From Woman to Professional, a Step Forward
July 24, 2009
by Jessica Espinoza
|The author presents her own views, not necessarily those of The New Agenda.
I watch Bill O’Reilly. Wait! Don’t go away.
Yes I watch the O’Reilly Factor. Not religiously, but I watch it. As a registered Libertarian I love his show and believe it or not he does come off as non-biased on quite a lot of issues, if you can get past the fact that he is Bill O’Reilly. So when I heard about the altercation between Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and the CEO of the Black Chamber of Commerce Harry Alford, I was all over it. The clip was shown and the interview with Mr. Alford began, I’m slapping my knee and hooting, as we Texans often do. Then I was caught completely off guard by a remarkable comment. One that is hardly ever uttered when referencing women in politics. Here is the the exact quote from the transcripts of last night’s show:
ALFORD: She [Sen. Boxer] loves poor black folks and she loves black folks in their place. She does not love – you take Condoleezza Rice, who I would love my grandchildren to emulate and the way she treated Condoleezza Rice during her confirmation hearings was just terrible.
O’REILLY: Again, a conservative woman, you know. I get what you are saying.
ALFORD: Professional [Condoleezza Rice].
What I would like is for everyone to set aside their party hats for this one. Because it is very important to understand the impact of CEO Harry Alford’s statement distinguishing Rice as not only a Black Republican Conservative Woman, but also a Professional. Someone equal to himself. This simple label change is the beginning of a transition from identifying women in politics by their gender, which separates us from the men. It is a huge step forward for ALL women. Republican, Democrats, Conservatives, Liberals, etc….Not only was he equalizing Rice through this statement he was equalizing all women.
(the relevant comments come at about 6:00)
We talk a lot about the labels that we use to refer to ourselves or the harmful labels that others use to refer to us as groups or individuals. And I find that in order to obtain real equality,we can need to maintain our femininity, our ethnicity, and racial identities. But we need to be seen as equals and referred to as such. When males begin to refer to women in these careers or positions of power under an ambiguous term/label it is a real step in the right direction.
So I want to thank CEO Harry Alford for not only making the statement, but unknowingly and involuntary affirming that shows women are equal.
HT to you Jessica,
I picked up on Alford’s use of the word “professional” – He frankly stated the obvious. Women achievers — regardless of their politics — are not accorded the same automatic respect men are. Condi Rice, Sarah Palin – and others who bring their talents and hard work to the public sphere should be recognized for their accomplishments and not dragged through the mud bec. their ideas don’t square with the party in power.
This exchange was enlightening on other levels too. I liked how he called out the bleeding heart liberal hypocrisy, with, “She likes poor blacks, blacks she can help.” Black conservatives are starting to speak out about this form of bias.
Moreover, socialism — the kind on display from Obama — wants everyone ‘beholden’ to the man. Some are saying the ‘jobless recovery’ is part of the plan — keep more people on unemployment (beholden), keep despair at a fever pitch, then – far more likely to buy our government programs.
They don’t want people who are empowered like Alford speaking truth to power.
Thanks Claudy=)
I appreciate the comment.About a month ago I happened to watch about 10 minutes of Will Ferrel’s stage performance mocking GWB.I have blanked out on the name because it was so disgusting that I wanted to block it out of mind,literally.
Not because it was mocking GWB,but because of the just grotesque way they sexualized Rice.And it was gross.I had almost forgotten about it when I heard this comment and it all came flooding forward.The woman that played Rice was grinding and fondling herself while doing a kind of strip tease for Will Ferrel (as GWB) implying the tow were getting it on the whole time they were in office.It was just gross.It was really sad when not one woman’s group came out and took a stand against it.
Just down right sad, that an intelligent woman who has worked hard to get to where she wanted to be,was not only an excellent role model for all women but for young girl’s in the black community.Could be sexualized in such a way and because of her political ideology no one stood up for her.
That is why I luv the idea behind TNA.Hopefully this will change things.
Have a good one=)
Vastly Intelligent President to Lowest Rated News Anchor: I’m Not Into Newspapers
We were told that Governor Palin was unqualified to be Vice President of the United States because she didn’t provide specifics in answer to Katie Couric’s question: “What do you read?”
Well, check this out:
Katie Couric: No, I’m not going to read – I’m not going to put you through that. But it was it was a tough column. And I’m just curious, A, have you read it? And, B, what’s your response?
