She has been the most oppressed soul but is and has always been that lightning thunder from the skies that gave the Black race that extra boost of life line and/or heart beat to freedom.
She has endured so much pain, agony, humility, beat down so much she still walks tall without a smile.
Do you know what it takes to put a smile on a black women?
No other women in the history of civilized world has gone through what she has gone through. She has been chastised, criticized, demonized, and terrorized. She has had to stand when her man was bull-whipped for trying to stand. She has had to stand when her man was castrated for trying to stand. She has had to stand when her man was rolled back his neck for trying to stand. She has had to carry her man. Because every time he tried to carry himself, he gets murdered.
UPDATE 1/17/11: I have removed the embedded code for this video since the video has been removed from youtube. However, I am linking to the same video originally posted in this space as an embedded video as a link now. Watch the video by clicking thislink:
No other being in the planet has endured what she has endured indeed. She has paid a huge price and that is not comparable to any monetary value. It was an emotional scar that lingered through generations and passed on to her daughters.
She sang the songs of freedom that touches the soul and taught the family how to sing the songs that kept hope alive and buried despair but just like the scar is covered with clothing so is her smile with what you can't see or feel unless you understand where she is coming from or thoroughly understand her perspective.
And now, Michelle Obama is singing that song of freedom but the view of black women as less sought-after, less gorgeous, less womanly, less desirable and less valuable than white women persists throughout our MSM even in this day and age. It still is the sentiment not only in the MSM but in some of our main stream neighborhoods.
Sad as it is, the standards are quite different at every level of the equilibrium for Blacks in general, and Michelle Obama is no different to some asshats tea baggers/Fox News/Republican'ts/apologists who are motivated solely by racial animus regardless of the fact that she is the First Lady. The First Black First Lady! In fact, they just despise the sight of a Black woman just as they do with the sight of a Black President!
SAD but the First Lady's trip to Spain clearly shows how the standard for a black women is so low that some would love to see the privileges enjoyed by some Presidents' wives be undeserving because Michelle Obama is just Black or is just too Black.
In this so called post-racial world we live in, Black or too Black is unbearable to see for some on TeeVee. The vilification of Michelle Obama about her well earned vacation as some would like to marginalize it with an apologist spin as a bone headed political move better check the environment we live in. What is it so bone headed about spending your money to vacation with your daughter. No, it is not a dumb political move for First Ladies to vacation with their families even in this hard times. It only is because some people just have issues and it matters a whole lot more to them when the person in the front seat is a Black Woman or a Black President.
Michelle Obama is A Symbol of Transcendence. The importance of Michelle Obama is not only to Black Women but also to all women of all colors who have struggled for civil rights, the right to vote, equal pay, equality, the right to own her body, the right to education, etc. Michelle Obama mirrors it all because she is figuratively a clone of the struggle in women history. But, her transcendence in my opinion is intentionally suppressed by the main stream media, the good ol boys club, and the man's world. The man's world still wants to keep it all locked up since changing a 400 years old stereotype is considered disadvantageous and a treat to their supremacy.
Going back to that memory lane with Michelle Obama not so long ago:
As she stood there, many black women on this side of the White House gate saw something else in Michelle Obama that sunny afternoon: bits and pieces of themselves.
They saw their family in hers, or the family they dreamed of having. Saw a woman whose husband seemed to adore her, giving her hugs and pecks on the lips as if the whole world were not watching.
Women watched Michelle Obama until she disappeared into the White House. Then they began talking.
"I like the way she carries herself," says Liz Nolan, 65.
"I like the fact that she walks with him," says Shenee McRae, 31, "not behind him or in front of him."
"For black women, she is visible proof that you can be anything you want to be," says Greer Jones, 37.
snip
What she sees in Michelle Obama is strength: "I saw it in my mother. When I was a kid, I saw it in the women in the church, this dignified strength. I think that is real.
"I think Michelle Obama is her own woman. I think people with the stereotype thing need to get over it. She is forcing people who have never taken the time to know who we are as black women to take a second look. To actually see, for once in their life, that there are black women that are brilliant and graceful, intelligent, well spoken and have their own sense of themselves. And it doesn't have to be measured up to anyone else."
snip
[speaking of the First couples:]
With his election night tribute to Michelle as "the love of my life, your next first lady," Thomas said, the president-elect crowned all black women: "He had a humble enough spirit to concede the stage to her. . . . It elevated black women in a way we haven't been elevated since antiquity: Queen Hatshepsut, Queen Nzinga, Cleopatra, Nefertiti. World leaders came seeking them, admiring their beauty. They were not just beautiful, they were intelligent.
"For him to regard her and treat her and show and express unabashedly, unashamedly, his love for her, his love for her intelligence, respecting her, romancing her, smiling at her -- for the world to see that exchange between a powerful black man and a powerful black woman, I think it's what is everlasting about this," Thomas said. "I don't think we can point to another power black couple like that."
These and many more are the voices of Black Women who see hope and crack a smile of redemption for they see what they have yearned for centuries...to see their man STAND at least just for once. Just for once that they don't have to carry the burden alone when their man was not able to stand up even when he tried to stand up. That pride must be understood. So understand it. A lot of tears have been shed to see this day so cherish it by sharing the love and defending our First Lady and Black Women from bigots and racists.
Demonizing Michelle Obama as has been done from day one is as good as demonizing the transcending symbol of Black Women. It is as good as saying no to all the Woman issues she stands for. Most of all it is as good as saying I don't want to see you SMILE.
"I think for non-black people, they are going to have to maybe deal with the stereotypes in their heads," Gibson-Hunter said. ". . . What this whole situation is doing is inviting people to look behind the projections in their own minds and maybe begin to do some work to deconstruct some of that and find the truth."
The struggle of the black women is still deep as there are many issues that needs to be overcome. But, I invite you to read a testimonial to the profound influence of Black Women, explore and explode the idea of the "strong black woman" and celebrate black woman's activism.
To all who have ears out there: Listen very carefully to James Brown!
This is a man's world but it would be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl!