THE FIRST LADY AND STEREOTYPES OF BLACK WOMEN AND MOTHERS

The literature points to the importance of examining public perceptions of Obama within the history and current realities of the stigmatization of black women (Brown Reference Brown2012; Hayden Reference Hayden2017; Lugo-Lugo and Bloodsworth-Lugo Reference Lugo-Lugo and Bloodsworth-Lugo2011; Williams Reference Williams2008). Perceptions of first lady Michelle Obama were deeply steeped within the context of the four dominant and oppressive stereotypes of black women in the United States: mammy, matriarch, welfare queen, and sexual siren (Bobo Reference Bobo1995; Collins Reference Collins2000). As Lugo-Lugo and Bloodsworth-Lugo argue, “[U]nderstandings of race [and racial stereotypes] mediate and inform ways in which US society conceives of and explains the Obamas, both as individuals and as a family” (Reference Lugo-Lugo and Bloodsworth-Lugo2011, 207). These stereotypes are all a product of white supremacy and its connection to the patriarchal oppression of black womanhood since slavery. Challenging these controlling images has long been a core theme in black feminist thought (Collins Reference Collins2000). Given that it is difficult for people to accept and respect those whom they view negatively, we submit that Obama increased the effectiveness of her messaging by countering these oppressive and controlling images through both her intentional presentation of self and her unrelenting work to ensure that she and other black women would be viewed more accurately.

As Collins (2015) contends, “The first controlling image applied to US black women is that of the mammy—the faithful, obedient domestic servant” (72). The mammy figure is typically presented as an older woman who is heavier-set, has a dark complexion, and minimizes the needs of her family to be the loyal servant of the needs of her “superiors.” Although Obama did position herself as the “mom-in-chief” through demonstrating her passion for the well-being of all the children and families of the nation, she also countered this stereotype image by being fiercely protective of her children and family (Brown, Reference Brown2012). “In placing the well-being of her own (black) children ahead of the interests of her adopted white family (that is, the country), Michelle Obama revealed herself as no submissive first-lady-to-be, and certainly as no self-sacrificing black woman” (Lugo-Lugo and Bloodsworth-Lugo Reference Lugo-Lugo and Bloodsworth-Lugo2011, 210). She further actively worked to dispel the overweight image of black women through her “Let's Move!” fitness campaign, but perhaps most importantly, through her self-presentation as a healthy, fit woman: her body was often a focal point of attention. Her “right to bare arms” became a point of discussion throughout her tenure as first lady (Ibanga Reference Ibanga2009), and she was criticized on numerous occasions for exposing her arms when she wore sleeveless dresses, which was further a direct attempt to paint her as hypersexualized Jezebel as opposed to a respectable “lady.”Footnote ¹

Michelle Obama also effectively challenged the stereotype of black women as welfare queens. Although a wealth of evidence exists that dispels the myth of the black welfare queen, the stereotype is pervasive in public discourse and continues to influence US policy making as well as white Americans’ public opinion and attitudes toward poverty and welfare spending (DeSante Reference DeSante2013; Gilens Reference Gilens2009; Hancock Reference Hancock2004). The stereotype of the welfare queen is particularly pernicious because it places the blame of the nation's socioeconomic deterioration on black women: “‘Welfare queen’ is a phrase that describes economic dependency—the lack of a job and/or income… The welfare queen represents moral aberration and an economic drain, but the figure's problematic status becomes all the more threatening once responsibility for the destruction of the American way of life is attributed to it” (Lubiano Reference Lubiano and Morrison1992, 337–38). As the only first lady in history with two Ivy League degrees, Obama's educational attainment contrasts sharply with the image of the black welfare queen as uneducated and lazy. Moreover, having worked in the corporate world as an attorney, and later in important administrative positions at both the University of Chicago and the University of Chicago Medical Center, Obama effectively challenged these negative stereotypes that are often ascribed to black women.