President Obama: I, you know, I don’t spend a lot of time reading columns, Katie. The fact is that I am confident in the work that we’re doing.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories.....8682.shtml
Claudy,
I found these statements not in keeping with the non-partison position TNA is trying to accomplish:
“bleeding heart liberal hypocrisy”
“Moreover, socialism — the kind on display from Obama — wants everyone ‘beholden’ to the man. ”
These types of statements divide us, not unify us.
Jessica, in strong agreement with you about the sexualization of powerful women – it is wrong and doesn’t happen to men.
O, an interesting catch. When Obama says things like that statement, he tends to be characterized as “confident,” “arrogant” or “cocky,” when women like HRC and Palin make similar statements, they tend to be characterized as the “b” world or unintelligent.
LVL
I agree I think we all need to start taking off the party hats.Let’s address the issues directed to women as a whole.Not based on political ideology.
Why would a woman need to be a professional in order to be the equal of any man, professional or not?
Sounds more to me like Alford was trying to distinguish professional women from other types of women. Trash women.
Woman = Human = Man.
No qualifier needed.
*****A
Adrienne, I think the point of PROFESSIONAL is really important here.
Senator Boxer was trying to make her point how the carbon tax and energy efficiency would help so many poor people and that the NAACP is for it. Alford smelled the demeaning attitude of the left like.. we do something for you poor people… and he saw African Americans being referred to as the poor and not respected as accomplished people. that brought him to the incident with senator Boxer and former secretary of state Condelezza Rice. I am sure the left did not treat her with respect. so he as accomplished black man identifies with the disrespect this accomplished black woman had to endure (wasn’t she dean of Stanford university?). and Jessica indeed I think this is great that Alford has the sensitivity to see this disrespect a professional black woman is subjected to. I wonder would he have seen it with a white professional woman who was dissed by the opposing party for partisan reasons.
by the way senator Boxer is currently attacked, not as stupid or as sex symbol but as bully who spoils everything with her supposed insensitivity. she is really blamed that the energy bill in the last session did not pass. the boys can’t address the mighty interests working here, it has to be some wrong female attitude.
I happen to agree politically with Alford here and not with Boxer, who (Alford) is against the carbon tax, not only because of the international disadvantage, but because it indirectly supports nuclear energy and disadvantages domestic gas, which has much less of a carbon impact but still some residual. The nuclear energy lobby strongly supported the carbon tax and they also financed the Obama campaigns for a long time. So, I guess the nuclear industry lobby figured Obama would bring the carbon tax, which is a much stronger support for them than the many friendly words McCain had in favor of nuclear energy.
marille,
Is the statement “smelled the demeaning attitude of the left ….” necessary to make your point?
I could get on my soapbox regarding the racist “birthers” of the right, the bigoted statements of Rush, Newt and others about White people creating the country and the condescending tone of the Republican senators in the Judge Sotomayor confirming hearings but I have not in the past because I thought we were all trying to be non-partisan.
If you promise to keep it that way, so can I.
Perhaps we should stop commenting here. I love the article, Jessica, and I want to share it with some people on LiveJournal. For the most part, I love the comments but I think everyone here is still sensitive from the real bigotry expressed by the troll Bill Pendergast. Let’s stay away from partisan dialogue, shall we?
I do not comment in many articles because I know my own response would be partisan. Sometimes, it is best to just be quiet.
While I appreciate your point (and I also saw this show), I do want to mention that I have seen many, many conservatives on TV saying that there is sexism, but it is only against conservative women. They do not acknowledge the sexism they employed against Hillary over the years, or that democrats threw at Hillary in this election. I think it’s very worrisome – I’m very glad they’re getting on the anti-sexism bandwagon, VERY glad. But I really hope they start acknowledging sexism wherever it is, and not just when it is used against conservative women. They need to start reading THIS site!
LVL,
you see “demeaning attitude of the left” as partisan jargon.
i am a feminist for about 50 years and used to be a democrat in the US for nearly 20 years, before that either democrat or green party in Germany. only in 2008, I experienced as Hillary Clinton backer on a personal level the arrogance from the obama camp. remember the classification well educated people for obama, working class not educated for hillary and later on the stupid label to republicans.
this is text book how some democrats use personal destruction by denunciating the other side as non intelligent. I happen to be a MD PhD and worked for many years in ivy league institutions. I come from a background where investing in a girls education was not a given. I have experienced plenty of demeaning attitude by the left. just to let you know when I used this phrase it was not party jargon, but my experience. and of course I still have democrat friends
and there are still some democrats left i can vote for.
Have a problem with someone disagreeing with you, karen? Because what Bill was saying was hardly trollish..unless of course you’re looking for an excuse to trash what he said instead of listening to him and seeing if he was right.
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