His Baby's Mama?

For those who have not read or seen the hullaballoo, click this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/11/fox-news-calls-michelle-o_n_106655.html

Sometime on Wednesday, June 11, 2008, Fox News- that bastion of the status quo, called Michelle Obama Barack's Baby Mama. Now, let's ignore the fact, that if they wanted to use the term, they could have used the correct variation of the word- babies'. After all, one can only feign intelligence if the obvious mistakes are not made. However, let's think about what is really being said by calling this married mother of two a Baby Mama.

When I was in college, there were two songs that came out- "That's just my baby daddy" and "That's just my baby mama". Both parties were trying to explain to potential dates that there may be some drama with the other parent of their children, but that it didn't matter- after all, that was just their baby daddy/mama. The term conjures up the millions of children that are born in situations where they live with only one parent. Often, these parents have multiple children with multiple parents, multiple court cases, multiple personalities, but little responsibility.

So essentially what Fox News said was that Michelle Obama, educated woman with a terminal degree, married with two daughters, was nothing more than a receptacle for semen. Their attempt was to strip the very sanctity of her marriage that they are fighting to withhold from same-sex partners. How very contradictory.

Not only does this smell of sexism, considering she made a name for herself outside of her husband. It also sounds a lot like racism. Unfortunately, the term wasn't created by the white man that we people of color like to blame. We laughed and shrugged it off when entertainers made references to their conquests in this manner. Many of us have even referred to our childrens' parents as such. Who do we blame now?