No subject

y=E2=80=99re=20
all playing the same tune. Now we can=E2=80=99t blame the women for fightin=
g hard for their
candidate, but it is disappointing, to say the very least, that in heraldin=
g Clinton
as the proper choice for every feminist and all women they have also manage=
d to=20
dredge up some of the least attractive features of liberal feminism.=20

For nearly forty years feminists have wrangled over how to integrate issues=
 of race,
class, sexual orientation and other markers of inequality into a coherent, =
powerful
gender analysis. Women of color insist on the complex relationship between =
racism
and sexism and the central significance of racism in the lives of people of=
 color.
White feminists nod their heads, =E2=80=9CYes, of course, we understand, we=
=E2=80=99re with you=20
on that.=E2=80=9D  Then comes the crunch, when the content of your feminism=
 actually matters
=E2=80=93 as it does in this campaign =E2=80=93 and they revert to the prim=
acy of sexism over all
other forms of discrimination and oppression. All the tendencies that got f=
eminism
tagged as a white, middle-class women=E2=80=99s thing are, brutally, back i=
n play.=20
=20
There=E2=80=99s a lot of twisting and turning going on in the effort to exp=
lain Obama=E2=80=99s=20
viability. If he=E2=80=99s so completely inexperienced, why are people comi=
ng out to vote
for him in record numbers? Must be that racism is dead but sexism isn=E2=80=
=99t. Must be
that he=E2=80=99s an affirmative action baby. Must be that people are mesme=
rized, charmed
and bewitched by his silver tongue. Must be that people are voting with the=
ir hearts
for hope instead of with their heads for hard-headed competence.=20

In fact, it must be anything except that he=E2=80=99s knit together a coali=
tion the existence
of which most political actors could not have predicted, much less activate=
d. Except
that his politics and presentation of self have motivated millions of new v=
oters
and re-energized previously disaffected millions more in ways that her poli=
tics=20
and presentation of self have not. Except that voters have weighed his expe=
rience
and hers and concluded that she=E2=80=99s not bringing appreciably more to =
the table than
he is. Except that she=E2=80=99s pegged her vaunted experience to her White=
 House years=20
and a fair share of voters (raise your hands y=E2=80=99all) were not enthra=
lled with the
policies of the Clinton presidency.

It=E2=80=99s just not such a terribly long walk from the Clinton campaign=
=E2=80=99s insistence on
Obama=E2=80=99s lack of experience and complete unreadiness to lead to the =
notion that he=E2=80=99s
gotten as far as he has not on his own merits, but as a result of the worki=
ngs of
some pro-brother bias. That is, to put it baldly, the playing field is tilt=
ed in
favor of the minority candidate who, despite his thin resume, has managed t=
o leapfrog
over the more qualified white candidate. There=E2=80=99s a reason this remi=
nds you of every
reverse discrimination complainant from Allan Bakke forward. It undermines =
the legitimacy
of affirmative remedies for identifiable, quantifiable discriminatory pract=
ices=20
while simultaneously denigrating the qualifications of people of color in h=
igh places,
whether they got there by means of affirmative action or not.=20

Then there=E2=80=99s the basic categorical confusion. Let=E2=80=99s go back=
 to that historic juncture,
wherein a black man and a woman are close contenders for their party=E2=80=
=99s nomination.
If his race is noteworthy, Obama the black man (regardless of how many ways=
 his=20
blackness has been interpreted), then so too is hers. [For those of you who=
 believe
we=E2=80=99re living in a post-racialist society, if you haven=E2=80=99t tu=
ned out already, you=E2=80=99ll
probably want to skip the rest of this piece.] This is a contest between a =
black
man and a white woman. Voters orient themselves toward Obama along a broad =
spectrum
of racial attitudes ranging from, =E2=80=9COf course I=E2=80=99m voting for=
 the brother=E2=80=9D to =E2=80=9CI=E2=80=99d
never in a million years cast my vote for an African American.=E2=80=9D And=
 everything in
between.

The point is, most sane people recognize that Obama=E2=80=99s race matters.=
 Well then, how
is it that Clinton=E2=80=99s doesn=E2=80=99t? If Obama=E2=80=99s blackness =
is a positive incentive for some
voters, a liability for others and a source of confusion and ambivalence fo=
r still
others, how is it that Clinton=E2=80=99s whiteness is a big fat neutral. Is=
 it not at least
theoretically possible that some voters are positively inclined toward Clin=
ton because
she is white?