The stereotype of the welfare queen contrasts with the perception of black women as demanding matriarchs who are unable to either raise children properly or keep men by their sides. These black women are portrayed as “overly aggressive, unfeminine women…[who] allegedly emasculated their lovers and husbands” (Collins Reference Collins2000, 75). The image of black women as matriarchs becomes that of the overbearing, shrewish nonwoman, who pushes away the men in her life and whose poor values are to blame for her children's failures. In a number of ways, Michelle Obama defied this stereotype. Although many people lauded her marriage to Barack Obama and acknowledged that she was a good mother to her daughters Malia and Sasha, she still faced immense public scrutiny. More specifically, as is evident from her 2008 Democratic National Convention speech (discussed later in this article) and her recently published memoir Becoming (Reference Obama2018a), she repeatedly referenced her own (family's) belief in, and experience with, the concepts of hard work and the American dream. She further stated that she was perceived as a “disappointment to feminists” given that “[s]everal months before Barack was elected, [she'd] told a magazine interviewer that [her] primary focus in the White House would be to continue [her] role as ‘mom in chief’ in our family” (Obama Reference Obama2018a, 328–329). She also realized that she was “being watched… especially by professional working women, who wondered whether [she'd] bury [her] education and management experience to fold [herself] into some prescribed First Lady pigeonhole, a place lined with tea leaves and pink linen. People seemed worried that [she] wasn't going to show [her] full self” (Obama Reference Obama2018a, 328). Rather than appearing “overly aggressive,” she was discredited for her dedication to her partner and her children.

Nevertheless, of the many stereotypes that exist as controlling images in the public psyche, “the matriarch” or “angry black woman” is perhaps the one to which Michelle Obama was most often subjected because of her own esteemed legal career. As White (Reference White2011) contends, “Obama's most consistent negative media portrayal relied on the black female archetype of ‘the Bitch.’ For Obama, racially charged terms like ‘angry’ and ‘bitter’ were often used to describe her ‘whining’ about social injustice on the campaign trail” (12). Public discourse emphasized her work and status in the legal world and established the notion that she had her own “independent mind” (Kornblut Reference Kornblut2009; Lightfoot Reference Lightfoot2009). Even self-proclaimed feminists like New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd stated, “Usually, I love the dynamics of a cheeky woman puncturing the ego of a cocky guy… So why don't I like it with Michelle and Barack? I wince a bit when Michelle Obama chides her husband as a mere mortal—a comic routine that rests on the presumption that we see him as a god” (Dowd Reference Dowd2007). Ironically, white feminists (who often critiqued society's surveillance of women's language) constantly policed Obama's rhetoric.

Obama was well aware that she was perceived as an angry black woman, and in her memoir, she shared some of the implications and dangers of such a stereotype. “I was female, black, and strong, which to certain people … translated only to ‘angry.’’ (Obama Reference Obama2018a, 265). She describes having to be mindful of her own reactions when called an angry black woman and how she had to work closely with speechwriters and campaign officials to avoid being fed to “the public as some sort of pissed-off harpy” because, “[t]he easiest way to disregard a woman's voice is to package her as a scold” (Obama Reference Obama2018a, 267). Ultimately, according to Obama, since being reluctantly thrust in the public eye, she has had to fight being “taken down as an angry black woman,” and she often questions which part of the phrase matters most to her critics: “is it ‘angry’ or ‘black’ or ‘woman’?” (Obama Reference Obama2018a, x). In sum, it is clear that the American public and many political elites imagined Obama within the context of the four dominant stereotypes of black women, and she defied each of them through her intentional presentation of self.Footnote ²

