Feminism vs. Racism: Lessons We Can Learn
September 15, 2009
by Contributor
|I am outraged at yesterday’s media outburst calling people who don’t support President Obama “racists”!!!! I wish I had a triathlon to compete in—–I surely would place first being fueled by this well of anger!!!
For those of you who are mystified at my reference, a media meme has emerged that the people who are displaying “disrespect” towards President Obama are really just a bunch of 
racists who can’t stand the idea of a man with black skin being president. I don’t know what your reaction to this idea is, but I find it insulting. I did not support President Obama in 2008. I am still furious at what his campaign did to bring out all of the sexists in the Democratic Party and the country at large. I am totally biased against him as I have still not forgiven his campaign for using fear and hatred of women to get elected. These are my character flaws——–I can hold a grudge for a long time, I am slow to forgive, I am blinded by this anger and as such I can seem irrational to some. These traits, however, do not add up to me being a racist.
So what does this have to do with feminism? As I mull all of this stuff over, I keep going back to a conversation I had with the then-Chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) Howard Dean last summer. At the time, I had been a primary voice on the national scene protesting the misogynist treatment and characterization of Hillary Clinton, and I expressed my fury at the DNC for having stood by silently when they should have been standing up forcefully to repudiate it.
Howard Dean tracked me down, and we had three hour-long conversations about this state of affairs. Having become a de facto spokesperson for this cause, I had received my own set of incoming slings and arrows (including being called a racist many times over). I didn’t know what to expect when I realized that it was Howard Dean on the other end of the line. Was he going to rake me over the coals the way the officials at the Ohio Democratic Party had?
To my surprise, he turned out to be one of the people most sensitive to my (and many others) feelings. That doesn’t excuse the fact that he didn’t act until it was too late, but of all the people, men and women, who I had to explain what the sexism of the campaign was, he got it. He not only got it, he was able to explain it in a way that no one else had—–and I had listened to the likes of Gloria Steinem and Geraldine Ferraro stumble on TV interview after TV interview in trying to explain what we were experiencing.
What he opened my eyes to was this: that the normal campaign experience is degrading to all. Unfortunately to we women, the kind of “campaign degradation” we saw was what we sadly have to experience as women on almost a daily basis as we go about our normal lives. Not to mention that polls have shown that 40% of men would not vote for a woman for president under any circumstances.
Which brings me to what we have to learn from those who are pointing fingers and calling people who don’t support President Obama “racists.” If it looks like sexism, and smells like sexism, it may not necessarily be sexism. As we struggle to define what sexism actually means to each of us, before we just call someone sexist, we should make every effort to back that accusation up with examples of why we feel that way. We will be absolutely right many times, but we will be wrong sometimes too. It is in this kind of dialogue that we will be able to enlighten each other. The New Agenda has been working hard for the past year to broaden this conversation, and our work is still in its infancy.
What do you think?
Hmmm,
While Howard Dean can claim that the degrading experience that Hillary Clinton went through was simply politics as usual, Obama wasn’t subjected to political commentators referring to his “cackle”, his “cankles”, or his “shrill voice”. Comments like that were offered up by pundits across the political spectrum. Not once was it reported that Obama referred to as a “fucking whore” by supposed liberals, unlike Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro. So, while it is nice that Howard Dean expressed a little sympathy about the anti-female bigotry, it sounds like he is doing the usual routine of pretending that it really wasn’t thaaat bad.
I feel exactly as you do about Obama. I haven’t forgotten the ugly sexism he cultivated to “win” the election.
The accusations of racism being leveled (again) at anyone who doesn’t support obama, however, are a calculated manipulation to bully his opponents and silence dissent – they do not reflect an honest assessment of the true nature of the opposition. I haven’t yet seen anyone use accustations of sexism in this manner.
While accusations of even the most appalling and blatant sexism are routinely dismissed or denied, someone who disagrees with, say, the government take-over of GM is labled a “racist” and everyone jumps to crucify the vile “bigot”.
For this reason the suggestion that there could be any equation between these accusations of racism and our accusations of sexism is hard for me to accept.
“I have still not forgiven his campaign for using fear and hatred of women to get elected.”
Please provide links to specific evidence of Obama using sexism in the 20008 campaign, as separate from what the media said. I’ll make this simple for you: you can’t. I have provided this challenge numerous times to many PUMA and PUMA-sympathizer sites, and despite this being the raison d’etre for your movement, you cannot provide ANY evidence of Obama cultivating sexism in the same way that Hillary “hardworking Americans, white Americans” and Geraldine “he’s lucky to be black” Ferraro played the white-resentment cards. To quote a certain South Carolina congressman we all unfortunately now know — “You lie.”
(And since you are also feckless cowards as well as liars, you will scrub this comment. That’s okay — it’s just further proof that you’re not ready to grow up and be real activists.)
And of course, the REAL feminist ticket was John McCain — who called his wife a c-word, chuckled when asked, in reference to Hillary at a townhall, “how do we beat the bitch,” made a tasteless joke about Chelsea Clinton, was virulently anti-choice and anti-Lily Ledbetter. Oh, but he had Sarah Palin on his ticket — who giggled like a schoolgirl seeking approval from the popular boys on campus when two shock jocks in Alaska as they mocked her GOP female opponent in the Alaska senate as a “cancer” (Lyda Green is a cancer survivor), a “bitch,” and implied that she had a big ass.
You’re not racists — at least, no more than you are liars, hypocrites, and cowards. I think feminism will survive without your glorious contributions.
Ellis, I agree completely. Hey, why are you ladies up in arms about this? It’s just business as usual for you to be treated like toilets, right? Degrading to everyone, my ass. Where’s the Obama porn films? And the Obama shoeshine toys in airports all over the country to go with the Hillary nutcracker?
I am also not a supporter of Barack Obama I was angry at the sexism during the PA Primary. I am also African Americans and racism is alive and well in the USA. Barack Obama and the Democrats are playing the race card inappropriately when they call people who do not support Barack Obama racist. This hurts African Americans because when the race card is played inappropriately we take a chance that no one will listen to real acts of racism.
Women need to make sure that we do not allow the gender card to be played inappropriately for the same reason.
