Chambers Veronica - The meaning of Michelle: 16 writers on the iconic first lady and how her journey inspires our own

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For Jason

AVA DUVERNAY

Allow me to set the scene with one comprehensive, yet glorious run-on sentence A junior African-American senator captures the Democratic nomination against the former presidents wife then goes on to handily defeat a war hero to become the leader of the free world with his stunning wife, who happens to be a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law, by his side.

Yep. The story would be astonishing in its audacity and seeming implausibility if it werent true. As Winston Churchill once said, The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. Ignorance may deride it. But in the end; there it is.

Despite the Clintons, McCain, Palin, Wright, Ayers, despite all the malice and the ignorance, the truth is incontrovertible indeed. Barack and Michelle Obama served this country for two terms as President and First Lady of the United States of America. Imagine that. America shaped in the image of a black manwith a black woman by his side. Even after eight years of watching them daily in the press, the fact that the most powerful man in the world is a Black man is still breathtaking to me. The fact that he goes home to a tight-knit, loving family headed by a Black woman is soul-stirring. That woman is Michelle. Michelle! That name now carries a whole world of meaning. And a whole world of memory. And a whole world of magic.

In an interview with The New York Times in 2009, President Obama shared this gem to encourage further insight: What I value most about my marriage is that it is separate and apart from a lot of the silliness of Washington, and Michelle is not a part of that silliness. Indeed, First Lady Michelle Obama is anything but silly. Shes never been that.

I remember watching her on November 10, 2008. On that fall afternoon, the most famous dress to grace the White House was not Monica Lewinskys blue travesty, but the deep red shift worn by Michelle as she toured her new home. Damn being demure! The sight of her striding up the White House steps was a transformative image to behold. The first White House visit was historic, but the boldness of the future First Lady said it all. In one wardrobe choice, this stellar sister brought a breath of fresh air to the hallowed halls of the worlds most famous residenceand to the rusty old game of politics. In one visit, Michelle supplanted the cartoons of Monica, Katrina and their representative presidencies, ripe with mishandled trust and low morals. In that one photo op, Michelle infused the image of the First Lady with pride, panache and polish. Many of us saw a woman to be admired. A woman to be trusted.

Scratch that.

Many of us saw a Black woman to be admired. A Black woman to be trusted. There it is.

VERONICA CHAMBERS

Barack Obamas historic run for presidency coincided directly with me becoming a mother. I came back to the United States after a year in France with my husband and two things happened: I had a baby and Obama cinched the nomination. My earliest recollections of motherhood seem to have as a constant backdrop the Obamas on TV, on NPR, in the newspapers and magazines I read. Their name quickly became a sort of lullaby that we used to put the baby to sleep: Oh, Oh, Obama. Oh, Oh, Obama. When I voted for him that November, my daughter was in a sling across my chest. I remember stepping into the voting booth with her and just taking a moment of feeling her breathe against me and thinking of Obamas iconic line, while we breathe we hope, as I pulled the lever and cast my vote.

By the inauguration, I was in full pash mode with Michelle Obama; so much so that I covered my office wall with designer sketches of her inauguration dress. I began my day with New York magazines The Michelle Obama Look Book. I have loved clothes my whole life, but Michelle Obama took my style obsession to a new level. Black women have shaped and supported the American fashion industry from the earliest days. In 1860, Elizabeth Keckley, a former slave, moved to Washington and set up business as a seamstress. Among her many esteemed clients were Mary Todd Lincoln. From the Harlem Renaissance to the 1960s, 1970s and beyond, black women were both muses and creators of fashion. I was like so many Black women who had grown up loving style icons from Dorothy Dandridge to Diana Ross, to the one-name icons that ranged from Iman to Solange. But wed never had anyone like Michelle before. She wasnt a model, an actress or a musician. She was, quite simply, the star of her own lifeand that was a game changer for Black women, and it turned out all women, in the early twenty-first century.

I was as obsessed as everyone else with her arms. When I began to get up before 5 a.m. to work out with a trainer two days a week before getting to work, I thought of Michelle Obama in Chicago. At the time, we lived in a suburb of New York and getting to the trainer involved leaving my home at 5 a.m. to take two trains into the city. But I was inspired by what Cornell McClellan, her Chicago trainer, told Womens Health magazine: Shes truly committed herself to the importance of health and fitness. I believe the purpose of training is to tighten up the slack, toughen the body, and polish the spirit. To do that, we take a holistic approach that includes strength, cardiovascular, and flexibility training. At the end of the day, I think thats what was behind all the shine that her biceps received in the media, both in the United States and all around the world: here was a busy woman who had found the time to take care of herself. She was not last on her to-do list, after her amazing kids and her extraordinary husband. She put herself firstand had done so for a long time.

Around the same time, my daughter, then a toddler, had transformed her nursery lullaby of Oh, Oh, Obama into a full-scale Elektra crush on the President of the United States. Me no like Chelle, she would say, glowering at the TV. I was horrified. I wasnt really worried that I was raising a future home wrecker (though the thought did cross my mind). But more, I felt like somehow Id failed to convey to my daughter that she and her cohort had been lucky enough to be born with the most amazing role model in the White House, the kind of role model that was unlike any enjoyed by previous generations of brown-skinned girls. We love Chelle, I quickly course-corrected as I brought home every one of the commemorative photo books that were published in those early years of the administration. Chelle is awesome. Chelle is the best. Eventually, my daughter got the memo and Me no like Chelle turned into I want a play date with Chelle and her daughters. To which I replied, We all do, honey. We all do.

More than one essayist in this anthology refers to the First Lady as Chelle. Theres an intimacy we felt with her from the beginning. The mainstream media seemed flummoxed by her lack of political posturing: Is she on board with this whole political spouse thing? Do the Obamas want it (meaning the presidency) badly enough? But it was that very same lack of fake warmth and glossed-over royal waves that let us, in the Black community, know that she was real, and this is what won our affection. She wasnt going to bare her soul because, as we used to say on the block, I dont know you like that. She wasnt going to figure out how and to what extent shed let us in until the deal was done and we agreed, through the formal process of voting, that they would be our First Family.