Okay. So I’m watching a couple of these balls tonight because there ain’t nothing else on and we don’t have cable, blah blah, and Savonarola burned all our books. Wah.
So a few words about these balls, if I may?
~ Michelle Obama, may I tell you something? Okay. This is hard. Uhm ….. okay. My Beloved has been a camera man, video producer, worked in television, blah blah. So the fact that I even have this knowledge is his fault. Here goes: You are a black woman. You are wearing a stark white ball gown under bright lights on television. There are …. oh, how to say this? …. contrast issues. The white of your gown is just “too hot” under those lights. Literally, just now, when I watched you dance with your husband, your gown flashed, became a glowing blob without any detail. I am stunned that nobody bothered to tell you this. Your skin tone and your dress cannot be lit equally well here. The gown may be pretty, but it’s impossible to tell and it’s not the right choice for you — on camera. Anyone who’s ever been on camera learns this the very first time they’re on camera. I mean, look, I learned it from MB …. first time I was on camera … you know, when we met … at the glamorous local shopping channel. (Hahahaha. Ah, memories! So many stories to tell!)
Back to my point, Michelle Obama: Blazing white dress meets black skin and big hips and bright lights. Don’t do that again, ‘mkay, Michelle Obama? Please don’t ever wear a dress that makes me use so many b’s.
~ Now Barack Obama, may I tell you something? It really may be time to own your bi-racial heritage. I see you dancing there, hon. Methinks I spy the dreaded white man’s overbite. Sorry, Mr. President. S’true.
Hm. Whiteness seems to be an issue tonight, don’t it?
I didn’t like the dress, in general. Wasn’t wacky about the cut of it.
Yeah, sometimes she doesn’t seem to pick the right dress for her shape. And perhaps it was just the channel I was watching this on, but the dress really did glow weirdly.
I don’t understand all these pundits gushing about how she’s going to save the fashion industry. Why is this? Because she’s the youngest First Lady since Jackie Kennedy and she was a fashion plate, so Michelle Obama must necessarily be one, too?
I don’t get it. I mean, I won’t be looking to Michelle Obama for what to wear at my next state dinner.
And …. on the other thing — why can’t Obama call himself bi-racial or mixed race? I’m not meaning to be racist here — I don’t even know what qualifies as “racism” anymore. Anything and everything, it seems. But honestly, I have a hard time with the practice of mixed race people seeming to completely disown half of their heritage — frequently the half that raised them. I’ve never heard Obama or Halle Berry or Mariah Carey refer to themselves as mixed race. They’re black only.
I just want to understand it.
As I recall, Tiger Woods steadfastly refuses to identify either as Black or Asian… he’s just Tiger. And good for him. Even if he’s dissing the Lord’s Own Hockey, I have a lot of respect for the man.
I have to wonder how much of this is simply driven by the public. A lot was made of Halle Berry being the first black woman to win the Best Actress Oscar – a big entertainment industry circus. Berry of course basked in it – but to be honest? If she’s Halle Berry, Oscar Winner, she’s on the same footing as a dozen other actresses; if she’s Halle Berry, First Black Woman Best Actress Oscar Winner, then she stands out, and in an industry chock-a-block with gorgeous hotties who only get younger in comparison with her, that’s a card that’s hard not to play.
It takes someone like Tiger, actually, to stand against something like that. He’s a transcendent talent in his chosen profession, and he shoots down all of that stuff routinely, to the point where I haven’t heard the sports media try it recently. He’s also genuinely annoyed about that racial pigeonholing. And to cite other athletic examples, I don’t think Derek Jeter has ever identified as anything – white, black, or mixed heritage. Hines Ward, the Pittsburgh Steeler, recently reconnected with the Korean half of his heritage and was received with a lot of warm feelings and goodwill.
I only share these because the sports world is most familiar to me. Sport itself has come a long way. Most fellow players and fans don’t care who your parents were as long as you can perform when the game is on the line. Sports media is another story – like most journalists they have their templates and it’s hard to break away from them – “First Demographic to Accomplish This Cool Thing” is a trope that dies hard, long after nearly all of the barriers have fallen. Tony Dungy is gonna have “First Black Head Coach to Win the Super Bowl” in the first line of every single one of his obituaries, for example. “Percentage of Demographic in Given Profession” is another one that will be long with us.
To clarify – “driven by the public” should really mean “driven by what sells” – the media assume that more people are consumed with this, as if they recited Title IX to themselves before every meal as a benediction. I think the majority really don’t care, or only care in the cases where they think a real injustice has occured. But it’s hard to get such news without a gender/race/etc spin, and so I think the media are somewhat behind the general curve on this… they think that this angle is important to the general news consumer when said consumer is actually skipping that part to get to the score or the highlights or the important information.
Ha ha, Tracey joins the cabinet as the lighting consultant! That seems like a promising job. 🙂
To answer your question about race in the comments, I could go the cynical route and say oh, “it was to get the so-called ‘black vote'” or “nobody seems to think it would ‘make history’ to be the first biracial President.” Seriously, though, I could be wrong, but my sense is that people of mixed race may feel pressure to, or may feel it is easier to, identify with one race overall. I think there was a documentary (PBS?) titled, “Are You Black, White, or What?” It’s a pointed and fairly rude question, but I bet many people of mixed race, or even people who appear to be mixed race (but aren’t), have been asked that.
I have several cousins who are biracial, and I’ve never asked them how they self-identify, racially. I mean, it doesn’t matter to us–family is family. Our family reunions kinda look like the U.N. I don’t think there’s a real expectation that there are particular aspects of any particular race that anyone’s required to adhere to.
Interestingly enough, though, my actress cousin who has a white mom and a black dad was cast as Maria in “West Side Story” a couple years back. So, um, “whatevs”?
NF — Good thoughts. I think you’re right. On the whole thing, basically.
And I don’t care what color people are; I don’t. I just find this whole “identification” question interesting. I mean, most black people would see Obama as black, wouldn’t they? Don’t you think? And I’m realizing that as a white person, I would probably also say Obama is black.
I’m just wondering why I sort of negate that he’s half-white, too. I haven’t really figured that out.
Also, Halle Berry is bi-racial. Just need to throw that in there. She’s not just black. She’s half-white. I remember that being discussed at the time, too – I believe she was abandoned by her black father and raised solely by her white mother – which brings up interesting racial questions, which were talked about exhaustively at the time. By “identifying” solely as black – what does that say about the white mother who raised her? The black father who couldn’t be bothered? Some really interesting conversations happened at the time (very similar to what we’ve seen with Obama).
sheila — I know. I still remember her Oscar win — uhm, who doesn’t? — and her speech that night honoring all these black women, which is nice, but then when the camera panned over to her white mother, my heart just sank for that woman. I can’t really remember, but I assume she thanked her mom. On the other hand, such a fuss was made of her “blackness” that I couldn’t help but feel bad for that woman. As if she had no part in her actress daughter or something. The negation of half of one’s heritage — well, it’s a little puzzling to me.
I’m just wondering: Is there something wrong, politically incorrect, with the word “bi-racial” since no one seems to want to use it?
I have many friends who have bi-racial kids and I know it’s a hot topic (not so much within the family – but within the peer groups of the kids). You’re either not enough of one thing, or too much of another – But then, of course, if you have a momentous moment (like being the FIRST at something – Halle Berry, whatever) – of course you will want to identify as the minority, because that’s a big moment … a “first”. It’s a big deal.
I think people can get too caught up in labels – but then again, my “identifiers” are simpler. I don’t know what it’s like to have two groups either want to claim me or reject me.