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On First Ladies Named Michelle... and Diane

There is a Chris Rock joke that went around the Black blogosphere recently: 

Barack has a handicap the other candidates don't have: Barack Obama has a black wife. And I don't think a black woman can be first lady of the United States. Yeah, I said it! A black woman can be president, no problem. First lady? Can't do it. You know why? Because a black woman cannot play the background of a relationship. Just imagine telling your black wife that you're president? 'Honey, I did it! I won! I'm the president.' 'No, we the president! And I want my girlfriends in the Cabinet! I want Kiki to be secretary of state! She can fight!'

It's a new joke from his latest concert tour and it was noted in the recent cover story on Chris in Rolling Stone magazine and, as much as I love Chris Rock, I don't find it funny.   

I've been thinking a lot about Black First Ladies lately. Naturally, Michelle Obama comes to mind, but I am also thinking of two other Michelles - and a Diane.

Diane Patrick, the First Lady of Massachusetts, is a partner at the law firm Ropes & Gray LLP and a former teacher in the Bronx.  She has stressed her private nature as her husband's political fortunes rose, recently had a bout with depression just two months after Deval Patrick was sworn in as the Massachusett's first black governor (and only the second black governor in American history).  During her husband's historic campaign, she became known for being able to relate easily to different types of people and for being very clear from the start that she had no intention of giving up her career if her husband was elected.

Michelle Fenty is the First Lady of the District of Columbia.  I mentioned her in an article last year, Black Like Barack, where I wrote of how her husband, Mayor Adrian Fenty, was one of the new crop of black politicians redefining our political landscape.  Fenty is Jamaican and a native of London, a graduate of Howard University Law School and  is an Of Counsel at the law firm Perkins Coie. She also does charitable work in her capacity as First Lady. Believe it or not, she is second only to Michelle Obama in search engine results to this web site and I am certain I know the reason.  It's her style.  Michelle Fenty has said that she loves designers like Tracy Reese, Vera Wang and Calvin Klein and it shows.  She is also an unabashed lover of Manolo Blahnik shoes.  Frankly, I am stunned that she hasn't been featured more widely in the media outside of the District.  Then again, I'm not.

And then there is Michelle Paige Paterson.  She had to throw out her Metrocard a few months ago and begin to prepare for a big change in her life as the new First Lady of New York. Her husband David Paterson was sworn-in as the first black (and the first blind) governor in New York and only the third black governor in American history. With the blink of an eye, she now has a bodyguard and state troopers driving her to work and her son to school.

It's Our Camelot

     

Does a Black First Lady matter? It certainly does to me, but I wanted to ask other Black women about it so I started with my grandmother.  I called and asked if a Black First Lady would make a difference to her and she thought that she heard me wrong and asked if I was kidding her.  Ditto for my aunt, who is also my grandmother's sister. "Are you kidding me? In my lifetime?  Both of them would do us well.  Everything about them is such a plus for us.  I'm just so proud of them already."

And, as you might have guessed, that is the same answer I got over and over.  I figured as much, but I didn't want to assume.   One of my friends also just came right out and said it.  "It's our Camelot.  To see a man like Barack Obama run such an amazing campaign is one thing, but to see his dynamic, pretty, relatable Black wife by his side is a huge (make that HUGE!) plus in his column."

I don't know if people realize just how deep this sentiment runs with many black women.  I have received lots, and I do mean lots, of email forwards from other black women, simply filled with gorgeous family photos of the Obama family or especially affectionate pictures of Barack and Michelle hugging, snuggling... dancing.  Seriously!  If you are a black woman, how many times did the following picture appear in your inbox?

We like to see these photos for a very simple reason.   Extensive media coverage of attractive black men married to black women who look black (yeah, I said it!) with their beautiful black children are a very rare commodity.  We are constantly steeling ourselves against negative media images of black women and persistent dismal statistics on the black family so a steady diet of the gorgeous Obama family can be quite satisfying.