Personally I don’t like to compare racism to sexism because I have to experience both as well as classism and all of the “isms” are terrible. I have had negative experiences because of my race, my gender, and because I live below the poverty line its hard for me to say which one is worse. Discrimination is Discrimination and all discrimination is wrong. Everyone in this Country should be judged by the content of their characters and not by things they cannot help.
While I don’t agree with your claims that the Obama campaign “brought out all the sexists in the Democratic party and the country at large”, I particularly have to question the sentence with which you started this piece.
If anyone besides Maureen Dowd, in her opinion piece yesterday in the NY Times, called Joe Wilson (people?) a racist for disagreeing with President Obama, I’m not aware of it. I think if you believe there was a “media outburst” in this respect it would be helpful to provide some linkies.
As far as your question “what do you think?” I think that this is just another attempt to re-litigate the primaries all over again. Something which TNA has more or less perfected.
Kerry Reid,
A few years ago I read a newpaper piece taking the position that people like me were unfairly judging George Wallace as being a racist. The point the article made was that he both liked and respected black people, which may well have been true. So what? We judge him by the racist campaigns that he waged, not his personal opinions.
Marion, whether you like it or not, Obama was illegitimately pushed across the finish line in front of a more qualified candidate. Period. He did not win fair and square, he did not get a mandate of any kind, and the only reason he won is because the parteigenosse shoved him over the finish in a very dicey, possibly illegal way.
But like they say, it’s only illegal if you get caught. And the media and his handlers and party were clearly looking the other way, along with you and the rest of the country.
So if you want us to “get over it,” then I’ll tell you to “get over” Florida in 2000. Howzat? You “get over” Bush starting an illegal war and forcing an end to the Florida recount, and I’ll “get over” the backroom bullshit that got that big-eared geek into the WH. Deal?
And I have to say that listening to supposed liberals get smug over having cooked an election and then sneering at the justified anger of the people who took it up the waz is amazing to me.
How many times I listened to and commiserated with other “liberals” — people who I thought had principle and meant what they said — when they whined endlessly about the stealing of the 2000 election and Ohio in 2004. How many times I listened to you poseur Democraps banging on and on ad nauseum over the Iraq War and how you cared about Our Sacred Troops, and how tewwible it was that Bush never went to see the coffins return at Dover. Ain’t It Awful how horribly Those Republicans have acted — lookit their economic advisors! All those evil people from the Chicago school of econ! Aren’t they all just horrible people, and let’s sit around and bitch for eight freakin years.
And I sat and bitched with you.
And then I watched while you all revealed yourselves for what you were. You never cared about dead soldiers. You still don’t. Fuck dead soldiers, right? When was the last time you whined over the Preznit not going to see the coffins come back at Dover since 2008, honey? When was the last time you complained about election shenanigans? Sure, those freshwater economists were Just So Terrible when they were Bush’s BFF, but … well … now that Dreamboat Barry likes them, you decide they weren’t so bad after all! At least, when they’re sitting at your guy’s lunch table!
All that time I spent listening to you people piss and moan about this garbage, and it turns out you didn’t care. You never did. You were just pissed because your side didn’t do it. Dead soldiers? Who freakin cares? They’re less dead when it’s a Democrat’s fault! Economic shitstorms? Hey, go buy Michelle Obama’s sneakers, if you can afford them! Stimulate that economy! Stolen elections? *hyuk hyuk* Yeah, but it’s funny when it’s our side that wins!
Just like a Republican. Just like a right-winger. You were no different all along. You were like the guy who complains that “chicks only like guys with nice cars.” You didn’t actually care about relationship dynamics. You were just bitter and resentful because you didn’t have a nice car.
And now that your guy is handing over “health” care that consists of mandates, fines, and penalties — just like Bush — you’re in love with it. Now that your Dream Boyfriend is sending the economy down the crapper and expanding an already poisonous war, you’re all for it and screw the troops. Now that your side hires a bunch of illegitimate shysters for economic advisors and sends trillions of dollars to bank bailouts who then hand it to their rich buddies, you’re all for it.
Your opinion means nothing, and anything you claim to be against now, you’ll be all for tomorrow when your side starts pulling it. As a consequence, nothing you say can be taken seriously, because you literally mean none of it. You and your ilk have no principles, no thought-out opinions, and no underpinnings at all to anything you say.
Therefore, continuing to dialogue with you is meaningless. I’ve got CDs to rip into my iTunes. Bye.
Karry Reid,
People in Obama’s campaign and elected officials made sexist remarks routinely. D-Rep. Cohen from Tenn. said that Clinton was another Glen Close in Fatal Attraction and should have stayed in the tub. D-Rep. from Illinois, Rahm Emanuel, now Obama’s chief of staff, said that Clinton should get back to knitting. D-Sen. Leahy of VT and D-Sen Reid of Arizona and Senate Majority leader, called for her to quit the race in early March 08 before the Ohio and Texas primaries. Obama himself said that “when she is periodically feeling down her claws come out to boost her appeal”. Donna Brazil, a super-delegate, sat their and never said a word while another commentator on CNN called Clinton a “bitch”. This is just a few and there is plenty of documentation of these incidences and many more. I’m not good with the linking, but if you are interested, go to “Mad as hell” and “We’ve come a long way baby” on YouTube and you will see for yourself.
And frankly, you would have to be brain dead not to see that the media was in the tank for Obama. I refuse to allow the democratic party to hide behind the Obama media goons to conceal their misogyny. Howard Dean, helped orchestrate the disenfranchisement of Fl. and MI, two large states, that would have clearly been in Clinton’s column, in order to influence the outcome of the primaries against her. CNN gave Obama several hours a day free air time every Saturday and Sunday for months, while insisting that Clinton’s voters were racist. They reported that people in the mid-west rust belt were racist because they supported Clinton over Obama. They went out of their way to report on voters who refused to vote for a black man, while deliberately concealing evidence that indicated that more voters were less likely to vote for a woman of any color. Keith Olbermann was receiving daily talking points from David Axelrod, Obama’s campaign manager, many of them down right race baiting and misogynistic. At one point Olbermann said that “one of the super-delegates should take her (Clinton) into a back room and when HE’S done, only HE would come out”. Boy, if that doesn’t sound like the woman needs the shit raped out of her, nothing does! Can you even imagine if someone on a national news outlet suggested lynching Obama for daring to run in a campaign for a position that should be reserved for whites only? But it was perfectly fine as far as the DNC was concerned for such comments to be made about a woman! Howard Dean came on MSNBC to chastise FOX News for their coverage of Rev. Wright in March 08, but didn’t say a word about the rape insinuation made by Olbermann about Clinton, which was much more egregious. None of the news outlets would give her any air time. They trashed her constantly, without giving her any opportunity to defend herself. On the other hand, Obama was treated like royalty and given tons of air time to make his case.
