I wanted to take this story from the main board and ask for a female perspective:
“As a child, Hillary Clinton was taught that all God’s children are equal, so as a mother she understood that her child wasn’t safe unless all children were safe.
I know what kind of president Hillary Clinton will be because I know who she is. Hillary Clinton has always been a strong woman and a passionate protector of families. For 35 years, that’s exactly what she has been doing.
Each generation of African Americans stands on the shoulders of those who came before. Today, the challenges facing us threaten the dreams we have had for our children. We need a president with the experience and strength to meet those challenges.
I am inspired by Hillary Clinton’s commitment and courage — a daughter, a wife, a mother — my girl.”
http://blog.thehill.com/2007/06/14/m...llary-clinton/
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This was my response to the endorsement:
"a daughter, a wife, a mother — my girl"
If someone endorsed Obama as "an African, an American, an an African-American — my nigga," all you'd hear is race stories for two days.
That's a bit of an exaggeration/joke (as far as my phrasing of the race-based Obama endorsement), but female drones are allowed to blatantly support Clinton on the basis of gender without comment from the media but blacks have to pretend to be color-blind or risk being marginalized.
"a daughter, a wife, a mother"-- Are there not crackheads who fit this profile? Who the hell would endorse a presidential candidate as "a son, a husband, a father"? Anybody can be these things!
As uninformed as Americans are in general, of course it's true that, as Bill Clinton said, some people will vote only based on race or gender. What's gone under the radar is the fact that Obama has to take great pains to run away from this while Hillary embraces her much greater advantage (50% of the population vs. 15%) and gets a pass.
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In addition to that observation, I want to ask this board about this whole idea of divided loyalties among black women.
Maya Angelou seems to obviously value gender over race. This seems nuts to me. As a black man in my early twenties, I feel fairly certain this country will see a female president in my lifetime. Women are the majority in the population, women got full and uninfringed voting rights in this nation decades before blacks, and women are killing men in terms of receiving a college education. I believe there are 18 females senators-- that is not proportional (or there would be 50) but it is a lot more representative than the number of black senators. (Hint: They are all running for President, they all just won South Carolina, and they are all married to Michelle Obama.) There have been five black senators in history!!!
I have no problem with a female candidate for president-- someone recently bumped a post of mine made three years ago on the politics board attempting to clown me for my musings about Condi Rice-- but I will never vote for Hillary Clinton. I hate the dirty racial attacks of her campaign. In terms of race and gender, the urgency of this election cannot be compared for the two groups; in a recent article, Pat Buchanan wrote "If an African-American with as great a cross-racial appeal as Obama had in Iowa can be so easily ghettoized in three weeks to where whites and Hispanics, the fastest growing minority in America, recoil, when if ever can a black American be nominated or elected president?" Nobody is saying Hillary Clinton's campaign could be evidence that no woman could ever win in this country.
I don't know much about Maya Angelou and I've never read any of her work. I looked her biography up today and I saw that she was a victim of sexual abuse and actually became mute for five years afterward; I understand how that could add to her desire to see a female elected president. But it still seems like a very simple endorsement to me, as has struck me listening to her discuss Clinton in the past. To repeat the point of my first reaction to the endorsement, in this country you are allowed to back a candidate based simply on gender but not allowed to do so simply based on race. I've tried to bring forth some facts which illustrate that, if anything, the opposite should be true. I'd appreciate a female viewpoint on this-- Do you understand where Maya Angelou is coming from? I understand it, I think, but I do not respect it. Do you hold this view or know other females who do?
“As a child, Hillary Clinton was taught that all God’s children are equal, so as a mother she understood that her child wasn’t safe unless all children were safe.
I know what kind of president Hillary Clinton will be because I know who she is. Hillary Clinton has always been a strong woman and a passionate protector of families. For 35 years, that’s exactly what she has been doing.
Each generation of African Americans stands on the shoulders of those who came before. Today, the challenges facing us threaten the dreams we have had for our children. We need a president with the experience and strength to meet those challenges.
I am inspired by Hillary Clinton’s commitment and courage — a daughter, a wife, a mother — my girl.”
http://blog.thehill.com/2007/06/14/m...llary-clinton/
-----------------------------
This was my response to the endorsement:
"a daughter, a wife, a mother — my girl"
If someone endorsed Obama as "an African, an American, an an African-American — my nigga," all you'd hear is race stories for two days.
That's a bit of an exaggeration/joke (as far as my phrasing of the race-based Obama endorsement), but female drones are allowed to blatantly support Clinton on the basis of gender without comment from the media but blacks have to pretend to be color-blind or risk being marginalized.
"a daughter, a wife, a mother"-- Are there not crackheads who fit this profile? Who the hell would endorse a presidential candidate as "a son, a husband, a father"? Anybody can be these things!
As uninformed as Americans are in general, of course it's true that, as Bill Clinton said, some people will vote only based on race or gender. What's gone under the radar is the fact that Obama has to take great pains to run away from this while Hillary embraces her much greater advantage (50% of the population vs. 15%) and gets a pass.
-----------------------------
In addition to that observation, I want to ask this board about this whole idea of divided loyalties among black women.
Maya Angelou seems to obviously value gender over race. This seems nuts to me. As a black man in my early twenties, I feel fairly certain this country will see a female president in my lifetime. Women are the majority in the population, women got full and uninfringed voting rights in this nation decades before blacks, and women are killing men in terms of receiving a college education. I believe there are 18 females senators-- that is not proportional (or there would be 50) but it is a lot more representative than the number of black senators. (Hint: They are all running for President, they all just won South Carolina, and they are all married to Michelle Obama.) There have been five black senators in history!!!
I have no problem with a female candidate for president-- someone recently bumped a post of mine made three years ago on the politics board attempting to clown me for my musings about Condi Rice-- but I will never vote for Hillary Clinton. I hate the dirty racial attacks of her campaign. In terms of race and gender, the urgency of this election cannot be compared for the two groups; in a recent article, Pat Buchanan wrote "If an African-American with as great a cross-racial appeal as Obama had in Iowa can be so easily ghettoized in three weeks to where whites and Hispanics, the fastest growing minority in America, recoil, when if ever can a black American be nominated or elected president?" Nobody is saying Hillary Clinton's campaign could be evidence that no woman could ever win in this country.
I don't know much about Maya Angelou and I've never read any of her work. I looked her biography up today and I saw that she was a victim of sexual abuse and actually became mute for five years afterward; I understand how that could add to her desire to see a female elected president. But it still seems like a very simple endorsement to me, as has struck me listening to her discuss Clinton in the past. To repeat the point of my first reaction to the endorsement, in this country you are allowed to back a candidate based simply on gender but not allowed to do so simply based on race. I've tried to bring forth some facts which illustrate that, if anything, the opposite should be true. I'd appreciate a female viewpoint on this-- Do you understand where Maya Angelou is coming from? I understand it, I think, but I do not respect it. Do you hold this view or know other females who do?
