First Ladying While Black

This has been out for a few days now, but apparently Michelle Obama is being portrayed as "an angry black woman" in a new book on the Obamas. This rhetoric must be viewed in light of Melissa Harris-Perry's new book on stereotypes of black women (Sister Citizen). One of them is, of course, that of the angry black woman. Another is that of the black woman as mammy, which is being well displayed in The Help.

As we enter the weekend in which we celebrate the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King, Jr. it is rather shocking and sad that we still haven't come farther than we are. Even though the Obamas are now at the top they are still constantly subject to racial stereotyping, as are minorities in general. And we even still have signs being put up that claim "white only" and the person who did it thinks it was reasonable. It's even worse that the sign is from Selma, Alabama and was made in 1931.

This just continues to show that Obama becoming president did not represent the beginning of a post-racial America, but instead was simply another step in that direction and we still have a long way to go. The promised land is out there, but we still have a long way to go.