The Burden of Double Standard

On Tuesday most of the mainstream media celebrated the "one week anniversary" of President Obama. However in other circles there was a different type of chatter. Some critics of the President pointed to his decision to drop bombs on Pakistan as an act of unprovoked aggression that was synonymous with the most recent more hawkish past president. On top of his policy decisions the first family (specifically Michelle Obama) was even publicly chided by the Black Artist Association for her not wearing a Black designer during the inauguration.

Before any real discussion on the matter starts, let it be clear that the Black Artist Association does not represent fashion designers, instead it represents painters. However founder Amnau Eele said it was necessary to speak up for the fashion designers and that's why she spoke out. Now this brings a very interesting dilemna to the table for the Obamas and any other Black family with upward mobility. Should Michelle Obama have to wear a Black designer whenever there is a significant function of occasion? Should she be expected to give Black make-up artist, fashion designers, and organizations top preference when it comes to making appearance decisions? Does Barack Obama need to speak to issues that affect Black Americans in ways unique to White Americans?

It is telling that we stop to ask this question because it is a question that Black Americans have been wrestling with since there were Black citizens with upward mobility. It is even more interesting that this is a question Michelle and Barack Obama themselves wrestled with. What seems to be at odds is the African spirit of communalism versus the United States (and some may even argue western) spirit of individualism. There is a Sub-Saharan African philosophy called Ubuntu. It has come to mean in english "I am because we are". One of the most popular western philosophers Rene Descartes was famous for the phrase "cogito ergo sum" or "I think therefore I am". Clearly these positions run counter to each other and here is where we find the Obamas.

Barack himself wrote in his book Dreams from My Father that when he went to Kenya he felt he owed his family something. He talks about how he felt that same obligation to the people he worked with and for as a community organizer in Chicago. He felt that since he was "privileged" enough to have an education, he should be using that educatin to be of some use for the community. For her part Michelle Obama's senior thesis at Princeton centered on the connection that a Black college graduate from a prestigious school such as Princeton had with the Black community at large. She wrestled with the ideas of seperatist and intergrationist in search of what was most effective for Blacks who were becoming upwardly mobile.

The result of all this studying and all this theorizing is that there will be no consensus answer. People from Pan-Africanist circles will say the Obamas do owe something to the Black community at large. They will draw to points made by Cheikh Ante Diop, John Henrik Clark and Acklyn Lynch that people of African descent are still to be communal, as evidenced by the same cultural continuity that has preserved so many other African cultural influences over the years. At the same moment others to the right of that point of view will feel that Black Americans are still and above all "Americans". As Americans Blacks can purchase from, socialize with, and engage any one of any race and that decision has no consequence on other Blacks. Both arguments make solid points, but the fact remains that these are issues the Obamas will face for the next four or eight years. It is not an issue new to upwardly mobile Black Americans, but for the first time, it may be a conversation played out before a mainstream audience.