Michelle Obama, Beyoncé, Race & History

At Last . ?: Michelle Obama, Beyoncé, Race & History Farah Jasmine Grif½n Late in the evening on January 20, 2009, newly sworn-in President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama made an appearance at The Neigh- borhood Ball. One of ten balls they would attend that night, The Neighborhood Ball was the ½rst of its kind. Conceived as a “people’s ball,” a celebra- tion for ordinary citizens and the residents of Wash- ington, D.C., it launched the administration’s ef- forts to establish a relationship with the city and to make the White House itself more accessible to the broader public. The ball featured such popu- lar music entertainers as Shakira, Alicia Keyes, will.i.am, Mary J. Blige, and Stevie Wonder. In the most memorable part of the evening, su- perstar Beyoncé Knowles serenaded the ½rst couple during the ceremonial “½rst” dance. Because the event was televised live on abc, the staging was dramatic. The ½rst lady and president stood FARAH JASMINE GRIFFIN alone on a circular stage. Cued by the lush instru- is the mental introduction to the R&B classic “At Last,” William B. Ransford Professor of English and Comparative Litera- the couple began to dance atop the presidential ture and African American Stud- seal that had been painted on the stage floor. Across ies at Columbia University. Her from them, on a stage in the middle of the audi- books include “Who Set You Flow- ence, the elegantly clad Beyoncé began to sing Etta in’?”: The African-American Migra- James’s timeless song. Smiling sweetly at the cou- tion Narrative (1995), If You Can’t ple like Lena Horne’s gorgeous Good Witch Glen- Be Free, Be a Mystery: In Search of da in The Wiz, Beyoncé began her performance in Billie Holiday (2001), and Clawing at the Limits of Cool: Miles Davis, a stately manner. Mid-song, she reached into the John Coltrane, and the Greatest Jazz guttural depths of her range to pull from the deep Collaboration Ever (with Salim traditions of Black American music and, in doing Washington, 2008). so, expressed a range of emotions, from celebra- © 2011 by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences Dædalus Winter 2011 131 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00065 by guest on 29 September 2021 Michelle tion to de½ance. By the song’s end, she at elite institutions during the Reagan Obama, was lyrically soaring. The Obamas ap- 1980s, we saw ourselves: our generation’s Beyoncé, Race & plauded her; she bowed to them, over- response to the dif½cult struggle that History come with emotion, before leaving the had made our ascension possible. We stage. saw ourselves and thought: “At last.” The moment was memorable for a All these perspectives represent a ten- number of reasons. The romance of the sion that has and will characterize the president and ½rst lady, which had cap- Obama years. Conflicting viewpoints are tivated many during the campaign, was not evenly divided between generations. now on full display. Mrs. Obama, dressed Instead, each generation has its share of in a floating, feminine white gown that those, on the one hand, who are eager to offset her brown complexion, was danc- get over “race”–to put it behind us, to ing to the same song the president had regard it as a relic of a past for which we selected for the ½rst dance at their wed- have little use. On the other side are those ding. Here, they seemed to re-create that who are often cast as so pessimistic about moment, as if renewing their vows be- our nation they believe it incapable of fore a nation of witnesses. But even more change; they are considered too invested, signi½cant, because this was the inaugu- either in their identities or their liveli- ration of America’s ½rst black president, hoods–in their “narratives of victimiza- because “At Last” is an R&B song, and be- tion”–to accept the reality of our post- cause Beyoncé sang it in a style most of- racial present. Somewhere in between ten associated with soul and gospel, the are the pragmatists, who believe, “We’ve song signi½ed the triumphant culmina- come a long way, baby, but we still got a tion of what had long been a rather one- long way to go.” sided romance between black Americans and their nation. The ful½llment of our We do not live in a post-racial time. In democratic principles? The achievement fact, to use that term is lazy. We do occu- of a color-blind, post-racial America? py a historical moment in which race and The performance of both the dance and racism operate differently than they have the song struck a chord across race and in the past. Our society has removed all generation. For the enthusiastic young race-based legal barriers to equality. To people in the audience that