AFROCENTRIC IDEOLOGY OF MOTHERHOOD

Before delving into a detailed examination of the important policy initiatives that defined Michelle Obama's role as first lady and mother of the nation, we offer an Afrocentric theoretical perspective on black motherhood to explain the ways in which Obama's identity as a black woman directly influenced her outlook on mothering. The most radical strategies that Michelle Obama employed for confronting stereotypes are, perhaps, her personal approaches to motherhood. Black motherhood has always been judged by the standards of the dominant Eurocentric ideology of motherhood. As such, “motherhood in the United States is intersectional in nature and highly racialized” (Carew Reference Carew and Sacco2019, 144; Collins Reference Collins, Wiedmer and Hardy2005; Roberts Reference Roberts1993; Rosenthal and Lobel Reference Rosenthal and Lobel2016).Footnote ³ Black attitudes toward, perspectives on, and ways of mothering arose in resistance to enslavement, racial oppression, and misogynoir. That is, black women in the United States have mothered differently than white women to ensure the survival of their own. Rather than emulating white motherhood, black womanhood and mothering are grounded in, and informed by, African traditions of community-based child rearing and care: “[B]lack motherhood consists of a series of constantly renegotiated relationships that African-American women experience with one another, with black children, with the larger African-American community, and with self” (Collins Reference Collins, Wiedmer and Hardy2005, 152). In contrast to the white family, the primary black family unit includes not only the nuclear family but also a collection of individuals who work to keep the family and community intact. Further, this different conceptualization of motherhood has direct implications for the ways in which black American women engage in activism, and even the ways they develop their rhetoric and “perform maternity” to strengthen and protect their families and communities (Boris Reference Boris1989; Carew Reference Carew and Sacco2019; Hayden Reference Hayden2017; Kahl Reference Kahl2009;). Indeed, as black mothers from the past and present show, for generations (e.g., Ida B. Wells), being a mother has inspired and propelled black women to engage in activism that benefits both the immediate family and the broader black community (Harris Reference Harris1991, 10).

Although biological mothers may be present, or even absent, in the black ménage, child rearing is a collaboration between biological parents and community members. “By seeing the larger community as responsible for children and by giving othermothers and other nonparents ‘rights’ in child rearing, African-Americans challenge prevailing property relations. [T]raditional bloodmother/othermother relationships in women-centered networks are “revolutionary” (Collins Reference Collins, Wiedmer and Hardy2005, 156). Othermothers are “… women who assist bloodmothers [or biological mothers] by sharing mothering responsibilities—traditionally [othermothers] have been central to the institution of Black motherhood” (Collins Reference Collins, Wiedmer and Hardy2005, 152). This Afrocentric conceptualization of mothering was evident in Michelle Obama's own life: her mother, Marian Shields Robinson, assisted Michelle in the upbringing of Malia and Sasha when the family was living in the White House. Michelle Obama's decision to invite her mother to live with her family the entire time they were in the White House and provide child care assistance for her daughters is a clear example of the “women-centered networks of bloodmothers,” which distinguishes black mothering from Eurocentric mothering (Obama Reference Obama2018a).

To better understand Mrs. Robinson's role in the White House, we turn to Obama's memoir. “My mother hadn't wanted to come with us to Washington, but I'd forced the issue. The girls needed her. I needed her… For the last few years, she'd been a nearly every-day presence in our lives, her practicality a salve to everyone's worries” (Obama Reference Obama2018a, 295). Obama described her mother's sacrifice and what her presence meant for her own peace: “[h]er boundless love for my girls, and her willingness to put our needs before her own, gave me the comfort and confidence to venture out into the world knowing they were safe and cherished at home” (Obama Reference Obama2018a, 423). This sacrifice and ‘othermothering’ that Obama discusses demonstrates that she was not at all territorial or threatened by her own mother playing a major role in the upbringing of Malia and Sasha. Moreover, the ‘othermothering’ that Obama encouraged and facilitated echoes the behaviors and sentiments shared by many black families who reveal the unique role black grandmothers play in helping raise their grandchildren.

But mothering by black grandmothers is not the same across and within all black families. Even though Robinson and Obama normalize their family model in the White House, their Afrocentric approach to mothering is revolutionary. As bell hooks (Reference hooks2000) contends, “This form of parenting… takes place in opposition to the idea that parents, especially mothers, should be the only childbearers… This kind of shared responsibility for child care can happen in small community settings where people know and trust one another. It cannot happen in those settings if parents regard children as their ‘property,’ their possession” (144–45). In effect, Malia and Sasha were entrusted to “othermothers” employed by the Obamas. Obama (Reference Obama2018a) discusses the critical role played by these women she affectionately called “big sisters” to her girls: ” ‘The Kristins,’ as we called them, stood in for us often. They served as liaisons between our family… setting up meetings and interacting with teachers, coaches, and other parents when Barack and I weren't able. With the girls, they were protective, loving, and far hipper than I'd ever be in the eyes of my kids” (394). Obama embraced the presence and concept of ‘othermothering,’ not only in her children's lives but also in her entire approach to her role as “mom in chief” as a first lady who would encourage the nation as a whole to work to take a community-minded view of caring for the nation's children (King Reference King, Cunnigen and Bruce2010). Again, this othermothering is firmly rooted in the Afrocentric approach to mothering and raising children.