You see, I was never a supporter of McCain and most Puma’s aren’t either. I, personally could not vote for him, but I also could not support Obama and don’t trust him on women’s issues either. The “conscience rule” that Bush put in place to allow medical providers to refuse women birth control and abortions was just reaffirmed by Obama the other night. He, without hesitation, traded women’s rights to cut a deal with the good old boys. This is the sexism I saw in his campaign. If he really cared about women’s rights, he never would have ran such a sexist campaign, either directly or by media proxy. In reality, he did both!
In short, its less about Clinton and more about the fact that the democratic party is a bunch of sexist pigs, worse than many of us realized. We have spent years accusing the republicans of being misogynists, when our own party leaders are too. Moreover, the lingering effects of the sexism that occurred are damaging to women and especially girls. The sexism that was unleashed and sanctioned during that campaign knocked all women down a peg or two. I have a 10 year old daughter and it hurts me deeply to know that women have no place to turn in the political process for support of our human rights. The democrats made it clear that they do not view us as equal to men. So I ask, why should I support them?
Republican opposition to Obama is conservatism THEN racism because Obama is a very white black man i.e. he appeases whites and big business at every turn. In the way that he appeases Wall Street, he’s whiter than George Bush.
Clinton supporters opposition to Obama is due to the severely rigged/stolen nomination and historic misogyny of the primary. Racism never entered the picture.
And “You lie!” was conservatism with definite overtones of racism. Bill Clinton was heckled and jeered but no one yelled “You lie!”
Helen thanks for your comment. during this last election and until now I see the word racist inappropriately applied a lot. but I don’t think the word sexist has been overused lately. In contrast we need to expose sexist behavior a lot more, too many people are completely numb and don’t want women to make a great deal out of injustice. it is so fitting for us females to take the second spot. that is when we are congratulated. they talk nice about Hillary because she does not steel the show from Obama, but never talk nice when she shows her talent. the media can’t get enough from Obama first, Hillary a step behind and possibly with a head scarf. when will he ask for female companions to go to the Arabic world in Burkas. recently read on the web page of one of our commentators Allessandro Machi in defining sexist pictures: “if you don’t want to see your male body portrayed as the female in this picture, it is sexist”. so for the one who don’t get it here, which male journalist wants to be addressed as sweetie? or male banker or trial lawyer or??
We need to learn from the civil rights movement, how they raised awareness for their plight. read today about Ida Wells on Wikipedia. she was a feminist, journalist, co-founder of the NAACP, central person to fight against lynching and investigating it. she fought and won a law suit for not giving up her seat to a white men. she would not get over anything. and we should not get over anything, not anymore.
Theoretically speaking, sensitivity to racism trumps feminism in the Third Wave. Violet wrote how intersectionality works in theory but not in practice. I advocate for intersectionality 120% but only when sexism and racism are treated equally. I wrote a 14 part series retiterating the four points below and how the Third Wave became apologist about sexism and misogynist/feminist bashing.
I was a democrat, I watched them divide the party early on, their focus was on skin color and the uterus! They used tactics of sexism and racism, and they employed “fear” to bully and harass. They refused to fix the division within the party, and talked of tinkling and trickling effects. They were a tangle of YOU LIE themselves. I was never so embrassed and humilitated to be called
a racist, Me, since I am of mixed blood, and when I responded to the sexism, I was called sexist and that I was putting women back 50 years. Me, the woman
who back in the 1960’s and 1970’s was part of the woman’s movement, the woman
who help Ms. Magazine, and NOW get it’s start. Me, the woman who was in DC
when Shirely Chisolm ran for President.
I will not deny it, when Puma pounced, I regained a little respect, and
I will not let any one party ever again take that away from me. I will never
let them muzzle me or people, because that is the other tactic they use.
I am out to smash sexism, when it is smashed we will have unity, respect and
peace!
Here’s to you Kerry Reid:
Susan Rice said it’s not possible for Hillary to gain national security experience merely by being married to a commander in chief, for that’s all she is Bill Clinton’s wife. Give me your argument that this isn’t sexism that
was used during the election. Come on, let’s break it down right here, and right now.
To Karry Reid,
You want to see sexism in the democratic primary? Let’s go to the
videotape(S):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke64670GkZ8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eseoMOEaFnM
Thank you Kathleen Wynne, there in the videos is our history, it was Camp Obama who also used the trigger. I forgot to add to “abuse” in my first paragraph!
Thank you!
I don’t think we’ll see Kerry back. It’s real easy to say “I’ve asked for examples so many times and haven’t seen one!” when you WALK OFF before people reply to you.
It’s also easy to ignore the fact that the sky is blue if you shut your eyes every time you look up, too.
Oh Janis, you couldn’t be more wrong! I know PUMAs are used to fighting in an echo chamber, but we in the reality-based community (i.e, the one that doesn’t think of Sarah Palin as a feminist standard-bearer) always enjoy a good fight. Did you ever get to hear the link to Sarah Palin giggling while the shock jocks made those degrading comments about Lyda Green? I’ve posted them here but I don’t know if Amy kept them up or not. They sort of take the bloom off the rose — here it is again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_23HhsKOQQ
So let’s start with Ms. Wynne’s video “proof.” Those of you who can read will remember that I asked for proof of OBAMA or his campaign using sexism, not random media figures or novelty purveyors. So in other words, “Iron my shirt” is a dick move. But there is no proof that it was one orchestrated by the Obama campaign.
First, the canard about Jay-Z’s “99 Problems” being played at the Iowa caucus party, spread by well-known liar Taylor Marsh (http://www.dailykos.com/story/.....856/439515) has been debunked numerous times.
