No one , and I mean no one , knows what it is like to be an African American woman living in the United States of America in this new Millennium. There are some women of Color, who certainly have a pretty darn good idea, but to be an "African" American woman in this country and living in our current American society, no one will ever understand or know what it's like inside.
For years, African American women have tried to explain it, but we really can't because a lot of it , is an emotional struggle and you can't explain emotions. So, a lot of it stays inside. And a lot of it we keep inside because we are forced to keep it inside by the very structure of our society and threatened that if we express ourselves, we will be punished with stereotypes and stigmas. So, we keep it inside.
Black women in this country have been in a type of emotional Slavery that is altered, with each passing generation , and yet, it's just a new set of chains , a new version of social bondage that's passed from one generation to another. We are constantly held to a different set of rules and a different set of standards. Rules that only we are required to keep and standards that are set so high, that we can hardy achieve them , and even when we do achieve them , we receive less reward than others who have achieved the same.
Michelle Obama , tonight , became my hero. Not just because she is an African American woman. Because, for me, it takes more than just being an African American women to be my hero. There are many African American women in this nation who have achieved great things. But I never saw them as my hero because I still could not identify with them. Their pain was a different pain. Their chains were different chains. They were not from my generation did not understand my African American Experience and therefore could not show me how to survive as an African American woman in my era.
Michelle Obama is the first African American women who actually reached me,as an African American women and gave me the perfect example of how to survive in the face of the stereotypes , in the midst of the social stigmas and do it without fear , without cowardice , without anger and without bitterness. What she went through these past several months, was very painful for me to watch and endure, as an African American woman.
But tonight , I saw a strong , beautiful , proud African American women of my generation , after having gone through all she went through , stand there and show love. She stood there and showed mercy . She stood there and shared her life and her soul and her American experience under all of that social pressure. Those unjust high expectations and standards, the bar raising higher and higher with each word uttered. She stood and she spoke her mind and her heart. I am so proud of her that I am still in tears.
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton may have made cracks in this "glass ceiling" that everyone keeps talking about , but Michelle Obama gave this African American woman something that neither Barack nor Hillary will never be able to give me. A living breathing example of how to survive as an African American woman in this modern American society with all it's unjust stereotypes , stigmas and standards . I am so proud of Michelle Obama and I am proud to call her my hero.
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