A descendant of slaves, seven year-old Natasha (Sasha) Obama will soon be the youngest person to move into the White House since John F. Kennedy Jr. in 1961. And while she will not be in Cabinet meetings or receive "national-security" briefings, she does have the ear of the President (not to mention a lock on his heart). But more importantly, Sasha is an uncorrupted child who is just coming into consciousness and in whose eyes one can still see the glimmering magic of youth. While moving into the White House will surely change her, she--with her vibrancy and innocence--will surely also change the White House. Perhaps the ghost of Sally Hemmings will even find some rest.Seen here (thanks to a paparazzo) sporting what admirers are calling "sassy vacation sunglasses" as she deplaned yesterday in Hawaii with her father in tow, less visible but more revealing is her multicolored peace sign t-shirt. On one level Sasha's fashion underscores the unfortunate fact that the 1960s counterculture and its symbols have become highly marketable and heavily marketed commodities. Yet this troubling development aside (although it should be examined and discussed in general), there is something fortuitously luminous about seeing the strong, black, and beautiful daughter of our new JFK/MLK hybrid president strutting her stuff in a sparkling peace sign without a care in the world (granted, no one was supposed to see this image...!?). If symbols matter, and they do, Sasha's a wonderful symbol for what the next generation of influential Americans may look like.
2 comments:
Well, she'll certainly have her work cut out for her...
Let's hope that she's somehow able to emerge from the cesspool with her humanity in tact... Innocence and the White House can make for uncomfortable bedfellows.
Indeed, 'lil Sasha will have her work cut-out for her trying to stay innocent in the den of iniquity...and I may be placing too much pressure on one first daughter's shoulders. But, if her father really has compromised his soul (or at least some part of it) to attain his position of power, then we're going to need all the Obama women (including Grandma Robinson) to remind him of his roots...
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