There’s a lot of sexism vs racism talk in the current Democratic Election. I’ve heard some people say that it appears sexism is now worse than racism due to what’s happening to Hillary. I for one do not see it as sexism as much as anti-Clinton bias. I’m getting tired of Hillary and her supporters playing the gender card. Every time I see her or her surrogates on television they are talking about how women should vote for her because she is a woman and how it will be a “sea change” in American cultural life. Imagine for a second if Obama pandered like that to people based on his race. I can imagine how fast his polling numbers among whites would drop. In fact Obama has went out of his way (I believe pretty strongly despite criticism from blacks) to not talk about race in this campaign and stand on his own merit. Hillary waves her ovaries around and says look “I ain’t got no penis…vote for me”. I find this disgusting and anti-feminist (Hillary claims to be one).
Lets look at some statistics though to tease this out a bit beyond simple opinion.
If you look at the census, America is 12% black and about 66% white. I will say white women are about 33.5% or that or so (women live longer than men).
That means white women are more than 2.75X more populous as any black American males and females combined.
If you look at Governors, Senators, mayors, etc. you will easily find that there are far more than 2.75X white females in these positions than any blacks.
Obama is the first black Senator elected to congress in almost two decades and only the 2nd since Reconstruction (before the successful implementation of Jim Crow).
Currently we have had over 30 white females Senators in Washington.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_United_States_Senate
We have had two black elected governors in America. Deval Patrick in Massachusetts (current) and Douglas Wilders in Virginia back in the early 1990’s.
That’s it.
Compare this to White women governors; we have had over 25 in America’s history. Right now I know we have atleast 5. I know Delaware, Kansas, Nevada, Michigan, Washington State. If there was parity there should only be 3.
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/governors/a/governors.htm
Until very recently in history (last 20 years) it was almost impossible for a black person to win a statewide political race in this country anywhere, so although I recognize sexism as real, I don’t think it compares to the amount of racism out there and statistically speaking it is far better to be a white woman in America in politics than a black man.
I am happy to see HIllary go, I most people are, but I also think her political machine wasn’t as good as everybody thought it was. I think her the Clinton machine previously was really the media machine. Now they really don’t have the media help they once did. I think had Clinton machine aired part of this video in a commercial clip, it would have been tough for him.
My guess is the republicans will, and it could matter, but Obama will have the wind at this back in the general election, but I do wonder how he will answer this video if he has to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gexyfVpFMU&eurl
Ken:
Hey…I think the most important thing for Obama to focus on now is putting Hillary away permanently. The wind at his back will not do much good if Hillary is shredding the sails. Right now she is attacking his credibility to be commander and chief directly and that hurts him, as John McCain and his supporters are listening and taking notes. At this point Hillary has little to no chance of winning the nomination and she is verging on the role of spoiler…this is worse than Huckabee, as Huckabee is not really attacking McCain much at all.
My prediction for Tuesday is that Hillary wins Ohio by less than 5, and Obama wins Texas by 10+. Rhode Island will go to Hillary by <10, and Vermont will be a blow out, +10 for Obama.
If things fall the way I think Hillary will turn out to have a net negative of delegate gain and even if she wins Pennsylvania (where the polls for her are dropping as compared to Obama although no one is yet campaigning there) it won’t help her. Obama will win North Carolina and Mississippi by landslides and most of the other caucus states. Mathematically she can not get the nomination but by the overwhelmingly help of Super Delegate and that will split the party. No one in power in the Democratic party will do that. She is done, it is just win. Sooner than later is better.
That 3AM video, Obama answered a day later and quite well.
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid353515028/bctid1438426955
How people expect Hillary to run the White House (arguably the largest office in the nation) when she can’t even run a national campaign I do not know.
He should have did a video that showed a Hillary look-a -like answer the phone and then asking the Secret Service where Bill is at 3Am when she needs him and them not wanting to answer.
