Michelle Obama, an Image Problem
An interesting article appeared in today’s New York Times about Michelle Obama’s image, and her latest attempt to brush it up a bit. There are several things noteworthy about the article, one of them is that it is remarkable to see just how willing the NYT to help Michelle improve her image. One wonders why they did not do this for, say, Hillary Clinton or Mitt Romney.
Now, the general view - in the article at least - is that Michelle has been depicted as an angry black woman. As someone who, unlike her husband, does not try to erase race from the debate but who, instead, divides people into blacks, whites, and yellows. She has given some ammunition for this image herself but, the NYT article tries to convince the reader, it’s an unfairly negative image nonetheless.
And that is partially true of course; Michelle - like every other public figure - has been turned into a caricature of herself. She is, undoubtedly, a complex woman. The ‘image’ some try to paint of her, is undoubtedly unfair in so far that it is not nuanced enough to do her justice.
However, it also has to be kept in mind that Michelle is either unwilling or unable to present herself as someone who transcends race, and who transcends ideological bickering. Her “the first time I am proud of my country” remark was not merely a ‘gaffe’ (as the NYT likes to pretend). It was a sign of something deep inside Michelle, the questions are of what, and in how far does this ‘deeper’ issue influence her views and ideals.
To cut a long story short; Michelle Obama’s main problem is not the media. Nor conservative bloggers and journalists. No, Michelle Obama’s main problem is Michelle Obama. One would almost go so far so to say that whenever she has the opportunity to come across as a bitter and angry woman, she embraces it.
When it comes to her image, Michelle wants to do something about the notion that she is elitist. They will try to do so by convincing Americans that she came from very ‘humble beginnings.’ The problem with this approach is, as I see it, that her beginnings were not that humble. Of course, her parents were not rich, as such, but they were also not poor. They were, basically, quite middle class, or even above it. Her mother forced her to have a good education, and she later went to Princeton and Harvard herself.
To call that “humble” is both disingenuous and offensive. Those who live like that today, know that they may not be rich, but they would not pretend to be from ‘the ghetto’ either. Michelle Obama is not a product of a ‘humble environment.’ She is the product of a middle to upper class environment in her early years, and of the upper class and liberal environment of America’s best Universities when she became a little bit older.
While I mostly agree with you Michael, I think you are trying to elevate her class status of her early years beyond what it likely is. I think it’s fine you say she was middle class (it seems she was) but sneaking "upper class" into her seems a tad dishonest, since there is no indication to that effect.
Her father was a water plant worker and her mother a secretary. They lived in a predominantly black neighborhood in the South Side of Chicago. Not the ghetto, to be sure, but not a high end neighborhood either. She went to a public high school, albeit the best one in the city because she had fantastic grades and could get in.
She’s not her husband, to be sure, and it’s my impression she’s not as forgiving and "let’s all get along" as he (after all, she wasn’t raised by white people as he was and she lived her childhood not in tolerant Hawaii but in racially explosive Chicago). She’s CERTAINLY humble if you compare her to the other prospective first lady, born-millionaire Cindy McCain. Still, a much more divisive figure than her husband.
Good thing she’s not the one running for president eh?
Claudia, I should try to find the figures. I saw them somewhere, indicating that it they earned twice as much as average, etc. I’ll have a look at it.
Sanitation workers can clean up the trash of a city when they went on strike for weeks on end, but please.
They’re not miracle workers.