There is a brand of feminism, amply critiqued but still very much alive, th=
at focuses
on gender bias while consistently downplaying the salience of race. And the=
 easiest
way to avoid acknowledging that whiteness comes with its privileges is to a=
void=20
acknowledging it at all. Whiteness as default, normative, unworthy of note.=
 Clinton
the woman; Obama the black man. In fact, Obama as doubly favored, as a man =
and,=20
with reverse discrimination and tokenism in play, as an African American. C=
linton,
meanwhile, is hobbled by her gender and, since her whiteness is unacknowled=
ged,=20
neither advantaged nor disadvantaged by her race. This is the topsy-turvy w=
orld=20
we=E2=80=99re being asked to accept as reality.

I, for one, am going to take a pass on delusion. In Mississippi, though Oba=
ma took
the state, 70 percent of white Democatic voters chose Clinton over Obama. I=
n South
Carolina, Obama took over 75 percent of the black vote but only 15 percent =
of the
over-60 white vote, with similar results in Alabama. Isn=E2=80=99t is possi=
ble that at least
some of those white voters would prefer to see a white person in the White =
House,
regardless of gender, than an African American? And isn=E2=80=99t it possib=
le that whiteness
is an element of Clinton=E2=80=99s appeal in Ohio, Texas and, potentially, =
Pennsylvania,
states in which Reagan Democrats (and Nixon Democrats before them) were won=
 over
to the Republican Party, at least in part, on the basis of frankly racist a=
ppeals?
As long as Clinton=E2=80=99s whiteness is unacknowledged, so too are the dy=
namics that work
to her advantage in this campaign. =20

The deep disappointment in the voting behavior of Obama-supporting men (rea=
d white
men; see above) while officially chalked up to misogyny, has, in the argume=
nt of
some feminists, crept uncomfortably close to a howl of anger at racial betr=
ayal.
In a Chicago Tribune article entitled =E2=80=9CSexism, not Racism, Thriving=
,=E2=80=9D a clearly=20
frustrated Frida Ghitis claims =E2=80=9CWe may be winning the war against r=
acism, but sexism
is putting up quite a fight=E2=80=A6.Women are voting for Clinton and black=
s are voting=20
for Obama=E2=80=A6. If we look for someone who looks like us, for whom shou=
ld a white man
vote?... White men are giving their vote to Obama over Clinton.=E2=80=9D*

Let us grant without argument that many men, and a good number of women as =
well,
would prefer to see a man in the White House than a woman. Is this evidence=
 that
sexism is alive and well? Indeed it is. But, as our own political processes=
 constantly
remind us, voting behavior is more than a little complex. Perhaps white men=
 should
be excoriated for their persistent sexism; perhaps we should be celebrating=
 their
transcendence of a century=E2=80=99s-long resistance to placing African Ame=
ricans, men or
women, in positions of power.=20

Would it be better, and for whom, if white men were to line up with white w=
omen=20
and, as the saying goes, =E2=80=9Cvote their race?=E2=80=9D Could this be w=
hat liberal feminists
are advocating? Is Elizabeth Cady Stanton in the house?

It ought to be possible to point to the prevalence of sexism and misogyny, =
and their
impact on Clinton=E2=80=99s campaign, without downplaying the longstanding,=
 ongoing, pervasive
impact of racism in the U.S. But this is not the path they have chosen. In =
order
to bolster their case for Clinton=E2=80=99s relative disadvantage in the pr=
imary campaign,
explain the white male vote in places like Iowa, Virginia, and Utah, and en=
courage
white women to seize the historic moment, they impose a ranking order betwe=
en racism
and sexism, with sexism at the top, and insist on the declining significanc=
e of=20
race.=20

Gloria Steinem: =E2=80=9CGender is probably the most restricting force in A=
merican life=E2=80=A6.
Black men were given the vote a half-century before women of any race were =
allowed
to mark a ballot, and generally have ascended to positions of power, from t=
he military
to the boardroom, before any women.=E2=80=9D**