Here’s the video of the Obamas walking into that event while Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” plays in the background.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJBTyL0nQr4
Now, as to Obama’s comments that she is the frontrunner because her name is Clinton, not Rodham: absolutely true. Or do you think a carpetbagging unionbusting attorney from Arkansas with no prior legislative or executive experience who wasn’t married to a former president could have won election as U.S. Senator from New York in her first-ever political campaign? And given that Hillary Clinton constantly invoked her First Lady experience as part of her vaunted record of “35 years” of public service, as well as saying “It took a Clinton to clean up after the first Bush, it will take one to clean up after the second,” it is absolutely fair to observe that she was using her connections with her husband and his administration as ballast for her campaign. It is not sexist to observe what is true. And of course, once the First Lady records came out, it showed that once the healthcare debacle was behind her, she didn’t do a heck of a lot more than most First Ladies do. That’s not a criticism — First Ladies aren’t elected to carry out an agenda, and the advocacy she did undertake was admirable.
For the record, Barack Obama’s time in the Illinois State Senate — dismissed by a Clinton supporter on one of the videos as “local-yokel Chicago politics,” gave him more years of legislative experience than either Hillary Clinton OR John Edwards. Why would someone dismiss the legitimate legislative and professional experiences of a black man so handily as so many in the Clinton camp did? (Gee, remind me again who co-founded this blog? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KACQuZVAE3s)
One wonders. One also wonders what would have happened if Barack Obama had claimed that, while he and John McCain had passed the “commander-in-chief threshold,” (whatever that may be) but Hillary hadn’t, what kind of outcry one could expect. Tarnishing your party’s front-runner in order to curry favor with the other side is generally considered very bad form, indeed.
Jesse Jackson’s comments about her tears? Untoward, but true. She lost me with “You helped me find my voice,” inasmuch as a woman who is 60 and has been on the national stage HAS a voice already. I have little sympathy for a woman who talks constantly about the need to improve women’s lives when it suits her political purposes AFTER casting a cynical hawkish vote (without reading the NIE) for a war that ruined countless female lives in Iraq. (Or do you all have a 3/5 rule in place that says non-American lives don’t count as much as those of wealthy white privileged American women?)
Samantha Powers; “monster” comment? She quit the next day and apologized. Ferraro, on the other hand, who made the same scurillous “affirmative action” comments about Jesse Jackson twenty years earlier, left without apology.
Bill Clinton never apologized for his Jesse Jackson comments or for calling Barack Obama a “kid” — one step away from saying “boy.” Let us imagine if Obama or Michelle had called Hillary a “kid” or a “girl.”
“Claws come out?” Hillary’s own campaign admitted they were going dirty with “kitchen sink” tactics. http://www.mercurynews.com/nat.....ck_check=1
Among these tactics, of course, is the famous racist gambit of “guilt by association with other black men,” as in the debate where she insisted that Obama had to denounce AND reject Louis Farrakhan. Why? Because he is also black? The videos you link to continue that practice. What the hell do rap videos have to do with Barack Obama? He is not the producer of MSNBC (source of your angst – and I agree that many of those comments were unacceptable, but they were NOT from the Obama campaign!) In fact, most of those videos are probably played on BET. And who is BET’s president? Bob Johnson — a Hillary supporter who tried to smear Obama with drug references. (Obama admitted he dabbled with drugs — yes, he inhaled and everything! — in his first book.)
Obama didn’t “decry” the sexism in the campaign? Please show me where Hillary decried racism. She didn’t. She was too busy using it with her “hardworking Americans, white Americans” comment and linking Obama to boogeyman Farrakhan, as well as feeding the forces of xenophobia with her smirking “as far as I know” demurral on “60 Minutes” about Obama being a Muslim. Which fit right in with Bob Kerrey’s lies that Obama attended a “secular madrassa.” And Hillary’s “he wouldn’t have been MY pastor” claim about Jeremiah Wright — except that she and Bill invited him to the White House during Bill’s come-to-Jesus with religious leaders apres Monica. Hillary also prayed regularly with known homophobes and sexists in The Family. (http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080331/ehrenreich)
If Obama really had the media in his pocket, how is it that the Wright videos played 24/7 for two weeks?
As for “periodically,” — well, I suppose that’s right up there with people who think “niggardly” is a racial slur. Sometimes an adverb is just an adverb.
Michigan and Florida are proof of sexism? Those states weren’t ever supposed to count. AT ALL. Hillary Clinton told NPR in New Hampshire as much (http://www.dailykos.com/story/.....10/490995), and she signed pledges with all the other candidates recognizing that they shouldn’t count. Then when she realized she couldn’t beat the “inadequate black male” by following the rules they all agreed to, she began making ridiculous and offensive comparisons to Zimbabwe!
And as for the “Glenn Close” comments — again, untoward, but since Hillary Clinton invoked the spectre of Robert Kennedy’s assassination TWICE as a reason to stay in the race, it’s a bit hard to work up a head of sympathy on those grounds.
But here’s the thing: even AFTER her war vote, her vote for the Patriot Act, her vote on Kyl-Lieberman (which Obama skipped, and shouldn’t have, but at least he didn’t vote FOR it), her attempts to pass unconstitutional flag-burning legislation, her campaign’s decision to paint Obama as the scary not-really-American other (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc.....nton-memos) and their naked appeals to white resentment, despite her Cheneyesque fearmongering about how the terrorists follow our elections very closely so we better be careful — despite ALL that, if she had won the nomination, I would have voted for her, because I know that McCain and Sarah Palin would have been disastrous. And I think she’s stepped into the Sec. of State position with grace and aplomb.
So keep on spreading your lies about Obama running a “sexist” campaign. You haven’t got the proof.
But say hi to that nutball Harriet Christian if you happen to run into her.
Yeah, she lost the nomination because the other guy was already bought and paid for by the banks and insurance companies.
