identity. You Black People sure are strange to All Us White People!

Vanessa Griogaridis, she of the recently arrived to North America Greek heritage, has gone extremely far out of her way to “other” Michelle Obama, she whose ancestors have likely been North American since there was a North America. Griogaridis wants her readers to understand that Obama is a foreign, strange, Black creature who’s every movement and nuance has to be explained to terrified, helpless, clueless White America.

Fortunately, the latest Essence is out and reading that gave me an understanding of why Michelle Obama remains serene and upbeat despite reporting that would have driven another woman indoors.

Apparently, Michelle’s mother has a philosophy that just because someone calls you a dog, that doesn’t mean you don’t get down on all fours and start barking. No. You keep going and doing what you were doing before the idiot stepped to you.

So, truthfully, I’ve come to the conclusion that the article Grigoriadis wrote tells us MUCH more about Grigoriadis and her insecurity with her own identity, as a Greek and perhaps as a woman outdone when faced with a more powerful woman.

I think the reporting on Michelle will become more shrill, catty, and resentful as the convention draws near. It will take a woman pretty confident in herself to report on Michelle Obama.

Why is it that most of white America can’t wrape their feeble little brains around the fact that black people are as diverse as anyone else? This is what happens when one spends too much time looking at BET and MTV and thinking 50 Cent is the spokesman for Black America. For Pete’s sake, we have an Olympic fencing champion–Keeth Smart–kicking butt in Beijing. Not all of us have our pants sagging down to our kneecaps or decked out in stripper chic. Articles like this only illustrate the hypocrisy of white America, especially conservatives. They tell us to work hard, go to school, play by the rules and we can be successful. Well, here’s a shining example of that and now the Obama’s are “too white”. As far as Michelle being too black and not the “right” woman for Obama–excuse me? I think these haters are just jealous because Barack and Michelle are a beautiful couple who respect each other’s strengths. Barack is ovbiously a black man who isn’t scared of his wife’s strength and in fact cherishes it as a vital support system. Go Obama!

Oh well, on the “acting white” thing–I guess I need to turn off my Iron Maiden and put down the Jane Austen and not finish my unagi don.

That journalist is very jealous of an intact Black family. She thinks that dark skinned Black women don’t deserve the best in life. Is she afraid that Black women might take her man too? Jealousy is the prime motivation for the attack on Michelle Obama. It’s sad.

La Reyna