I know that I have this reputation of being somewhat of a sexist, and believe me it's not justified. Still, I have never believed in wasting my time or energy trying to convince folks that I am not the person they think I am. Having said that, it's with some trepidation that I write this next post. But I am going to write it anyway, because, quite frankly, I have never been one to bite my tongue.
My man Francis L. Holland recently made me aware of a book called "The Feminist Survival Guide to Politically Inhospitable Environment" or some shit like that. And he led me to this blog, where the author, to her credit, seemed to be speaking out against it. The book was written by a feminist progressive (and I use that word loosely) by the name of Amanda Marcotte. So far so good right? I mean I really don't care about what or who feminist choose to write about. They have a cause, and god bless them if they want to advance it. But what bothered me and the reason for me even mentioning this book, was some of the images that were found in it: Powerful, superhuman white woman, defeating the black and brown savages from the jungle. [I posted a pic with this post for you to judge for yourself.]
I have always had some issues with the white feminist movement in this country. First, they benefited from affirmative action, yet you would think that only black folks did. Second, white women belong to the most protected class in this country, so I have always been somewhat confused as to just what the fuck they have to complain about. And finally, feminist or not, they all hold their purses a little tighter on the elevator, not when they see a white man or a black woman; they hold that bitch a little tighter when they see me, a black man coming.
So when I see shit like this it only serves to reinforce some of the negative perceptions and stereo types that I have for this group. I guess you could call it a a mutual and natural mistrust. And before I forget, let me give a shout out to my sisters, because I did see some of them calling out the author in the comments section of this blog, and it might have been what caused the host of said blog to rethink her position.
This political season has really put a strain on the relationship between black men and white (and dare I say some black) feminist. They say your true feelings come out when your back is against the wall. And with Hillary and the "O" man going at each other to become the dumbocratic nominee for the President of these divided states, we are starting to see how some of these feminist really feel about us.
Now these pictures might just have been another example of poor judgement being used by this publisher, and there might not have been any thought of race when the author and the publisher decided to use the images that they did. But it sure as hell reminded me of yet another group in A-merry-ca that I am always going to keep my eyes on. Because at the end of the day, the pie is only so big. And since some folks have made up their minds that people who look like me don't deserve an equal share, I will be damned if I am not going to grab some of that bitch [the pie] without even asking.
52 comments:
preach! at times this protected class act as if their grievances are esoteric to their group; and white women will marginalize (or worst) ignore the tribulations of non-whites but expect people of color to trailblaze their cause?
Wow, maybe you're right; it was a poor choice of illustrations on the part of the people who made the book. However, in general, Amanda Marcotte, the blogger behind the renown Pandagon, probably didn't mean to offend like that. Reading through her blog, she often takes on racial issues head-on, especially as they've become predominant throughout this election. I'll grant you that she also has Pam Spaulding, a good writer on the same staff, on board, but I'm surprised that showed up in her book. I need to read more on this before I would make a judgment call on Amanda.
edit:
seems like she's already written a little something. Take it how you will. Not trying to defend anyone or whatever, because those are definitely images I can agree with, but ...
http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/04/25/im-sorry/
and Pam's response:
http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/04/25/the-blind-spot/
Thanks jose, I always want to be "fair and balanced" :)
After reading your blog, I went to the other where the photo was posted. The author removed that poster and replace it with a woman tackling a whale, but PETA will probably will take offense as well. The poster has many problem depending upon one's perception. Like the white who is going to see it and take offense that white guy is portrayed as being weak. Lesbians may have a more favorable view about the poster.
I am a black woman who typical gets from all directions, and I do have a different experience. All I have ever ask of anyone is to see me in my full humanity. I believe that I should be capable of doing anything I choose whether it is being a domestic diva or become a pastor of a church. I attended a church one day where it had women's day, but the interesting thing is that the female pastor who was the guest speaker was not allowed to preach the sermon from the pulpit, but placed a plexi-glass podium and made her speak from the floor. Now, I don't know anyone else thinks as I do, but it just seems backwards to me that anyone would treat a person with a PhD in that manner. I have a problem with not treating others with respect because of their race or sex. I am offended by the fact the black women have fried more chicken to build churches, and the powers that be treat them like second class citizens. I do not believe that it's not right and doesn't benefit anyone people inferior. That's another problem I have with religion, but that's another topic.
"Second, white women belong to the most protected class in this country, so I have always been somewhat confused as to just what the fuck they have to complain about."