Next?
lets not forget the support to the other guy by the trial lawyers, the telcom companies and the 200 millions unaccounted donations.
it is beyond me but apparently to some guys it has not registered that the n word or lynching movies were not plaid for their candidate, but rape and lynching and obscenity beyond imagination was used to our candidate and to Sarah Palin.
to some guys injustice to women will never count. they don’t see the rape in congo before a man gets raped. and of course name recognition for women goes only through marriage. of course since any accomplishments by women have been erased and silenced by our current non-culture.
genes for excellence for artistic talent, even math talent, or political intelligence are not linked to the Y-chromosome. anybody who diggs will find great female composers, mathematicians, artists, doctors, and leaders in social movements despite the century old practice of not publishing women, and keeping them out of the public eye.
now surelybastard even admits there was sexism in the media, but he does not think it was bad enough to expect Obama to put a stop at it. I don’t expect anything better from our male obama protectioners than not acknowledging that the women hate during the campaign had a sharp increase. if you were commenting in the mainstream media on-line you were buried within the excrements of a professional obscene literature producing crowd. the political comment section became unreadable if you had any respect for females. so this had nothing to do with obama. and the rappers he used have supposedly suddenly become respectful to women? really?
To Kerry Reid: Obama didn’t have the guts to be overtly sexist but he didn’t call out the sexists on his crew or the Media. Still he and the Democrat party ran the most sexist campaign I have ever seen first against Hillary and then against Palin and I live in a state that has two female US Senators and a female Gov. so unlike many on the east coast I have actually seen how women in politics get elected and perform. Your party also disregarded the will of the people in several states, ignored the primary in Washington state, corrupted the caucus system and short circuited the Democrat convention. For these reasons many do not consider Obama a legitimate President and he suffers the effects of his perceived illegitimacy.
The Democrat party and Obama also chose to use only fear to communicate with women “you BETTER vote for us or you will lose your reproductive rights” but then the Dems do nothing to secure our reproductive rights because they would lose the weapon they hold over womens heads. I am no longer a Democrat, I have told the party this repeatedly when they call me but they don’t get it and just keep calling for money which I used to give in large amounts. Clearly you all are tone deaf. I am not alone, because of their behavior the Dems have lost many votes and they are not coming back. Now you can keep insulting the thinking people who saw what you all did by calling them racist, fugly, old women, stupid Palinites, in your mind it is probably the cool thing to do because many are women, but you permanently lost many votes and I don’t see you coming to terms with that. We saw what you did and we know what we saw, no amount of your koolaid induced yapping will change that or make us vote for you.
Violet Socks 14-part series, If You Vote For Obama This Is What You’re Voting For is a good place to start but clicking on the sexism tags of the hundreds of JSND and PUMA blogs and websites is all the evidence you need. The sexism of the last twenty months was mainly the double standard in which women are treated in a different manner than men in a similar station. Obama and his supporters, the media, the DNC, Democrats, prominent feminists, the netroots and Third Wave treated Clinton, her supporters and Palin differently in the last twenty months than they would have treated men.
It’s not the Obama campaign and but the Obama administration. Look at his most recent statement on the conscience clause:
July 2, 2009: Expect a ‘robust conscience clause,’ President Obama says
Obama’s campaign and administration were also homophobic. Here is a good article about the homophobia of the campaign:
September 29, 2008: Barack Obama’s Compulsively Repeated Gay Bashing Risks the Loss of A Key Voting Block
Bes, clearly you don’t understand “show me the proof.” This conspiracy-mongering about the caucuses is just laughable. She didn’t win the caucuses because Mark Penn didn’t have a strategy for them, period.
I for one don’t care if racists choose to leave the DEMOCRATIC Party, though your suspicious use of the Limbaugh-esque “Democrat Party” line tends to make me think you were never a supporter in the first place. At any rate, losing the racists can only make the party stronger, as the exodus of the Dixiecrats did. And “Kool-Aid?” That is so tired and unimaginative. And insulting, given that it’s a reference to a tragedy in which a white demagogue helped kill hundreds of people, many of them poor people of color.
I’ve been following the Hillary-or-Nobody crowd for a long time, and it was clear that NOTHING Obama said would have satisified you. Had he made a speech decrying sexism, he would have been trashed by you for being “condescending.” Frankly, given the Rovian garbage Hillary and Co. tossed at him, I think he was exceedingly gracious. (Imagine if the 3 AM call ad had come from his campaign! How DARE he suggest that Hillary Clinton was unprepared to handle an emergency situation!) And remember that heinous ABC debate, where he refused to make hay out of her Bosnia lies while she piled on about Wright, Ayers, flag pins, and the rest of the nonsense?
Face it, most of you assumed, as Mrs. Clinton clearly did, that her being handed the nomination was a fait accompli and the primaries were just a pesky formality. I can’t tell you how many times I read screeds from angry women about how Obama was “getting out of line” by running because “everyone knew” it was “Hillary’s turn,” as if presidential politics is a board game and the players go based on the roll of a die. None of you screamed about the media being in the bag when she was being widely touted in the press as the presumptive nominee before Iowa. None of you questioned why Rev. Wright got so much airplay when John Hagee and Rod Parsley were swept under the rug.
You would never have accepted Obama’s legitimacy as a candidate (as evidenced by the — yes — racist way his longer years of legislative experience were erased by many Clinton supporters). So like the venomous mobs at the astro-turfed tea parties, you decry his legitimacy now. Enjoy your life on the lunatic fringe. And since that much-vaunted PUMA power didn’t even erase Hillary Clinton’s campaign debt (despite Will Bower’s lies to the contrary on national television) much less sway the election for McCain, I must say that your threats are pretty empty.
Many of us would agree with Violet Socks statement in her post, If you vote for Obama, this is what you’re voting for (Reminder #1):
The Obama movement for the last twenty months has been the worst bout of sexism (and possibly homophobia at least from a political figure) this country has ever seen.
Kerry,
I gave you many examples! You are dreaming about the Robert Kennedy remarks! You obviously didn’t listen to the interview and citing DailyKos is bullshit. They are far from news worthy!
Furthermore, Clinton never agreed to MI and FL not counting. They all pledged not to campaign there after the DNC stripped the states of their delegates. You obviously don’t understand how these things work. And, by the way, Obama ran ads in Florida anyway, which under DNC rules called for penalties that the DNC never levied against him.
