Echoes of TV’s First Lady-Michelle Obama’s last true cultural antecedent is ‘Cosby’s’ Clair Huxtable

washingtonpost.com via MSNBC ^ | June 19, 2009 | Robin Givhan

[John W]

WASHINGTON - So far, the first lady has chosen to be a food bank volunteer with an outsize entourage and an education activist with the largest soapbox imaginable. But Michelle Obama also fills a role that is not of her choosing but that may, in fact, be the most influential: She serves as a symbol of middle-class progress, feminist achievement, affirmative-action success and individual style.

And she has done all this on the world stage . . . while being black.

Time and again, observers grasp for adjectives to describe Obama's combination of professional accomplishment and soccer-mom maternalism. It's no wonder so many eye her with awe and disbelief. Or why a minority still view her with suspicion. There have been few broad cultural precedents for what she represents.

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

Cue Aunt Esther...

[rabidralph]

I don’t recall the Huxtables needing any help from affirmative action.

[jaydubya2]

Puke alert!

[oblomov]

Affirmative-action success? What about the meritorious schlubs who didn’t get the job?

[Ancesthntr]

Definitely Aunt Esther. Claire Huxtable wasn’t a hater, wasn’t an angey person who carried a boulder on her shoulder.

[captnorb]

Do you think Governor Palin could receive these kinds of accolades from any network or print media person? Never: After all, Sarah Palin just accomplished everything on her own without affirmative action. Psst, she's white and a republican...Never happen!

[agere_contra]

She serves as a symbol of middle-class progress, feminist achievement, affirmative-action success and individual style.

Oh Michelle is the poster child for affirmative action all right.

Make that politically-connected affirmative action.

Most people don't get $350,000 jobs created for them. Most people can't cruise through college on a race-baiting diversity thesis.

But yeah, she's got individual style all right. Style like a trainwreck.

[Krankor]

And she has done all this on the world stage . . . while being black.
Is that anything like "driving while black"? Seriously, though, what are her accomplishments. She got into college on affirmative action. Her first job was at a very prestigious law firm where she was in charge of Barney the Dinosaur. Next she worked for Mayor Daley and, finally, she got a position at the University of Chicago Hospitals, where her major duties were to make sure poor, black people without insurance came no where near their emergency room. A job, by the way, which was immediately eliminated once she left for the White House.

[agere_contra]

Her first job was at a very prestigious law firm where she was in charge of Barney the Dinosaur.

W-what? I've missed this part of the Greatest Story Ever Told. Please tell!

[ConservaTexan]

And she has done all this on the world stage . . . while being black.

No inherent racism in this statement...none whatsoever.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Clair Huxtable, albeit a fictional character, exuded class and charm. She also actually knew how to dress tastefully, as I recall.

Michelle Obama is nothing like her at all.

[Dixie Yooper]

"I mean, you got the first mainstream female African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking gal," Biden said. "I mean, that's a storybook, dame."

[Krankor]

http://michelleobamawatch.com/michelle-obama-represented-barney-the-dinosaur

[agere_contra]

Thanks!

This stuff is gold

White, who is now retired from the firm, says he gave her the most interesting work he could find, in part because he wanted to see her advance, but also because she seemed perennially dissatisfied

[csense]

It's no wonder so many eye her with awe and disbelief.

How ironically true...

[rabidralph]

Yeah, it’ll be interesting to see how the press finds other things to write about, should she become president. It’s funny how the republican journalists (Karen Hughes, Sarah Palin) are way smarter than the liberal ones.

[Krankor]

Actually, her relationship with Barney is almost never mentioned in the MSM. Could you imagine if this was Sarah Palin? The jokes would be endless and there would be thousands of photos with Barney photoshopped in.

[Pharmboy]

Parlour Magazine beat her to it...

[Lord Basil]

Was Claire into patient dumping?

[csense]

My FRiend, do you really think that’s necessary?

[bray]

MSDNC is Racist!@

Pray for America

[LRS]

From Huxtables to hoaxables...

[6SJ7]

Badda ping!

