Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Girls get new role model in Obama
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Shanna Flowers is The Roanoke Times' metro columnist.
Shanna Flowers
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My 9-year-old little sister has a girl-crush on Michelle Obama.
When Imani sees the Harvard-educated lawyer on the news racks, she breaks into a smile and announces, "There's Michelle Obama!"
The I-Woman first noticed Obama early this year when she saw the coffee-colored, regal woman staring at her from the cover of a news magazine. She asked me about Obama. I eagerly recounted details of the woman's life and her educational and professional accomplishments.
I wanted to inspire a little girl whom I constantly tell she can be anything she wants to be -- if she works hard.
As speculation swirls about the kind of first lady Obama will be and what issues she will adopt -- military families and work-family balance are among her interests -- she already offers hope to little girls such as my sister.
As the nation's first lady, Obama will represent all Americans. But she won't be the first president's wife whose persona appeals to a certain segment of Americans. Fellow librarians were drawn to Laura Bush's interest in reading and literacy. Eleanor Roosevelt's passion for human rights tapped into the nation's spirit of humanity.
After she left the White House, Betty Ford enjoyed the devotion and appreciation of Americans battling addiction.
Former Roanoke City Councilwoman Linda Wyatt, who heard Obama speak at a luncheon at the Democratic National Convention in Denver and met her in Charlottesville, understands the appeal of the next first lady.
"She's a real woman. There's a realness about her that little girls can look up to," said Wyatt, a retired teacher.
"This is a well-educated, career woman of her own ... but still loves her daughters. There's a woman there who is a real role model."
In Obama, girls such as my little sister see a woman who looks like them, and they think, "I can be her."
They see her radiate self-confidence, something sorely missing in too many young black girls and often a culprit in poor decision-making later in life.
They see someone who grew up like many of them, without advantages. Obama was raised in a small urban apartment with her parents and older brother.
They see intelligence and the values of study, hard work and perseverance. She graduated from Princeton University, went on to Harvard Law School and landed a job with a prestigious Chicago law firm before she decided to change her life's trajectory.
In her, the Imanis of the world see that goals are achievable.
These little girls see personal warmth and magnetism in the next first lady. She is a realization that beauty and grace come in all shades.
They see elegance and fashion sense, which have drawn comparisons to the once-incomparable Jacqueline Kennedy.
Girls like Imani see a smart woman married to a smart man and realize they don't have to take whoever comes along.
They see a woman whose husband worships the ground she walks on and who, before the world, called her "the love of my life."
And on the heels of my column last week about teen pregnancy, they see a woman who married her husband and then bore his children, altering the portrait of dysfunction too often painted of black families.
In other words, they see a complete role model.
As I wrote this column, I asked Imani what she liked about Obama. The first thing out of the 9-year-old's mouth?
"Smart."
That's a trait that little girls like her need to see more often.
Shanna Flowers' column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
