What If Obama Had ...?

Barack and Michelle Obama were under immense pressure to be perfect. And they were. And are.

By Shalise Manza Young

In July 2008, an illustrated New Yorker magazine cover depicted Barack Obama in traditional Muslim garb fist-bumping his wife, Michelle, who had a massive Afro and a long gun slung across her back. The couple was in the Oval Office, with an American flag burning in the fireplace and a portrait of Osama Bin Laden on the wall above.

The magazine defended the illustration, saying it was meant to satirize the right wing’s fantastical, racist rantings about Obama, who was headed toward that year’s presidential election on the Democratic ticket.

Even if that were the intention, it was not read that way by legions of people. Instead, it was seen as yet another racist, offensive shot at the Obamas in the run-up to Barack Obama’s historic win as the first Black president of the United States.

President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama embrace after she introduced him at a 2012 re-election campaign event in Davenport, Iowa. (White House photo)

As the Obama Presidential Center opens at long last this Juneteenth, it’s worth underscoring just how much vitriol the president and his family faced and how much pressure they were under to be perfect.

All Black Americans hear from parents and grandparents from an early age that we have to work twice as hard to make it half as far in the professional world. Even if we are allowed to advance, we are not allowed to make the mistakes our white peers make.

The first Black president? Yes, he made it to the political mountaintop, but he and his family had to be flawless for eight years: no scandals, no missteps, no stories of their daughters or cousins or people they may have shared a conference table with once a decade earlier getting so much as a speeding ticket.

And even though they effectively were perfect, it was never going to be enough for a subset of anti-Black Americans who devolved from the genteel bigotry of many post-civil rights era Republicans to the less-thinly veiled racism of the Tea Party, which, not coincidentally, sprung up in Obama’s first term, and today’s hoods-off, blood-and-soil venom coming not just from MAGA voters and white nationalists with microphones but also from members of Congress, Vice President JD Vance, and Donald Trump himself.

For all the fear-mongering over what an Obama administration would mean – a ghettofication of the People’s House, overrun with thugs and criminals – it didn’t happen from 2009-2017.

But it’s happening now.

“Can you imagine if Obama did this?!?” has been asked almost daily for going on a decade, as Trump and his regime do more and more violent, illegal, and straight-up trashy things, much with the tacit blessing of congressional leaders from their side of the aisle and the hyper-partisan Supreme Court.

Can you imagine if Barack Obama had three baby mamas?!?

Can you imagine if Michelle Obama had nude modeling photos?!? (This is not a criticism of women who pose nude of their own choosing, just a highlight of the endless hypocrisy of Trump supporters.)

Can you imagine if President Obama had named his college-basketball-coaching brother-in-law, Craig Robinson, as an expert on Middle East relations and tasked him with getting a peace agreement for the region?!?

Can you imagine if the Saudis invested $2 billion in one of President Obama’s daughters shortly after the family left the White House?!?

Can you imagine if President Obama hosted the NBA All-Star game, complete with a Black Panthers pre-game rally and halftime performance from Uncle Luke and thong-wearing, big-bootied Black women on the South Lawn?!?

Of course you can’t.

Some version of all of those things Trump and his family have done, and it’s all been excused away by his cult-like followers, who are quick with a justification why whatever their orange savior does is perfectly fine, but a Black man looking suave in a tan suit is an abomination.

(As a quick aside, if you have 13 minutes and need a refresher on just how unhinged Republican politicians and assorted other talking heads were during Obama’s presidency, this is for you.)

Michelle Obama referenced the attacks on her husband in her speech at the gala opening for the center on Thursday:

Eight years in the crucible, and not once did you melt from the heat,” she said. “Not once did you let it harden you. Instead, you used it to reveal your truest essence: your stubborn optimism and unflinching courage. Your dazzling brilliant and unpretentious decency…. And to do it all as a ‘first’ and the higher standard that comes with all that.

The claims that a U.S. Senator and Constitutional law expert wasn’t qualified for the job. The lies about your birthright, your faith, your patriotism. Yet you were unflappable at every turn, always focused, always calm.

Indeed, there are criticisms to be made of Obama’s time in office. Though he did have several big achievements — among them the Affordable Care Act, the Iran nuclear deal, his change of heart on same-sex marriage that led to the Obergefell decision, and the assassination of Osama Bin Laden — some Black people were disappointed that he didn’t push harder when it came to fighting for issues that would advance their fight against persistent social and economic disparities, and other voters weren’t thrilled with his approach to foreign relations.

Policy wins and losses aside, the Obamas, along with Michelle’s mother, Marian Robinson, who also moved to Washington, D.C., to give Obama daughters Sasha and Malia a sense of normality, were everything we’d expect from a first family and more: Barack and Michelle were Harvard Law graduates, they had been married for 16 years when they moved into the White House, they were openly affectionate toward each other, welcoming, gracious to a fault, and deliberate about making sure Americans of all backgrounds were seen and celebrated.

Nine years after leaving office, the couple each have favorability ratings well north of 50 percent. They are dignified but also real: President Obama loves playing basketball, submits brackets for the NCAA men’s and women’s tournaments every March, and freely laughs at himself; Michelle Obama has been open about the reality of being empty-nesters, seems freer to give her opinions via her “IMO” podcast, and is affectionately called “forever FLOTUS” by her fans. And in photos, the two look as in love as ever, aging like fine wine.

As their thoughtful, inclusive museum on the South Side of Chicago welcomes the world, we should remember the couple as fondly for what they aren’t — grifting, scowling, petty, vulgar, disinterested in each other — as much as for what they are: public servants who still endure an avalanche of hatred from some while providing aspirational Black excellence for others.

They are living their best lives, which is the minimum they are owed.

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