Miss Estelle and racism.

Yesterday I posted what would be considered by many to be a racist article. A Question for Michelle Obama is based on an old joke and stereotype. I expected to have at least 1 or 2 people who understood the joke, and also a few who would call me a racist for it. And I was right.

From Isadora

...and you should be because you are racist...but we'll just consider that it is from the south and therefore normal? :(

Then again, I take that back, my daughter was born in Texas and she is NOT.

BTW I'm no fan of the Obama's

Sorry dear. But you are wrong. While the joke was in bad taste to you. I'm not a racist. Nor am I from the South (another stereotype). I'm quite the Yankee. Born and bred in the North.

From 1735099:

Why couldn't your mother clean her own bloody windows? Slavery was never a feature of our history (Australia). Apparently it lingers in the home of the brave and the land of the free.

Ah, how our dear friends in Australia think of us. And such language. I will now explain to 1735099 why the question was ever asked.

In the 1940's, 50's and 60's it was fashionable to hire a housekeeper to do the housework and watch the children. Today this job is done by illegal immigrants, but back then it was done by Black women. These women didn't find this work to beneath them. It was work, it paid well, and they supported their families without needed welfare.

My mother was fortunate to be able to afford to hire a housekeeper. My father made a good living and with my grandmother living with us, Mom decided that she needed a little extra help around the house.

In Harlem there was a square in which Black women who were looking for maid jobs would go to. White women would enter the square and then start the interviewing process. My mother would always be ashamed when she entered the square, she said it reminded her of a slave market. But there she would go, on the 1st of each month, to try and find a housekeeper (not a maid the job was much more than that) that would last more than a week or two. It took her months to find the perfect woman. That is when Miss Estelle entered out lives.

For many Black women in the 40's, 50's and 60's there were few if any employment opportunities open to them. Most women of those days were lucky to have been able to graduate High School let alone college. If they did go to college, it was usually one of the Black colleges, for the white schools (even in the North) were closed to them. Harvard, that Citadel of Liberalism only allowed 1% of their incoming students to be Black. Yale and Princeton were even worse. They didn't allow Blacks in their schools for a long time.

During the late 60's and 70's, women like Miss Estelle were looked down upon by younger Black women. They scorned them and belittled their work. They claimed that Welfare was better than being some White woman's slave. The Miss Estelles just smiled and worked even harder.

Michelle Obama is of the generation that belittled these women. She forgets that these women worked hard at jobs that very few of us would do. Michelle Obama was of a generation that was luckier than earlier ones. She has had advantages that these women never could have dreamed of.

Michelle Obama went to the best Universities, getting a head in the line due to Affirmative Action. Due to Affirmative Action Michelle Obama was able to get a job in a law firm after law school. Due to anti-discrimination laws, Michelle Obama was able to buy a home where they wanted to live and not be relegated to the "Black Neighborhood". Due to laws passed by Congress and many state legislations, she has equal access to all the freedoms of our democracy.

But is Michelle Obama grateful for these gifts? No. She is not. She is the stereotypical angry Black woman. She doesn't want equal rights for all, but wants to change the rules. She wants reparations for slavery, a distribution of wealth from white people to black people and she wants it now.

Like her husband Barack, she sat in the pews of Trinity United Church of Christ. But unlike her husband, she was going there before she met him. She knew what they stood for, what they believed and never said anything against them. For in her heart she believed the bigoted teachings too.

A woman who says that she has never been proud of her country, and still wants her husband to be its President is not to be trusted. She should get down on her knees and thank God that she is living here and not in some Third World hellhole. It was the advantages that this nation has given to her that has brought her and her husband to the positions they now are at.

Miss Estelle died in 1991, surrounded by her family and friends. When she left us for her retirement after 15 years of employment, she was shocked to discover that my father had set up for her a pension plan. Her years of retirement were not idle. She worked with her church to help keep young people off of drugs and out of gangs. She did a few years in the Peace Corp over in Asia. And she played with her grandchildren. When she died she had lived a very rewarding life.

Michelle Obama could take a page or two from the Miss Estelles of the nation. It wasn't beneath them to go out and find a job. It wasn't beneath them to clean another person's home. And it wasn't beneath them to do any decent job to support their family. It was a matter of pride for them to contribute. Oh and yes, Miss Estelle did do windows!