My Heart Sings as My Blood Boils: Critical Race Feminism Reflections on Michelle Obama as an 'Angry Sapphire'

• In Event: Michelle Obama’s impact on the feminist agenda

Abstract

As a biracial Black female seeing Michelle Obama, a Black woman
who is a mother, wife, and lawyer, become the First Lady of the
United States brought forth profound happiness. Bearing witness
to history from the National Mall, there were moments when I
forgot how long we had been outside and how cold I was. I found
myself in awe of Obama’s composure; communicated through her
steady hands and confident gaze as she held the Bible that her
husband took his presidential oath upon. Despite the warmth of
this remarkable event, my journey home was marred with concern
for the ways that First Lady Obama has already been
discursively constructed in the media as an angry Black woman.
A plethora of blog and news headlines such as “Will Michelle
Obama’s Deep Racial Anger Effect Her Husbands
Support?,” “Michelle Obama Warms Up To Campaigning, And Voters
Warm Up To Her,” “A Softer, Gentler Michelle Obama,” “After
Attacks, Michelle Obama Looks for a New Introduction,” and “How
Michelle Obama Changed her Abrasive Image to 'Mom-in-chief'”
indicate the pervasive remnants of racist ideologies rooted in
chattel slavery. More specifically, it is not uncommon for
strong Black women to be discursively positioned as evil, cold,
and perilous Sapphires (hooks, 1981). It is my argument that
the representations of Obama as a Sapphire conveniently work in
accordance with dominant ideologies to undermine her
compassion, intelligence, and reasonable discontent with
contemporary injustices. To address this phenomena, this essay
will rely upon Critical Race Feminism to highlight how dominant
constructions of race and gender work to dismiss, silence, and
demonize women of color in general (Wing, 1997) and in this
instance Obama’s credibility as the First Lady.

Author

• Rachel Griffin, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale