Photo Credit: Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson

I was reading green blogger CanarsieBK’s post Are the White House Garden and Michelle Obama Just Smoke and Mirrors? and I wanted to leave a comment, then I realized my comment was way too long and turned into another post! CanarsieBK’s post was about whether or not First Lady Michelle Obama’s organic vegetable garden was a shrewd public relations move, considering the fact that her husband had made some dubious moves with companies like Monsanto that are in direct opposition to everything organic and green.

So here’s what my comment would’ve been and I’ll say this, my comment may seem racialized I think race is a part of the Obama presidency that can’t be extricated from anything public relations related…and everything’s public relations related.

I’ve been thinking about this for a while. I think they may have differing views but ultimately that isn’t important. What they put first will always be their team and they will always back each other up. Because they’re Black they’ve had a lot of calculating to do whenever they make any decisions like “How much backlash will I get for this from folks like the Tea Party?” For that reason alone I do believe much of what they do is HIGHLY crafted.

Since Michelle Obama is a lawyer, a professional in her own right AND African American she has had to back down off of many issues so she won’t come off “too militant” or like a “co-president”. Her best bet was to be aggressive in what many consider “woman’s work”. Popular and successful women like Oprah and Martha Stewart how made their livings off of this type of work and how aggressive they are in it is overlooked.

So Mrs. Obama’s options were going to be limited anyway. With organic gardening she can be aggressive in a way, but for nice non threatening reasons like protecting the health of children. Who could oppose her on that?

Monsanto is not sexy and most people don’t know what it is anyway. A mainstream media story on it would make many lose interest. Mrs. Obama’s organic garden is easy to wrap your head around and makes for better photo ops than a Supreme Court decision. Also, many don’t understand how much organic and GMO oppose each other or why.

Are the White House Garden and Michelle Obama Just Smoke and Mirrors?