Those of us who witnessed the response to Hurricane Katrina; who check in o=
ccasionally
on the racial demographics of the incarcerated; who are aware of the racial=
 divide
in income and, more significantly, wealth; who recognize that the public sc=
hools
grow ever more segregated while the push-out rate for Black and Latino stud=
ents=20
rises ever higher; who track the relative scarcity of African Americans in =
professional
schools, as well as in a whole range of professions; who know that the infa=
nt mortality
rate for black babies outstrips the rate for white babies by two to one; wh=
o watch
the dynamics of gentrification, dislocation and homelessness =E2=80=93 we a=
re not convinced
that racism is an insignificant remnant. And we=E2=80=99re hard pressed to =
understand why
this argument should be any more tolerated when it comes from liberal femin=
ists=20
than when it comes from the more frankly racist right wing. Since I=E2=80=
=99m not running
for president I can be blunt. The denial of the significance of racism is a=
 deep
and abiding form of the thing itself.

Much has been made of the gender tightrope Clinton must walk. She can=E2=80=
=99t seem too
soft or too hard. She has to look attractive and expect that her hairdo, pa=
ntsuits,
cleavage and ankles are all fair game for commentary. Tears will be relentl=
essly
analyzed. She will be judged in ways that men never are. All of this is tru=
e, and
an indication of how very far we have to go.

But, interestingly, Clinton can and does directly associate her campaign wi=
th a=20
potential blow against gender discrimination. Obama cannot do the same with=
 regard
to race. Clinton regularly posits winning the presidency, breaking through =
that=20
highest and hardest glass ceiling, as she puts it, as an historic win for w=
omen,
more than 50 percent of the population.

Obama, meanwhile, does not have the latitude to explicitly associate his ca=
mpaign
with the interests of African Americans or an anti-racist agenda. Part of t=
his is
simply about the numbers. But there=E2=80=99s much more at work here. While=
 Clinton has=20
been walking her tightrope, Obama has been busy threading the very narrowes=
t of=20
needles. There may be dozens of ways for a white man to campaign for the pr=
esidency
and, if our common history, both recent and remote, is any guide, just abou=
t any
kind of white man can become president, as long as he has the cash and the =
connections.

Not so for the black man. At issue are not only his politics and his campai=
gn craft,
but also, crucially, how he inhabits his black manhood. (Now, up until a fe=
w months
ago I couldn=E2=80=99t have imagined that there was any way for a Black man=
 to become a=20
serious contender =E2=80=93 to thread the needle =E2=80=93 so we=E2=80=99re=
 all learning as we go here.)
White folks, in general, don=E2=80=99t want to see any chips on the shoulde=
rs or any psychic
scars on the soul. There isn=E2=80=99t a black male in America over the age=
 of 10 who doesn=E2=80=99t
have a few chips and scars, but letting them show is a major deal breaker i=
n the
halls of power. So props to Obama for a fine acting job.

There=E2=80=99s a bargain that white voters have struck with Obama, and her=
e, in brief,=20
is what it is:

=E2=80=9CYou can be black, and we=E2=80=99re happy to congratulate ourselve=
s on voting for a black
man, as long as you=E2=80=99re black in a way that doesn=E2=80=99t upset us=
, scare us, make us feel
guilty, or make us feel too white.=E2=80=9D Obama is holding up his side of=
 the bargain,
either because he=E2=80=99s temperamentally inclined to do so or because he=
=E2=80=99s carefully=20
calculated what it takes to win over white voters, or some combination of t=
he two.
But the quality of his blackness is nonetheless an issue. This is the meani=
ng of
the insistence that Obama distance himself from his pastor, Reverend Wright=
, and
from Minister Farrakhan. Way too many chips and scars. Way too little regar=
d for
what white folks think. And way too much attachment to the African American=
 community.
So, if Obama himself can=E2=80=99t be tagged as too black for prime time, m=
aybe he=E2=80=99s too
black by association.=20

Further, while Obama has assiduously courted the black vote, he hasn=E2=80=
=99t done so with
an explicitly anti-racist message and he certainly hasn=E2=80=99t posited t=
he African-American
community as the core of his coalition. Why? Because to do so would sink hi=
s campaign
like a hundred weight stone. This, in part, is the difference between the J=
ackson
campaign, which built a disruptive, progressive coalition with Black voters=
 and=20
anti-racist politics at its core, and Obama=E2=80=99s liberal coalition tha=
t is inclusive
of and reliant upon black voters without centralizing their concerns in a w=
ay that
would scare off white voters. Jackson ran as a direct challenge to the stat=
us quo,
implementing an inside-outside strategy without the burden of expecting a w=
in. Obama=E2=80=99s
first principle is viability, and he threads his needle accordingly.

