Farah on Michelle
“It is Michelle’s blackness that has deeply disturbed many Americans and much of the press, and it is that same blackness that has endeared her to many, but not all, black Americans. For those of us who share her race, gender and generation, the negative reaction she has inspired is stunning. As with Michelle, we are the daughters of hard working, even struggling, parents.
We are the daughters who were constantly told that we mustn’t ever fit the stereotypes “they” have of us. We were raised to take advantage of the mopportunities created for us by the Civil Rights Movement (and though rarely acknowledged, by the Feminist Movement as well). We grew up in black communities that were proud of us.
And, when we went off to predominantly white, elite colleges and universities it was with the reminder that we must do better than well, and that we dare not forget those we left behind. Why are black women like Michelle Obama, black women who have been educated alongside and worked with white Americans as equals, so unfamiliar to so many Americans?”
This from my friend Farah Griffin blogging for NPR from Denver. Read more.
The Sepia Mutineers are here too. I have spent some time with Abhi and Ravi, and will write about them in one of my dispatches.
[P.S.: My friend and colleague Kiese Laymon says anyone but Hillary Clinton as the chief ally.]