That would be beautiful, but too negative. (sigh)
The Demcratic Party could not have chosen a better spoiler than Obama for the 2008 election. Why would anyone think that sexism vs racism could produce a President anyway?
Bill Clinton won by just a bare margin in 1992, and he had been Governor 5 times.
Leave it to Democrats to try to do the impossible, and win with either a woman or a black, but to put them together against a traditional white male is like political suicide.
Pat:
You are right about Clinton, if it was not for Ross Perot he would not have been president…he did not win a majority of the popular vote.
I think that Obama or Hillary can beat McCain if the economy is bad and there are no terrorist attacks. So far , if the election were held today, Hillary might win, Obama would probably win, however I realize that could change radically in the next 7 months, as McCain has not really campaigned against them yet.
http://www.surveyusa.com/index.php/2008/03/06/electoral-math-as-of-030608-obama-280-mccain-258/
http://www.surveyusa.com/index.php/2008/03/06/electoral-math-as-of-030608-clinton-276-mccain-262/
I believe if there is a major terrorist attack, people will get scared and gather around the war hawk old white guy, because that is seen as safe and reliable. If the economy is really bad the Democrats just have to make McCain out to be Bush Part III, which would not be hard.
I think the big problem with the Democratic party is that this process has went on much longer than thought and it has become much nastier than though. It could get nasty between two white guys, but that is not a big problem because it won’t become gender base or racial. This could fracture the Democratic party.
As far as Obama being a spoiler, I would not go that far but I believe fully that there are people in the Democratic party…Dean, Pelosi, Edwards, Kerry, Kennedy, and Gore who DO NOT LIKE Bill and Hillary Clinton and feel they have hurt the party in various ways and use it as a Clinton propaganda machine. When Obama came along they felt that this guy might just be strong enough (with some support) to knock out Hillary and marginalize the Clinton influence on the party. So what you are seeing is not really Obama Vs Hillary. Oh no…it is Anti-Clinton and Pro-Clinton factions in the party fighting. Bill and Hillary are not just trying to win the presidency but hold on to national party clout and power. If Obama wins, being the first black president he will eclipse Bill and make him look like amateur night, no one will say he is the “greatest Democratic politician” since Kennedy…nope that title will go to Barack (and some claim it now, including Ted Kennedy).
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. My belief is Obama will win the nomination but will be either stronger or heavily wounded by Hillary. He will not pick her as VP, but someone like Sen. Web, Sen. Biden (he won’t pick a woman Gov because none of them have the foreign policy creds he needs, he needs a white male to go into rural white areas and stump for him).
If you check the media (and some people have been doing so) the idea that Hillary Clinton has benefited from playing the “gender card” is ridiculous. Meanwhile rarack Obama and his surrogates have played the race card from day 1 in a very “manipulative” way. If I were African American I would find what he has done insulting. There is a website that takes the exact same words that Clinton and Obama have said, and then charted the media response. When she is “manipulative” he is using “good strategy”, when she is emotional she is either “weak” or “using the gender card for sympathy”, when he is emotional he is “real and passionate”. When she is passionate she is “desperate and fake”…..etc etc. When at her rallies hecklers have signs that say “Iron My Shirt”, or “You should have stuck to baking cookies”, they either say she “hired them” (even when proven to be false) or they say she has no sense of humor. Imagine if the same type things were said about Obama regarding racial stereotypes? Please. No it is ok to call her a bitch, a witch, or worse, but I can imagine if they told Obama to go back to the cotton fields or to step and fetch something. And if they called him the N-Word? Holy S–t. So His pastor, who is a choice not a relative, can call Italians ‘garlic noses”, say that BECAUSE Clinton is white she is fair game to be demonized as never having suffered being called the N-Word, I really doubt that Obama has spent alot of time being called the N-Word, but even before Clinton was running for ANYTHING, she was called, the B-word, the W-word, and even the C-word, and described in negative gender terms . Our country has a built in hatred of women in power. Our churches still deny women power that is automatic for men of any color. Our institutions still exclude women, and our language still insults women in ways that they would never dare, at least in public insult any other group of citizens except for maybe fat people and even then it would be much more acceptable to be a fat man than a fat woman.