Women like Michelle Obama, Michelle Paterson, Michelle Fenty and Diane Patrick remind me of women that I actually know, as opposed to women I only read and hear about in the press.  They are living, breathing - yes, I'm going to say it - Claire Huxtables.  Women like my friends, cousins and colleagues who are Mocha Moms or Jack & Jill members.  Or women like myself who do not belong to any official group or sorority, but are well-versed in the "Negro Geography" game just the same.  We know the meaning of 'Working While Black' and why the word "articulate" can be tricky.  We're not perfect and we are well aware of it.  We just want a fair shake just like anyone else.

Historically, prominent Black wives have always been highly educated, staunchly in the upper or middle class and almost always, light-skinned.  Also, more often than not, they were of a higher social and/or educational class than their husbands.  Black leaders like Booker T. Washington, W.E. B. DuBois, and early black politicians were all married to women who fit the bill.

There were also black women who were married to prominent black men who were accomplished in their own right and, in the case of women like Ida B. Wells-Barnett (top left), Mary Church Terrell (top right), Adella Hunt Logan (bottom left) Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, Fannie Barrier Williams and Victoria Earle Matthews (bottom right), history would know their names better than their husbands.  They were also interested in keeping up appearances - publicly and privately. There was added pressure to be domestic icons as well with the added pressure of "Negro Womanhood" on their shoulders. The added pressure of "Negro Womanhood" meant defending the reputation of black women, regardless of social class, along with guarding their own reputation.  In one of my favorite books on the history of Black women in America, Too Heavy A Load: Black Women in Defense of Themselves 1894-1994, author Deborah Gray White made an interesting comment regarding this pressure as she noted the reticence Mary Church Terrell had in writing about her personal life in her memoir, A Colored Woman in a White World:

Most of them were cautious about putting their private lives and histories in the hands of a media that had for centuries stereotyped and slandered black women.  Rather than take such a risk, black women learned to practice what historian Darlene Clark Hine called the art of dissemblance.  They let their public see only what they wanted them to see.  As far as their audience was concerned, the public was the private.

So, you see, stereotyping and slandering black women for sport did not begin with Michelle Obama or even the mystical "welfare queens" that haunted the psyches of "working, hard-working Americans, white Americans" in the 1980s.  And yet, even with our history in this country combined with modern day pressures, the Michelle Obamas of the world are taking public risks, for pragmatic and personal reasons, that the Mary Church Terrells could never imagine. 

Diane Patrick, after recovering from her bout with depression, declared in a recent speech, I was demoralized, I was diminished, I was exhausted.  It just all came crashing down. She was referring to the difficulties of seeing her husband criticized in public, in addition to being in the public spotlight herself. It was hard, she said, to be defined not by her own achievements, but by whom she was married to.

"I stopped being Diane, and I started being the lovely wife," she said. "Sometimes I was 'his lovely wife, Diane,' but sometimes I was 'his lovely wife, Donna' or 'his lovely wife, Shirley.' I began to lose my identity."

Michelle Paige Paterson and Gov. Paterson made national headlines when they revealed mutual infidelities to the New York Daily News just hours after the governor was sworn in.

"Like most marriages, you go through certain difficult periods.  What's important is for your kids to see you worked them out.  I feel life is very fragile.  You never know what could happen.  That is why you shouldn't judge people."

Michelle Paige Paterson and Diane Patrick also have a sad common factor in their backgrounds - both were victims of domestic violence in relationships prior to their marriages.  In 2006 while on the campaign stump, David Paterson told one audience that his wife had been the victim of domestic violence. Michelle also volunteers as a domestic violence counselor at St. Luke's Hospital in Harlem. Also, Diane Patrick has shared her story of abuse in her first marriage with domestic violence survivors and she has stated her troubles began because she was raised in a family of strong men and "smart women who suppressed their smarts." She said her first husband exploited those tendencies and broke her down with abuse, which she has said was physical and mental. 

During her husband's campaign, she told the Boston Globe that her first husband was "not a nice man" and that he did not want to let go:

"There were times I said to Deval, I don't know if you want to be with me, because I don't know what my husband would be inclined to do to us," Diane Patrick recalled in an interview. "He said, `I'm not afraid, and you shouldn't be either.'