I'm a woman and I've always thought this. The very men that did and do oppress many, are, their fathers, brothers, uncles, cousins and husbands and they hold them to a much higher esteem and regard than they do us.
When they cannot provide for themselves, when there is trouble, when they are wronged, there is someone, one of these men, who can and does help them through their troubles, the same men that in some way control the outcomes of the lives of many.
The men in my life have tried to be there for me in the same ways, but have been limited by the men in their lives as to the degree they could be there for me.
dear field, but hillary says she is trying to break the highest glass cieling...on a totally different note...just saw rev wright preaching live on cnn...about racial prejudice...what is he doing?
ms. martin, you said that better than I ever could.
"I am a black woman who typical gets from all directions, and I do have a different experience. All I have ever ask of anyone is to see me in my full humanity."
hennasplace, I am sure that it can't be easy being a woman of color in this environment. But what the black woman has done for our race in this country is unparalled in history. So as an individual who happens to falll into that class you should be proud.
I feel you about the church thing. I belonged to a religious denomination that would not allow a woman to be an ordained minister at least as long as I can remember. So what does that tell you about organized religion in this country?
Of course white women are the protected of the species. This isn't more true than when one of them go missing. If Natalie Holloway did not come from an affluent Birmingham-area family, no one living outside of northern Alabama would have heard of her. That's the truth about this country and our mainstream media, whether we want to face it or not.
In a way, I hate the publishing world and vented about it on my blog earlier this week. I hardly see minority writers on the bestseller's list or for that matter published. It's as if these publishers don't think we can write fiction.
Seal Press might have apologized for this, but its a hollow one, just like that Golf Weekly magazine that published the noose on its cover earlier this year. I was so pissed off over that that I *still* haven't swung my clubs yet at the driving range.
Some things I discovered while taking a feminist ethics class in grad school. . .all the white people in the class thought I was crazy.
Doris Davenport said:
"From coast to coast, the feminist movement is racist, but that news is stale by now, It is increasingly apparent that the problem is white wimmin."
The analysis by Davenport however, is the recognition that white women have endured oppression. Unfortunately, as she and others note, instead of reacting sympathetically to others who are oppressed, white women have lined up in the pecking order.
Audre Lorde. . .
It becomes obvious that excluding the agendas of women of color from the agenda of popular feminism alienates and discredits the movement. So, when the feminist movement is defined on the terms of white experience alone, Audre Lorde contends that “Women of color become “other,” whose experience and tradition becomes too “alien” to comprehend (Lorde, Sister..., 117)
Isn't the awful legacy of lynching at least in part about sexually frustrated, hysterical white women and the Massas feeling threatened that their women were sexually attracted to their slaves?
I've never heard of Amanda Marcotte and I've never read her writing so I don't have an opinion of her work.
However, looking at this illustration, about the only thing missing from from man wearing the African mask is a 3 foot hardon.
The illustrator behind the legendary Tom of Finland work also hyper-articulated the gay male body: broad shoulders, small waist and a huge snake hanging down the Levi 501s. No one really looks like this but, it certainly plays into the stereotype that all gay men are some sort of hyper sex Gods.
One thing I've learned from this election is the double standards of some of the feminists orbiting Hillary. They're perfectly comfortable with Mr. Hillary playing the race card against Barack but I can only imagine the screams of sexism if Michelle Obama hit back and called Bill Clinton on his racism.
Camille Paglia gets it, even if Gloria Steinem doesn't get it.
I don't know how much credence to give to Amanda Marcotte; after all, she used to work for the Edwards campaign, pulled a "Samantha Power" comment against the Catholic Church and William Donahue, (who whined like a lil' byotch) while blogging and got fired by the Edwards campaign.
Pissing and moaning in the blogsphere got her job back but it became too uncomfortable and she left.
Having said that, I call BS on her comments and good for the sistas who put her behind on blast. But I do have to somewhat disagree with you on why white women have no complaints. If you look at the history of this country, white guys stepped on the backs of men and women of ethnicity and their own "pride, pure" white woman, when that sista started hollering for equal rights along with the white man. No?
Here's a little historical secret in A-merry-ca. Before women got the vote in 1920, the state of Wyoming had been allowing their women to vote in state elections. However, when it came time to campaign for statehood, the guvmint told Wyoming they could be admitted to the Union if they stripped the women of their voting rights.
On the East Coast, there were some white women not content to be housewives, and they wanted a say over how often they were going to get pregnant - better yet, they wanted a say in whether or not they could hold down jobs and have careers of their own before they married.
