Une Extraordinaire Trente Neuvième: The Queen and Michelle Obama's Embrace. The Queen Embraced Michelle FIRST!!!

Extraordinary Is In The Ordinary - Oprah Winfrey

The Queen and Michelle Obama's Embrace. The Queen Embraced Michelle FIRST!!!

I have to put my two cents in on this. In case you have been living under a rock (or smoking it) then you know that President Obama and The First Lady (I love calling Michelle that) are on their first Official Visit to Europe. President Obama is very well liked and has been received quite well in Europe (there are protester's but for the most part they are protesting policy not the President, very odd) but arguably the star of this trip has been the First Lady and understandably so. Leading up to their trip the European media had been buzzing about the new First Lady and sweating blood over what she would wear and I am happy to report, so far, DAMN GOOD. Since everything has been going well of course there had to be a dark cloud.

As soon as it happened the blogs, Twitter, talk shows, papers, radio, telepathy, ESP and all other forms of communication went into over drive, MICHELLE TOUCHED THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND! When I heard about it as much as I love her I was floored. I said to myself "how could this have happened, The President and First Lady are briefed within an inch of insanity before they meet ANYONE much less the Queen of England." If you're not aware protocol says you are not to touch the Queen and I respect that. It's tradition not to mention safety concerns. So when I heard it I thought "well, this too shall pass and The First Lady will stunning through the storm". Well never being satisfied with what I see or hear on television news, lets face it whether it's slanted to the right or left its hard to get the truth about anything unless you digg for yourself, I decided to poke around to see what I could find out about this International Incident and there is tad more to this story.

The more to the story is THE QUEEN REACHED OUT TO MICHELLE FIRST.

According to: Time:

"On Wednesday, Michelle Obama put her hand on the Queen only after the Queen had placed her own hand on the First Lady's back as part of their conversation."

The British publication The Daily Mail goes further into detail by reporting:

"According to eyewitnesses, the exchange occurred as the Queen was waiting in the Throne Room following the official group picture with the national leaders here for the G20 Summit.
One said: 'There was a bit of a bottleneck as all of the leaders filed out so the Queen started chatting to Michelle Obama. She appeared to look up at her and make a comment about how tall she was.
As she did, she put her arm around Mrs Obama and rested her gloved hand on the small of her back.'
Almost simultaneously, Mrs Obama put her arm around the Queen's shoulders rather more firmly.
The pair then looked at their feet and appeared to be discussing their shoes.
The Queen then dropped her arm and, a few seconds later, Michelle did the same. The entire exchange lasted around eight to ten seconds but was absolutely extraordinary.'
No-one - including the ladies-in-waiting standing nearby - could believe their eyes. In 57 years, the Queen has never been seen to make that kind of gesture and it is certainly against all protocol to touch her"

I am no big fan of the Royal Family. The only one that ever interested me was of course Princess Diana for the obvious reason. But this jesture touched me not because the Queen touched Michelle first but because it is symbolic of people reaching out and breaking the rules of whats supposed to be "protocol or acceptable." It was impressive because it speaks to a persons character (Michelle's and The Queens) and proves attitudes and ideas can change/move forward. I am firm believer that the way you feel today is not necessarily the way you will feel tomorrow if your mind is open. The royals have has some bad press lately pertaining to race relations, Prince Harry's choice of a Nazi costume he wore to a party and at best insensitive (borderline racist) remarks about a Pakistani being caught on tape and it's well known that Prince Phillip, the Queens husband, has made racist remarks in the past. But a small, friendly, everyday gesture like the Queens can have (positive) ripple effect on both sides of the pond. Americans who think the Queen is a starchy old (possibly prejudice) lady or Europeans who have negative ideas of Black people now have cause to rethink their opinions.

Now I am under no illusions that the prejudice/racism have gone away (the cop who pulled me over a couple of weeks ago for no damn reason reminded me of that) but I cannot and will not ignore that fast that ideas and preconceived notions are changing.

So, I will close by saying "ALL HAIL THE QUEEN" and for the first time, I'm not talking about about a drag queen.