Black women embrace first lady’s evolved role

First lady Michelle Obama, right, reacts while receiv­ing an hon­orary degree from Spel­man Col­lege pres­i­dent Bev­erly D. Tatum on Sun­day in Col­lege Park, Ga. First lady Obama has deliv­ered four com­mence­ment addresses this sea­son, and her choices were polit­i­cally strate­gic as the pres­i­dent gears up for the 2012 cam­paign for a sec­ond term. (Asso­ci­ated Press | Erik S. Lesser)

ERRIN HAINES

Asso­ci­ated Press

ATLANTA — First lady Michelle Obama was wel­comed with thun­der­ous cheers and told the 550 grad­u­at­ing from Spel­man Col­lege, an his­tor­i­cally black women’s school, that no mat­ter where they go, they need to bring the school’s ideals to the world.

The grad­u­ates welled with pride upon her arrival, even as she clapped enthu­si­as­ti­cally for their achieve­ments. In Obama, the young women see the essence of the suc­cess­ful, black career women many of them hope to become. But her mes­sage to the Class of 2011 of ser­vice to oth­ers and help­ing the under­served also reflected her roles as first lady and a major cam­paigner for her husband.

Obama deliv­ered four com­mence­ment addresses this sea­son, and her choices were polit­i­cally strate­gic as the pres­i­dent gears up for the 2012 cam­paign for a sec­ond term. She was in Iowa last week and in com­ing weeks will speak to grad­u­at­ing seniors at Quan­tico Mid­dle High School in Vir­ginia, to grad­u­ates whose par­ents serve at the Quan­tico Marine Base.

“Find those folks who have so much poten­tial but so lit­tle oppor­tu­nity and do for them what Spel­man has done for you,” Obama said. “No mat­ter where you go in the world, you will find folks who have been dis­counted or dis­missed, but who have every bit as much promise as you have. They just haven’t had the chance to ful­fill it. It is your oblig­a­tion to bring Spel­man to those folks. Be as ambi­tious for them as Spel­man has been for you.”

Most of the crowd were pre­dictably moth­ers, grand­moth­ers, aunts, sis­ters, or female cousins — all fill­ing the 10,000-seat exhibit hall to see the first lady.

Her appear­ance at Spelman’s cer­e­mony was a coup for the 130-year-old col­lege, which com­peted with insti­tu­tions across the coun­try for her to appear as com­mence­ment speaker, lob­by­ing her on YouTube, in peti­tions and let­ters. Spel­man also con­ferred an hon­orary doc­tor­ate of laws degree on Obama, who earned her juris doc­tor­ate from Har­vard Law School.

Her pop­u­lar­ity, which rivals her husband’s in the black com­mu­nity, was built on her image as a strong, sup­port­ive wife and mother accom­plished in her own right as a lawyer and cor­po­rate pro­fes­sional. But on Sun­day, Obama chose to high­light her work as a pub­lic ser­vant, work­ing to pre­pare young peo­ple for pub­lic ser­vice in Chicago after she left cor­po­rate Amer­ica, as the foot­steps she encour­aged the grad­u­ates to follow.

Marki­eta Woods said Obama is more than just the president’s wife.

“This role has in no way made her less sig­nif­i­cant,” said Woods, 21, of Los Ange­les. “It’s one of the top posi­tions in the world. The media has it wrong so much when it comes to who African-American women are. She does a good job of bring­ing a bal­ance to those images. She really does break a lot of the stereotypes.”

Those in the audi­ence shared sim­i­lar sentiments.

“She def­i­nitely is a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of what African-American women are about and what we are: believ­ing in your­self and believ­ing in your dreams, being proud of who you are,” said Ter­rolynn Perry-Ponder, who got a cov­eted grad­u­a­tion ticket from her sister-in-law. “We believe in giv­ing back, mak­ing the world a bet­ter place, pro­vid­ing an oppor­tu­nity for other peo­ple to achieve their dreams. Her role has changed, but she can empower more people.”

As first lady, Obama has con­tin­ued to stick to the issues that car­ried her pro­fes­sion­ally for years — includ­ing health care and fam­i­lies — but she does not force her way into the pol­icy arena, unlike an equally accom­plished Hillary Clin­ton dur­ing her years in the White House.

In many ways, her chang­ing respon­si­bil­i­ties still speak to black women like Shan­dria Stan­ley. The 36-year-old Atlanta edu­ca­tor and her hus­band run a non­profit after school and sum­mer camp pro­gram focused on aca­d­e­mics and athletics.

“Her mis­sion for kids is our mis­sion as well,” Stan­ley said, adding that her opin­ion of Obama has only got­ten bet­ter. “She has a major role now. Peo­ple are always watch­ing her. It takes a spe­cial per­son to deal with every­thing it takes to be first lady.”

Spel­man Pres­i­dent Bev­erly Tatum said that although Obama may have had to put her career on hold, she still rep­re­sents a long tra­di­tion of African-American women multitasking.

“If you look at the role black women have held his­tor­i­cally in soci­ety, we have been very much in the work­place as well as care­tak­ers,” Tatum said. “She’s mak­ing vis­i­ble to the larger white com­mu­nity what we as African-American women have under­stood for gen­er­a­tions. I would argue that she’s hav­ing a broader impact today because she has a much big­ger platform.”

Mar­ian Mereba, who grad­u­ated with an Eng­lish degree, said Obama is still a work­ing mother who is using her posi­tion for the greater good.

“She’s still a bea­con of strength and intel­li­gence,” said Mereba, 23, from Philadel­phia. “She’s an amaz­ing mother, which is also what a lot of us aspire to be. She shows that you can change the world and still raise a family.”

In speak­ing at Spel­man, Obama talked directly to the mem­bers of her husband’s most loyal elec­torate. Turnout at the polls among black women in 2008 was 69 per­cent — for the first time mak­ing the sin­gle largest vot­ing bloc that helped Obama become the country’s first black pres­i­dent and a key demo­graphic as he seeks re-election.

Obama left the grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mony early to attend a pri­vate fundraiser aimed at young black pro­fes­sion­als at a down­town Atlanta hotel.

Many in this gen­er­a­tion liken the Oba­mas to the real-life ver­sion of the fic­tional iconic black cou­ple, Cliff and Claire Huxtable, the doctor-lawyer duo who, along with their fam­ily, rep­re­sented the col­ored ver­sion of the Amer­i­can dream. Actress Phyli­cia Rashad — who played the role of Claire — shared the stage with Obama on Sun­day, receiv­ing an hon­orary doc­tor­ate degree.

While she grace­fully declined to com­ment directly on the com­par­i­son, she called Obama “a great lady who rep­re­sents many of the ideals of wom­an­hood as pow­er­ful, dynamic, cre­ative and nurturing.”

In an era where hav­ing it all — hus­band, career, chil­dren — is a big­ger chal­lenge than ever before for black women, here comes Obama. That’s why she excited this gen­er­a­tion of Spel­man about their own pos­si­bil­i­ties, with­out even try­ing to.

Perry-Ponder, who has heard Obama speak twice before and hopes to one day meet her to say thank you.

“She has moved from a state, to the nation, to the world,” said Perry-Ponder. “I get goose bumps just say­ing that.”

Posted by AP News on May 15 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.