[Marxism] Hillary Struggles Against Sexism But Regularly Plays Race Card

[Walter Lippmann]

It seemed so incongruous to suggest that there was something
sexist to point out that Senator Clinton's campaign against
Senator Obama was racist, that it was pleasing to find that
this theme has been looked at in some detail elsewhere.


Walter
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Hillary Struggles Against Sexism But Regularly Plays Race Card
By Betsy Reed, The Nation
Posted on May 2, 2008, Printed on May 2, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/84150/

[two clips]
Yet what is most troubling -- and what has the most serious
implications for the feminist movement -- is that the Clinton
campaign has used her rival's race against him. In the name of
demonstrating her superior "electability," she and her surrogates
have invoked the racist and sexist playbook of the right -- in which
swaggering macho cowboys are entrusted to defend the country --
seeking to define Obama as too black, too foreign, too different to
be President at a moment of high anxiety about national security.
This subtly but distinctly racialized political strategy did not
create the media feeding frenzy around the Rev. Jeremiah Wright that
is now weighing Obama down, but it has positioned Clinton to take
advantage of the opportunities the controversy has presented. 
And the Clinton campaign's use of this strategy has many 
non-white and non-mainstream feminists crying foul.
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It's disappointing, to say the least, to see the first viable female
contender for the presidency participate in attacks on her black
opponent's patriotism, which exploit an anxious climate around
national security that gives white men an edge both over women and
people of color -- who tend to be viewed, respectively, as weak 
and potentially traitorous. Says Paula Giddings, "This idea of
nationalism and patriotism pulling at everyone has demanded
hypermasculine men, more like McCain than the feline Obama, 
and demanded women whose role is to be maternal more than 
anything else."

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WALTER LIPPMANN, CubaNews
Los Angeles, California
http://www.walterlippmann.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
"Cuba - Un Paraiso bajo el bloqueo"
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