Michelle Obama: A Beautiful Layer of Change
October 27, 2010
Kimberly Collins
Staff Columnist
A Slice of Wisdom
Let’s be real, President Obama brings change not only because he is the first black President, but also because unlike a 
majority of high profile black men, he has a mocha colored, statuesque, curvaceous, black woman on his arm. Black is back, not in a corner, hidden in a closet or slipping down a back stairway. Michelle Obama is front and center as the First African American Lady.
Her beauty does not hail from a Halle Berry clone, nor is she a Beyonce double. Her beauty represents the masses of beautiful black women, who have been overlooked or pushed aside. Don’t get it wrong, there is plenty of love for the sisters of a lighter hue, but the mass media already works overtime keeping them on a pedestal. What there has never been is enough visibility and praise for the darker sisters, who are just as or more beautiful as their sisters of a lighter hue. There has not been enough brown and dark-skinned little girls, who are told early in life that they are beautiful and worthy so that they grow to believe it. As painful as this truth is, there are little black girls and black women who never garner the same attention as their lighter-skinned counterparts.
Outside of Denzel Washington and Samuel Jackson, there are not too many high profile black men that come to mind who show love for the darker sisters. Most high-profile, successful black men believe the ultimate prize to go along with their accomplishments is a light or white symbol of beauty. Now we even see the media joining in by pairing black men on serial dramas, like The Practice, with white women instead of their black female co-stars. The detriment of these images is the message it sends to black youth. I remember standing in line at CVS watching two little boys giggle about how ugly they thought a black female celebrity was in a magazine. I looked at the woman, her dark complexion, compelling eyes, laid hairdo and could not figure out what they saw as unattractive, so I asked them why they thought she looked funny. The boys pointed to her broad, painted lips, her African features and said, “Look at them.” If only the little boys knew how they had been conditioned to hate what others have grown to love.
The “others” love it so much they get collagen shots in their lips so they too will have an attractive pout. I then asked them to show me a woman they thought was beautiful and their choice was someone light-skinned with Caucasian features. It is not their fault. Their choices have been picked by the same mass media outlets that convince little white girls to become anorexic in order to be seen as beautiful. Their choices are shaped by the images they see on television and in print that showcases bony, light-skinned, video vixens to excite the imaginations and hormones of little boys.
Since the Obama’s have been in office, I now hear several of my black male students proudly saying, “I’m looking for my Michelle,” while the black girls say they are looking for their “Obama.” For the first time, what they seek is a full package that is not dependent on skin complexion, but one built on substance. The Obamas’ dual image offers a change in the image of a black man as a provider, father and companion to his wife. Michelle changes the image of the dark-skinned sapphire, caricature to show a black woman who supports her husband, nurtures her children while holding down the job of First Lady. Michelle represents another layer of the change President Obama brings. She brings a change in seeing that the beauty of black womanhood goes much deeper than the complexion of her skin, but the respect that first extends from the self then to her man and the world community.