Feminazi is a word used in public all the time. Can you imagine Afro-centric men being called n-wordnazis? So to the first writer I say this–women come in all colors too. Plus African American women come in all colors too. So what does this mean? 6% of the population are African American males? Women (of all colors including a huge component of white women) were the backbone of the abolishionist movement in the 1830s. ALL Men got the right to vote in good measure because of their efforts. They got squat. It took 100 years for women to get the vote, and they even had it revoked in some places. Read Good Bye to all that by Robin Morgan. Lynchings were obviously horrible and a stain on all of us. However the number of women killed by men , raped by men (of all colors) dwarfs the number of lynchings ever. WOmen of all races are still victims every day. Violence against women is still happening every day–not an event that even makes the news. Horrible violence against women, because they are women happens every day and 37% of our population still thinks that it is a womans fault if she gets raped for reasons like, “she shouldn’t have been out at night”. My daughter who is mentally handicapped was raped in broad daylight two blocks from home and SHE was the one who was shunned and threatened. Look at the Duke case. Those men were made out to be victims. Men who hired strippers at an elite, rich-boy drunken bash , who yelled horrible stuff at them, and obviously to anyone with a brain, they did something awful to them and paid them off to shut up, are considered the victims. One of them had already been convicted of beating up a man BECAUSE he was a gay man and that pissed the dude(Cloin Finnerty) off?
Please , sexism is everywhere and accepted in ways that would never be accepted in racial terms. NEVER. Was it the man in Jasper Texas’s fault that he got killed by white racist because he was walking on the road? NO , then why is it a rape victims fault and that is ok? WHy was what happened at the DUke party ok. ? Why is rape the most under-reported and expanding violent crime? Why do most rapists get away with it? Women , like you said are over half the population. Why aren’t they anywhere near half the government, captains of industry, etc et. I am older than this writer to be sure. I remember when a woman could not get firth control pills unless she was married and had permission from her husband, I have a letter from Robert Kennedy when I asked to be a congressional page in 1965. It says maybe someday there might be some ladies involved. The first male page was that year and it wasn’t until the seventies that a girl was finally even considered–that was after I had worked for years for the party and got zip.
Where are the African American Men when women need helo? Yes ,even White ones?WHere was Tiger Woods when they wouldn’t allow women at golf courses that had not allowed non-whites before and white women had protested for him and other non-whites? I am sick of being lumped together with men–white or whatever. I am a woman who has fought my whole life for fairness for all people. I studied the fact that there really is no basis for race. They say Obama is related to Thomas Jefferson who was known to have had sex with his slaves. When will the men have to acknowledge and apologize for their DNA the way “white” women are expected to by many men in the black community? racism vs sexism? No contest.
Jane:
Sigh…
What has Obama done as far as race? Unlike Hillary Obama has never stood on national TV and say “vote for me because I”m black”, to my count, just in my limited view, I have seen Hillary do this 3 times at debates. If Obama did something like that you what do you think the reaction would be among non-blacks (especially whites)? Obama’s surrogates can say a lot of things, he can’t control everyone who supports him. I support him, if I got on TV in my local area and called Hillary a racist is that Obama’s fault?
It is true that there is sexism and it is true that what men and women say is often interpreted differently. I never denied sexism existed in America. It is obvious. I was speaking of the degree of the type of discrimination and its results. You have never explained why their have been so many white women Governor compared to blacks (of any sex) in the United States since women have had the right to vote (well after blacks officially but not in practice could vote in this country) if anything just due to time blacks should have had more governorships. They do not. If sexism is so bad for politics compared to racism why is that? According to you it should be there should be more black governors in America than white women, there are not, not even close (even when I adjusted for population differences). Obviously there are many white males who will vote for a female chief executive but not a black. You have said nothing to refute that.
