Sunday, November 23, 2008

A school is chosen

As President-elect Obama confronted such issues as his impending cabinet and economic team, the auto bailout and the complexities of the stimulus package, Michelle Obama confronted an equally difficult challenge this week: picking the right school. The same school that Chelsea Clinton attended, Sidwell Friends School is one of the most prominent schools in Washington. While the choice was met with great suspense, a spokeswoman for Michelle said that the school was the "best fit" for Malia and Sasha.

In other news, the media is beginning to wonder just what kind of a first-lady Michelle Obama will be. Will she be the "mom-in-chief" or the "first lady of style"? Will she bring her intelligence to the fore and influence the President-elect's policies? Time will have to tell.

Future First Lady Moment of the Week: The December 1 cover of Newsweek Magazine is "The Meaning of Michelle." The article describes the confounding questions surrounding Obama. As Allison Samuels writes in the article, ""When her husband raises his hand to take the oath of office, Michelle will become the world's most visible African- American woman. The new First Lady will have the chance to knock down ugly stereotypes about black women and educate the world about American black culture more generally. But perhaps more important -- even apart from what her husband can do -- Michelle has the power to change the way African-Americans see ourselves, our lives and our possibilities."

Be sure to pick up an issue of the magazine next week.

1 comment:

Big Shulman said...

An excellent point about Michelle. While Obama has been criticized about whether he is truly black since he is not descended from slaves, Michelle is. So by virtue of the fact that Obama wins the presidency, his wife is certainly representative of that experience. A related thought is that on matters of race, even though Barack is not descended from slaves, he certainly dealt with issues of race growing up. Read "Dreams of My Father" to find a very sophisticated and complex understanding of what it means to be black, to be American, and to be both without sacrificing either to the other.