"I was five years older than he [Deval] was," she said, her steady voice quavering almost imperceptibly.  "I was going through a difficult divorce. I wasn't this Ivy League-educated person. He had the world available to him, and he stuck with me through probably the most difficult time in my life, and I didn't have much to offer him. Deval didn't give me a voice, but he reminded me that I had one, because I had forgotten I did."

Last year, Governor and Mrs. Patrick introduced a zero-tolerance policy for domestic violence in Massachusetts.

Now, I am aware that there have been many black mayors, especially in major cities over the years.  However, it seems that, more often than not, their wives were usually seen and not heard, with no visible public role with the exception of campaign appearances or those dreaded scandal-induced press conferences.  Michelle Paige Paterson is local for me, but the technology of our era allows me to sit in my apartment in Newark, New Jersey and read about Diane Patrick in Massachusetts or Michelle Fenty in Washington, D.C. even though they are not national figures.  However, even a decade ago, you would have to be in a given city to even know the first lady's name.

It will be interesting to see where these women go in their lives and careers and the influence, if any, they have on their husband's constituents.  The high-profile First Lady is a relatively new role for black women, so I will be watching closely.

Candidates and Their Wives Who Mirror Our Lives

A Candidate Who Mirrors Their Lives: Black Professionals See Obama's Trials, Gains as Reflection of Their Own:

This mid-20s to mid-40s generation has never questioned Obama's authenticity as a black man, even as their parents voiced doubt before voting began about a biracial candidate who never marched for civil rights. To many young black professionals, Obama was black like them. They brought the noise with Public Enemy but could sing along with Duran Duran. To them, Barack and Michelle were Cliff and Clair, and they were headed to the White House with their with their two little Rudys. They embraced his candidacy early and slapped Obama '08 bumper stickers on their cars.

"He is very familiar to them," says Mary Pattillo, a professor of sociology and African American studies at Northwestern University. "He's done a great job of doing what middle-class blacks do, work in a predominantly white world but still maintain a sense of racial identity and groundedness."

Diane Patrick, First Lady of Massachusetts

Diane Patrick says she has climbed back (Boston Globe)

Eventually, Diane Patrick said, she "just blocked out the world" and sought medical help.

"No one person did anything to me," Patrick said. "It was just being a political wife and having your own accomplishments and talents not only not used, but not even recognized."

She is still guarded - Patrick would not answer questions from reporters yesterday - but has started making more appearances, taking up causes on education, domestic violence, and depression.

"I stand here today, a year later," Patrick said, "and I feel so incredibly strong."

Michelle Paige Paterson, First Lady of New York

No Bed of Roses for Sudden First Lady (New York Times)

“You’re really a single parent when you’re married to an elected official,” says Mrs. Paterson, who was raised in the city — Brooklyn, Staten Island and the Upper East Side — by her mother, a Postal Service manager. “I never dreamed David would be governor; we got a rude awakening in March. I knew it was a good thing for him, because in politics, this is what you strive for, being in a position to make a difference. But I didn’t think it was going to be such a good thing for me.”

Michelle Fenty, First  Lady, The District of Columbia

Michelle Fenty: Washington's First Lady (Women Bisnow)
With the  best British accent in the District  (sorry Ambassador Sheinwald) Michelle tells us the expectations that come with being DC’s first lady are manageable. “People recognize that I have children and a job. They’re incredibly grateful when I show up—I didn’t feel a massive expectation to be out there everyday.”

Michelle Fenty Feels at Home With Women in Power (Politico)

Despite her charity work and social schedule, Fenty said she never considered giving up her career as her husband became more prominent in local politics. "I think it's important for working mothers to see that I work," she said. "If people are going to take notice of what I do or what I don't do, I would like them to say, 'She works, she has a career and she didn't give it up when her husband became mayor.'… I think it's really important for me to send that message, especially to the low-income women."

Michelle Obama, (Potential!) First Lady of the United States of America

Michelle Obama on First Ladies: I can only be who I am (Newsweek)

You said you wanted to focus on the work-family balance if you're in the White House.  But why not focus on the thing that got you into public service in the first place—those kids on the South Side of Chicago, inspiring them to service?

