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The late summer, pre-convention politics lull finds the void being filled with several deep-thinking magazine articles focused on Barack Obama and issues of race.
New York magazine recently published an issue with several pieces looking at race and politics. Notably, one article is capturing the attention of several bloggers. Vanessa Grigoriadis' article titled: Black & Blacker: The racial politics of the Obama marriage was not well received, at best.
Grigoriadis tries to draw insight into a number of issues of race and identity for both Barack and Michelle Obama and to look at issues of race and racism that affect voters. The result is an unfortunate mish-mash of previously discussed issues and interpretations and the discussion does not contain a central thesis that I can discern which relates to "the racial politics of the Obama marriage."
The author does touch on some of the specific concerns Michelle and Barack face navigating in a predominantly white world while identifying and being identified as black. Grigoriadis does touch on some of the ways in which Barack and Michelle's separate experiences intersect but she does not delve deeply into why such intersections might matter to their marriage or how their marriage might shape their identities. She also points out that the fact that Michelle is not only a strong, black woman but also darker-skinned than Barack, endears Barack to some black voters and solidifies his blackness for them:
“The fact that Barack did not choose a lighter-skinned woman sends a message to me,” says one supporter. Says another, “When I look at Michelle, Barack doesn’t have to be any blacker for me.”
One thesis in the article about Michelle seems to particularly bother many bloggers:
As much as any political campaign is an extended meditation on authenticity, the question of just how black the Obamas are has become particularly loaded. Michelle must project herself as black to one community, but she also must act white to another, whatever either adjective means nowadays.
Ultimately I think this illustrates the weakness of the article and why it angered many black women. Though it purports to be about the Obama's marriage it is actually more about issues of black identity, using Barack and Michelle Obama as meta examples and about issues of race, racism, politics and Obama's campaign specifically. One of the central themes within that discussion is an idea that Michelle has a too strong, too angry blackness which is mitigating what the author perceives as Barack's post-racial, category-transcending blackness. It is difficult to read an article from a white author that makes so many assumptions and observations about black identity that feel false and alien to actual black people and several bloggers have expressed their frustrations.
rikyrah cross-posts at Jack & Jill Politics and Mirror on America about "The Obamas as Racial Rorschach Test, Version Number 29382983." Regarding the "acting white" quote pulled above, rikyrah writes:
Well, if you don't know whatever either adjective means nowadays, why the hell did you say it? I believe I've recorded darn near every speech Michelle Obama has given on C-Span. And, I've told folks, I've never paid to hear Barack Obama, but I have paid to hear Michelle, multiple times. In front of predominantly Black audiences. I'm trying to discern this ' Black' Michelle Obama that I paid to see vs. the supposed , what ' ACTING WHITE' Michelle Obama I see on C-Span?
Um....there is no difference.
SJP shares her thoughts at Michelle Obama Watch and her personal blog, Sojourner Place and, like me, she had difficulty understanding the argument and asks:
“Acting white”? What if anything any of this has to do with the “racial politics of the Obama marriage”? Perhaps in reading the entire article, MOWers might be able to discern what the point of this article was intended to be.
And at her blog, SJP also asks:
That's the end? So what are the racial politics of the Obama marriage? Did I miss something?... Going to read it again!
What About Our Daughters thinks they may have found the message:
You have to read the ENTIRE article because it gets worse as you read along to this writer’s ultimate conclusion: “White people can’t trust Barack because he married a BLACK woman“. Because THAT’s the main idea consciously or unconsciously from this article. Don’t marry a SISTAH or she’ll bring to down!
Just a reminder, if you find the author's interpretation of Michelle
