The Smithian

…it is impossible for Michelle Obama to occupy the same space…as her forebears. She is a black woman. While white women have historically been thought, by default, to be possessed of ideal femininity, (sexistly) defined as demure, sacrificing, quietly strong, beautiful and maternal, black women have not. The picture of black woman as Sapphire; welfare queen; baby mama; ball-buster…harpy who is too black, too fat and too nappy can be seen lurking behind much of the right’s–and some of the left’s–criticism of Michelle Obama…White feminists who acknowledge [Michelle’s] blackness, and the stereotypes attached to it, believe her “momification” is a shrewdly calculated answer to attacks on her as “Stokely Carmichael in a dress…” It is as if even these smart women cannot believe that, alongside strong, black womanhood, Michelle Obama might have a nurturing, maternal side that is not politically manufactured, but a part of who she is.

more at the Griot.