As far as being “weak” Obama has also been accused of being “weak” for not “fighting enough” or going to the “trenches” and in the “gutter” as some media pundits think he should. I have heard this criticism, mainly from white males on TV. I’ve also seen how John McCain is not criticized at all for actively seeking the endorsement of right wing minsters who said America deserved 911 and Hurricane Katrina because of our “sins”. The minute a black minister says something everyone demonizes Obama for being in the same room as the man (even when he was not there when the offensive statements were made). That is a little more than hypocritical. I’m also pretty sure if Obama had got in front of a camera waving fliers from Hillary saying “Shame on you Hillary” and “I’m going to meet you in Cleveland” in a angry tone he would be branded an angry scary “Negro”. He could never do something like what Hillary did, so both candidates have to deal with stereotypes of their race/genders.
As far as the rally and people waving sexist signs how do you know who did that? It could be Republicans? There are many many people in this country on the right who hate anything Clinton (Bill and Hillary). Correct me if I’m wrong but you seem to assume that is from Obama supporters and Obama has some responsibility. I think that is a stretch without evidence. Also there is racial rhetoric used against Obama. Pat Buchanan (and you can Google this) put out a article last week saying Obama is a like a “black hustler” (i.e. pimp or con artist). Is that not racial? Pat Buchanan is not some right wing weirdo in a shack in Montana. He is a correspondent on MSNBC.
As far as what churches deny women, etc. I’m not interested in that, that is another topic that has nothing to do with this race. The Catholic church denying women the priesthood has apparently had little effect on them getting more executive positions in politics than blacks (of any gender) although black males can be priest. Those issues are just an attempt to appeal to sympathy and I’m not interested. Stay on topic please.
No one in public insults blacks or Hispanics? Have you listened to Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, etc? Ever heard of a radio host calling black women “nappy headed hos”? Ever listen to Howard Stern? Please.
Black Americans got the right to vote “technically” in the late 1860’s but in reality the majority of the black population could not practice that right until the 1960’s. That is reality. Do you not know what Jim Crow is? In the 1960’s over 60% of the black population lived in the South.
As far as women being killed and raped. Reality is every year men kill for more men then they kill women. You have no proved what % of female murders by men is due to the fact they are women, and just due to being women. Are you saying that if a woman stole something from me or I feel a woman is dissing me and I kill her it is sexist? So if a man does it and I kill him it is not? How is that? Your logic is faulty. You are saying any attack against women by men is a hate crime. I have never claimed (nor does anyone else) that any attack against blacks by whites is a hate crime, most of them are not hate crimes. There are many reasons why people attack each other or kill each other.
I”m sorry about your daughter, but that has nothing to do with this election or I should say for most people involved in this election it is quite a weak connection.
I never said what happened at Duke was okay. To be honest I don’t believe that woman was raped, even her own partner said she was not. As I said that is another issue, that has nothing to do with Hillary Clinton. Birth control pills have nothing to do with Hillary Clinton in 2008. As far as half the government being women or half of industry. You assume that sans discrimination there would be equal opportunity and so equal outcome. That is a very very weak use of logic.
If Asians focus in science and math fields is that due to them being discriminated against in liberal arts? Do you believe that women and men (biologically sans cultural differences) have exactly the same interests and behaviors? If you do not then why would you think men and women would frequent into the same fields in the same way. There are certain fields (i.e. lingustics) that are dominated by women now. Most translators are women (if you did not know…) so does that mean men are being discriminated against now? I think you can see my point.
As far as African American men when women needed help with discrimination…well did not the Civil Rights Act help women also? Were black males (and white males) not instrumental in that being pushed? Do women not benefit from affirmative action? Were white women the ones in the street primarily fighting for these things in marches, sit-ins, boycotts, etc?
