NYT: Michelle Obama's "makeover" (I wonder: Will angry feminists come to HER aid?)

[cyberpj]

Note: This is a supportive article but the title and some contents make it clear that Michelle Obama will not only need to battle sexism, but a double-edged sword of racist sexism. So now the outspoken and intelligent black woman will need to become more palatable to Americans. Well how about smarting-up those dumbed-down citizens instead? I know... I know.......

===============================================================
Michelle Obama looks for a new introduction
After attacks, candidate's wife is getting a subtle makeover
By MICHAEL POWELL and JODI KANTOR
updated 4:19 a.m. ET, Wed., June. 18, 2008

snip-
Conservative columnists accuse her of being unpatriotic and say she simmers with undigested racial anger. A blogger who supported Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton circulates unfounded claims that Mrs. Obama gave an accusatory speech in her church about the sins of “whitey.” Mrs. Obama shakes her head.

snip-
Fox News called her “Obama’s baby mama,” a derogatory term for an unwed mother. Christopher Hitchens , a Slate columnist, claimed — with scant evidence — that her college thesis proved she was once influenced by black separatism. National Review presented her as a scowling “Mrs. Grievance.”

snip-
The caricatures of Mrs. Obama as the Angry Black Woman confound her, friends say. Her own family crosses racial boundaries — her mother-in-law and a sister-in-law are white — and she has spent much of her adult life trying to address racial resentment.

snip-
But the 44-year-old woman known even to friends as The Taskmaster sometimes speaks with a passion unusual for a potential first lady. She tells voters that “Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual — uninvolved, uninformed.”

entire article:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25234989

[faithfulcitizen]

1. to answer your 1st question- they sure haven't yet and I don't expect them too.

I don't think she'll play victim either, and would rather fight back with dignity and grace.

[Ysabel]

21. "them" ?? hey please don't speak for this feminist...

[JoFerret]

33. "they" --- who is that?

I certainly hope both Barack and Michelle are feminists.

[Fredda Weinberg]

2. Well, I don't need a candidate's wife telling me I'm uninvolved or uninformed

But if that turns you on ... just don't mistake this for feminism.

[cyberpj]

3. Can't you see she is not talking about the minority of involved people (you and me) but the majority

of uninvolved and uninformed citizens of our new coporate media-informed country?

It's not all about you.

[snooper2]

10. Each of your posts

still make me want to :puke:





GOBAMA

[mrreowwr_kittty]

12. I emptied my ignore list thinking that, surely, all the nuisances had been TS'd

Guess they haven't.

[MoonRiver]

34. Your problem is,

you forgot about the nuances! :rofl:

[mrreowwr_kittty]

11. self delete

[DevonRex]

19. Hmm. Must have missed the part where she said Fredda is

uninvolved and uninformed.

[Catherina]

22. Why not? Someone certainly needs to tell you. n/t

[Blue_Roses]

23. bitter much?

geeze...:eyes:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

24. Well...

Somebody needs to tell it to you.

[Ysabel]

26. blah a pox on this thread...

- angry yes...

[Genevieve]

28. Bitter.

Bleecccchh on you.

With your constant negative comments. I can't believe you haven't been banned yet.

[Raine]

29. Get over the bitterness

Geeeeesh. x(

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

4. I believe that there is an unspoken rift between black women and white feminists

that needs to be addressed. Some black women have a deep distrust of white feminism because they have felt excluded from the Feminist Movement of which black women started. I believe that some white women think that black women tend to address racism to the detriment of sexism, which is a valid criticism. We need to have a thoughtful dialogue about it and hopefully my post won't get deleted because I raised this issue.

[cyberpj]

6. And now is the perfect time... (nt)

[Captain Hilts]

8. White feminists did reach out, but ultimately, it was about class.

Lower income white women did not find it relevant either.

As a 'voting bloc' women are just too diverse, too interspersed with other groups to be considered a bloc.

Michelle should just be Michelle and she'll be fine.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

9. That's true. The failure of the movement is that it did not speak enough to

the needs of poor and working-class women, as the Civil Rights Movement did begin to address the needs of the economically disadvantaged and the war. I don't think it's too late. Michelle is the embodiment of the feminist experiment gone right. She grew up poor and worked her way up and is a success for it. And she did it all by remembering where she came from but not dwelling on the past and looking towards the future.

It's something that Eleanor would be very proud of. Michelle and Hillary are phenomenal women!

[Captain Hilts]

16. Hell, the Civil Rights movement kind of left black women in a lurch...

is it true that Malcom X said that the position of black women in the movement was "prone?"

Somehow - in part because 'leaders' are appointed by the media - all the "leaders" of the black community are men. Coincidence, or not? I think not. Perhaps it's because so much of it is religion oriented. But black women attend church at higher rates than black men and they go to college and graduate from college at higher rates than black men, but, somehow, when it comes to 'leadership' they get left behind.

I'm white, so, perhaps I'm not seeing this accurately.

Anyway, I have great hopes for Michelle.

