Letters to the Editor

• Joan makes it beyond Salon

  [Read the article: The other 18 million]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  Joan seems to be building something of a national image

  From "Too sense" (much too sensible)

  "The Limited Empathy Of Joan Walsh"

  I wanted to tell Joan Walsh to kiss my high yellow ass last year when Salon first published a series of articles bashing Barack Obama, most notably Debra Dickerson's "he's not black" essay (how's that workin' out for ya Debra?) and the infamous Op-Ed where they quite literally referred to Obama as "uppity".

  Then there's this, pointed out by Ta-Nehisi:

  (Snip) Comments by Walsh "we saw the angry faces...)

  (snip- wailing comments by Walsh)

  Beyond that, Christian also proclaimed she was "not a second-class citizen" as though the simple fact of her favored candidate losing was some kind of disenfranchisement (this Christian lady should look up "grandfather clause" in the dictionary). But even as Ferraro pens Op-Eds proclaiming that resenting people because of their race isn't racist, and Christian decries the "inadequate" black man running for president, Walsh is so consumed with self-pity that the only bigotry she can see is that which might be directed against her.

  Even here, Walsh takes a page from Ferraro and distorts what Ferraro actually said, which was:

  "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position...And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept."

  That is not, as Walsh characterized, "saying that Obama's presidential run benefited from his being black," that is saying he's only winning because he's black. It's ridiculous in its watered down version, but it's most telling that neither Walsh nor Ferraro herself can actually bring themselves to repeat her actual comments while defending them.

  Yet it was Obama who had to distance himself from Father Pfleger and Trinity United once again last week, after Pfleger took a shot at Hillary as "an entitled" white woman. But former Clinton surrogates like Ferraro can blurt one racist diatribe after another without tarnishing the candidate she was formerly associated with. Even more frustrating is Walsh's proclamation that sexism is "the last non-taboo bias," even as she cites Ferraro's racist Op-Ed in the Boston Globe.

  In reality, white racism is as "non-taboo" as sexism, as long as it is couched in weak euphamisms like "racial resentment". Then there's this complaint from Walsh regarding the MSNBC "pimping" incident:

  (snip- about speaking out publicly)

  You mean the way Clinton spoke out against the "Muslim" smears, supported him during the firestorm over Jeremiah Wright, and told the media that despite his comments about small town America, the black man who grew up the son of a single mother was no "elitist"? Because she told her supporters that if you were voting for her because of Obama's race, that she didn't want their vote? The level of deference Walsh is demanding here from Obama could not be possible without white gloves, a jockey uniform and a sunny spot on the lawn. And if Obama actually had come to Clinton's defense, they would have called it condescending and paternalistic.

  And where exactly was the Clinton Feminist Defense Corps when O'Reilly was talking about lynching Michelle Obama, and as the Right began to paint her as an extremist much in the mold of Hillary Clinton in 1992? They didn't seem to have a problem with sexism directed at their opponents wife. The short answer is the Clinton feminists don't see Michelle Obama as "one of them," three guesses why.

  But the greatest moment is unquestionably Walsh's "advice" (and all these Op-Eds from Clinton supporters telling Obama to "reach out to women" are not advice, they are demands that he pick her as his running mate) is this moment, which could hardly be more perfect.

  Mainly I think he has to reach out to women the old-fashioned way: individually, warmly and respectfully. He needs to schedule meetings with Clinton's top female supporters. (It's probably too much to ask, but I'd love to see a lunch with Geraldine Ferraro. Ask for her thoughts on winning women and Reagan Democrats. Explain that being the first serious black presidential candidate is a little harder than maybe it looked.)

  (snip-seriously look at Clinton as VP)

  *Walsh and Ferraro, experts both on being a black man and running for president, and presumably how easy such an endeavor is, given the vast number of black presidents we have elected. It wasn't that Obama built a top-tier fundraising organization, (from scratch) studied the primary rules and how to take full advantage of them, or ran an disciplined campaign with minimal conflicts it was because it was easy, because otherwise there's no possible way this nigger could have actually pulled it off.

  Here Walsh demands a full exoneration for Geraldine Ferraro, complete with deference to her knowledge of how to win "Reagan Democrats," something Ferraro doesn't have the slightest idea how to do. Her supposed rapport with "Reagan Democrats" is based exclusively on the idea that they share the same racial prejudices as she does, which strikes me unbelievably condescending.

  It ends of course, with coercion: demanding that Obama pick Clinton, because otherwise women everywhere will punish the inadequate black man by electing someone with no respect for their rights. Coates says:

  I want to see Barack Obama out there courting the vote of all women. I want to see him talking specifically about what his plans are. But I've got no interest in seeing him court those who would use feminism, as a cover for their own blackaphoic views. Later for them. Let them vote McCain, and go join the party where bigotry is part of the platform. The rest of us have a country to save.

  I agree. If that your own racism is that strong, and your support for women's rights so tepid as to be based entirely on one candidate, you're probably in the wrong party to begin with.

  Permalink Thursday, June 5, 2008 01:35 PM