“Dear Mrs. Obama, Do you have any idea what you mean to us? By us, I
mean the strong, independent, accomplished black women of America. I
suspect that on some level you do… but please allow me this small
indulgence as I share with you how special you are to us.
What I am about to say may seem a bit much, but it is important that
you know—that everyone know—how much you have changed and are changing
everything for present and future generations of black women in this
nation...
You humanize us. You soften us. You make us invisible no more. You made
us approachable, feminine, sexy, warm, compassionate, smart, affirmed,
accomplished, and fun-filled all at once. Your very nature most
emphatically answers Sojourner Truth’s 160 year-old question: ‘Ain’t I a
woman?’
Yes, we are women, too.”
-- Excerpted from the Prologue (pg. 1)
Recently,
Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann lamented that the African-American
family had been more stable during slavery than it is today. Although
the Republican presidential candidate was soon pressured by blowback to
distance herself from that insensitive remark, one cannot help but be
alarmed by both the suggestion that blacks might have been better off in
chains and by the verbal slap in the face of the millions of sisters
doing their best to raise kids alone during this age of single-parent
households.
Despite
the fact that she is also a Republican, and that she campaigned for
both Bush I in 1992 and for Bush II in 2000 and 2004, Sophia A. Nelson,
ironically, feels differently about herself ever since the election of a
Democrat Barack Obama. She gushes at length about how much the
President’s wife, Michelle, means to her in Black Woman Redefined.
Ms.
Nelson’s heartfelt how-to strikes this critic as much an appeal to
black female empowerment as a personal coming home party for a Prodigal
Daughter possibly harboring regrets about her longstanding liaisons with
arch-conservatives. For, she devotes the bulk of her book to debunking
the sort of cruel stereotypes which the GOP has been fond of circulating
for decades, like Ronald Regan’s stump speech assailing the proverbial
Welfare Queen riding around in a Cadillac and Andrew Breitbart’s
dissemination of a videotape deliberately doctored to make Shirley
Sherrod look like a racist.
The
author’s aim, here, is to discourage anyone inclined to jump on the
“sister-bashing bandwagon” which has enabled everyone from DJ Don Imus
(“nappy-headed hos”) to misogynist rappers to distort their image. “How
is it that an entire race of women—so successful, so beautiful, so
intelligent, and so powerful—can be so devalued, vilified, neglected,
unwanted, disliked, misused, increasingly misunderstood, and blatantly
abused?” she asks.
The
answer is complicated, and is arrived at via a combination of anecdotal
evidence plus a collage of illustrative contributions from such
luminaries as CNN’s Soledad O’Brien and Roland Martin, documentary
filmmaker Janks Morton, Dr. Julianne Malveaux, NPR’s Michel Martin,
Democratic Congresswoman Terrie Sewell, Democratic Congressman Jesse
Jackson, Jr., actresses Kimberly Elise and Taraji P. Henson, and The
View’s Sherri Shepherd.
Besides
writing what essentially amounts to a reverential thank you letter to
Michelle, Ms. Nelson delineates what she calls the “five core goals”
fundamental to blossoming as an accomplished black woman, namely, (1)
creating positive multidimensional relationships; (2) establishing a
satisfying career; (3) having a balanced and emotionally-rewarding life;
(4) maintaining good health; and (5) achieving a spirituality that
doesn’t reject sexuality.
Ardent, inspirational, insightful and redemptive, Black Woman Redefined
is likely the only
positive book that’s going to be published by a prominent Republican
about anyone named Obama between now and Election Day 2012.