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What's 'Black Enough?' Michelle Obama Fed Up With Debate
By Aysha Hussain
August 16, 2007
Michelle Obama is angry.
Speaking before a predominantly black "Women for Obama" campaign event in Chicago last Sunday, Michelle Obama—wife of Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama—called on all in attendance, among others, to end the "black enough" debate.
Weighing in on the public's fascination with her husband's race, which has long been a source of water-cooler talk among the public and political banter for outspoken conservatives such as Rush Limbaugh, Obama called the "black enough" debate outright nonsense and asked the American public to end all speculation, reports USA Today. That "public" includes the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), which dedicated an entire session of its annual convention to the issue in Las Vegas last week, one day before the senator was scheduled to speak at a presidential forum sponsored by the organization.
Obama addressed the debate head on, saying the "black enough" dialogue sends a confusing message to younger generations. "We are messing with the heads of our children," she said.
(See also: Who Is Michelle Obama?)
Earlier this month, Obama told the Chicago Sun-Times she was aggravated by the idea that her husband, who is the son of a white mother and Kenyan father, somehow could not relate to the American black experience. Obama, like her husband, argued that society is "still struggling as a people with what is black."
How does Barack Obama really feel about the "black enough" debate? While attending the NABJ presidential forum, the senator, by now accustomed to the question, decided to poke fun at himself by playing up on a distinct black stereotype. "I apologize for being a little bit late," he said, according to The Washington Post, "but you guys keep asking if I'm black enough, so I figured I would stroll in."
However, in recent days, Sen. Obama, like his wife, expressed contempt for the question. Frustrated with America's focus on his credibility within the black community, he asked audience members to examine the motivation driving the debate.
"We should ask ourselves why that is," said the senator. "It is not because of my physical appearance, presumably. It's not because of my track record ... I think in part we're still locked in this notion [that] if you appeal to white folks, there must be something wrong."
Even academics are shocked by the black community's skepticism concerning the senator's roots. David Bositis, who studies blacks in politics at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, and Ron Walters, a professor at the University of Maryland, both say the senator is sufficiently black and therefore deserves to be taken seriously by black voters.
(See also: Michelle Obama Spills Barack's Personal Secrets)
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