There are a ton of things I'd love to do. I would love to be able to continue this conversation with folks on the ground. How do we keep having these kinds of discussions so that there's a link from the grass roots directly up through the White House, as opposed to going through three different departments and under secretaries and so on and so forth? How do you continue the conversation with people so that Barack and I are still connected to the day-to-day experiences, challenges, struggles of regular people? … I want to bring more kids into the White House of all backgrounds, doing new kinds of internship programs. I mean, come on. I'm an idea person. There are tons of things that I can think about doing. But I'm also a practical person.

First Lady in Waiting (Vanity Fair)

“I’m kind of sarcastic, and I’ve felt that my sense of humor had to be subjugated on some level,” she admits. “My husband loves my sense of humor, and we tease each other mercilessly. But if somebody doesn’t get the joke, then you become a caricature of what the joke was. So it’s like, Well, jeez—let me not joke, then, if it’s going to be all that problematic. People get real worked up about some things I felt were really minor, funny, harmless observations about who we are as people.”

Mrs. Obama nonetheless believes that it’s better for voters to understand her husband and herself before deciding on their choice. “My hope is that Americans really want to know who the people who are going to be in the White House are,” she says. “What’s our sense of humor? What are we trying to accomplish? What are our values? My view is: know that now; make the judgment. I think people are ready for truth, if it’s real—so that’s what I’m banking on.”

The Other Obama: Michelle Obama and the politics of candor (The New Yorker)

She is unquestionably accomplished, but she is not a repressed intellectual, in the mode of Teresa Heinz Kerry. More than anything, she seems to enjoy talking about her husband and her daughters (Malia, nine, and Sasha, six). She can give the impression, in the midst of the campaign’s endless roundtables and kaffeeklatsches, that she’d rather be talking to them. Obama seems like an iconoclast precisely because she’s normal (the norm for a candidate’s wife having been defined, in the past, as nonworking, white, and pious about the democratic process). 

Happy 90th Birthday Lena Horne!

 

The one and only Lena Horne turned 90 years old on June 30.  Happy Birthday and God bless you Ms. Horne!

The Fiery Elegance of Lena Horne via 55 Secret Street.

Lena Horne Turns 90 via NPR's Tell Me More - Donald Bogle talks to Michel Martin about Ms. Horne's legendary career as a singer and an actress.

Lena Horne Turns 90 via NPR's All Things Considered - A tribute to Ms. Horne with her music.

 

Hey Nichelle, How's the book coming along?

Writers Like Me by Martha Southgate via The New York Times (Times Select).  So what’s holding us up? Sometimes it’s just the ordinary difficulty of juggling family, writing and earning a living. But African-American writers also speak of a larger problem of what I’d call internal or cultural permission. It’s just plain harder to decide to be a writer if you don’t have a financial cushion or a long cultural tradition of people going out on that bohemian limb. Consider the case of Edward P. Jones. He published his first book, “Lost in the City,” in 1992 (he was 41 at the time) to much critical acclaim and a number of significant honors, if not huge sales. He returned to his day job at Tax Notes magazine, where he remained until he was laid off 10 years later. He then wrote “The Known World” in about six months — though he told me he’d been thinking about it nearly those whole 10 years. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize.

African-American Writers: A Reading List by Martha Southgate (connected to the above article).  Some of her selections are favorites for me too, especially Erasure by Percival Everett and Elbow Room, the Pulitzer Prize-winning story collection by James Alan McPherson.

 

The Unstoppable Rise of the Afropolitan

Spike Lee to direct the play 'Stalag 17' on Broadway via The New York Times - "We're not casting rappers," Mr. Lee assured with a loud laugh. "50 Cent's not going to be in this one."  I'll be there!