[tishaLA]

30. no Malcolm never said that

That was Stokley Carmichael (Kwame Toure). I do think you are right, though, that you are white so yo0u may not be seeing things accurately. I think, for example, you'd have a hard time finding a Black feminist who believes that white feminists worked as much as they should to include Black women in the feminist movement (we witnessed a notorious incidence of this during the election cycle, when Gloria Steinem and Melissa Harris-Lacewell had a conversation on Democracy Now!--as usual, "women" signified "white women"); Gloria Anzaldua, Cherrie Moraga, and other "feminists of color" will also tell you about the failures within the feminist movement to reach out to them.

Finally, patriarchy in the Black community's leadership only mirrors the patriarchy in the dominant culture. And yet, the civil rights movement gave us any number of women leaders--Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, Angela Davis--and also gave us a richness of community-level female leaders who never wanted to make it to the national stage. It's funny: on the one hand, we have ostensibly respectable people like Daniel Moynihan putting out The Negro Family, which vilified the Black family for being too matriarchal, and on the other hand, we have people who say men run the Black community. You can't win for losing.

[Ysabel]

25. what the fuck %#@# again please don't speak for this low income white feminist (as if my status...

matters) what the fuck is going on here...

!?

[crankychatter]

15. watch this debate - "rift" is verbalized with excellence

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/14/race_and_gender_in_presidential_politics

Gloria Steinem vs Melissa Harris-Lacewell

I think this thread sucks because it presumes that "angry" former Clinton supporters are feminists.

Remember they were protesting "unfair" coverage of the primary race at NBC on the SAME DAY as the Tenth Anniversary of the Fight Against Violence Against Women was taking place in New Orleans. The real feminists were THERE, and the REAL protest would've been why THAT EVENT got no mainstream coverage.

I'll never believe those are feminists appearing on Fox news and all that.

I would like to see Senator Clinton appear with Michelle Obama. That would do a lot. Someone on here suggested it, and it's a superb idea.

[Captain Hilts]

17. Great ideas.

No, no feminist would have ANYTHING to do with Faux News.

Feminist ARE pissed at the crap that MSNBC permitted about Clinton's personality though.

Yes, I'd love to see Michelle and Hillary do some things together. GREAT idea! They've got more in common than most folks.

[crankychatter]

20. Tweety is an asshat and KO forgot that Clinton is a Democrat

I must say KO expressed MY feelings, but my feelings are often, better left unexpressed. I think he forgot that Clinton is on OUR team. MSNBC is untrustworthy (war profiteers and nuclear folk) and KO's action was divisive like a big dog.

As for Tweety? I've never liked that SOB. He's under-informed and actually believes his own bullshit and bluster.

[SayitAintSo]

37. Michele Obama gave an interview 'dissing' Hillary as a potential VP

She said she didn't know if she could support her. I thought that was a very stupid move for her to tip her hand AND further inflame the animus between the two campaigns. On the view she back tracked and tried to compliment Clinton. It did not seem sincere IMHO. And to insist she has no input - I find that laughable.

To appear together would be a great idea....Will it happen ? Obama needs Clinton more that she needs him...we'll see....

[cyberpj]

5. Website That Tracks Media Attacks On Michelle Obama (with thanks to DUer democracy1st)

democracy1st (1000+ posts)
Website That Tracks Media Attacks On Michelle Obama

from buzzflash

'Michelle Obama Watch has put up a Media Attack page that tracks media attacks on the Presidential candidate’s wife. Truly it is sickening that there even needs to be such a site, but you might as well bookmark it now, you’re going to be referencing it a whole lot between now and November.' 6/18

http://michelleobamawatch.com/

[davidpdx]

7. Paging Harriet Christian...

Warning: The following picture could cause one or more of the following side effects:


Headache


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Muscle and joint pain


Call your doctor if any of the following more serious side effects occur:

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and in some cases death....

[Highway61]

13. Makeover?

Michelle vs Pickles (Botox Betty)???? Puleeeeze...no contest. Michelle is just fine.

[cyberpj]

14. On The View today Barbara brought this article up first thing:

and read a lot of it.

Michelle:
I take the comments in stride.
We're not new to politics.
Explained the 'proud of' remark was about people responding to Obama's politics.


She's gorgeous, intelligent, gracious and ready to be first lady "on day one"!

[Scout]

18. Is she a feminist? Does she support feminism and feminists?

if so, maybe feminists will defend her.

If not, then she needs to take care of herself. Feminists aren't obligated to support someone just because they are female.

[cyberpj]

27. I didn't say support her because she's female. I said DEFEND her because of sexist attacks. nt

[Imagevision]

31. Laura Bush stated today she supports Michelle

[MoonRiver]

36. Well, that's good enough for me.

:sarcasm:

[JoFerret]

32. Hold on: Surely Michelle and Barack Obama are both

feminists.

[1Hippiechick]

35. These quotes sound like teases to a cheesy soap opera! (No offense - just how they struck me)