The fact you are a women who has fought all your life for “fairness” does not make you special or the fact you lack a penis special there are many people who are male and female all over the world who can say the same thing.
I honestly think you are so obsessed with your own victimization you have corrupted your ability to think rationally about this issue. Most of what you said in context to the discussion of the election is hyperbole built on weak logic.
I think it might serve you well to separate some of the anti-Hillary rhetoric in America from her gender and realize it has to do with the fact she is a Clinton and many people in this country (including in her own party) hate the Clintons for various reasons. They have made many many enemies.
I believe if Hillary had actually worked her way up the way many of our women Governors have, the way Nanci Pelosi has, on her own merit without riding her husbands coattails (like so many third world female leaders have) people would have far more respect for her then they do. If she had divorced Bill after he continuously cheated on her (Monica was not the first, we all know that) a lot of women might have more respect for her. In some ways, in these ways she is the anti-feminist. Hillary is no different from Indira Ghandi, Megawatti-Sukarno, Bhutto, Kirchner and a host of other women leaders who road their father or husbands coattails. She is definitely NO Margaret Thatcher, she is no Nanci Pelosi, she is no Gold Meir, she is no Yulia Tymoshenko. All of the latter came up on their own merit and stood on their own two feet and succeeded in spite of some obvious sexism.
Hillary is an extension of Bill’s prestige. Do you think she would have got all that money by January (when Obama was scrapping on the internet to get small dominations) if it was not for Bill Clinton having been president? Do you think if Hillary was not a woman she would still be in the race? The fact is, she is in the race because of anti-black Hispanics (who won her California, when Obama won the white vote and black vote) and she is in the race because in every election 60% of voters are women and about 50% or more vote for her. If she was the average male politician (like Edwards) Obama would have ran her out of the race by Super Tuesday. To say she has no advantages due to being a woman and who she is married to is dishonest. Obama has advantages to, but the truth is black support can’t help him in most areas (like out West) where there are few if any blacks. Blacks did not win him Wisconsin either. Obama does not get young white college kids to vote for him in record numbers because he is black. They likely helped significantly to win him many states. Truth is Hillary is polarizing because she is a Clinton, that same benefit has its negatives.
Do you want your daughter’ role model to be a woman who “married well”? Or a Nanci Pelosi?
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I concur with the statement. It is obvious that Clinton has the numerical advantage if you take into consideration of women and white voters. Obama has only the black vote (12% of the population) as a foundation and has to build upon that with the rest of the Americans (Caucasian, Asian, Hispanic, etc). Obama and Clinton have to be concerned of the “ism” issue. They must be perceived to be representative and inclusive of all Americans. People should remember that they are making history, representing a voice seldom hear in politics. I applaud them both.
Last, there is no comparison between sexism and racism. They are both horrible to experience… denial, exclusion, maltreatment, etc. What is worst is when they are both applied, minority women. They get the worst in our society. I am an African American man. In history, a powerless minority man in a society can do nothing to protect the even more powerless minority women. The only way a woman gained influence in our society is to marry power and influence. Just remember that fact. Though minorities and women suffered, there was a significant difference in the degree of suffering. A minority woman suffering the indignities of a racist and sexist society returns to an isolated, poor, and angry world of her minority man. The same issue for a “majority” female, she returns to the greater affluent and comfortable environment of her “majority” man. She sleeps with and is supported by power. That is why you typically see minority women marrying white men, for resources, influence, social status, etc. That should tell you something about the world.
Again, everyone suffers to some degree. Each of us having our own perspective. It is what it is. Life is a struggle.
People, face reality. Do your best in the struggle and achieve your level of success. That is all you can do. And along the way, help someone else who is trying to achieve (be race and gender blind). Remember, the demographics of the majority is changing. In 100 years, hispanics will be the largest ethnic group– majority rules.
Take care and God bless.
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