Apparently so. At least, according to the geniuses at the Washington Post.
Noting that some of the First Lady’s critics have accused her of having a large posterior, the Post quotes experts who state that this reflects the racist history of disrespecting black women:
…what is it with Michelle Obama’s critics and the fixation with her derriere?
“We have a history in this country of white people not showing adequate respect for and devaluing the bodies of black women, and this most definitely falls in line with that,” says Ayana Byrd, the co-editor of the anthology “Naked: Black Women Bare All About Their Skin, Hair, Hips, Lips and Other Parts.” (Grisham, Limbaugh and Sensenbrenner are white men.)
And,
The first lady’s critics “are reacting to the culture in which they’ve grown up or they are using it as a code to racialize Michelle Obama and remind people that she’s black,” says Andra Gillespie, an associate professor of political science at Emory University. “It is unreasonable to expect a nearly 50-year-old woman to have the body of a 25-year-old. She looks great for her age.”
Whether Michelle Obama is in fact overweight is not the point here. I can remember when Laura Bush and Lynn Cheney — and Hillary Clinton — were accused of being overweight too. Obviously, that was not racism. In fact, Hillary Clinton is more recently being called overweight by Ed Klein. Is that racism? Barack Obama is slim as a rail, but suppose he were to gain a lot of weight. Would it suddenly be racist to point that out in a way it is not with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie?
And how are we to square any of this with the emerging public policy meme that overweight people should be insulted and stigmatized?
Honestly, I can’t make sense of anything anymore.
Comments
7 responses to “Is fat now a race issue?”
Remind people she’s black?? Like I need a close-up of her ass to remind me of that?
Mrs. Obama is black?!?!?
I’ve always thought of her as more of a dark brown.
I just assumed that the negative comments concerning her weight and hips were made by assholes from the opposition merely to be mean to Mrs O.
BTW, is it wrong for me to think that a poli-sci prof from Emory University might not be the most unbiased academic source for comments about the Obamas?
Sorry to be wildly off topic, Eric, but I’m not getting an email response from you. Could you guys turn on your RSS feed? I want to add you to my new RSS/Blogroll in my sidebar, but the widget is telling me you don’t have a feed.
Never mind.
I figured it out.
Of course saying bad things about the Obamas is racist.
The part that bothered me the most in that article is this bit
high school football coach who was surreptitiously recorded by one of his students. “Look at her. She looks like she weighs 185 or 190. She’s overweight.”
Wait for it….wait for it.
Grisham, who was suspended Monday
The first amendment is okay and all, but not when talking about our nannarchs.
Criticism of women’s appearance is the adolescent way to cut them down to size.
Jenny
@Jenny. But that only works because too many women are much more concerned with appearance than substance. Cure that, and the comments will be useless.