Drat! TNC beat me to posting this so I have hat tip both him and Dana Goldstein at TAPPED. Dana longs for Michelle to express herself as she did here early in the campaign in Iowa.
This is why Juan Williams labels Michelle Obama "Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress."
It is my opinion that some white folks perceive "passion" as "angry" in black folks. Strong emotion, about anything, in black people makes some white people nervous. Good to know I'm not the only black woman who gets caught up in speaking truth to power and labeled an angry black woman.
Just for shits and giggles, if you're black, go to a local work Starbucks, think about how Michelle was mischaracterized using examples like this video. Let it hurt your feelings -- inflame your passions as it were -- and more importantly, let it show on your face. Oh, the injustice! Now glare. Glare real hard. If you've got expressive eyebrows, let them knit a sweater. I know. I know. You've become accustomed to being more apparently affable than that, but this is for fun. What happens?
Now, I happen to agree with the commenter at Dana's post who says this is wondrous to watch, but if Michelle had stayed this "passionate," Barack Obama wouldn't be president. But then I didn't think Pres. Obama could be elected until I was shamed by Iowa. I do know you can't call what you see what you see without an updo, glasses, five babies and pumps.
(Yeah, I have a serious irk on about Sarah Palin and the inequity and false equivalency she inspired. Virtually every pushback from Republican friends when discussing Palin during the campaign somehow involved "She's hot." But hopefully she's gone for a while. I'm working on it.)
The truth is Michelle Obama's oratory comes close to rivaling Barack's. But folks (and you know who I mean) aren't ready to see a black woman put it down like that. Imagine those same words coming from Barack. Nobody would bat an eye and he would bring the house down. But if Michelle does it she is "radical". Eff that, they have made it now so personally I would love to see her out there more making these same kinds of speeches confronting the country as it is, not as we wish it was.
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