THE POLITICS OF MOTHERING

As first lady, Michelle Obama implemented policy initiatives and programs focused on promoting education, healthcare and wellness, and providing support for service members and their families. Her policies were influenced greatly by her own perceptions of herself as “mother of the nation.” Following the inauguration of president Barack Obama, Michelle Obama began characterizing herself as the “mom in chief.” She described herself first and foremost as a mother to Malia and Sasha and was clear that her priority was to make sure that her young daughters settled happily and adjusted to their highly scrutinized life in the White House. After all, the first lady was well aware that Malia and Sasha were the first black daughters to reside in the White House. Collins (Reference Collins1991) argues, “African-American mothers place a strong emphasis on protection, either by trying to shield their daughters as long as possible from the penalties attached to their race, class, gender, status or by teaching them skills of independence and self-reliance so that they will be able to protect themselves” (126). Michelle Obama affirmed: “Is there anything more powerful than a mom?” (Doll Reference Doll2012).

The first lady's charismatic personality and her widespread popularity and political appeal set the stage as she played a central role in her husband's administration by directly influencing policy from the outset (Givhan Reference Givhan2010). Her aversion to politics and her reluctance to participate in fundraising activities was well known, much to the chagrin of Democratic leaders who viewed her as an invaluable asset for drawing in donors and voters (Dovere Reference Dovere2014). Her cautious embrace of her new role as first lady was highly criticized. The media characterized her as “absent,” and she was labeled as a “feminist nightmare” for “evangelizing exercise and good eating habits,” and failing to focus more on policy and politics (Cottle Reference Cottle2013; Neath Reference Neath2014; Steinhauer Reference Steinhauer2013). Some white feminists expressed negative reactions to Obama's decision to prioritize motherhood, which is part of a broader critique of prevailing ideologies that suggest that maternity is the primary and most important role that a woman should play (Hayden Reference Hayden2017, 12). Black feminists were quick to reject this type of criticism targeting Obama, pointing to the “progressive potential” of her persona and emphasizing that black women need to actively challenge oppressive stereotypes that suggest that the primary purpose in a black woman's life is to reproduce (Hayden Reference Hayden2017, 12). Explains Collins (Reference Collins, Wiedmer and Hardy2005): “Black motherhood as an institution is both dynamic and dialectical. An ongoing tension exists between efforts to mold the institution of Black motherhood to benefit systems of race, gender, and class oppression and efforts by African-American women to define and value our own experiences with motherhood” (152). In spite of the censure on this front, Michelle Obama worked relentlessly toward her goals of supporting the campaigns and protecting her family, to the point that more than one-quarter of the news profiles on her portrayed her as a campaign surrogate and as a mother (Gillespie Reference Gillespie, Brown and Gershon2016). She engaged in motherhood on her own terms, and in so doing, resisted oppressive ideologies in ways that she felt positively affected her family and her husband's campaign and presidency.

Positive images of black women are largely absent in public discourse, and by prioritizing motherhood, Obama was able to transform the public's views about black motherhood while simultaneously challenging the perception that the first lady can only be a middle- to upper-class white woman (Hayden Reference Hayden2017, 12). As Parry-Giles and Blair (Reference Parry-Giles and Blair2002) explain, “the first lady pulpit can act as a site for the performance of archetypal femininity; it can also function as a location of feminist advancement that challenges gender stereotypes, [thereby] expanding women's political space” (567). Undoubtedly, Michelle Obama successfully navigated the terrain of the White House while presenting a powerfully constructive image of black women.Footnote ⁴

MATER GENTIS: MOTHERING AND LEADERSHIP ON THE NATIONAL STAGE

By virtue of their public persona, first ladies have “extended the nineteenth-century ideology of republican motherhood” (Parry-Giles and Blair Reference Parry-Giles and Blair2002, 565). In the nineteenth century, an ideological conceptualization of “the republican mother” emerged that portrayed the ideal woman as one who was “pious, pure, submissive, domestic, and ‘naturally religious’” (Parry-Giles and Blair Reference Parry-Giles and Blair2002, 573). Political leaders believed that women's education was important because educated women would raise respectable republican sons (Nash Reference Nash1997). On a national stage, being a virtuous first lady involved focusing on “hailing, modeling, and promoting publicly” civic values, norms, and ideals (Parry-Giles and Blair Reference Parry-Giles and Blair2002, 576). In this regard, “the First Lady personifies domesticity and traditional womanhood” (Williams Reference Williams2008, 835).