 

Bye Bye Barbar: The Unstoppable Rise of the Afropolitan by Taiye Tuakli-Wosornu via The LIP magazine. They (read: we) are Afropolitans – the newest generation of African emigrants, coming soon or collected already at a law firm/chem lab/jazz lounge near you. You’ll know us by our funny blend of London fashion, New York jargon, African ethics, and academic successes. Some of us are ethnic mixes, e.g. Ghanaian and Canadian, some indigenous tongue and speak a few urban vernaculars. There is at least one place on The African Continent to which we tie our sense of self: be it a nation-state (Ethiopia), a city (Ibadan), or an auntie’s kitchen. Then there’s the G8 city or two (or three) that we know like the backs of our hands, and the various institutions that know us for our famed focus. We are Afropolitans: not citizens, but Africans of the world.

 

Ireland Elects First Black Mayor via NPR's News & Notes - Nigerian-born Rotimi Adebari was just elected Mayor of Portlaoise, Ireland, a commuter town west of Dublin. He left his homeland seven years ago to escape what he calls "religious prosecution" of his Christianity. Adebari says he's thrilled about his new post and has big plans for the town.

 

Some black Americans returning to Africa via MSNBC - Marcus Manns is among a growing number of black Americans trading potentially lucrative careers and relative comfort back home for a new life in Africa, where the former slave-trading hub of Ghana is wooing Americans with some of the easiest immigration rules on the continent. That includes a "right of abode" for qualifying American members of the African diaspora, echoing Israel's offer of automatic citizenship for Jews.

 

Newark's Mayor Battles Old Guard and Rumors via The New York Times - The rumors and tall tales, born in Internet chat rooms and anonymous mailings, gain traction in barbershops, on basketball courts and after church on Sunday.

 

Mayor Cory A. Booker is not really black.

One of his top aides moonlights as a cocaine dealer.

The city is about to lay off African-American crossing guards and replace them with low-wage immigrants.

“From what I hear, Cory Booker doesn’t even live here,” Esta Williams, 75, said during a raucous Municipal Council meeting last month where dozens of residents called for his removal from office. “I hear he lives in a fancy house in the suburbs.”

In the year since his inauguration, Mr. Booker has enjoyed national celebrity as a rising black political star, but here at home, he and his chief aides find themselves at war with an amorphous enemy of innuendo that preys on this city’s deep-seated mistrust of outsiders and fear of change.

Key words: "fear of change."  Throw in a little intimidation of light skin and education along with garden variety 'hatin' and that will give you an idea of many of Cory Booker's opponents.  Legitimate constructive criticism of his administration is often mixed in with this foolishness.  And that's not to mention that he is only one person and he has been in office for exactly one year! What do people expect? One year is not enough time to undo several decades of corruption and cronyism.

Another key is the jarring generational and cultural shift.  There is a minister quoted in this article that was "offended" that Mayor Booker told him that the best way to reach him was via text messaging.

Dr. James described Mr. Booker, who has a degree from Oxford, as “an academic freak” and “multimillionaire,” and said he felt particularly bruised by the mayor’s refusal to make him City Hall’s official liaison to Newark’s clergy. He said he used to reach the former mayor with one phone call, and was offended when Mr. Booker suggested that the best way to communicate with him was text messaging.

For his part, Mr. Booker, in an interview in his office a few days later, rattled off a list of things he had done for Newark’s black residents: renovating two recreation centers, creating 1,300 summer jobs for teenagers and establishing a $2 million college scholarship fund. Dr. James, the mayor said, was simply upset that he had not been given a job. Mr. Booker said that text messaging is how even his closest friends get in touch.

Welcome to the 21st century Pastor.  We're into text messaging.

His remarks remind me of Ron Rice Sr.'s remark during the mayoral race (he lost to Booker) "I don't know nothing about no "blueberry" or "Blackberry."

Sad.

Color of Cabinet Has Fenty on the Defensive via The Washington Post - Since taking office six months ago, Fenty (D) has replaced African Americans with non-black people in four of the city's highest-profile jobs: city administrator, police chief, fire chief and schools chief. Among those who hold arguably the 10 most influential positions, five are white, three are of Asian descent and one is Latino. Only one -- Neil O. Albert, the deputy mayor for planning and economic development -- is black. In a city that is 57 percent black and has a predominantly black government workforce, the mayor's choices have not escaped criticism.

