Michelle Obama Racism/Sexism Watch, Part 11

Rupert Cornwall in The Independent. Let's start with the racism:

Race is the wild card, the great unknown, of this election. Like the golfer Tiger Woods (and to a lesser extent Colin Powell), Obama transcends race. He is the post-racial candidate, not black but African-American in its literal, not politically correct, sense. The son of a Kenyan father and a white American mother, he is not descended from slaves, nor was he shaped by the struggle for civil rights.

Indeed, if he, like Woods, had married a white woman, the question of his race might never have arisen. But he didn't. He married Michelle LaVaughn Robinson, product of the historically black south side of Chicago, whose father worked in the city's water department, whose ancestors were slaves, whose family roots are in the deep south, in South Carolina.

Are you fucking kidding me?

First, I don't even understand how people can say "post-racial" with a straight face. Obama "transcends race"? Tell that to the people making monkey dolls in his image, accusing him of being a terrorist sympathizer and/or a black separatist, calling him the "affirmative action candidate," referring to him as "Osama," or doing any of the other almost 60 things in the (necessarily incomplete) Obama Racism/Muslim/Unpatriotic/Scary Black Dude series. Hey, assholes! You're supposed to pretend not to notice he's not white! He transcends race, remember?

Obama does not transcend race. Race is not something that can be transcended. There's no level of universal appeal that will somehow erase the color of your skin and all your experiences of living in it. Obama just happens to be the kind of black dude who doesn't automatically make a certain sort of white person uncomfortable -- the sort of white person who goes around the fucking bend if you point out even unconscious racism in something he's said and yet secretly believes our prisons are full of black men because black men commit more crimes, duh. Big difference.

Second, did you seriously just say that if Obama had married a white woman, his race would never have come up? Because folks would never have noticed the contrast between Obama's skin and his wife's? Because the contrast itself wouldn't have been a huge fucking issue? Also, way to say, "If only Michelle didn't exist" there, dude. Now tell us how you really feel.

Moving on to the sexism:

Above all, perhaps, she must throttle back – just as Hillary Clinton was obliged to do in 1992, after she had outraged male supremacists by defending her career choices with the remark: "I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas." Right now, a little more cookie baking would also suit Michelle Obama fine, although her exact culinary plans are unknown.

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST. Sixteen years later, and we're still on this.

Dear International Media,

You can buy very good, reasonably priced cookies at grocery stores and bakeries everywhere in the U.S. these days. Our citizens will not suffer for lack of cookies if our FIRST FUCKING LADY can't produce. It's okay, really.

Love,
Kate

But, you know, if Obama had just married a white woman with a killer shortbread recipe, the Republicans wouldn't even bother running against him, let alone smearing him at every turn. And voters would not even notice the color of his skin, much less object to the concept of an African-American president. Clearly, Mrs. Donna Reed Obama would have it all wrapped up for him by now -- in handmade paper, with a cunning little bow.

(Via Michelle Obama Watch.)

Michelle Obama Sexism/Racism Watch: Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten.