Letters to the Editor
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I'm off to bed, but for now....
I'll leave you with this:
"Hillary vs. Barack? A Black (Male) Feminist Considers"
by Mark Anthony Neal
January 9, 2008
"I have to admit, that I haven't thought much about the gender question as it relates to the contest between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. That is until Gloria Steinem shot a bow across the collective dome of so many folk who claim a progressive gender (and sexual) politics. Writing recently in the New York Times, Steinem asks aloud: what if it was "Achola Obama" and not Barack Obama who was running for president? According to Steinem, "nether [Achola Obama] nor Hillary Clinton could have used Mr. Obama's public style--or Bill Clinton's either--without being considered too emotional by Washington pundits." And while I'm with my colleague Salamishah Tillet, who suggested that Steinem didn't have to create "Achola Obama"--the example of Carol Moseley Braun's 2004 Presidential run would have sufficed--Steinem is on point when she asks "why is the sex barrier not taken as seriously as the racial one?"
"Again, I hadn't thought much about the gender barrier, in large part, because I never assumed that Hillary Clinton's gender, could easily translate into a feminist politics beyond its symbolic value. Like Geraldine Ferraro, the democratic vice-presidential candidate in 1984, Ms. Clinton has a political style that easily disassociates itself with stereotypical notions of femininity--a style that is largely dictated by the masculine sensibilities of electoral politics in our country. Ironically, Clinton's willingness to play the game on patriarchy's terms has been, until recently, used against her. That Ms. Clinton is still married to a man involved in the most visible sexual harassment case in American history, also does little to enhance her viability as the candidate that could more adequately address gender inequality in our society. Where was Ms. Clinton when her husband rode workfare programs--the premise being that women who are home taking care of young children are not really working--to his reelection in 1996?
"In contrast to Senator Clinton though, what has Mr. Obama done, really, to justify the large number of women supporters that he has drawn to his campaign--other than be a tall, handsome, articulate and not particularly threatening version of black masculinity? Yes, I applaud the prominent role that Michelle Obama has played in his candidacy--she is one of the Senator's best assets. And I'm not discounting Mr. Obama's propensity for creating unity (or Ms. Clinton's propensity for the opposite), but what has Mr. Obama offered with regard to a progressive gender politics other than seem like a likable guy?
"Steinem is at pains to make sure that readers don't see her critique of the role of gender in the democratic race as an attempt to pit gender against race, in some hierarchy of oppressions. But even Ms. Steinem misses the point that for a significant amount of black folk, separating gender and race out of the equation is not possible. Much has been made about the increased significance of the black vote in the democratic primaries, but black women make up more than a majority of registered black voters--some numbers suggest that they make up nearly two-thirds of registered black voters. Thus this process is not about winning the hearts of black voters, but more specifically, about winning the hearts of black women voters.
"This is why South Carolina is such critical terrain for both Obama and Clinton, with black voters representing more than 40% of registered democrats in the state. Black women voters are the primary reason why Senator Obama employed Oprah Winfrey's celebrity in his stumps in the state; those black women are the reason why Reverend Marcia L. Dyson has been traveling throughout the state on behalf of Senator Clinton. Ironically Black women represent a segment of the American electorate that has rarely had their concerns addressed or even acknowledged. Think, for example, about the collective silence of John Edwards and Dick Cheney when Gwen Ifill asked them about high HIV rates among black women in the 2004 Vice-Presidential debate. Nearly four years later, like some surreal remix of The Children of Men, black women may dictate the future of the democratic party and thus the future of this country."
http://blogs.vibe.com/man/2008/01/hillary-vs-barack-a-black-male-feminist-considers/
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Honestly? I agree with a lot of that. And I also believe that Hillary Clinton should start talking *more* about women and gender and how politics affect women. I don't think she's done that enough, frankly.
We need more advocacy, not less.