As to the racial makeup of his inner circle, Fenty points out that he has appointed black directors to lead critical city agencies, including transportation, public works and the sports commission. Of 48 appointees, 21 are black.

"I look at my entire Cabinet and I absolutely see people who are African American. I see Asians. I see Latinos, Indian Americans, Caucasians," Fenty said. "I think that's what people would want to see in cabinets. They want to see themselves in it. I've tried very hard to do so."

Inching Into The Public Eye: Michelle Fenty looks for ways to 'Make a Contribution' via The Washington Post - Michelle Fenty, however, is an enigma, not easily locatable in the District's political landscape. She is an inconspicuous lawyer in a downtown firm. She is seen about town on the mayor's tuxedoed arm at official dinners and galas, but her thoughts on D.C. affairs are little known. In public, she has the elegant reserve of her British upbringing, but close friends see the down-home bonhomie of her Jamaican ancestry. She is not invisible like her immediate predecessor, Diane Williams, nor as politically active as her predecessor, Cora Masters Barry.  Fenty is a private person married to arguably the most public District resident.

Michelle Obama at the New York Historical Society by David Patrick Columbia via New York Social Diary -

A very hot late June Tuesday in New York. At noontime I went over to the New-York Historical Society for their annual Strawberry Festival luncheon. This originally started as a Ladies Lunch in the 19th century, and it was at the beginning of the strawberry season, and strawberries were a great treat, almost a luxury. Strawberries and cream, strawberry shortcake. Ahh, the simple things. Today's speaker was Michelle Obama, the wife of the Presidential candidate. She was introduced by a friend from Chicago, Judith Byrd-Blaylock, a businesswoman and political activist who has been close to the Obamas for a number of years.

 

55 Secret Street

 

* 55 Summer Favorites

 

* Q&A with Novelist Meg Cabot

 

* Q&A with Author (and yes, Lucky Beauty Editor) Jean Godfrey-June

 

* Web Snob Weekend

Love, Marriage and Pride at the Movies

Spring is looking good for movies - at least as far as I'm concerned.  Aside from Dreamgirls, I haven't exactly been racing to the movie theater lately.

Chris Rock has a new film coming out called I Think I Love My Wife.  It's about an investment banker that is bored with his marriage - in part, because his wife (Gina Torres)  is caught up in her career and with their children - so he passes the time fantasizing about other women.  He has no intention of actually cheating (they never do, right?) until an old pal (Kerry Washington) shows up.  The film is also a remake of the 1972 French film Chloe in the Afternoon, the last of the Six Moral Tales by Eric Rohmer.

I haven't seen Gina Torres in anything other than Cleopatra 2525 (Yes, I am one of about 3 people in the world that has not seen each installment of The Matrix), so I can't wait to see her here.  Oh, and congrats to Gina and her husband Laurence Fishburne on their impending arrival. 

I am also happy to see Kerry Washington in what looks like another good movie for her.  She's had some very good, pivotal roles lately.  I can't wait to see her get a truly breakout role.  And, Mr. Chris Rock.  I'm always rooting for Chris.  I've met him twice (a long time ago) and I was always struck at what a quiet guy he is.  Last summer, I saw him walking down the street one night with some takeout in his hand.  I guess he was going home.  Still got that quiet vibe from him. 

Also, I'm glad to see that he doesn't think he loves his wife, he just loves his wife.

 

* I'm a big Mira Nair fan, so I will definitely be in the theater next weekend to see her latest film, The Namesake, an adaption of Jhumpa Lahiri's wonderful novel.  Lahiri won a Pulitzer Prize for her amazing story collection, Interpreters of Maladies and The Namesake is nearly as good.  Also, check out The Namesake blog hosted by the film's star, Kal Penn.  He has come a long way from Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, bless his heart.  And he's from Jersey!

