An article on TNR today quotes another that says:
According to Andrea, “we are witnessing a sociological paradigm shift where a loving black nuclear family is the new definition of cool.”
The hope for Andrea and women like her is that the crowd of eligible and educated black men in Washington this weekend “will be reminded that smart, driven, nurturing black women have always been—and will always be—the business.”
Another, perhaps surprising, side effect of the search for one’s very own Barack Obama is the actual shrinking of expectations among black women. The 44th president of the United States, after all, started his political career as a community organizer. Today he’d be making around $30,000 a year, according to Salary.com.
“Michelle met Barack when he was ‘low’ on the totem pole,” said Naima. “He had a studio apartment and a beat-up car, but they clearly saw the potential in each other.”
Personally, I’m pretty skeptical of this whole “Obama as an agent of social change” thing. I get that there is this potential for the President to inspire and affect great periods of social change (after all, look at what Bush and the religious right accomplished in the last 8 years), but I tend to agree with one of the commenters who points out that much of the same things were said about “The Cosby Show” back in the day which didn’t amount to much actual change. Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see how it progresses though.
Link via Obama as Social Model – The Plank .