It=E2=80=99s more than a little interesting that liberal feminists, so high=
ly attuned to
the ways in which gender frames how Clinton can run, are blissfully (willfu=
lly?)
ignorant of how race and racism shape the Obama campaign. Black racial soli=
darity
still reads as a threat in a way that gender solidarity does not.

One last talking point before we close: the voting behavior of white women.=
 Every
national election cycle we=E2=80=99re treated to lots of commentary about t=
he gender gap
and its meaning. More eligible women vote than do eligible men and women ar=
e somewhat
more likely to cast their votes for Democrats than for Republicans. Clinton=
 is undeniably
running strongly among white women Democrats, especially those over the age=
 of 50.
Should we be reading this as further evidence that the older women voters g=
et, the
more radical they become, as Morgan and Steinem contend? [Steinem: =E2=80=
=9CIowa women over
50 and 60, who disproportionately supported Senator Clinton, proved once ag=
ain that
women are the one group that grows more radical with age.=E2=80=9D Robin Mo=
rgan: =E2=80=9COlder=20
women are the one group that doesn=E2=80=99t grow more conservative with ag=
e=E2=80=A6=E2=80=9D]

The two party lockdown ensures that there=E2=80=99s no real way to register=
 radicalism in
presidential primaries or national elections. So let=E2=80=99s assume that =
those voting=20
Democratic are somewhat more radical than those voting Republican. In the 2=
004 presidential
election 55 percent of white women gave their votes to George W. Bush; 62 p=
ercent
of white men did the same. A significant gender gap.=20

Meanwhile, 90 percent of African American women and a slightly smaller prop=
ortion
of African American men voted for John Kerry. In the 2000 presidential elec=
tion=20
an astounding 94 percent of African American women voted Democratic. I can=
=E2=80=99t do=20
the math, but I suspect that if you were to subtract the overwhelmingly Dem=
ocratic
votes of African American women the gender gap would narrow considerably.=
=20

Younger voters from 18-29 years old cast 54 percent of their votes for the =
Democratic
candidate in 2004.  Exactly the same percentage of voters 60 and over cast =
them=20
for Bush.=20

I just don=E2=80=99t see the evidence that older white women constitute a h=
otbed of radicalism,
or even consistent liberalism. Had they followed the lead of African Americ=
an women
in 2000 and 2004 we all would have been spared a whole lot of grief.

Liberal feminists have every right to spend down their political capital on=
 behalf
of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Hard choices have to made; political debts have =
to be
paid. But it will not count as progress if a Clinton win is purchased at th=
e cost
of deepening the racial divide. It is inexcusable to support a candidate in=
 the=20
name of feminism while deploying racist argumentation, minimizing the exist=
ence=20
and impact of racism, and denying the advantages of inhabiting the racial s=
pace=20
called =E2=80=9Cwhite.=E2=80=9D It will not be excused. Nor will it be forg=
otten.
___________________________________________________________________________=
______
*A whole nother article could be written about the disappearance of Black w=
omen=20
in this rumble. And we have the title already at hand, the 1982 classic All=
 the=20
Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave. =20

**And yet another article on the black folks who died trying to exercise th=
e right
to vote, right up into the 1960s, and ongoing black disfranchisement, down =
to today.
The struggle for women=E2=80=99s suffrage was a valiant and protracted one,=
 as is the struggle
for black political enfranchisement. The distinction in the character (and =
timing)
of those struggles speaks to distinctions in the character and quality of r=
acism
and sexism, not to the primacy of one over the other.

=C2=A9 Linda Burnham

Linda Burnham is the co-founder and former Executive Director of the Women =
of Color
Resource Center.=20


=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
     WALTER LIPPMANN
     Los Angeles, California
     Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
     "Cuba - Un Para=C3=ADso bajo el bloqueo"
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=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D