Moreover, Clinton never painted Obama in any light. She was never given enough air time by the corporate media to do so. MSMBC and CNN, number one and two sexist race baiters painted her as a racist, and she was never given the opportunity to set the record straight.
Furthermore, if you want to compare voting records on policy, here we go:
Obama voted for FISA, to reauthorize of the patriot Act, war funding for Iraq, continues the policy of rendition (ie torture in off shore undisclosed locations), and all the other Bush stuff, except the Iraq war vote which took place before he came to the senate. Now he has reaffirmed Bush’s “conscience rule”, sucked the asses of the banking oligarchs and republicans, and has sold out to the big health insurance and pharmaceutical industries by giving away any public option for health-care and hiding behind the POWERLESS republicans in order to save face. He has done nothing to stop the Iraq war which continues to rage on, and has expanded the war in Afghanistan. His entire economic team is made up of financial Wall Street oligarchs who created the financial crisis in order to steal from the tax payers in this sickening Tarp bailout. To this day he has done nothing to regulate the banks, nor will he. They will continue to rob the US treasury in broad day light, while he stands guard while pretending to scold them for their greed. He continues to undermine the constitution, just as Bush did, and anyone who criticizes him is branded be racist.
As for Palin, Obama chose to run against her rather than McCain. His campaign made false claims that McCain was on his death bed and “she was a Heart beat away from the presidency”. This was the lame excuse used to escalate the misogyny, particularly since it worked so well against Clinton. I, personally could not vote for McCain/Palin, and do not think that they represented good policy. But I am not so naive to think that Obama is some great Messiah, as so many of his foolish followers do who are looking for absolution for their white affluent privilege. Those “white Guilt” tactics worked on a lot of people, but when poor whites and Latinos who were struggling to get by, like their black neighbors, weren’t feeling the guilt, they were branded racists along with women who objected to his misogynistic tactics!
Obama and his cohorts, use race baiting to avoid the truth, which is that he is another corporate whore, much worse than Clinton and even McCain would have been, and that is why they made him the president!
Clinton apologized at least three times for racism from surrogates of her campaign, Bill Clinton, Geraldine Ferraro (who was correct in retrospect) and Bill Shaheen. Ninety percent of alleged racism from Clinton’s campaign was disproven and any alleged racism stopped after South Carolina anyway.
Obama never apologized for the sexism of his campaign or administration. He apologized to a nonpartisan reporter for the sweetie remark and told the media to leave his wife alone but that’s all he said about sexism during the campaign. He actively encourages sexism in our culture with his non-condoning of Jon Favreau’s groping incident, telling his wife to sit down and look cute during the campaign and his ogling of a teenager’s backside. Since it was Obama’s primary and now Obama’s administration/country, he is responsible for the tone in both. His condoning/silence/lack of leadership over the worst misogyny this country has ever seen/the last twenty months makes him responsible for it.
May 18, 2008: Clinton did apologize for racism
CNN, March 13, 2008: Clinton apologizes to black voters (article no longer available, see screenshot)
NYT, December 14, 2007:
And some early proof of the Obama campaign’s race-baiting:
Clinton campaign website also offered the article, “Shaheen’s formal apology and resignation.”
It’s not hard to connect the Obama campaign’s treatment of women, GLBT, the working class, elderly, Jews and Latinos with the way Obama’s administration treats these groups. These and other groups are the first he threw under the bus.
Kerry—-I have no need to litigate the past or to show proof. Only to know that for alot of women, the 2008 was a turning point, a call to action. You can try to sweep it under the rug or to shout it down, but it won’t change anything. The work of women having parity in our society is far from finished, and President Obama is not a champion of that work. Anyone, including you, who can’t see that is either tone deaf or has a blind spot. It’s as simple as that. Everyone has their blind spots, this just happens to be yours, and your rantings expose more about you than it influences anything I’m going to think. Thanks for participating in the discussion.
Bill Clinton, Ferraro and Shaheen were also forced to leave the campaign.
None of the sexists from Obama’s campaign or admininstration have been forced to step down.
Why were they forced to leave? I never heard of that before.
Karen, it just proves the failure of the Third Wave. Race trumps gender in the Third Wave. They were forced to leave the campaign. None of Obama’s sexist surrogates have been reprimanded or forced to step down.
More lies from PUMAs. His campaign explicitly went after McCain, not Palin, even though many people wanted them to hit harder at her, and even though she was whipping up crowds at her rallies with her disgusting rhetoric about “palling around with terrorists” (even though her husband belonged to an anti-American secessionist party).
And how do all you newfound Palin fans feel about her comments about Hillary “whining” too much? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....25955.html
That’s far worse than ANYTHING ever said about her by anyone in the Obama camp. Add that to Palin’s failure to rebuke the men who insulted Lyda Green and it’s clear that it’s not the gender of the person you care about but the racial identity.
You’re not feminists. And Bes is a birther, so I think that tells us about the level of intellect and sanity that this place draws.
And despite all your claims to be a new force in American politics — what have you done? Obama won with a larger percentage of the female vote than John Kerry had. You had your sad little Letterman protest over the Palin situation. Let’s see — he’s still in his job, and she’s a bigger punchline than ever.
Talk about “blind spots.” The irony, it burns! And why are some comments “disappeared” from here? Are you all simply too weak to handle it?
They were forced to leave because it was convenient to dream up fake accusations of racism against them to destroy Hillary’s campaign — and the media went right along. Period.
Neither Bill Clinton nor his “fairy tale” remakr were or are racist. PERIOD. And Geraldine Ferraro was right.
Kerry,
“You had your sad little Letterman protest over the Palin situation.”
This in response to a rape joke.
Kerry, clearly you have no interest in women’s issues…. So why are you hanging out at feminist site? It’s starting to look a little obsessive and more than a little pathetic….
PUMAs were right about everything. That Obama is corrupt, misogynist, homophobic, inexperienced/unqualified, conservative and totalitarian and that the nomination was severely rigged/stolen by Obama, the DNC, the media, Wall Street, netroots and Third Wave/establishment feminism because of sexism/fear of feminism/powerful women. All the evidence you need is the following compilation of Obama’s 239 shocking, unprogressive headlines from liberal and mainstream sources in the last 239 days:
Obama averages one alarming, unprogressive act a day
Only a misogynist behaves like this:
NYT, June 23, 2008: Obama’s ‘Get Over It’ Moment With Women
These are random articles that come up around the blogosphere or on my blog. There is overwhelming evidence of our claims and anyone with critical thinking skills would have seen the same things. Obama did something odd/conservative about twice a week from during the primary but fauxgressives looked the other way because of their racism/fear of appearing racist/fear of criticizing Obama.
