CHANNELING MY INNER MICHELLE OBAMA
I know my blog falls under the humor section, though it seems some of you refuse to get in on the joke and continue to miss the tongue which is firmly lodged in my cheek, but this week, I’m offering a serious entry, because well…these are serious times.
Oh, how I long to love a man the way Michelle Obama loves Barack. If we learned nothing else the opening night of the Democratic convention, we learned what it is to love. To love a man enough to share him with the rest of the world. A world in which for every person who is open to the idea of respecting and accepting somebody different, someone outside of our comfort zone, there’s another person closed off and put off to the very same ideal. Closed off and put off to the point where in one cowardly moment they might be driven to commit an unspeakable act. An act that has taken a Lincoln, two Kennedy’s, and an all important King. I want to love a man enough to be willing to possibly lose him to a larger cause.
I want to love a man enough to stand up in front of millions of people barring my soul, not just telling my story of growing up black in America, but selling it to all the haters who believe that to love your country is to never ask more of it than it is willing to give, even if your ancestors paid in blood, sweat, flesh and pounds and pounds of cotton, for the right for you to do so. Those haters who’ve decided that to love your country is to never criticize it as apparently Michelle once did by saying that for the first time in her adult life, she was really, really proud to be American. I knew instantly what she meant when she said it, so much so that I wanted her to curse all those narrow minded fools who wrongly put their racist spin on it. But she loved her husband enough not to, because while it may make her feel better, it wouldn’t help him. I want to love a man enough to put his needs before mine and trust that if the situation were reversed he’d do the same, without ever asking him to prove it.
I want to love a man enough to put my smoldering hatred aside and speak kindly of a woman who harmed him, spoke ill of him, so much so that his new opponent is using her words to continue to harm him (I have no proof of Michelle’s true feelings of Hillary, but sista girl to sista gir,l I know she wants to kick Sen. Clinton’s pear shaped white ass). It was a wise, gracious, and loving move to pay tribute to Hillary and the eighteen million cracks she put in the glass ceiling of American gender politics. One that I can only hope I’d be wise, gracious and loving enough to extend, on behalf of the man I promised to honor and cherish. On the real though, I’m not sure I will ever love a man this much. We all know Hill and Bill deserve a beat down and not a praise party.
I want to love a man enough to support his dreams, even the impossible ones. With great shame I must admit, that if Barack had been my husband, and had come to me nineteen months ago asking me to join him on this journey, I would’ve answered with a loud and resounding “Negro please.” I would’ve shut him down before the world got a chance to see just how high he could fly. If I had been married to Barack, there would be no change we can believe in, just the old dude and the pantsuit wearing white chick offering the same-o, same-o.
And so I vow from this day forward to channel my inner Michelle Obama as I continue to navigate through the dating world. I’m going to love a little harder, support a little better, believe in a little more. Though if some joker steps to me talking about he wants to be a rapper and he’s like forty with a lisp, and can’t sing, or dance, or rhyme and he wants me to take out a second on my house to pay for his demo, a giant and resounding “Negro please” will be rolling off my lips. Love does have its limits. Lucky for us, Michelle doesn’t know that yet.
P.S. This was written before I saw Hillary’s speech. She’s back in my good graces. Bill on the other hand…well we’ll see.
Tamara T. Gregory is a writer/producer/traveler. Happily single (yes, there really is such a thing), she is an expert on the dating game. Her debut novel, Passport Diaries, is an LA Times bestseller and is soon to become a Hollywood motion picture. The book is available at www.passportdiaries.com. Gregory’s X…WHY blog is exclusive to Urban Thought Collective.
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