Commentary by Black Kos editor JoanMar
Michelle Obama has a new book on the bestseller list, and she’s been out and about doing the obligatory press tour. Having just seen her husband on the campaign trail and been transported, however briefly, back to the time before The Orange Plague forced itself onto the public stage and into our national consciousness, it is with something akin to joy that I welcome this development. Personally, I can’t get enough of the light they [the Obamas] carry.
In her new book, “The Light We Carry,” the former first lady shares coping strategies for surviving stress and uncertainty.
As usual, the unfailingly honest and down-to-earth former first lady is not holding back on this latest press tour. One of the secrets she’s shared and that has inspired me, is that she taught herself how to knit as a way of coping with the pandemic lockdown. I crochet (or I used to crochet; I haven’t done a piece in a long time) and I do macramé, but I’ve never learned to knit. I plan to learn in the coming weeks. I look forward to knitting pieces for some of my favorite people.
But by far the most devastating thing Mrs. Obama shared about her time in the White House, was that she had to mute herself in order to preserve the peace. She had to deny her Black self so as not to have racists be even more hateful than they were to her, her family, and her husband’s agenda.
Obama said she decided to straighten her hair as the American people were “just getting adjusted” to having a Black first family, reported the Washington Post.
Though it would have been easier to style her hair in braids, Obama recalled thinking, “Nope, they’re not ready for it,” referring to the American public. Fearing her hair would be used as a distraction and politicized, Obama decided to straighten her hair so the administration could focus on its agenda instead of having to answer racist questions about her hair.
“Let me keep my hair straight,” Obama recalled thinking. “Let’s get healthcare passed.” [...] Hairstyles are another hurdle facing Black women in the workplace, Obama went on: natural hairstyles can be criticized as less professional, even if it may be easier to wear one’s hair that way.
I don’t know about you, but reading that statement left me feeling incredibly sad and resentful that racists still possess so much power in this country. And she’s absolutely right. All the deniers currently venting their venom on Twitter and calling her names, all know that she spoke nothing but the unvarnished truth. Had she worn braids or gone natural while in the White House, Fox and its cultlike followers would have gone scorched earth… batshit crazy. And the shame of it is that they would have had some brainwashed Black people joining in and giving their unsolicited advice about what is “professional and respectable.” We all know that Black hair in its natural state is never professional nor respectable in the eyes of colonizers and their unwitting sycophants.
Mrs. Obama's revelation came just weeks after we learned — yet again — of the dangers of using chemical relaxers, especially for Black women.
Uterine cancer is the most common cancer for the female reproductive system despite it making up just 3% of all new cancer cases, according to the release. Even though the percentage is 3%, that means nearly 66,000 new cases are expected in 2022, the release further explains.
Black women are impacted more by this risk due to their higher usage of hair straightening chemicals. According to the release, about 60% of the woman that reported using hair straightening chemicals in the study were Black.
For eight to ten years, a Black woman sacrificed her most personal preferences so as to try to keep the peace. Not that they appreciated her anymore or hated her any less, but her self-sacrificing action meant that they were denied that one spark that could have led to a conflagration.
We honor you, Michelle LaVaughn Robinson. Thank you. Now, do you and racists be damned.
I look forward to reading her book.
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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Local prosecutors tend not to be the targets of attack ads from gubernatorial candidates, especially Republicans running as a tough-on-crime friends of law enforcement. But that’s exactly what Lee Zeldin, the GOP nominee for New York governor, did by coming for Manhattan district attorney in the closing weeks of Zeldin’s campaign to become New York State’s top elected official. Zeldin tried to paint Bragg, the first Black elected D.A. ever in Manhattan, as weak on gun violence in a series of ads reminiscent of the racist Willie Horton ad from the 1990s. It didn’t work—Zeldin lost to incumbent Kathy Hochul—but days after the final votes were tallied, Bragg talked to the Root about how a campaign he was never in shed light on the work of having the toughest job in the most crowded borough in the country.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The Root: Why did Lee Zeldin come at you so hard ?
Alvin Bragg: I think he ran an anti-democrati, authoritarian, race-baiting campaign. He put me in a commercial where I was the only Black face where he’s talking about crime. We’d all like to think that the Willie Horton era of politicking is gone, but it’s not.
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U.S. Rep. Karen Bass defeated developer Rick Caruso Wednesday to become the next mayor of Los Angeles, as voters elevated the first Black woman to hold the post as City Hall contends with multiple scandals that have shaken trust in government, an out-of-control homeless crisis and rising crime rates.
With 70% of the vote tallied, Bass had amassed an insurmountable lead of nearly 47,000 votes.
Bass — a Democrat who was on President-elect Joe Biden’s short list for vice president — overcame more than $100 million in spending by the billionaire Caruso’s campaign while arguing that she would be a coalition builder who could heal a troubled city of nearly 4 million.
The election tested whether voters in the heavily Democratic city were willing to turn away from their liberal tendencies and embrace an approach that would place a strong emphasis on public safety.
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The Motor City Kwanzaa Kinara, reportedly the world's largest, will reach 30 feet tall with seven candles topped by solar-powered lights simulating flames. CBS: City of Detroit building world's largest Kwanzaa Kinara
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In honor of the seven-day Kwanzaa celebration, the City of Detroit is constructing the Motor City Kwanzaa Kinara.
City officials say it will be the world's largest Kinara, reaching 30 feet tall. The structure will sit in the SW Garden of Campus Martius.
The structure will be built thanks to a partnership between City Councilman Scott Benson, Alkebu-Ian Village and Downtown Detroit Partnership.
"Kwanzaa is about celebrating and reflecting on unity, community, collective work, and other principles," Benson said in a statement. "These principles bind us together and help us build a better tomorrow. Kwanzaa is a celebration that benefits us all. That is why I want Detroit to recognize Kwanzaa, reminding us that none of us can stand alone. We need one another."
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The first lady opened a six-city tour Nov. 15 in support of her new book, “The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times,” beginning in Washington. D.C. and ending in Los Angeles. The Grio: Michelle Obama shares personal stories of coping in new book
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Michelle Obama said she struggled with a “crushing sense of hopelessness” after the 2020 presidential election that was brought on by the death and isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, a summer of political and racial unrest and the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
“I was in a low place,” she said. Then she got an idea.
“Everyone was searching for some answers of how to cope. And for some reason they were asking me, ‘What do you do?’ I had to start thinking about that,” the former first lady told People magazine in an interview pegged to Tuesday’s release of her third book, “The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times.” She is set to open a six-city book tour in Washington on that day.
In the book, former President Barack Obama’s wife, who is one of the world’s most famous women, tells how she steadies herself during these anxious times and how she works at overcoming her lifelong fear of change and doubts about herself.
“Over the 58 years that I’ve lived, I can look back and I can say, ‘This is how I deal with fear. These are the things I say to myself when I need to pick myself up. This is how I stay visible in a world that doesn’t necessarily see a tall Black woman,'” she said. “This is how I stay armored up when I’m attacked. The book is that offering.”
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