Far From Lightweight: Michelle Obama's Childhood Obesity Fight

As the Woman Who Stands Beside the Most Powerful Man on Earth, she understands the public role of first lady is tricky, as my colleague Sarah Wildman writes. Obama may appear like she made an apolitical choice by taking on childhood obesity, but something else is at work. Remember, a contentious America persistently attacks Obama's biracial husband, who hails from that foreign outpost called Hawaii, and accuses him of suspect birth, questionable personal history, and little competence to run the Free World. The last thing that fragmented atmosphere needs is to be further fueled by the perception of Michelle Obama as the Angry Black Woman Railing About Health Care, or even the Measured Black Woman Railing About Health Care. If health care was a debacle pit for First Lady Hillary Clinton, imagine the bloodletting if Michelle Obama were to let loose about reform.

Instead, she chose to campaign about childhood obesity. As was the case Wednesday in Mississippi, she can emphasize nutritional school lunches and getting kids to exercise every day and no one will start a Tea Party in protest. If the first lady sounds like, and looks like, she's serving scones and marmalade, who will suspect her of attacking a systemic health problem at its root? Weak, I can hear the critics yelling. Old-fashioned!

You only get what the first lady is doing if you live in neighborhoods where arugula can't be found in the produce section. In these neighborhoods, salt and sugar stalk the streets. After-school eating for many children in these areas involves the fast-food chicken and fish joints, donut shops and pharmacies where candy lines the shelves near check-out. Those spots multiply while retailers who boast about fine organic products and supporting organic agriculture are rarely found. Obesity and its companions, diabetes and heart disease, are common. Bike paths are few, if any, and a run through the park can be dangerous if you're not careful. Environment, personal responsibility, physical activity, genetics, politics, and economics all are among obesity's causes. But whatever the reason, in these neighborhoods obesity is not a throwaway subject. You wanna tackle the costs of health care? Then don't forget to tussle with the essential issues related to obesity.

During the same month Obama kicked off her campaign, Drs. Ian Smith and Mehmet Oz appeared on "Oprah" to discuss diabetes. I was glad to see Smith given such a platform. He has gone to the neighborhoods I'm describing with his campaign to help America lose 50 million pounds. And I was struck by the poignant interview Dr. Oz conducted with a woman who had her leg amputated because of diabetes. Also in February, chef Jamie Oliver won a $100,000 TED Prize for his proposal to "set up an organization to create a popular movement that will inspire people to change the way they eat." America should make a huge deal out of eating better and living better precisely because health care is not a given in this country. Why shouldn't the first lady tackle an issue that matters to so many Americans?

Her approach may seem in line with the tradition of first ladies who are seen but largely ignored, but I don't fully buy that. Obama doesn't strike me as backing away from the health-care debate, but she doesn't have to conspicuously "Xena" her way through the discussion to prove herself politically buff. I expect her to be Xena-like in a way that matters: She will be relentless. Her words challenging cultural habits about food will telegraph much more into neighborhoods well aware of the perniciousness of obesity-related health issues, whether or not she turns up the volume. By fixing the spotlight on this issue, Obama may ignite a righteous movement from our neighborhoods on up to help repair what's broken in the health care system -- without lifting a single verbal dagger.