Similar claims about black motherhood, tied to philosophies of black respectability, had long been articulated by some of the most influential thinkers in the black American community, including Nannie Helen Burroughs, Anna Julia Cooper, Mary Church Terrell, Ida B. Wells, and Lucy Slowe Diggs. These ideas about what it meant for black women to be responsible citizens along with good wives and mothers became a cornerstone of the ideology of “racial uplift” in the black community (Mullane Reference Mullane1993; Robnett Reference Robnett1997). This ideology—that educated blacks were responsible for the welfare, collective social advancement, and moral guidance of all African Americans—combatted negative racial stereotypes but often disseminated problematic views on gender and class differences among blacks. Higginbotham (Reference Higginbotham1992) explains how, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a rallying notion of “racial uplift” took root in the black community and directly influenced the ways in which black women viewed themselves as individuals, their roles as mothers, and their status within American society. She contends that the notion of racial uplift was problematic because it equated “normality to white middle class models of gender roles,” while seeking to invoke “a discursive ground on which to explode negative stereotypes of black women” (Higginbotham Reference Higginbotham1992, 271).Footnote ⁵

Many politically active black women embraced the politics of respectability. As black women developed their own distinct political culture, the politics of respectability, as it related specifically to a “politics of appearance” and their public political behavior, became even more significant (Lindsey Reference Lindsey2017). Performing respectability politics in this way was an effective approach that black women could use to attain greater visibility in the sociopolitical arena, while simultaneously dispelling myths about their character and level of political sophistication (Lindsey Reference Lindsey2017). Through Obama's role as first lady and mater gentis (mother of the nation), we see the connection between republican motherhood and black respectability politics. The primary concern of a mater gentis is the health, well-being, and moral fortitude of the nation's children. Consequently, the role of mother, as performed by many contemporary first ladies, led them to publicly focus on important social issues and to become outspoken advocates of children, politicking on their behalf, in the United States and other parts of the world (Parry-Giles and Blair Reference Parry-Giles and Blair2002). Next, we turn to a macro-level analysis that highlights the policy initiatives Obama advanced during her tenure as first lady and mother of the nation.

POLICY IMPLEMENTATION: KEY INITIATIVES

The policies and initiatives that Michelle Obama focused on as first lady stemmed from her views regarding the importance of her role as a mother, which extended to her desire to act in that same capacity as mater gentis. Her initiatives can further be understood within the long history of black women's political activism: “While Black women… [in politics]… rarely forwarded an agenda designed exclusively for Black women, the types of issues they championed and the way in which they operated…suggests that they brought an Afrocentric feminist sensibility to their political activism” (Collins Reference Collins1991, 157). Nonetheless, she recognized that whatever initiatives she undertook, she needed to “leave the politics to Barack and focus [her] own efforts elsewhere,” and be careful not to “come off as a finger-wagging embodiment of the nanny state” (Obama Reference Obama2018a, 336). Here, we focus on three key initiatives that Obama championed as first lady, which we argue were purposeful and lasting: health and fitness, support for military families, and education—specifically, programs on higher education and international adolescent girl education.

UNVEILING THE INSTITUTION OF BLACK MOTHERHOOD THROUGH OBAMA'S RHETORIC

We now examine Obama's mothering through her rhetoric. We conducted a close read of three of her most widely known speeches, her 2008, 2012, and 2016 Democratic National Convention (DNC) addresses. In her memoir, Obama (Reference Obama2018a) writes that “I worried that many Americans wouldn't see themselves reflected in me, or that they wouldn't relate to my journey” (284). Accordingly, she used her DNC speeches as a way to tell her narrative and help people relate to her journey. In addition to providing this information that was necessary for Obama's electability, we submit that these speeches are a key site for examining and analyzing how she (re)defined black motherhood. Obama confronted the negative stereotypes of black women in her speeches, and in doing so, demonstrated how they were not applicable to her, her family, or other black mothers and families. She did so by example, rather than explicitly discussing these stereotypes in her speeches.

