On
Tuesday night, when Barack Obama was anointed the Democratic Party’s
presumptive presidential nominee and was taking his victory lap on the stage at a
rally in St. Paul, Minnesota, there standing by her man was his dutiful
wife, Michelle.
Bedecked, if not bedazzling, the possible next first lady was clad in a
bizarrely simple sleeveless sheath adorned with a black belt studded
with silver bullets, the very kind you might find festooned on someone
frequenting a biker’s bar. Dangling around Mrs. Obama’s neck were her
ever-present fake pearls, a nod to Barbara Bush, perhaps? Or a tacit
attempt to ape the chic style of the inimitable Jackie O.
Michelle
Obama, I hate to be the one to tell her, is no Jackie O.
Still,
even if her chosen dress was a nod to our most stylish first lady, the
dress seemed inappropriate to the occasion, particularly that biker bar
belt. And her ever-present pearls were definitely a decided mismatch to
the Harley-Davidson look. Truth be told, Mrs. Obama would have exhibited
a more dignified air had she chosen to wear a stylish suit.
But
putting all of that aside, what I found most tantalizing about Mrs.
Obama’s understated outfit on such a momentous night, was the chosen
color of her inappropriate dress…the color purple.
Rest
assured the choice of color was made by no small design.
Historically, the color purple has been associated with royalty and
power. Purple has been worn by emperors, kings, military commanders, and
other high-ranking officials. It represents visionary leadership,
respect, wealth, luxury, and some say sophistication. The color purple
is symbolic of healing, the divine, spiritual goals, passionate belief,
magic, and mystery. It also has come to symbolize psychic ability,
success, wisdom, power, spiritual growth, and independence.
Purple
is the color of passion, romance, sensitivity, and good judgment. It is
also the color used by people seeking spiritual fulfillment and is a
good color to use in meditation. It is said that if you surround
yourself with purple, you will have peace of mind.
I guess
Mrs. Obama was feeling peaceful Tuesday night. Her husband was a step
closer to becoming the president of the United States, and she nearer to
becoming America’s first African-American first lady.
But
watching Mrs. O and her husband that night, particularly when they
engaged in the first “bump,” that ridiculous exchange of knuckles yet
another nod to sub-culture, I realized that the color of her dress had
even more meaning for the possible new first lady.
While
the color purple might well be the color of the powerful, it is also the
title of Alice Walker’s Pulitizer Prize-winning novel of the same name,
the story which focuses on a Southern female African-American in the
1930s, her story an epistle for that of the black female life and the
low position in American social culture black women have endured.
The
book’s title derives from a discussion between the secret female lovers
Celie and Shug about faith. Describing what God does to please people,
Shug says, "I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in
a field somewhere and don't notice it." After Celie asks what God does
in response to this obliviousness, Shug replies that he creates
something else people will see, because God just wants to be loved. The
discussion leads to the rekindling of Celie's spirituality, despite
years of abuse and neglect.
Michelle
Obama came from a lower middle-class family where she was raised on the
mean streets of Chicago’s south side. She worked her way out of the
ghetto to the campus of Princeton University and onto Harvard Law.
Still, Mrs. Obama has let the public know her anger toward the country
that gave her these extraordinary opportunities. In a February 18, 2008
interview Mrs. Obama made the comment “for the first time in my adult
life, I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally
making a comeback,” a statement many were offended by for its
implications.
But
there was Michelle Obama Tuesday night, wearing her symbolic color
purple, hope, for her having made its comeback.
Yet when
I watched her give her husband the “knuckle,” in the moment of their
ascension, I had the feeling that she was giving me something else. And
I think it’s because she was wearing the color purple.
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