I, for one, am glad that this whole gender/race cold war has begun between the Clinton and Obama camps.
First, It was bound to happen. Forget about the requisite low level of discourse in politics, to think that these primaries would have gone on without talking about gender, race, and all of the other stuff we’re not supposed to talk about because we’re perfect little liberals, is just asking too much of us petty ass men and womyn.
If you think that there won’t be a unending barrage of ambiguous, thinly (or not so thinly) veiled attacks on Clinton’s gender or Obama’s race if one of them is nominated for the general election, you’re painfully mistaken.
Second, it allows me to to point out that while everybody’s been writing about what this dustup means - about America, gender politics, race relations - most of them miss the point.
Here’s what they’re saying:
Sexism? Sucks. Womyn have it bad. Shit isn’t equal. It’s gotten better but sexism still exists.
Racism? Sucks. Blacks have it bad. Shit isn’t equal. It’s gotten better but racism still exists.
So, do womyn have it worse or do blacks?
I don’t know but the point is nominating either Clinton or Obama won’t make sexism or racism magically disappear. Listen, I don’t want to pick a president based on whose historical victimization I think to be more worthy. And I don’t think should you either.
Nominating - and possibly electing - one of them might force us to begin seriously addressing these issues but I doubt that.
Fuck, we’re not even talking seriously about it now. This current debate between the Clinton and Obama camps is about symbols and words, not substance.
A true debate on the issues of substance would be too dangerous, too volatile for them to engage in because it would mean that they - and us as the electorate - would have to wrestle with the ”C” word.
Yes, they’d have to start talking about Class, which trumps even gender and race.
Look, the “Man” no longer oppresses black people or women like he oppresses poor people. And being poor cuts across race and gender. There are millions of poor ass white people, black people, men, and women.
This article about the gender/race war has a simple thought experiment in which he asks whether or not you want to be born in America as a white woman or a black man. How about this: Would you rather be born in America as a rich black woman or a dirt poor white man? Would you rather be Oprah in Chicago or Bobby Ray in the backwoods of Alabama?
The Man would rather be Oprah. Now, if I told you 40 years ago that The Man would rather be a black woman than a white man, you would have flipped out.
Don’t get me wrong, he used to hella oppress black people. Enslaved them, even. And The Man didn’t treat women much better. It was all bad. But The Man has changed. He’s no longer a racist or a sexist because he knows that those minorites can make his ass money.
The Man? He’s a motherfucking classist.
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COMMENTS / 2 COMMENTS
joey jerusalem added these pithy words on Jan 16 08 at 10:35 amRacism and Sexism were always decadent forms of classism. Essentially, the Man subjugated other races to create a guaranteed lower class, whose status was enforced by pseudo-scientific justifications and religious allegory. The status of women is older and more entrenched, but is a class distinction based on the biological determinism of an ancient time when physical strength trumpes all other concerns and the average woman was incapacitated by pregnancy half the year. These realities of early life soon became codified in religious and social custom.
Keep in mind, of course, that the Man Himself was often unaware of the Classist underpinnings of his racism and sexism, only concerning himself with the benefits to his own sovereign sense of absolut mastery over all he surveyed.
The “policy” or “issues” candidate has never beaten the “character” or “values” candidate in any US Presidential election. I take this as the proof of the inevitability of Obama’s nomination.
Why do you think things are gonna change this year?
jhk added these pithy words on Jan 16 08 at 11:39 amI don’t think that things are going to change this year (and with “change” being the buzzword in this primary season, I find that sad). I continue to be frustrated by the mainstream media’s discomfort with the Edwards campaign.
I’m not surprised, really. For the MSM to embrace Edwards’ raw ass populism would be for the Man to acknowledge his own classism, which you rightly point out, is the great granddaddy of them all.
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