Are Michelle Obama’s Role Model Ideas Racist and Sexist?
If not, perhaps she could make that clearer.
Trigger warning: This article contains thought-provoking ideas to challenge racist and sexist assumptions. You read it at your own risk. Don’t blame me if you end up less racist and less sexist than before you read it.
In a recent interview with the BBC, Michelle Obama shared some thoughts on her struggles with her sometimes rather negative self-image.
She is reported to have said,
…one of the things I talked about was what it was like growing up, not just as a black woman, but as a tall black woman, before the Serena and Venus years, before we had the WNBA and had role models other than gymnasts to look up to.
It is important for us to see who we can be in order to feel good about ourselves.
I wonder if that was a wise thing to say.
Many other people have said similar things. In doing so, they encourage people to believe that their role models should be the same race and same sex as themselves. They risk implying that the race and sex of the people they look up to are more important than their achievements and their character.