* I'm also looking forward to Terrence Howard's latest film, Pride, which will open on March 23.  Bernie Mac and Kimberly Elise also star in the film.  Terrence plays a Philadelphia coach that founded a black swim team in one of the city's roughest neighborhoods. Evan Ross, son of Diana is also in the film.  I think he is a really good kid.  I met him about a year or two ago at a show featuring his big sister Rhonda Ross Kendrick.  I couldn't believe how  nice and mature he was (he had to be 16 or so at the time.)  You know how it is, teenagers tend to give you one word answers when their eyes aren't glazing over.  Not so with young Mr. Ross.  He was really a gentleman.  I'm expecting good things from him in the future.

 

* Halle Berry and Bruce Willis's Perfect Strangers is finally coming out on April 13th.  I feel like I've been hearing about this for a while, so I hope it's good.  Speaking of Halle movies, where is Nappily Ever After Miss Berry?  And Composition in Black and White?  That's what I want to see.  I really hope both films are truly in the pipeline.  Oh, and by the way, if Alicia Keys doesn't work out as Philippa Schuyler, perhaps Jurnee Smollett can take over the role?  I haven't seen her since Eve's Bayou and yet, I am still convinced that there is an Oscar somewhere with her name on it.

 

Love and (Black) Marriage

* Uptown and Down by Jennifer Anglade Dahlberg.  Trouble in the Harlem Paradise of a chic Manhattan magazine editor and her record label owner husband.

* Jump at the Sun by Kim McLarin.  Yes, I featured this in my Valentine's post, but it happens to fit here.  A black stay-at-home mom seems to regret her decision to leave her promising academic career behind.

* Couples in the 2008 Race via Newsweek.  The Obamas vs. The Clintons.

* Michelle Obama: Reluctant Political Spouse? Not really.

* Diane Patrick lends her voice, personal touch via The Boston Globe.  A June 2006 profile from the campaign trail on the woman who is now Massachusett's first African-American First Lady, Diane Patrick.

* Michelle Fenty Enjoying Life As D.C.'s First Lady via NBC4 in D.C.  Michelle Fenty says that everytime someone calls her 'first lady' she has to chuckle.

* Why Did I Get Married?  Janet Jackson, Jill Scott and Sharon Leal (Dreamgirls) will star in Tyler Perry's next film.  Should be interesting.

55 Secret Street

* Merry Christmas, Darling.

* Lovely & Amazing.

Black Like Barack

So, is Barack Obama black enough or what?  And when will someone ask this question about 50 Cent?

Apparently, he is black enough to be the only presidential candidate to be quizzed about fears of personal safety. Michelle Obama told Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes that she is not losing sleep over her husband's safety as he runs for president. "The reality is, as a black man, Barack can get shot going to the gas station.  You can't make decisions based on fear and the possibility of what might happen.  We just weren't raised that way."

The senator has faced this question many times and his answer has been consistent.

"My view has always been that I'm African-American.  African Americans by definition, we're a hybrid people. One of things I loved about my mother was not only did she not feel rejected by me defining myself as an African-American, but she recognized that I was a black man in the United States and my experiences were going to be different than hers.  My daughters will grow up with a cousin who looks entirely Asian but who carries my blood in him. It's pretty hard not to claim that larger community."

That's good enough for me. 

There are several subtexts to the "black enough" question, including class and the  generational shift between the civil rights generation and their beneficiaries.  As several articles have pointed out, Obama's path is typical of the new generation of blacks in politics:

Decades ago, many black politicians shared similar roots: They studied at historically black colleges, became ministers, teachers and activists and made their names fighting racial injustice — braving death threats, police dogs and water hoses along the way.

These days, many black political leaders have similar resumes: They have Ivy League degrees and have worked as lawyers and legislators. They know their way around the towers of high finance and can raise money everywhere from Hollywood to Wall Street.

"What you're getting is black people who come into politics the way most of the white guys do — you're interested in public affairs, you go to law school, you do some local stuff, you run for office," (Roger) Wilkins said.

Exactly.

The reality is, those of us whom have benefited from the victories of our parents and grandparents in civil rights generation have had it much easier - and I thought that was the point.  That does not mean we don't experience racism, but many of us went to school with whites (and Latinos and Asians and other races) and participated in many other activities with them.  In junior high school, I was a "Junior" in the Girl Scouts and my mom was the leader of my multiracial troop (Troop #488!) 

