One of the many exciting aspects of electing the first black president
is that some segments of American life will be more visible to all of
the country and world in a way they seldom have in media and popular
culture.
There is much attention being paid to the fact that the
Obamas are a black, upper middle class, traditional nuclear family. As
several observers have noted (however clumsily)
the first, last and only time previously that reality has occupied
(especially white) America's collective mindspace was in the heyday of
the Huxtables.
No, the Huxtables were not real. Yes, real Huxtables exist - they are not mythical creatures.
(photo credit: JibJab via flickr stream of mind on fire)
On
President Obama's first day in office it was evident that our new first
family were welcoming a new face of America to the White House.
Although
caution should be taken not to idealize the Obama family and
marginalize other (black) family structures, there is a certain
gratification in seeing the rest of America learn what black folks have
known all along, i.e., there are black families headed by two, married
parents, not just single mothers and absent fathers as seems to be all
too common in the media and popular culture's image of how we live.
Though the new first family may seem like a novelty to some, for others they are familiar.
Barbara
McKinzie, international president of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, says
she grew up in a small town in Oklahoma surrounded by black couples and
an extended family of teachers and neighbors, who were knit together
like the new first family.
She didn't need to look at the Inauguration Day festivities to see a vibrant black family.
"It's
not new, but it appears new," she says. "The president and his wife and
children are not a novelty in the African-American community.
"It's the only family I've known in my life." Black first family 'changes everything' John Blake, CNN.com
And
though it wasn't the experience of Michelle and Barack specifically, I
guarantee that they are representing for those of us bougie black folks
who grew up in the world of Jack and Jill, The Links cotillions, AKA's (of which Michelle has been made an honorary member) and Deltas, Alphas and Kappas and the rest of the "Divine Nine" black Greek service organizations.
(Oakland Links Cotillion 2005 photo from The Globe Newspapers)
Even
within the black community there is rejoicing at the stereotypes Barack
and Michelle are smashing because Michelle is not fair and is
darker-skinned than her husband. The reality that "black is beautiful"
is being writ large via our first lady, no paper bag tests need apply.
Beyond
changing up the image of the black family for many Americans, the
extended Obama family represent the reality of much of America. We are
a nation of immigrants and indigenous people, slaves and masters all
intermingled. My own family is a brilliant rainbow example of this
America. On my mother's side we are descended from black African
slaves and white slave owners. My father is an immigrant from St.
Vincent in the West Indies and his multi-hued ancestors hailed from
Africa, Portugal, Venezuela, Scotland and Ireland. My extended family
encompasses Native Americans, Canadians, Arubans, Dutch and Swiss. We
are Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Religious Scientists, Catholic, Jewish,
Buddhist and non-believers. And with the Obamas in the White House,
we've come a long way from the days of George H.W. Bush describing his
Mexican-American grandchildren as "the little brown ones."
For
well over two centuries, the United States has been vastly more diverse
than its ruling families. Now the Obama family has flipped that around,
with a Technicolor cast that looks almost nothing like their
overwhelmingly white, overwhelmingly Protestant predecessors in the
role. The family that produced Barack and Michelle Obama
is black and white and Asian, Christian, Muslim and Jewish. They speak
English; Indonesian; French; Cantonese; German; Hebrew; African
languages including Swahili, Luo and Igbo; and even a few phrases of
Gullah, the Creole dialect of the South Carolina Lowcountry. Very few
are wealthy, and some — like Sarah Obama, the stepgrandmother who only
recently got electricity and running water in her metal-roofed shack —
are quite poor.
“Our family is new in terms of the White House, but
I don’t think it’s new in terms of the country,” Maya Soetoro-Ng, the
president’s younger half-sister, said last week. “I don’t think the
White House has always reflected the textures and flavors of this
country.” Nation's Many Faces in Extended First Family by Jodi Kantor, The New York Times
At
Jack & Jill Politics, rikyrah shares some thoughts on an image of a
young man with braided hair meeting the president and first lady at the
post-inaugural open house:
Look at that picture. How
many of us have passed this young man on the street and had all these
ideas about him? Was one of those ideas - ‘ this young man wants to
meet The President of the United States’. No, I believe it wouldn’t
have made the list.
This was a goosebumps moment that I didn’t even realize I wanted to see. "The People's House"
I for one cannot wait to see all the ways in which President Obama shines a bright light on all sorts of invisible Americas.
How
do you see yourself or your family in the new first family? What have
you seen or are you learning about American families that you might not
have known? What aspects of American life are you hoping will be better
understood by the diversity the Obamas have brought to our national
consciousness?
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