Pole Cat Kerri, you ought to go on about your business elsewhere. That heavy paint job you doing here, we all see through the layers. Get on out of here
you freakin weasel.
Donna, I agree with you over everything about Obama except your statement that he is conservative. I read your list, and there are many things listed that conservatives have complained about as well.
The few who were not under the influence of Koolaid were objective. I take radical but correct positions. It doesn’t make me popular but ideas/principles live on no matter what.
Well, we both agree Obama is up to no good. I know conservatives hate Obama for some of the exact same reasons you do because I talk with them and read their blogs, so there is one thing both conservatives and liberals agree upon. We are unified!
Conservatives hate liberals. They REALLY, REALLY hated the Clintons! They still do! They hate Obama because of his leftist rhetoric which also fooled fauxgressives then racism. He comes across as very white, whiter than Colin Powell, and very affable.
I only hate one thing in the world, sexism, and three people in the world, Bush and Cheney for their policies and Obama for his misogyny.
To Donna: ” He comes across as very white, whiter than Colin Powell, and very affable.”
I know this comment will be erased, as it was before, but ANYONE who says a black man is “acting white” is a racist POS. In other words, a PUMA! (Let’s see, isn’t PUMAPac the home of “Islam sucks” and other racist and xenophobic sentiments?) Please, Alias Donna (I post under my real name because I have stones) enlighten us: what is “white” behavior? And how would you feel if someone said that Hillary was “acting like a man?”
And so nice to see the NAGS admit that, though they may have tossed racist insane Harriet “Inadequate Black Male!” Christian to the side, they continue in the fine tradition of your co-founder. Angry underachieving white females who pinned their hopes on Hillary to somehow make up for their sad unfulfilled lives of self-inflicted failure.
Now please enlighten me as to what you’ve achieved with all your “activism,” aside from writing swoony fangirl screeds about anti-feminist nutcase Sarah Palin. You didn’t retire Hillary’s campaign debt (which, if you all loved her so much, shouldn’t have existed in the first place, unless there was gross mismanagement of funds … oh), you didn’t turn the female vote against Obama — oh QUITE the contrary!, and PUMA is a punchline right up there with Palin. Who will of course get her ass kicked in 2012 if she goes up against Obama. And then you’ll all spend another four years crying about “media conspiracies” and “ACORN” and “birth certificates” and all the other unsubstantiated nonsense you can generate. Because let’s face it — you have nothing else.
Kerry Ried,
“Angry underachieving white females who pinned their hopes on Hillary to somehow make up for their sad unfulfilled lives of self-inflicted failure.”
So very sad and hateful toward women you are. Read the context of the thread and the discussion on white male politicians. That’s what that is about – the reference on race here is just saying Obama is more of the same.
Many women here find Obama to be the same brand of corporate appeasement.
There are many PUMAS at New and many who are not. Then there are women like myself who like New because New fights sexism on a level that is radical, which means understanding that sexism / misogyny is entrenched in the entire system and cannot be fought by policy alone.
The PUMAs IMO are also partially responsible for the new leadership at NOW. Of course that is insignificant to you since you have no interest in women.
Again and again you come to thread – you cannot control yourself. You are never going to show up to one of the threads about Domestic Violence, because you do not care about that. You are never going to show up to one of the threads about rape because you do not care about that.
Personally, I don’t care about birth certificates and I’m not cheering for Sarah Palin to be my next President. But I have stood up against the sexism cast toward Sarah Palin and I have stood up against the double standards.
I must be some racist old white woman, huh?
Grow up and do something positive with your day, Kerry. If you care about racism why not be an activist for better schooling in urban america? This is one of the most important ways that racism shows it’s ugly head in the US. Inequality in education.
But you don’t really care about racism do you? All you seem to care about is the charge – racist, racist! You are like a McCarthyist, can’t you hear yourself? Yes, you are enjoying harassing a bunch of women at a feminist thread that you never comment on until something “racial” offends you. But nothing seems to offend you regarding the treatment of women, now does it?
Kerry Reid,
If this group is as pathetic as you say, what does your uncontrollable need to attack them say about you?
I am a POC. Asians say Asians act white all the time. They also say other POC act white all the time. I didn’t say Obama acted white. Harriet Christian was RIGHT. She said why can people call her the stereotype of the racist white woman when no one can call him what he is? Adolph Reed was right in his January Progressive column when he said white people like you were very self-centered in voting for Obama to feel good about themselves AT THE EXPENSE of actual, concrete improvement in black peoples’ lives.
Have you seen the substance of my blog? The 100 or so posts about feminism in communities of color for starters, the hundreds of cutting edge feminist posts, intersections with race and class and the most trenchant, relevant political commentary out there that’s been shaping the national dialogue if not at my blog, in my cutting-edge commentary throughout the feminist and progressive blogosphere for the last three and a half years? Are people going to pay me to blog? You got a hot guy for me? People will pay me to blog? Then I’d consider blogging under my real name.
Back to Adolph Reed who said liberal whites were racist for supporting Obama. They supported him to feel good about themselves AT THE EXPENSE of actual progress. Obama supporters are the racists who instead use race-baiting to parse and misinterpret what Steinem, Ferraro, that second wave feminist at DoubleX I forget her name and Christian said instead of vetting Obama and electing an actual Democrat.
Everyone knows Obama and Gates are post-racial. Obama is post-post-post-racial in his Wall Street appeasement. But I really like Skip Gates and anyone with a PhD in literary theory.
The troll wouldn’t know Asian patriarchy ruined my life because male and female Obama supporters morphed into black and white patriarchs and would believe whatever Asian patriarchs say.