White guys stopped that for as long as they could until Blacks were freed from slavery, and legally given the right to vote before Jim Crow Intimidation.
Yeah, white women are more protected than a sista of color. But just like sistas, they had to spread their legs to keep employment before sexual harassment laws were developed to protect them. The Equal Rights Amendment wasn't passed until the early 1970s, about 10 years after the Civil Rights Act, and it had to be amended to include Title IX, which prohibits discrimination based on gender.
Amanda Marcotte might have had a point; but how she chose to make it looks like it backfired, and HOW.
will it ever be the case that in 'a-merry-ca' information on one's gender or the color of one's skin will garner a big so what????
CPL
Your comment reminds me of what my mother told me about black women who back in the day who were doing "day work" and how sometimes they had to stop their cleaning to open their legs to keep employed.
I'll tell you the same thing I told her: You don't have to open your legs - you choose to open your legs.
I personally would have to quit and trust that the Lord would find something better for me to do. That would be the strongest sign of your feminism - refusing to have someone have a piece of your soul for a few dollars.
yt feminists have always bothered me and this illustration just sums it up.. their oppresors are yt men no?
and field.. please correct the cheesesteak title.. it pops out a me and jabs me in the eye every time i scroll..
oops.. judgement.. should have typed pops out at me..
and your word verifications are getting sooo long and illegible..
Interesting post Field. It's funny how you posted this with some trepidation and perhaps if it had been a different writer I may have looked at it more critically but it's Amanda Marcotte who has made a name for herself by using the work of other women writers of color and not crediting them for it - see brownfemipower and angry black woman for some more on this. That she would then use those images is not an accident it is indicative to the type of person she is. My only complaint would be that you wrote about her at all and she gets even more press. And her publisher [run by 2 white women] has been exposed for the racists they are as well with their claim of not being submitted any viable work by women of color [see racialicious for posts on that]. Anyway I saw the Faux News interview and it wasn't half bad. I want to talk about how Dean has apparently pitched his tent to the Borg Queen and is now saying that it's about electability - delegate and popular votes don't count anymore!
The Christian Progressive Liberal
FYI, The ERA was never passed.
And her publisher [run by 2 white women] has been exposed for the racists they are as well with their claim of not being submitted any viable work by women of color
Their claim is bullshit. I once submitted a manuscript to one publishing house and wanted to use a Latino pen name. No response. I then took the same manuscript, sent it to a rival publisher with an Anglo and no rejection letter yet.
It's not a book deal, but the Anglo name made them look at my work. Enough said.
If you can stomach it, I found the original book cover.
Amanda Marcotte & Seal Press = bigots
Field please, please, please do not hold Amanda Marcotte up as some sort of shining gleaming example of feminism. Sadly Ms Marcotte has come to be the poster child for the racism in feminism due to both this book's illustrations, the book's cover back in August of 07 and a recent March/April article on feminisim and immigration that many in the femi-sphere felt borrowed heavily from the work of woc bloggers without attribution or reference to their ongoing activism and work in that specific field.
Back in 07 when she was called on the proposed imagery of the cover of this book, Ms Marcotte was quite dismissive of complaints by POC - ascribing them to jealousy of her book deal and the cult of "victimhood". Sound like an anti-racist ally to you? Me neither.
Ultimately the cover was changed to the artwork released in this first print. You've gotta wonder how then the internal illustrations weren't also questioned. It becomes all the more problematic when you realize the publisher is Seal Press a small feminist publishing house (small as in approximately 3 employees) that was recently involved in a rather screwed up reverse pr move by trying to flame a woc blogger on her own blog. No seriously - you cant make this ish up.
Seal Press engaged in some serious a**holery on Black Amazon's blog and showed their a**es in the week before Ms. Marcotte's immigration article. All of which has really bought the issue of the racism seemingly ingrained into the feminist movement to the forefront this past month.
You need only to check in the April postings on Feministe and Angry Black Woman to get a comprehensive look at what's been going on in what has become a femi-sphere blog war over these two issues. A War that has two woc bogger casualties thus far. Both brownfemipower and black amazon have shut down their blogs and may not be returning to the blogsphere anytime soon - this is a real loss for the community.
