Mrs. Obama

Posted on 08/26/2008 at 10:50 am by Bob Cesca

One of Sullivan’s readers:

I am a 36 year old African American woman. I have two girls ages 10 and 8. The country does not get the full import of this moment. My daughters and I sat together along with my husband to watch Michelle Obama tonight. Mr. Sullivan, we were all in tears. This is a day that cannot be fully described. This country has systematically oppressed Black women for centuries. My ancestors were slaves and my great, great, great, grandmothers raped and treated as property. My daughters have very few Black women to look up to in popular culture as role models. They do not feel seen, they are not held up as the standards of American beauty. We shed tears tonight as a family because Michelle (with her elegance and grace) is holding all of us up with her. You don’t understand the burden that she bears.

And Juan Williams in a rare moment of personal honesty:

And yet the Roves and FOX Newses of the world want to destroy this chapter in American history for the sake of more wars and more insanity.

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  • http://www.clusterdouche.com Elvis Dingeldein

    Jesus, watch Brit “The Sneer” Hume’s body-language in the opening there. He’s so painfully uncomfortable being in the same zip code as a strong black woman making speeches that he may just jitterbug his saggy ass right out of the chair. Oh this hurts the Republicans so hard. So, so hard.

  • KidDynamo0

    Juan Williams always seems to want to be the good guy in a nest of hornets. I think he was getting a little chocked up at the end of his statement. It is hard to watch that kind of history being made, and not get a little emotional.

  • MCat

    Juan Williams definitely hit the nail on the head as far as what it means to African Americans to see someone who looks like us and be such a positive role model, to see an intact functional family unit that doesn’t look like the Cleavers.She and her family represents so much more than I believe she knows. They are the real life Huxtables (minus a few kids) that a lot of black people swear didn’t exist.I can’t wait to see them in the white house!

  • KidDynamo0

    The Huxtables were a figment of America’s imagination…until Barack and Michelle got together. Go Team Huxtable!

  • http://fifty50blog.blogspot.com StuporMundi

    Bob, thanks for posting this. I got the impression that Williams couldn’t even believe the words coming out of his own mouth at the end of the clip. It was as if he was being sincere in spite of his own “tire swing” impulses.

  • dc_wilson

    I’m surprised Fox didn’t cut the feed to his mic.And does Britt Hume feel actual physical pain whenever he has to acknowledge a democrat being successful at something? Sure as hell seems that way.

  • bajasteve

    Wrong, wrong, wrong, Kid! Yes, the Huxtables were a fictional family. They weren’t, however, representative of a real-life fiction. they are many, many black famililies where there are two parents, both dedicated to raising bright, successful, well-educated kids. Dedicated to being “pillars of their communities”. Folks who don’t get arrested, who go to work everyday and bring home a paycheck instead of a welfare check. Barack and Michelle Obama are not in any way unique, just very public, due to his candidacy, and her willingness to speak out.As a white man who was married to a black woman for many years, I’ve seen the “Huxtables” on so many occasions, no matter what the naysayers may insist.

  • http://obamaproject.windonwater.net QueenTiye

    Wow… sorry I missed this thread! I will try to post something here – tough to do, because I just lost my dad yesterday morning, but I will.QT