Hillary Gets Down

It was inevitable that Senator Barack Obama would be asked the usual, much ballyhooed question at his appearance earlier this month before the National Association for Black Journalists conference at Bally’s Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Once again, he was made to endure the wilted query, “Is he black enough?”—a question that has recently prompted public scolding even from Michelle Obama.

But a funny thing happened on the way to Obama’s talk: the same question was posed to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who spoke to the crowd a day earlier: “Is she black enough?” It was a playful opportunity that, unfortunately, Clinton did not make the best of. Not only did she fail to answer the question directly, but her response was more of the same annoyingly stilted public policy-speak that makes her seem unapproachable and calculated.

Then came a major turning point.

It was during the Q&A, when a journalist named Kiara Ashanti asked a question from the floor. Why did she insist on touting socialized health care, when it has failed in so many other countries, like Canada?

Uh oh. Famous for her temper, Hillary let loose.

First, she would need more than 30 seconds to address such misrepresentations, she warned. “Is Medicare socialized medicine?” she asked the journalist directly. (“To some extent...” came the rather feeble answer). Setting the record straight on several points, Clinton concluded with a final jab: Talk to my staff “if you’re interested in being educated instead of being rhetorical.”

And there, for the first time in her speech, the crowd whooped and hollered in support. Eyebrows raised and lips parted as we looked to one another, happily impressed.

I remember reading somewhere once, that in private, Hillary Clinton curses like a sailor. Her handlers are no doubt telling her to reign in this characteristically passionate temper and play nice with the big boys. Understandable, as conventional wisdom holds that voters are not yet ready for an “angry woman” with power. But the response she received at NABJ made me realize how wrong the so-called experts can be: First, African Americans have never fit into the category of conventional. And second, since when have black people believed that to be “angry” is unequivocally bad?

So is she black enough?

Without even realizing it, Clinton answered the question best when she simply allowed her righteous indignation to come through. In that moment, she gave us a taste of who she really is. The response worked, because black Americans, like most Americans, yearn for authenticity.

I hope that the next time she is in the middle of another somewhat predictable speech, and someone pisses her off with their ignorance, Senator Clinton will not be afraid to cut loose again, and let her blackness shine through.