I say this to point out that some of us "regular" black folks (i.e., those of us who didn't go to Harvard or Wall Street or become Rhodes Scholars) do not find black Ivy League law school graduates with white friends and associates to be strange.  We get the "black enough" quizzes too - and the Oh! You're black! face (if you need an explanation, please ask a black friend, neighbor or colleague that knows you well.)  I promise you, 99.9% of professional/educated blacks have an "Oh, you're so articulate" story and have experienced the "Oh! You're black!" face.  The fact that this remains a surprise to some people just shows how isolated we are from each other in our society.  As film director Reginald Hudlin pointed out in the recent New York Times article, The Racial Politics of Speaking Well, "How many flukes does it take to constitute reality?"

Unfortunately, this reality still won't shield a black person that has "too many" white people that like them.  That has always made black folks nervous (see Will Smith.) There was an article in a recent issue of The New Republic called "Black Like Me" that explains why being the "good" black is tricky and why some blacks that white folks just love like Senator Obama or my mayor, Cory Booker (pictured with Arianna Huffington) feel pressured to reassure "the community" that they are still one of them - even while risking some white support.  The article opens with a paragraph on the famous Malcolm Gladwell article from The New Yorker, Black Like Them, which touches on the findings of a sociologist that discovered white employers in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn "had developed an elaborate mechanism for distinguishing between those who they felt were 'good' blacks and those they felt were 'bad' blacks." They held anti-black stereotypes but they discriminated in favor of blacks who defied those stereotypes.  Colin Powell's cousin Bruce Llewellyn explained it very simply for the reporter: "White people love to believe they're fair."  I believe this explains why so many white people are so mystified by the revelation that black people have long considered "articulate" a code word with racist connotations.  And, that there is such a thing as the "Oh! You're Black!" face.

Another politician that would be intimately familiar with the whole "black enough" question is Adrian Fenty, the new (and youngest) mayor of Washington, D.C.  Like Barack Obama, he has a white mother, a black father and an attorney wife named Michelle.  The Obamas have two girls and the Fentys have twin sons. I can already tell that I like Michelle Fenty.  She is Jamaican by way of London and an attorney that specializes in global technology matters at a high-powered law firm. And yet, she understands that Manolo Blahniks are like sculptures. Smart woman! 

Like Booker, Fenty is a disciplined morning jogger and apparently such a Blackberry addict that he has been nicknamed Mayor Blackberry.  And, like the other elite new generation politicians, he's got his hands full.

Reading in Black and White

* Lise Funderburg - Out of the Mulatto Closet. Includes a "pre-rock star" review of Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.

* June Cross -  Secret Daughter: A Mixed-Race Daughter and the Mother Who Gave Her Away.  This memoir is based on the Emmy-winning documentary of the same name.  June Cross tells the story of her relationship with her white mother Norma, who sent her to live with a black family, in part, to maintain the Hollywood career of her husband.

* James McBride - The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother.

* Shirley Taylor Haizlip - The Sweeter the Juice: A Family Memoir in Black and White describes her search for her mother's sister who decided to sever all ties with the family to pass as white. The story of the sisters reunion is chronicled in Finding Grace: Two Sisters and the Search for Meaning Beyond the Color Line.

* Toi Derricotte - The Black Notebooks: An Interior Journey. The poet frankly describes her ambivalence about constantly being mistaken for white (and taking advantage of it) and the idea of not being "black enough."


Watch and Listen

* Cory Booker - Official City of Newark web site.  New Black Leaders Must Innovate from NPR's Morning Edition.  Street Fight - the Oscar-nominated documentary about the 2002 Newark mayoral race. 

* Adrian Fenty - The Nation's Capital Gets a New Mayor from NPR's Morning Edition.  D.C. Mayor Wants Control of Schools, Increased Policing from NPR's News & Notes.

* Barack Obama - on Michael Eric Dyson's radio show discussing the "are you black enough" question, Senator Biden's comments (briefly) and how "black voters are sophisticated and paying attention to issues."

* Angela Nissel - What Are You? Life as a Bi-Racial American from NPR's Morning Edition.