Let’s see, Violet’s statement:
a blog about sexism and feminism (The New Agenda), Steinem, Ferraro, Hirshman and Christian were right (she was all about Obama’s inexperience and, of course, she was right), Asian patriarchy destroyed my life, a thread about sexism…
What is the common thread here? Sexism and patriarchy! And what does racism have to do with any of this except the knee-jerk, racist, liberal, feel-good-ism that got us in all this trouble?
Obama is so white George Bush is smiling to himself. Notice Bush has been quiet lately? It’s because Obama is doing exactly what Bush wants! Appeasing Wall Street! No President has been friendlier to Wall Street than Obama.
Donna,
I think you would have some awareness of what does or does not happen in the “Corridor of Shame” that was used as a poster in the Obama campaign. To your knowledge, has this administration actually done anything to change the circumstances or offer up opportunities to the residents there?
If you google “Corridor of Shame Obama” you get this article which focuses on the physical delapidation of the schools and his “personal responsibility” meme.
This is exactly what I’m talking about. We knew Obama was a neo-liberal, neo-con conservative during the primary with Arne Duncan, neo-liberal, NCLB-type plans for “reforming” education. They will privatize education with charter schools and un-unionized teachers. We “racist, white women” were right while the knee-jerking, racist, white, liberals elected a conservative. Symbolism IS the most important element in uplifting the black communit but not when his policies act in direct opposition to everyone’s interest except the oligarchs.
How typical for a misogynist to cite a poll about men’s liklihood to vote for a woman for president, as though that settles it! Not like the Democratic Party could go to bat for their woman candidate — heaven forbid we do anything other than throw up our hands in the face of some poll number. How to explain, then, that Hillary actually received MORE VOTES than BO?
Cynthia, you think Howard Dean “opened your eyes.” He charmed you into believing he “got it.” Yeah, Howard’s very good at pretending empathy when he wants to be. Talk is cheap, after the deed’s been done.
I had a similar conversation with him before the fixed RBC meeting, where the committee blatently arranged MI & FL to shut Hillary out. If I had it to do over again, I’d spit in his eye.
*****A
If you google Obama Corridor of Shame, he focuses on the physical appearance of the schools and personal responsibility. This is exactly what I’m talking about. We knew during the primary Obama was neo-liberal and neo-conservative, that his education policies were neo-liberal, he would push NCLB, privatize schools, push charter schools and non-unionized teachers. Symbolism is the most important element in uplifting the black community but not when Obama’s policies are so harmful to everyone except the oligarchs.
Donna, Bush only had 22% of the popular vote. He knows the people don’t want to listen to him even if he wanted to speak. And he was the most mediocre president we have had in a long time. I think politics was too much for him to handle, so Bush is probably happy to be out of it. I think that is a much more likely reason for his silence.
Why is Cheney popping up then? He wore the pants in that WH.
John Kerry calls us Racists because we don’t support this man. First of all I doubt that John Kerry is a black man nor do I think he knows anything about racism now even if he is a black man I doubt from his comments that he knows anything about racism. Funny I remember when the race card was first played against Bill Clinton I remember saying something to my friends about what was said. I asked them to explain the “racist” fairy tale remark. We are all black people and they looked real embarrassed because they knew it wasn’t real racism. I am sure of one thing I bare the scars of racism and frankly I do not think Obama knows what real racism is becauseif he did he and his supporters would stop playing the race card.
I watched the Obama terror squad call white women racist simply for voting for Hillary.
Frankly John Kerry calls people racist but frankly calling white people racist simply because they are white and disagree with Democrats/Obama is frankly racist in itself.
I looked for racism during the Primary and the general election and frankly I was proud because I did not see it. I looked for sexism in both the Primary and general election and found it everywhere.
John Kerry doesn’t want a debate he wants to accuse people of being racists more then likely it is to alieve his own guilt. Perhaps he himself doesn’t like black people because if John Kerry thinks that voting for Obama Means your not a racist then you are mistaken. Voting for or against Obama doesn’t make you racist or not racist it just means you voted for Obama.
I also believe this very strongly that if Racism would have been played Obama would not have won either the Primary nor the General election. Just ask Jesse Jackson.
Karry,
You are a misogynist wack-job who isn’t work the energy to talk to! Like Barney Frank said at a town hall meeting, our time would be better spent talking to a table.
Adrienne—I still think Dean “got it”, but it wasn’t in his plans to do anything about it. As usual—-women’s concerns are important, but not right now because something else is always more important. That’s why I’m an Independent and putting women’s parity as my only issue. To hell with the rest of the agenda——if it doesn’t put women’s rights first, I could care less. People argue with me all of the time that one issue or another is more important. But I believe that the way a society treats its women is the ultimate marker of its character. And baby—-we’ve got a long way to go and we don’t have the luxury to worry about any other side issues until our work for female parity is done.
This is exactly it. There’s hypersensitivity to race when the 200-ton elephant in the room is sexism. Oversensitivity to race in the sense race-baiting is used as an excuse for sexism or a substitute for a real discussion of sexism. Dissenting Justice is bored with the race-baiting too in place of substantive discussion of policy:
Cynthia,
Yes, I think women’s parity is the most important issue because as a nation and as a globe we haven’t seen what a world can look like with 52 percent representation. Who knows? It’s not implausible that this could bring much greater peace.
I was really inspired by this article in the New York Times, an interview with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08.....-q4-t.html
I think this Madame President has the right idea and vision. With world equality for women the rest will come.
Why do you think we’ve never had a female president in the United States?
I have to ask you that question. You’ve got to vote for her.
Nail-hammer-BANG.
I note that the Daily Beast is reporting that the Obama administration is so unhappy with the way that Governor Patterson handled replacing Secretary Clinton in the U.S. Senate that they are trying to persuade him not to run for reelection. He chose a woman for this Senate vacancy. Is this payback for choosing a woman? Was that choice so bad in their opinion that it invalidates his status as a black man?
Meanwhile, here in Colorado, Governor Ritter chose an untested man without giving consideration to the possibility that the state of Colorado might have a qualified woman. The Obama administration is fully supportive of the Governor in his bid for reelection. Well, Ritter’s choice of an untested man seems to fit well with the DNC’s philosophy.
PS – there are a lot of valid reasons not to support Patterson. His selection of Gillibrand is not one of them in my opinion.
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