Increasing visibility
Leola Johnson, associate professor and chair of the media and cultural studies department at Macalester College, says the presence of Michelle Obama in the White House has encouraged some black women to consider broader possibilities for themselves.
Very positive reactions to Michelle Obama as first lady.
Michelle Obama is seen very favorably among black women, according to a new poll conducted by the Washington Post and Kaiser Family Foundation. The Washington Post's Krissah Thompson talks about the first lady's uneasy path to popularity, and how it may help her husband's re-election campaign. (Jan. 23)
“Michelle Obama has increased the visibility of black women, and sometimes that’s enough to make you redefine and think about yourself and your place — as opposed to the days when very rarely would you see African Americans in the public sphere like you do routinely now,” she says.
Trisha Goodman, who lives in Arnold, Md., says having a black first family carries special meaning for her and many of her friends at the church she attends. After a recent Bible study session, they discussed all the ways Obama has changed the way others see black women and how they see themselves.
“In everything she has gone through just being the first lady, she’s been graceful, elegant, very supportive of her husband . . . and she always has a smile. That would be the opposite of the angry black woman,” says Goodman, 40. “She helped America to see that all black women are not ghetto fabulous. . . . We’re not all single, not all on welfare, not all uneducated.”
Daphne Valerius calls Obama a “poster woman.”
“For a long time all we had was Oprah,” says Valerius, 30, a filmmaker who has made a documentary exploring whether negative media portrayals are harming the self-image of women of color.
She met Obama briefly when her film, “Souls of Black Girls,” got her an invitation to a White House screening of the motion picture “For Colored Girls.”
Margaret Hawkins, a Los Angeles security officer in her late 50s, thinks the attention heaped upon the first lady, whom she admires, comes at the exclusion of unsung black women — like those who teach in rough neighborhoods, serve on city councils or run businesses.
“When you look at our history and see the role of African American women, it should not be surprising at all to see a Michelle Obama, but for many it is,” says Hawkins, who is active locally in the Service Employees International Union. “We have powerful African American women in leadership everywhere, but people are not paying attention to them.”
It’s hard not to notice Obama — first ladies make news and appear on the covers of magazines.
Two years ago, Judy Jourdain-Earl, a nurse and diversity facilitator who lives in Montgomery County, was sitting in the audience as Obama gave the commencement address at Spelman College, a historically black women’s university. Tears streamed down Jourdain-Earl’s face.
“Just listening to her tell her story, seeing her being who she is, moved me,” says Jourdain-Earl. “She knows who she is and whose shoulders she’s standing on.”
For other black women, much of Obama’s power derives from her simple familiarity.
They feel a deep empathy with the challenges of her life — being in the public eye when your hair is permed or the special dynamics of an African American intergenerational family or dealing with being called “angry” when you know you were just being direct.
“She is so unbelievably ordinary even in her specialness,” says Harris-Perry. “She is brown-skinned and she’s shaped like a black woman. She has regular black-girl hair. She’s just there looking like a sistah. Part of what she means is she gives us the ability to imagine America through ourselves.”
Polling Manager Peyton Craighill contributed to this report.
Krissah Thompson and Jon Cohen will live chat with readers at noon ET about Michelle Obama’s role in changing the course for black women in America. Submit questions and opinions now.
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