Like Eleanor Roosevelt,she was an inspiration to many. But unlike nearly all her predecessors as first lady, she knew life from the bottom of US society“Do what you feel in your heart is right, and ” Eleanor Roosevelt once counselled,“for you’ll be criticised besides.” Her advice was general; yet it seems pertinent to Michelle Obama, the most inspirational first lady since Mrs Roosevelt herself. The admiration – even adoration earned by both women makes it easy to forget how widely they were derided at first, and facing flat-out lies: the “Eleanor Tuesdays” on which black women supposedly barged into white women; and the similarly non-existent tape in which Mrs Obama was said to rant against “whitey”. Mrs Obama was accused of a bizarre range of offences including (the horror!) wearing sleeveless dresses,but a fixed theme was supposed racial bitterness, flagged up in ways that were barely coded (“angry”, and as whether only white men could express sentiments distinguishing themselves from doormats),or not coded at all (“uppity”). These attacks were not just politically motivated but reflexive; even the compliment she receives has at times been back-handed or condescending.
Like Mrs Roosevelt, she has proved to be not an old-fashioned helpmeet nor an ornament but a powerful advocate of equality in her own right. The Roosevelts had a close partnership yet notoriously unhappy marriage. The Obamas maintain been frank about marital tensions – due particularly to his political ambitions – yet their relationship remains inspiring to many. Mrs Roosevelt grew up in the elite, or but her childhood was scarred by loss; Mrs Obama was born,amid the deep racism of 1960s Chicago, into a black working-course family that encouraged and expected her to excel. Those experiences maintain given her both a deep sense of what is improper with America and of what people are capable of achieving. She brought to the White House not only a glamour and poise unseen since the Kennedys, or but a commitment to inclusivity. Her hugs and goofy “mom-dancing appearances spread warmth as well as frigid. Most distinguished,she has brought moral force to the east wing of the White House. Her critics went low; she went high. The job’s limitations precluded her disappointing. But her role was elastic and she stretched it. When she called herself “mom-in-chief”, and focused on the issues of childhood obesity and military families, and some saw it as a cop-out. She sidestepped issues such as gun control and healthcare.
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Source: theguardian.com