[Venturer]

I dont understand either why anyone would suspect a woman who took a profitable job with a hospital which was a political appointment because her husband , A Senator was sending over money. A woman who said she wasnt proud of her country, a woman who is a disbarred lawyer.

A woman who is as phony and racist as they come, playing at being a lady

[Blogatron]

Where’s the picture of her in a football helmut and shoulder pads?

[DustyMoment]

She serves as a symbol of middle-class progress, feminist achievement, affirmative-action success and individual style. And she has done all this on the world stage . . . while being black.

This should have come with a barf alert!! I'm especially offended by the last part of the 2nd sentence which makes "being black" sound like some kind of affliction . . . . . . . and I'm NOT black!!!

[depressed in 06]

She serves as a symbol of middle-class progress, feminist achievement, affirmative-action success...

Isn't this what she railed against in her senior paper.

[ArrogantBustard]

I got through the first paragraph, before blowing chunks.

That has to be a record of some sort.

[browniexyz]

Didn’t the guy who played Barney the Dinosaur end up charged with murder?

[Lizavetta]

I couldn't find it so you'll have to make do with the bow legged black widow pic:

[trisham]

[Iron Munro]

She brings new hope to the millions of other beneficiaries of racist policies enabling them to attend the nations best schools where millions of dollars are wasted on futile attempts to educate them beyond their intelligence.

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

There goes my breakfast.

[lacrew]

And she chewed her food today...while being black!

And she dialed a telephone...while being black!

She fell asleep last night....despite being black!

She is an AMAZING woman.

I’m gonna wash that white guilt right outta my hair...

[trisham]

Sorry. :) Here's a nice shot of Sarah and Piper to make up for it:

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

Her first job was at a very prestigious law firm where she was in charge of Barney the Dinosaur.

And don't forget that she was compelled to surrender her law license or face prosecution.

[RichInOC]

Ladies and gentlemen, I remember Clair Huxtable. Clair Huxtable was a beautiful, gracious, graceful and classy lady. (As is, as far as I can tell, Phylicia Rashad, who played her.) Michelle Obama is no Clair Huxtable.

[No Surrender No Retreat]

mychelle is a disgrace to America and the people who, believe in the US Constitution. She is so Fugly and mad at the whities.

The Truth,
NSNR

[No Surrender No Retreat]

Funny why can’t we all be just Americans without the hyphenation? I have to presume they still have a chip on their shoulders and angry at America.

Molon Labe,
NSNR

[No Surrender No Retreat]

Plus the free medical care, food stamps, section 8 housing and special rights & permanent (Victim Status)

This is meant for those whom the tennis shoe fits.

Molon Labe

[No Surrender No Retreat]

Mychelle had the assistance of (HASOP)”help a sistah out program.” Whitey need not apply, you already born with a platinum spoon in your mouth.

Reality At It’s Best,
NSNR

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Since the link at post 14 doesn't work I'll have to go from memory. She kept demanding more responsibility from her firm so they finally gave in and put her on her firms representation of the owners of Barney the Dinosaur. I don't remember all of the story but the results were less than stellar.

[No Surrender No Retreat]

and she was pulled over for driving while black. I was stopped the other day for DDW “driving while white”, because of my extreme paleness, the officer thought my car was being self driven. (Satire)

Gotta Love It,
NSNR

[No Surrender No Retreat]

Sarah is one lovely and distinquished woman in life. I voted for Sarah, not the addled old fool alleged Maverick of Nothing.

Your picture post says a thousand words about character, class, integrity, compassion, beauty, and America’s Hope.

Respectfully,
NSNR

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

This isn’t the full original article on this subject but it has most of the info;

http://patriotroom.com/article/michelle-obama-s-law-firm-boss-she-was-an-insufferable-complainer

[trisham]

Thank you. I voted for Sarah, too. It's my hope that she will run for the presidency in 2012.

[BelegStrongbow]

Interestingly, a white woman married to a Democrat governor can get a meaningless job in Academia here in NC. Just ask Mary Easley. Whoops, not now, but there she was, for a while, knocking down $180K for wearing designer suits to NCSU staff meetings.

[dead]