Michelle Obama "not elite enough" for bougie black folks

[Number23]

((Deep rib-cracking sigh))

Many blacks from Oak Bluffs are elated that the Only One–in–Chief may be joining them (at Martha's Vineyard). “People are going to lose their minds!” Tonya Lewis Lee says. At the same time, there’s also a bit of wariness among the wealthiest ones, an uncertainty whether Obama will affirm them. “Obama is more a man of the people,” says a Vineyarder who’s part of black high society. “He doesn’t seem to identify with affluent black people. His wife definitely doesn’t; she is basically a ghetto girl. That’s what she says—I’m just being sociological. She grew up in the same place Jennifer Hudson did. She hasn’t reached out to the social community of Washington, and people are waiting to see what they’ll do about that.”

Response from The Black Snob:

All she is is the First Lady of the United States. NOT ELITE ENOUGH! You know? Just in case you didn't know. Is this a paper bag test issue? New money issue? Not enough ass kissing to snooty patooties? Rolling eyes now. Rolling them right out of my head and onto the floor. For real.

Also ... um, he's the president and she's the First Lady. Shouldn't you be kissing their asses and begging to be in THEIR inner circle? Who the EFF are you people?

From "No One's Elite Enough For "Our Kind of People"

You KNOW this must be bad if it causes me, a 3rd generation college grad, world traveling, pinky-waving AKA from bougie-assed Atlanta to be rolling my eyes. But that's EXACTLY what I'm doing.

I read "Our Kind of People" a few years ago when I lived in DC. I remember at the time thinking that my family had been to all the "right" schools and had all the "right" jobs to be one of Lawrence Graham's "kind of people" and yet, I'd have rather had someone fills my ears with hot candle wax than associate with the vast majority of the people identified in this book including the damned author.

Sitting in their McMansions looking down on the Obamas and ESPECIALLY my girl Michelle. I could kick their @sses.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

1. A man of the people? Oh how horrible for them.

:eyes:

-Stephanie

[Number23]

2. Right?!

Wait, the brother doesn't spend all of his time drinking cognac and "summering" in Martha's Vineyard?? He and his wife actually raise their own children (instead of hiring 15 nannies), work for a living and have no interest in being surrounded by nouveau riche @ssholes who only care about making more money and only do work in the community to improve their resumes???

Damn, I really COULD kick their @sses.

[Karenina]

3. Face it. Straight up paper bag fail.

Light and bright, the height of (cough) black society? I'm a VETERAN, girlfriend... '65 AKA Convention /L.A. "Welcomed" by J&J... Those were the days, my friend! :rofl:

[Number23]

4. Oh girl, I get the vapors just thinking about your childhood!

Being "black royalty" and all! :loveya:

I think the old paper bag issue plays a role here but I think that idiot really just revealed the thinking among the (cough) black elite with that "she's a ghetto girl" bullshit. Because she didn't grow up in the "right" part of the city and wasn't a member of the "right" organizations her success doesn't really count. Ain't that some shit? She worked her ass off to get where she is but people, including black people, look down their noses at her because she had to actually work for it and wasn't born into money and privilege.

I'm with Snob on this one; these people have their heads shoved up their behinds so hard they're going to "exclusive" themselves out of existence. 99% of black people think they serve no purpose anyway; you would think people that pride themselves on their "superiority" would understand that and be extending every welcome and invitation they have to the Obamas. Even though I'm about 97% certain that the Obamas would turn them down for a number of reasons anyway.

[bliss_eternal]

5. Silly, petty, divisive bs.

It's insanity like this that keeps all of us divided as people. I totally understand that this was learned from "the man", but it really doesn't serve the culture on any level.

It's hideous to have one's "ethnicity" questioned on some level because one doesn't fit a certain "profile": doesn't look a certain way, didn't attend a certain school, hasn't achieved a particular educational status, etc.

It's equally disgusting to be judged, or pre-judged on the basis of how one looks (i.e. paper bag testing, etc.), and that is some other bizarre standard for how "black", how good, how elite, etc. one is or is not. No one has control over their physical characteristics when they are born. If we don't want to be judged by others based on physical characteristics (i.e. color), why do this w/one another?

Sorry--but this is insanity.

"He/she is uppity because they're light skinned."
"He/she isn't worthy because they're dark skinned." :eyes::puke:

It's all nonsense.
...and one of the aspects of this culture that makes me ill.

[Number23]

6. And you know what's really sad is that I REALLY (stupidly)

thought that all of this mess was over! It really did not occur to me that in the damned 21st century, folks would still be playing the "light is right" and "she's pretty to be dark skinned" game. I stupidly thought that this crap went out of style at the same time bellbottoms did.

And you're absolutely right. It IS nonsense; divisive idiotic mess. And yes, The Man may have started this crap but what's the reason for keeping it going now?? And even if you could use the excuse that this has always been the way that it is, okay well we have a First Family that should be all the excuse in the world to let this idiocy go because they have achieved more than the (cough) black elite ever has and they didn't do any of the "social sh*t" to get there. But it seems like people are STILL so busy clinging to their old ways that they would rather dismiss the Obamas than acknowledge that their way of doing something didn't produce the "best and brightest" as they so desperately wish to believe.