One of the first speeches that put Michelle Obama on the national stage was in 2008 at the height of Barack's presidential campaign in Denver, Colorado. During the first night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Michelle Obama addressed the audience, expressing why she believed Barack Obama was the best candidate to become the 44th president. She knew that as a black man, Barack Obama was unknown to much of the American electorate and that his racial identity and citizenship were being questioned mainly by the far-Right birther movement. Furthermore, in the public eye, questions emerged “in the public imaginary about his patriotism, his ‘Muslim name,’ and his religious affiliations” (Bloodsworth-Lugo and Lugo-Lugo Reference Bloodsworth-Lugo and Lugo-Lugo2010, 79). Thus, her speech needed to both humanize and lionize him and, in a way, Americanize him. In her speech, Obama countered the notion that black families are dysfunctional, representing a united black family structure in front of a predominantly white electorate. Additionally, she effectively defied the stereotype of black women as agents that emasculate black men: “In woman-centered kin units … the centrality of mothers is not predicated on male powerlessness” (Collins Reference Collins, Wiedmer and Hardy2005, 153). She reiterates her support for her partner and their marriage in her 2012 speech: “And the truth is, I loved the life we had built for our girls … I deeply loved the man I had built that life with … and I didn't want that to change if he became President.” Here again, this kind of relationship portrayed at the national level runs contrary to beliefs about black women who devalue and humiliate their husbands. On the contrary, Michelle Obama consistently expressed her unfailing support of Barack (Obama Reference Obama2018a).

Although each of Obama's DNC speeches had a different focus, a common theme connects them. Obama highlighted important aspects of the institution of black motherhood and black family culture and challenged negative stereotypes about black mothers and women. In 2008, when she introduced herself formally to the nation, she did so as a wife and mother, saying, “I come here as a mom whose girls are the heart of my heart and the center of my world—they're the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning, and the last thing I think about when I go to bed at night” (Obama Reference Obama2008). Moreover, she was transparent about how even routine parenting activities were very important to her; she was not just a biological mother in name, but she was a full-time mother and did simple things like putting her children to bed and taking her children to their soccer games on the weekends. “[As] I tuck that little girl and her little sister into bed at night, I think about how one day, they'll have families of their own” (Obama Reference Obama2008). Like many women who a have strong desire to protect their children, Obama constantly thought about their well-being as she made decisions that might affect their lives (Elliot, Powell, and Brenton Reference Elliott, Powell and Brenton2015; Obama Reference Obama2018a). And this is, of course, consistent with what we have especially seen from black women fighting fiercely to protect their children and communities from state-sponsored violence (Taylor Reference Taylor2016).

Above all else, Obama viewed motherhood as her most important responsibility, as she disclosed in the closing statement of her 2012 DNC speech: “I say all of this tonight not just as First Lady… and not just as a wife. You see, at the end of the day, my most important title is still ‘mom-in-chief’… My daughters are still the heart of my heart and the center of my world” (Obama Reference Obama2012). Her DNC speeches also revealed her willingness and excitement to become an “othermother” to the nation's children. Although some might misread and misconstrue Obama as reifying the Mammy stereotype given her interest in the nation's children, we contend that her consideration of the nation's children and her sensibility beyond her own biological children is in line with the “othermother” role many black women play for children they love and see themselves in community with (Collins Reference Collins, Wiedmer and Hardy2005; King Reference King, Cunnigen and Bruce2010). As noted in her 2008 DNC speech, as mater gentis, she was specifically thinking about the well-being of all of the nations’ children:

Obama's speeches further countered perceptions that black women are lazy, uneducated, unemployed, welfare recipients. Although scholars have long known that most Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients are white, black women are often portrayed as the primary recipients of welfare (Gilens Reference Gilens2009). They are also viewed by many Americans as being less deserving of this type of government support as compared to white women (DeSante Reference DeSante2013). In her 2008 and 2012 DNC speeches, Obama defied the stereotype of the welfare recipient by highlighting her own educational background and the fact that she attended college. In her 2008 speech, she also focused on her own career and professional trajectory, describing how she had left a law practice to enter into public service: “I've tried to give back to this country that has given me so much. That's why I left a job at a law firm for a career in public service.” Although employment and educational background do not disqualify individuals from receiving social services like welfare, Obama was deliberate about using her platform to directly challenge widely held misperceptions among many Americans that black women and mothers are lazy and uneducated.

