The Inspirational Michelle Obama

Aside from President Obama acknowledging his criticism of the Supreme Court’s decision to allow corporations to run advertisements during political campaigns; his desire to end the “don’t ask, don’t tell” ban towards gays in the military; and his ideas about forgiving student loans for public servants, one of the most talked about aspects of the President’s first State of the Union address was his wife: Mrs. Michelle Obama.

Because purple is my favorite color I sort of assumed that I was the only one mesmerized by seeing Michelle in her purplish/plum Isaac Mizrahi dress. But soon it was evident that her presence and beauty had many buzzing. During the pre-speech show on ABC, George Stephanopoulos was heard questioning whether Michelle’s dress choice (in addition to Vice-President Joe Biden’s purple tie and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s lavender suit) was a statement of her husband’s desire to not be left or right, but to appeal to middle America. The blogs were blowing up about her – everything from the price of the dress to who was asked to sit in her box. The ultimate accent to her conservative, yet edgy look was witnessing her being “embarrassed” (as her husband said) as she motioned the house to sit down after a standing ovation from President Obama’s acknowledgement of her mission to fight childhood obesity. All that said it’s very apparent that when Michelle walks or talks, people look and listen.

But why?

She is the First Lady of the United States and that title alone carries weight. But you could surely argue (and hopefully not with anyone who claims to have a sane mind) that Mrs. Obama commands attention in her own right. Unlike her husband, she is undoubtedly an African-American – a Black woman, a sista – from the South side of Chicago. Born to working-class parents, she attended public schools as an adolescent and teen. She went to Princeton as an undergrad, majoring in sociology and African-American studies and later to Harvard Law School. After successfully working for a corporate law firm in her hometown where she met her husband, she worked for the City of Chicago in planning and development, later founded an organization to encourage young people to get into public service and held several posts at the University of Chicago. She’s a mother, a daughter, a sister and since being thrust in the public eye has become an inspiration and positive representation of a Black woman to the world.

For me, the latter is very important. Unbeknownst to many Americans, Black culture is world-wide. I remember my first and only international trip to Malaysia that made that fact evident to me. On an elevator in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, I heard an instrumental jazz rendition of a Mary J. Blige song and thought, “Wow, our culture is known and loved everywhere!” That can be a good thing and not so flattering. Everything about our culture isn’t what I would wish to share with the world. So to have Michelle Obama stand on the world stage as a Black woman when so often we have been seen as video hoes, welfare queens and God only knows what else, is quite refreshing! Not only is she beautiful and smart, but she’s very charismatic and carries herself with grace and poise wherever she goes.

Recent tabloids suggest the Obamas may be having marital problems. I hope that’s not the case and if it is that they work it out. As a Black couple and family, they tell America - Black America especially – that marriage, family and success are attainable. And yes you too can have this. I love that early in the Obama Presidency, that Barack and Michelle have opened themselves to telling their story of how they made it thus far. Michelle honestly lets us know how hard it was for her to follow her husband’s political aspirations and become the woman he needed her to be – whether that was setting aside her career aspirations, staying home and raising their family or joining the campaign trail. She allowed herself to be flexible and amenable to what he needed and it has paid off for them and us.

And her platform – fighting childhood obesity has the ability to make our country healthier and wealthier. I recently watched her give a speech about this passion. As a critical observer, her approach was pretty safe. Decreasing children’s TV time, slowly adding fruits and vegetables to children’s diets and getting them more active were her top strategies. And though she admitted that together parents, government and grassroots groups will have to share in the responsibility of ending childhood obesity, she missed some of the more powerful possible outcomes of this issue.

Childhood obesity is about how we engage our children – what we expose them to or not. It’s about how we as adults eat and how we feed our children. It’s about how we’ve allowed our food system to be overtaken by corporations with great advertising budgets, taking us out of our kitchens in to the drive-thru line. A true stab at ending childhood obesity would be to dramatically change our food system – how we get our food, where the food comes from and how we consume it. To change our food system would be to alter who gets food subsidies for producing our food – rewarding small, family farmers who use sustainable farming practices and placing penalties on large corporate farms whose owners care less about how the food is produced and more about the amount yielded. If this happens, Mrs. Obama would have helped her husband create more small businesses that create more jobs whose employees buy more stuff (hopefully made in our country) and put that money back into the local economy. Not only will our children become healthier but so will our economy.

I was so excited to hear that White House Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford would be preparing the first family’s meals with food from their own garden. It’s further promising that Mrs. Obama invites children to help out with the garden. The garden is a connection to understanding the larger challenges those children may face trying to get that same food when they get home – depending on where they live. It’s my hope that Mrs. Obama will get those stories and factor food policy into her childhood obesity fight.

Michelle Obama has become an American icon - not just because of her fashion sense and beauty or because she was raised on the South side of Chicago and attended two of the country’s top Ivy League schools. It’s because of her personal sacrifice and her illustration of the American dream to the world. In her own words, "And in my own life, in my own small way, I've tried to give back to this country that has given me so much. That's why I left a job at a law firm for a career in public service, working to empower young people to volunteer in their communities. Because I believe that each of us--no matter what our age or background or walk of life--each of us has something to contribute to the life of this nation."

Mrs. Obama, we thank you for your service and look forward to seeing what more we accomplish based on your selfless inspiration.