The genie has been out of the box for some time now, and it's not just here on MyDD, but among my female friends (many of them American), even from my Polish girlfriend, that they declare their support for Hillary because she is a woman and the first in American history with a realistic shot for the presidency.
I accept all that. I also accept Hillary is a very talented and tenacious politician. But what I can't accept any longer is the accusation of misogyny that I (and others) regularly receive when we criticise Hillary's campaign tactics or statements. Hillary supporters would probably counter that they get accused of racism if they attack Obama. Well, that is just as wrong-headed, and two wrongs don't make a right. If we are going to heal the divisions the primary has created, we have to get beyond this racism versus sexism stalemate.
The 'is racism or sexism the more pernicious' comes up regularly, especially since Obama's speech on race. I have my own opinions on it, and would generally agree that the history of race in the US - Native American genocide (by English settlers), slavery (led by British trade), civil war, segregation and Civil rights - would make racism America's "original sin" as Obama expressed it. But that's just an opinion, and I'm also swayed by feminists who say that women were the first slaves, and remain subjugated across the world. The point is moot, and it will take historians and philosophers to untangle the claims of victimhood in this clash of identity politics. For me, deciding whether racism or sexism is the greatest evil is like trying work out whether Hitler or Stalin is the biggest monster.
But now these ghosts and demons have been upbraided on the campaign trail. There's no point saying who started it, though I think Gloria Steinem hardly helped matters:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/opinio n/08steinem.html
But now along comes Alice Walker and asks us to look beyond the blinkers of identity politics. Please read her essay.
http://www.theroot.com/id/45469
Whether Obama or Hillary win, we should get beyond the name calling, the sense of injustice and treachery. It's a tragedy that two such power potential nominees came along at the same time. But it's also a tribute - at least from my side of the pond - to the nascent power and talent of Democratic politics in the US.
I've started playing a game in my head, listing the attributes of the two candidates X and Y, without reference to their gender or (mixed) race. Imagine some strange virus had removed all Y chromosomes and melanin from society your memory of these things. It's an interesting exercise, and I recommend it, at least for taking some of the poison of out the identity politics furore.
Sexism, like race, still needs to be talked through. These taboo subjects have festered on the sidelines of this primary, and the more we talk about them - argue about them - and begin to see each other's point of the view, the more chance there is for democrats to win the next election, and your whole country begin to heal and be more a force for good, both inside the US, and across the world.
I'll end with the words of someone much more qualified than me, Alice Walker, who explains how despite her years of working alongside Gloria Steinem, and fighting sexism wherever she sees it, she's voting for Obama.(my emphasis below)
"I am a supporter of Obama because I believe he is the right person to lead the country at this time. He offers a rare opportunity for the country and the world to start over, and to do better. It is a deep sadness to me that many of my feminist white women friends cannot see him. Cannot see what he carries in his being. Cannot hear the fresh choices toward Movement he offers. That they can believe that millions of Americans -black, white, yellow, red and brown - choose Obama over Clinton only because he is a man, and black, feels tragic to me.
When I have supported white people, men and women, it was because I thought them the best possible people to do whatever the job required. Nothing else would have occurred to me. If Obama were in any sense mediocre, he would be forgotten by now. He is, in fact, a remarkable human being, not perfect but humanly stunning, like King was and like Mandela is. We look at him, as we looked at them, and are glad to be of our species. He is the change America has been trying desperately and for centuries to hide, ignore, kill. The change America must have if we are to convince the rest of the world that we care about people other than our (white) selves."
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