night, it rep- claim things have not changed is wrong- resented the promise of youth, of their headed; to claim that struggles for racial own experience of race as something sig- equality are behind us, or that they can ni½cant–important, even–though not be taken care of solely by attention to limiting or constrictive. This was the hip- class, is equally so. We are witnessing the hop generation, after all. For old-timers, death of an epoch of white supremacy. particularly black old-timers, the perfor- All around us we experience its dying mance may have represented a bitter- gasp–a desperate, dangerous gasp. But sweet sense of victory. As witnesses of white supremacy is an old man who will the painful struggles that produced this not go gently into that good night. He moment, they watched it in memory of will continue to ½nd breath in elements the many thousands gone–and with of the Far Right, in the thinking of many some continued trepidation and fear. mainstream white Americans, in other They wondered, “Have we come this racial and ethnic groups, and, unfortu- far? Really?” For my generation of mid- nately, in far too many black people dle-aged black professionals, educated around the world. Nor are we at the 132 Dædalus Winter 2011 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00065 by guest on 29 September 2021 “end of the African American narrative”; who shared the spotlight: First Lady Farah there has never been just one such narra- Michelle Obama and the multitalented Jasmine Grif½n tive anyway. And, as with all narratives, Beyoncé Knowles. What might we learn those that deal with the black experience about the relationship between history in the United States have always been and the ongoing signi½cance of race by constructed to meet the contemporary attending to their images and their cul- needs, desires, and aspirations of black tural impact? Both Knowles and Obama people in a constantly shifting racial ter- occupy a space unimagined by earlier rain. generations. A singing, dancing, acting A nation without racism is not an im- black woman, who is also an entertain- possible achievement. Also, there are ment mogul, and an Ivy League-educat- other forms of oppression and exploita- ed, Harvard-trained lawyer-cum-½rst tion that act powerfully in the lives of lady clearly herald something new (the black people. However, it is indeed pre- latter even more so than the former). mature to claim that we need no longer Yet these extraordinary women each be aware of the existence of white su- represent something profoundly Ameri- premacy and racism. The baleful racism can, something deeply rooted in Ameri- that has been unleashed since the elec- ca’s racial past, and something familiar tion of our ½rst black president should but outwardly unrecognized by much of be suf½cient evidence of this reality. their public. Each has chosen to reveal That large numbers of white Americans and/or hide particular aspects of that voted for a quali½ed, intelligent black history in order to move more easily into candidate certainly is evidence of prog- the American mainstream. By focusing ress. It is proof that large portions of on these women –their relationship to a white America are becoming less racist. particular aspect of America’s racial his- But “less racist” does not mean “post- tory and how they mobilize it–we may racial.” (Civil rights activist and scholar reach a better understanding of the place Cornel West, among others, has also of race in the contemporary historical made this distinction.) Too often in pub- moment. lic discourse the phrase “post-racial” is used to suggest that black people and I am married to a black American who their allies should cease raising concerns carries within her the blood of slaves about continued racial inequality. and slave owners. Legal theorist Roy L. Brooks notes that –Barack Obama, Philadelphia, 2008 “the problem of race in the Age of Obama is not racism but racial inequality.” For Brooks, racial inequality can be found not Our ½rst glimpse of Michelle Obama only in differences in ½nancial resources was at the 2004 Democratic National but also in “human (education and skills) Convention in Boston. Along with two and social (public respect, racial stigma, small daughters, she joined her husband the ability to get things done in society)” onstage following his triumphant and resources as well.1 inspiring convention address, his his- The major problem with the stance of toric introduction to the nation. Tall post-raciality and with refusals to admit and trim, dressed elegantly in a white substantive change is that both are ahis- skirt suit with fashionable three-quar- torical and shortsighted.

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