Michelle, You're Not My "Sister"

The East Wing press corps needs to cover the first lady objectively and not make their personal black experience part of the coverage or, worse, turn it into a sweeping generalization of every black woman’s experience.

I was stunned and puzzled reading span>Howard Kurtz’s article< about major news publications hiring black female reporters to cover the beat of Michelle Obama. The New York Times,  Washington Post,  Newsweek, Associated Press, and Politico all jumped on the tokenism train hoping that they would increase their access by pandering to the first black first lady. But as Kurtz noted “none of the beat writers has been granted an interview since the inauguration.” Kurtz’s frank discussion of race and media coverage of the White House troubled me on many levels. I thought about my days in network  TV news in D.C. back in the mid to late 1990s when you saw very few black reporters covering the Hill, State, White House or any of the major beats. Inside the news bureaus, it was even worse. In fact, I was hired to work as an off-air reporter at ABC News’ D.C. Bureau through a program to “diversify its news room.”  It was a sought-after position but the funny thing was the program allowed for one minority candidate to be hired for a year-long paid internship. I was hired for a staff position after the internship ended. Then I went on to cover the State Department as a producer for the budding Fox News Channel during part of Albright’s tenure. At the time, I was the only black journalist on the beat. What sickened me then and now is this “only one” approach to hiring, adopted by major news organizations.  But now because the country elected its first black president and first lady, news outlets feel a desperate need to put black reporters on the White House beat. Why weren’t more black reporters covering key beats like the White House ten years ago?  It all looks so phony. Maybe news organization need to do some color blind placing of reporters on beats and see what happens. More minority reporters may turn up in beats because they are the most qualified. Another point Kurtz reveals in the article is that the first lady’s office hasn’t made her available for interviews to any of these beat reporters but instead to many other publications. White House officials suggest “this group of reporters” isn’t going to ask her substantive questions so that’s why they haven’t granted them interviews. What? Sounds like a little reverse discrimination to me. Robin Givhan of the Washington Post is a Pulitzer-Prize winner. Finally, what annoyed me the most was the way most of the black women covering the White House beat suggested ALL black women are alike--as if we come from the same background, socio-economic group, education and experience. Well, we don’t and neither do whites, Asians, Hispanics or any other group. As a black woman, I don’t refer to my black girlfriends as “sisters.” I never have and never will. Allison Samuels, Newsweek’s East Wing reporter, noted that “Michelle has the power to change the way African Americans see ourselves, our lives and our possibilities… There are still woefully few examples of solid, stable black marriages.” WHAT!?! I think Samuels should speak for herself and not lump all black women into this fictional statement. Growing up as kid, all my black friends came from intact, solid upper middle class marriages. Our parents were judges, lawyers, doctors, governors (yes!) and more. Many of us went to private school, vacationed abroad, went to elite colleges. The Cosby Show wasn’t new to us--it represented our families. Politico’s Nia-Malika Henderson wrote: “African-American women say she’ll upend age-old stereotypes of the angry black woman who can’t find a good man, or keep him when she does.” Again, I didn’t grow up with angry black women; Henderson perpetuates the idea that blacks are a monolithic cultural group riddled with bad behaviors. I’m so tired of these stereotypes: The East Wing press corps needs to cover the first lady objectively and not make their personal black experience part of the coverage or, worse, turn it into a sweeping generalization of every black woman’s experience. We’re not all “brown-skinned” women who identify with Michelle Obama on a “girl-friend to girl-friend” level. Get over it and report the news.