Forget Black President: Is America Ready for a Black First Lady?

"I just don't think you're fit to be the first lady."

-David Palmer, fictitious character running for the U.S. Presidency, to his soon-to-be-ex-wife and everyone's favorite villain, Sherry Palmer, during 24's final episode of season 1

Who could forget that spiteful pronouncement coming out of the mouth of the fictitious U.S. Presidential candidate, David Palmer (played by Dennis Haysbert) when he decided, during the final hours of the final episode of season 1 in the popular TV show, 24, to ditch his ambitious, power-hungry, and conniving wife Sherry (played with delicious cunning by Penny Johnson)? Whatever we may think of Sherry (who would later prove in subsequent seasons to be as untrustworthy, dangerous, and evil as David thought she was), there is a certain hard truth to acknowledge, as a black woman watching the vilification of a fictitious black woman (alongside parallel storylines of foreign and domestic terrorists and various femme fatales) in a television series that had captivated me until I tired of its racist misogyny, when the imagination bumps up against reality. That hard truth is simply this: whatever kudos our cultural producers get for "imagining" a day when our country could have a black president, it's quite possible that we'll never be able to accept its corollary - that we could also one day have a black first lady. We'd rather our black president go it alone than to be dragged down by someone so "unfit" to characterize the epitome of national femininity.

I thought about Sherry tonight while tuning into CNN's coverage of the Democratic You tube debate, the first of its kind, and taking stock of the "frontrunners" Hilary Clinton and, of course, Barack Obama. I was watching the program with some members of my family, and while we debated which was more possible - the first female U.S. president vs. the first black U.S. president and what we thought of the Clintons when they were in the White House - we soon started talking about the candidates' spouses. So, it was with real surprise that I received my aunt's final pronouncement about why Obama won't eventually win:

"As if America's ready to pay Secret Service to protect a black woman and her two small children," my aunt blurted out.

Was it possible?, I thought. Did my aunt really think the matter came down to whether or not the nation would accept Michelle Obama's role as First Lady in the White House, more than it came down to whether we were ready to place Obama on the world stage as "leader of the free world"?

Somehow, my aunt's dismissal of that possibility brought back memories of that 24 episode and our unimaginative rendering of black female ambition, of our overachieving accomplishments both to be revered (in the acceptance of Oprah and Condoleeza) and to be reviled (in the rejection of Lani Guinier and other "quota queens" that have followed in her wake, and to some extent, even in that same grudging acceptance of Oprah and Condoleeza, who can only be tolerated because they remain so faithful to their white audience or white president). More than the unrestrained power hunger that we possess - which seems to be the flip side of the same coin that overdetermines our representation as oversexed, uncontrollable vixens and various "bad girls" - is the longstanding tradition of perceiving black womanhood as incongruous with the "cult of true womanhood," encapsulated in the mythical construct of the "lady," the ultimate paragon of decorum, virtue, and femininity. It was the perception of black women's "inability" to be "ladies" that led to late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century black club women's adherence to rigid values of respectability and eventual cultivation of the "Queen" stance promoted so heavily during the Black liberation era of the '60s and '70s. Fortunately for us, Shirley Chisholm eschewed the pretenses of being "First Lady" and ran instead for President in 1972, becoming the second woman (Victoria Woodhull is the first) and first African American in U.S. history to do so, preceding both Hilary and Obama in the process by more than thirty years.

Michelle Obama is an accomplished woman in her own right, practicing law - much like Hilary - and advocating human rights on a global level. And, while Hilary had received so much criticism when she served as First Lady during the Clinton years - precisely because she did not embody the proper submission and demure characterization of a first lady - we can only wonder how Michelle would also fare in this role, especially if the prevailing opinion is that "black women can't be ladies," let alone First Lady. Hmmm, maybe my aunt has a point.

Part of the reason why Hilary and Obama have attracted so much attention to the possibilities of opening the doors to the White House on new representations of national leadership may well have to do with these unspoken gendered and racialized expectations. While either candidate has a viable chance to make history if either is elected, our nation is lagging behind even in this instance. Currently, there are 12 women serving as world leaders, including Chile, Liberia, Jamaica, Germany, and New Zealand. Quite a number of these women are leaders of both so-called developed and developing countries. So much for American women thinking that we are further ahead than others when it comes to women's liberation. However, I do believe the reason it has taken so long for any woman to become a U.S. President (and keep in mind the first female Presidential candidate ran in 1872!) has everything to do with the role that we know as First Lady. It's truly an encumbrance, and it prevents many sensible and liberal-minded citizens from viewing the Presidential role beyond its gendered positionality. The heterosexist set-up of President and First Lady has established these roles in a rigid and controlling fashion so that the First Lady's ultra-feminine representation upholds the President's hyper-masculine and militarized position.

Add to this gendered construction a racial picture of white middle-class heteronormativity, which then makes it essential to question, not only if America is ready for Barack Obama as their next president, but also if they would be ready for Michelle. Is she "feminine" and "demure" enough? If she's not considered "ladylike" enough, could this ruin Obama's chances? Interestingly, Obama's family has not made too much of an impact on the nation. Even that infamous You tube video sexualizing Obama makes no allusions to Obama's wife and daughters, as if they don't even exist for the woman who proclaims her "crush" on the presidential candidate.

Back in 2000, Colin Powell was considered a serious contender for U.S. President, until pundits began highlighting the emotional instability of his wife, Alma Powell, which was enough for Powell to bow out of the race altogether. Before I make up my mind about Obama and his chances to prevail over Hilary as the Democratic candidate, let alone the U.S. President, I think it will be most useful to pay attention to the national response to his wife and two daughters. My aunt may be on to something.