I wish I knew how to link the many, many articles but this one is one of the most objective articles, with the best links to other more comprehensive reports. The comments section is huge, but Marcotte weighs in with quite a bit of Missy Anne histronics over her good name and moreof the U R all jealous meme. http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2008/04/10/this-has-not-been-a-good-week-for-woman-of-color-blogging
Here's more from Angry Black Woman:
http://theangryblackwoman.wordpress.com/2008/04/25/seal-press-amanda-marcotteproof-that-feminism-and-racism-go-hand-in-hand/
Feminist like Marcotte are why many WOC have followed Alice Walker in identifying themselves as "womanist" rather than "feminist". Rebecca Walker (Alice's daughter)has written several excellent articles chronicling the repeated racism displayed by first, second and now third wave feminists.
A jungle out here indeed.
If you think about this ,this is Hillarys' playbook literally.She's Shena of the Jungle going against the African Barack in his al-Qaeda Somali flight suit.OT did you just put a flag pin on your Fox Nazi on your sidebar ?
Field: You undermine your point when you use words like "bitch."
ac, and others thanks for the background on Ms. Marcotte. It's funny now that you folks started explaining who she is, I remember her now. I saw form the other blog where some sisters were checking her, and have been for awhile, so that's what's up.
marci, looks like everyone coming to this blog suffers from dyslexia like the host. Thanks for checking me on the *cheesestaek* screw up :)
chris, you make some good points about the gay stereotypes as well, I am sure that it's just as frustrating for you folks.
"..will it ever be the case that in 'a-merry-ca' information on one's gender or the color of one's skin will garner a big so what????"
mouse, we can only hope so.
[quote]This political season has really put a strain on the relationship between black men and white (and dare I say some black) feminist.[/quote]
Interesting - the biggest purveyor of the corrupted Black Male imagery is Thug Sambo Hip Hop but you are more interested in posters from years ago?
The Black Quasi-Socialist Progressive-Fundamentalist Racism Chaser and the White Feminist might indeed be fighting now during this intramural fight.
One thing is for certain - come September they both will be checking into the same hotel in Denver as they unify on behalf of the best interests of their common party. (Whether this is the "Black Best Interest" is an entirely different conversation though)
This may not be important to you, but you may want to check out Diary of an Anxious Black Woman for more about Amanda Marcotte.
Here and here.
You make a good point, field! This "feminist" probably didn't understand her own inner racist personality when she chose to use those pictures in her book.
While I'm a feminist, I have had trouble aligning myself with their cause, specifically during this election season. Like you said, people's true colors start to show when their backs are against the wall. And the "feminists" proved that to be true this election season.
I am a feminist.
But y'all are foolin' yourselves if you think being protected is FUN. Remember, they said they was protecting those slaves too, keeping them away from all those money troubles.
Yes, you get protected, if you're like me, a white woman. You get told to do exactly what poppa says, OR ELSE. I decided I knew better than Daddy, and I haven't talked to him since.
Protected ain't equal, and it never will be.
And Hillary does not deserve to be president.
If you read the 'new feminist' critiques it is all about the whining. Why don't the nannies magically appear for white women so they can do the career? Why do the caretakers want a living wage? I want to take off for five or more years and my employer should keep my job and have me paid the same as a person who worked for those five or more years.
I was in PA government and can state that affirmative action was used to hire as many white women as possible. This allowed the gov to meet Federal standards and no icky black folk got real jobs. A twofer.
We had a young black attorney that was hell on wheels. Not one perp liked to see her. The most lauded attorney was a large breasted white woman who couldn't write legal documents worth reading. I gave up and wrote my own. They tended to hold up in court far besser. Then, I had to listen to her lunch time rants on how oppressed she was. BushEntitlement Delusion is endemic.
Mold
[quote]I was in PA government and can state that affirmative action was used to hire as many white women as possible. This allowed the gov to meet Federal standards and no icky black folk got real jobs. A twofer.
We had a young black attorney that was hell on wheels. Not one perp liked to see her. The most lauded attorney was a large breasted white woman who couldn't write legal documents worth reading. I gave up and wrote my own. They tended to hold up in court far besser. Then, I had to listen to her lunch time rants on how oppressed she was. BushEntitlement Delusion is endemic.[/quote]
Sounds to me that you are arguing for MERIT BASED HIRING rather than "Employment Reservations" based on characteristics not germane to the execution of one's duties? Welcome to my side of the debate.
But Field, are'nt you going to support the Epitome and Archetype of that protected class when she steals the nomination? A bit hypocrtical isn't it?
