When then Senator Barack Obama announced his historic run that resulted in him becoming the first black president of the United States, it would be safe to say black women voted as much for his wife Michelle as much as they did for him.
There she was in all of her grace and poise, a black woman representing the epitome of black excellence and black love as she hit the campaign trail alongside her man.
She looked like she could be anybody’s auntie or mother, teacher or church member. In her highly anticipated, newly released and already best-selling memoir “Becoming,” Michelle Obama illustrates life experiences that black women readers can relate to as she shares her journey from cradle to post-Pennsylvania Avenue.
The book is an honest expression of the peaks and valleys of being Michelle Obama. The book describes her days as a kindergartener, struggling to keep up with the top pupils in her class; her romance with Barack; and her reluctant entry into the public spotlight because of her husband’s decision to use politics as a platform to work towards the change he had wanted to see since his days as a Chicago community organizer.
The book sold more than 1.4 million copies in one week of release – more than 750,000 in the first day.
In “Becoming” Michelle Obama gives insights about life within the walls of the White House, including her frustrations as the target of collateral damage by racists, who could not handle a black man holding the most powerful position in the free world. A vividly candid look at her life both pre- and post- first lady Obama, the most extraordinary thing about Michelle Obama’s memoir “Becoming” was the commonality this woman, the first black FLOTUS, shares with so many in the black community regarding her upbringing. Her experience during her formative years mirrored many young black girls growing up in metropolitan areas around the nation.
South side Chicago could have been the North Side of St. Louis as she talked about growing up in cramped living quarters above her Aunt Robbie – a family of four in a one-bedroom apartment of a home owned by another family member.
Her family flat on Euclid Avenue could have been on Euclid in St. Louis – not the Central West End Euclid, but over by Aubert Court, just behind the old Schnucks near Kingshighway and Delmar. Michelle LaVaughn Robinson grew up in a family whose love compensated for any lack of resources. And as she tells the story of “Becoming,” she offsets stereotypes while simultaneously addressing the harsh realities of a black family attempting to make the best life possible for themselves despite systemic disadvantages imposed upon them because of their race.
She is a granddaughter of the Great Migration. Her two grandfathers – Southside and Dandy – came to Chicago to pursue the American dream intentionally denied to them by the cruel hand of the Jim Crow South.
Upon arriving in what they thought would be the promised land, Southside and Dandy were slapped with the reality that the racism they thought they left behind met them in the form of the inability to join labor unions and constantly being passed over for steady work because of their blackness. They would have to settle for the consolation prize of a deferred dream that would take two generations to be realized, through Michelle and her older brother Craig Robinson.
She watched neighborhoods and community schools fall victim to urban blight, but through love, support and advocacy of her parents – she, like many black women with similar backgrounds – was a defiant overcomer.
Told by a guidance counselor that “perhaps she wasn’t Princeton material,” her life shifted as she – following the footsteps of her brother Craig – successfully set her sights on the Ivy League for her path to higher learning. She referred to the fellow black members of the Princeton University student body as “one of a few poppyseeds in a bowl of rice.” It put her on the course that would ultimately lead her to the love of her life – and though him, to the White House.
Though her credentials of Princeton University and Harvard Law School to a posh position at one of Chicago’s top law firms and eventually, becoming the first lady, Michelle Obama detailed some of her biggest hurts and crises. This includes the loss of her father and a close friend, issues with fertility, marital hurdles, telling herself honest truths about the career path she had chosen – as well as her quest to find herself and answer tough questions she simply overlooked while attempting to be the personification of her family’s dream for a better future.