Another stereotype that Obama defied on the DNC stage was that of the “angry black woman.” In all three DNC speeches—2008, 2012, and 2016—Obama does not mention racism or racial oppression, or how being black in America influenced her childhood or her adulthood. We agree with scholars who contend that both Barack and Michelle Obama's decision to not talk directly about race and racism on the campaign trail was a political strategy designed to win over white voters by deracializing Barack Obama and portraying him as transcending race (Carter and Dowe Reference Carter and Dowe2015; Gillespie Reference Gillespie2010). Rather than mentioning race, she focused on individualism and the ability of all Americans, “no matter who we are, or where we're from, or what we look like, or who we love” to have the same opportunities in life (Obama Reference Obama2012). Moreover, she noted that her family “didn't begrudge anyone else's success or care that others had much more than they did … in fact, they admired it… They simply believed in that fundamental American promise that, even if you don't start out with much, if you work hard and do what you're supposed to do, then you should be able to build a decent life for yourself and an even better life for your kids and grandkids” (Obama Reference Obama2012). Not only did she not appear hostile or “angry” when it came to challenging systems of oppression, but she was also deliberate about encouraging individuals to strive for the American dream in spite of any obstacles they face.

Beyond challenging the dominant stereotypes of black women, Obama strove to situate her family as fully American by addressing her family's support for the American dream and American values. By focusing her comments on these specific areas, Obama simultaneously managed to introduce her husband and family to the nation as unequivocally American. In fact, in her memoir, she mentions that in her speeches, she emphasized that she and Barack were truly American, and how they lived a life that related to the lives of so many Americans, especially the folks who would be voting in November (Obama Reference Obama2018a). “[K]nowing that maybe [she'd] done something, finally, to change people's perception of [her]” brought her “a powerful blast of relief” (Obama Reference Obama2018a, 271). By demonstrating that they had created a typical “American” family, she was able to garner support for her family and her husband's candidacy.

THE FIRST LADY ON BLACK MOTHERHOOD AND BLACK FATHERS

In public discourse, black motherhood is often discussed without specific reference to the role of men, and this can lead to misguided perceptions that black women remain unwed and they have children with men who do not play an active role as fathers in the lives of their children (Collins Reference Collins, Wiedmer and Hardy2005; Moynihan Reference Moynihan1965). This myopic view of black motherhood, unfortunately, misrepresents and renders invisible the reality of many black families in the United States. From Michelle Obama's very first DNC speech, we learn that she grew up in a nuclear family household with defined gender roles: her father worked outside the home while her mother worked as a stay-at-home wife and mother. She described her family as a functional, hard-working family that, like so many black families, were willing to sacrifice for their children's future: “thanks to their faith and hard work, [both she and her brother, Craig] were able to go on to college,” and get “the kind of education [their parents] could only dream of” (Obama Reference Obama2008). In mentioning her functional black family, she makes visible the important role black men have played and continue to play in black families. Michelle Obama also spent a significant amount of time describing Barack as being both fully present and hands-on as a father to their daughters:

In other words, he, like her own father, defied the stereotype of black men as deadbeat fathers.

Obama's speeches, thus, indicate that being a “bloodmother” and “othermother” is not predicated on, or even at odds with, the presence of fathers. In fact, she is clear that both her mother's mothering and her own were augmented by the presence of black men who were full-time fathers and who worked full-time outside of the house. Ultimately, Michelle Obama, in her loving reflections on her relationship with her own father and with Barack Obama, effectively disrupts and counters racial stereotypes of black men as “absent,” “deadbeats,” and “lazy,” while challenging the widely held misconception that black mothering and parenting is mostly done alone, and if not alone, only with the support of (and among) other black women. Through her speeches, Michelle Obama encourages us to consider and evaluate society's understanding of the relationship between a black mother and her partner and/or her children's father, and how that might influence the institution of black motherhood.