You know, I always knew black men HATE white women but I couldn't say it - because you can't say true things in this country. Black men are just as sexist as white men (and as sexist as Hispanic men, and Asian men), but they get to cover their hatred under the pretense of fighting racism. HOW DARE YOU group the billions of white PEOPLE in this world who happen to be female and white into one little box and dehumanize them while painting yourself as some martyr? Do you think that all white women are anglo-saxon princesses with trust funds, rich daddies and chauffeurs? You are so aware of how black people are trivialized and marginalized, yet you have no problem trivializing all white women - you have no problem furthering the stereotype that white women are superficial, stupid, hysterical, and less human than you! The white man made you inhuman and you have no problem making the white woman a dumb animal. If this election in the US has shown anything true, it is how incredibly bigoted and sexist black people, and black men are. Crying about your opression when you do the same to others. What are black men doing to black women in Africa? Check it out, moron.
"Because at the end of the day, the pie is only so big. And since some folks have made up their minds that people who look like me don't deserve an equal share, I will be damned if I am not going to grab some of that bitch [the pie] without even asking."
"Field: You undermine your point when you use words like "bitch."
-Uh-oh, Field!
Looks like you'll have to "reject and denounce" your comment. :-)
@ac, I totally agree with what you said.
Sadly, Marcotte is a great example of white feminist bloggers. She stole brown femi powers work, and then published these racist caricatures. Marcotte is a pathetic joke.
BFP was probably one of the first WoC bloggers that I ever read, and she also used to comment on AllyWorks as well.
I loved her work, and what Marcotte is doing is capitalizing and stealing her work. Actually, I am glad Marcotte was stupid enough to use those racist caricatures for her book, because that reflects what Marcotte really is.
anon. 12:48, trying to make comparisons to men in other countries is boring. yawn.
"..if I am not going to grab some of that bitch [the pie] without even asking."
"Field: You undermine your point when you use words like "bitch."
-Uh-oh, Field!
Looks like you'll have to "reject and denounce" your comment. :-)"
Never! And since when is a piece of pie a woman?
"But Field, are'nt you going to support the Epitome and Archetype of that protected class when she steals the nomination? A bit hypocrtical isn't it?"
Yes it is, but life isn't always perfect ;)
Anon 12:48PM, that's not true, not all black men hate white women. Look at O.J., and Clarence Thomas. One of them love white women so much it drove him to murder.
"The white man made you inhuman and you have no problem making the white woman a dumb animal.."
He did? I am quite human thank you very much. But that line is quite revealing, and it tells me all I need to know about you.
"Crying about your opression when you do the same to others. "
Mrs. Field are you posting here again? :)
"Sounds to me that you are arguing for MERIT BASED HIRING rather than "Employment Reservations" based on characteristics not germane to the execution of one's duties? Welcome to my side of the debate."
"Employment Reservations"? What ever happened to Affirmative Action? I swear you republicans just make up words sometimes. Kind of like "pro abortion" instead of "pro choice". I get it.
"Interesting - the biggest purveyor of the corrupted Black Male imagery is Thug Sambo Hip Hop but you are more interested in posters from years ago?"
You might be right, but doesn't that beg the question: "which came first, the chicken or the egg?"
Yikes! Did my comment get eaten?
You might be right, but doesn't that beg the question: "which came first, the chicken or the egg?"
LMAO
interesting post.
i am a young black woman, and i don't consider myself a feminist. there are just things in each wave of the movement that do not interest me.
I don't agree with some other posts, however about how white women are the "most protected". They can still get raped and murdered, and while they will be the most highlighted every time they disappear as opposed to when a woman of color disappear, the MSM does not protect them from getting attacked either way.
Now they do have the most privileges; especially in the mainstream society/academic/leftist circles. The real issue with Marcotte besides gliding through the left with props and love while her book jackets has a racist cover and her plagiarism charges, is that she was published due to her white-privileges. Let's be real; how many women of color do you think have approached publishers like Seal press with books or articles like what Amanda wrote and got rejected? I bet there were a lot. But hey, Amanda can claim oppression.
Field,
This is not the only controversy that Amanda Marcotte has been mixed up in; one of your commenters mentioned Diary of an Anxious Black Woman; (a black feminist blog and one of my favorite blogs.) she and a few others have been reporting about a girlcott of Seal press, Marcotte’s publisher over possible plagiarism by Marcotte. Story has it that a woman of color whose blog was called, Brownfemipower covered issues facing woc, but Latinas specifically. Brownfemipower did a lot of posts regarding issues of immigrant woman and domestic violence or rape. I know a lot of this stuff to be real and true because my wife instructs ESL students and she has become the teacher who’s the magnet for her female students with domestic problems.