One responder to the piece on Black Snob said that the "black elite was every bit as destructive to black people as Pookie and 'em." Truest words I've seen all day.

[bliss_eternal]

7. It's so destructive.

A friend told me for years, she hated---HATED light skinned women. Because every guy she'd ever been interested in told her she was "too dark." :eyes:

Well, in time she had to get over it. Guess why? Reason one....she gave birth to.....yes, a "light skinned" little girl. :rofl:
She really had to confront where the issues came from. She realized, she'd never even bothered to get to know a woman that looked like that. She presumed a lot about them based on the way they looked (and that men she liked wanted them)....and it all built up from there. In time, she befriended some women and realized how much pressure and crap they deal with from the other side of the issue.

Don't even get me started on the black male "fetish" of the "light skinned woman" present in every hip hop video today. :eyes:
The sad thing is, many that fetishize women for being light, will villify her for the exact same reason. Damned if they do....

(sigh)

[kwassa]

8. well

Many thoughts. I am a Facebook friend a very nice woman who is part of that crowd, and I get to see lots and lots of photos of people on the Vineyard last summer, people I don't actually know. This woman is so light that my wife and I had a serious discussion after we had known her a little while as to whether or not she is black or not. My wife was convinced, I was not, she was right.

My wife hates the black politics of DC, which is one entrenched, mired mess. My only brief contact with it was to attend a gala for the Congressional Black Congress at a mansion in DC; I was looked at like I was from Mars. It was the epitome of one-upmanship, serious pecking order stuff. Many are not light-skinned, by the way, but it was serious bougie stuff going on.

Obama is smart as hell to stay away from all that. I think this is the basic reason they have not joined any local black church, because the churches and the black politics are inseparable here. He won by stepping outside the usual political traps, and he better keep doing it.

[Number23]

9. lol Oh, Kwassa. I'm sure those brothers were looking at you like

"what the HELL is he doing here??!" :rofl:

And like I said, the paper bag issue will always be there (sadly) but in many cases it doesn't even apply. Shoot, in all actuality, I bet some of the browner skinned members of the (cough) black elite are WORSE than their lighter "cousins" because they probably feel lower on the rungs of the social ladder.

And fwiw, I agree with you that Obama was smart as hell to stay away from all that mess. He didn't need them at all, did he?? If nothing else, I'm willing to bet that one of the reasons that the (cough) black elite isn't too wild about the Obamas is because their success drives home how utterly insignificant the institutions created by Our Kind of People are. Obama and his beautiful, brown wife must be like a knife through the heart to them. Good.

[SemperEadem]

11. The Battle of the "Oh"'s

It was the epitome of one-upmanship, serious pecking order stuff

The more impressive your pedigree/job is, the higher in vocal range the "Oh"'s are.

"I work for the Mayor's Liason office", "Oh."
"I am the President's social secretary..." "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

get my drift?

I hate DC. With every fibre of my being. I'm an CA girl, LA to be exact. This place will never compare. I'm only here for my job. Let me find another one out west and I'm in the wind.

[SemperEadem]

10. yeah, if they were all that, they'd be the queen of the United States

but they aren't. 'Nuff said.

[Number23]

12. Yep!

If they believe that they are the only ones capable of producing the "best and brightest" among black America then how come there has not been a single presidential nominee to come from the (cough) black elite in this country??

Says it all...

[fortyfeetunder]

13. you got that right...

these people are their own worst enemy!

[Number23]

14. Yep! Or as The Black Snob puts it:

"Who the EFF are you people?"

:)

[FrenchieCat]

15. I read that book too!

It was kinda of scary to me.

Sure, we worked our fingers to the bones to send the kids to good schools,
but my kids are hard headed, so they forgot to join "the Clubs",
and hobnob and shit.

We still don't know any elites. Damn!
Oh well.....!

[Number23]

16. Yeah but you just said the magic no-no words

we worked our fingers to the bones to send the kids to good schools

That's a biiiiig no-no to the (cough) black elite. If you couldn't get your child into one of their chosen schools by way of a "donation" to the school, through being a legacy yourself or through a letter of recommendation by an alum who just happens to summer in the same neighborhood in Martha's Vineyard that your family summers in, it just doesn't count.

They only respect people BORN or married into wealth. Making it on your own is seriously looked down upon.

[FrenchieCat]

17. Well, guess that takes my family out of the running.....

consider I came as an immigrant holding my mother's hand with only a dime to our name. Plus my hubby was raised in the West Oakland Projects, so we're just totally out of luck! :rofl:

[Number23]

18. Well too bad that you and your family will just have to be an inspiration to the rest of America

while the (cough) black elite mumbles how "you're not good enough" into their snifters of cognac.