Anyway, it seems our Marcotte published work along the same lines that Brownfemipower did. How much of it was identical is usually question (by the defensive supporters of Marcotte.) but it must have been bad enough for brownfemipower to pull her blog!
On to feminism in general:
Feminism is like any other liberation movement; it is important for those who demand whatever oppressive “ism” is relegating them to subservience to be overthrown.
Based on the beliefs of feminist theorists and activists, their understanding that the world’s population consist more than half of women, yet men hold most power and privileges, shows the case that feminism should be a liberation ideology that transcends class, race, and even gender., therefore can free everybody from patriarchy and misogyny. However, what has always dogged feminism is fact that the movement has more than its share of bourgeois, white women who unwittingly drag their own privileged mind sets, patriarchy, and sense of entitlement into the movement.
Women of color who have rightfully called themselves feminist have brought up charges of racism, classism, homophobia, and flirtations with right-wing positions with the bourgeois women of their movement over the decades. The responses were the same when men of color were confronted with sexism in the 60s and 70s by woc. The wocs were either laughed at or thrown defensive attacks. Just as the Nation of Islam cannot claim Black Nationalism solely or the Communist Party of the USA could not epitomize American Communist parties, Marcotte, the racist women of Tennessee Guerilla Women who support imperialism (Iraqi war) and the racism of Bill Clinton, and Hilary’s failed policies in New York cannot epitomize feminism. There are many feminists out there who do not support Clinton, I should know; I’m married to one.
Merit Based Hiring in the Federal Gov't creates Minority Majority Safe-Havens.
For Real.
You see, in the sciences, the Feds are just plain desperate for Competency. So it don't matter what color your skin is... And since it most of the time does other places, well, there's a lotta all different sorts of folks there, having a blast.
This is what merit based hiring is about.
I firmly believe that everyone ought to be able to take a test to get out of highschool, and another to get out of college, and a third to get any job (oral if it's sales. can't do that one on paper).
But a wealth based affirmative action will do the same thing as a color based one, and piss off fewer white folks who don't like to think.
Also, folks, if you want some merit-based publications you can try writing some science fiction (I hear Analog takes anything that's decent. if you get a rejection letter, that means they want to publish that manuscript, once it's been polished a pinch).
Throughout this election cycle, I have add the misfortune of encountering and sometimes locking horns with feminist supporters of Hillary who actually think their candidate is entitled to be the 44th president not because of her thin and questionable CV, but because of her gender. It's stunning.
Hillary Clinton claims she has "35 years experience," which I suppose includes for 5 years sitting on the board of WalMart blocking employee efforts to organize.
Some of Hillary Clinton's problems include:
1.) claiming she brokered peace deals in Northern Ireland
2.) urged Bill to intervene in the Rwandan genocide
3.) claiming she opposed NAFTA when she worked tirelessly to get it passed
4.) claimed Chelsea was jogging around the Trade Center on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 (she was at home in bed)
5.) said on at least three occasions she dodged enemy sniper fire at the airport in Tuzla, Bosnia
6.) voted with George Bush, giving him the authority to go to war in Iraq and now she lies about what her vote meant
7.) opposed the international treaty to ban land mines
8.) voted against the Feinstein-Leahy amendment last September restricting U.S. exports of cluster bombs to countries that use them against civilian-populated areas, opposed restrictions on U.S. arms transfers and police training to governments that engage in gross and systematic human rights abuses, such as Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Israel, Pakistan, Cameroon and Chad
9.) was an outspoken supporter of Israel’s massive military assault on the civilian infrastructure of Lebanon and the Gaza Strip last summer, which took the lives of over 1,000 civilians, 500 of whom were children under 12 and then justified it by claiming it would "send a message to Hamas, Hezbollah, to the Syrians [and] to the Iranians" because they opposed the United States and Israel’s commitment to "life and freedom"
10.) stood with Lieberman to vote to recognize the Iranian National Guard as a "terrorist organization," a vote widely seen as a precursor to a U.S. invasion of Tehran.
Yet to at least some feminists, none of this matters. Hillary's voting record and policy positions fall to the curb because she's female and therefore MUST be elected president. Their argument is totally and completely illogical and ignores several salient facts about Hillary:
1.) she's a dangerous hawk in the Cheney tradition
2.) her CV is a lie: a myth: just so much hyperbole
3.) her world view is one that sees the 21st century as an opportunity for a neo-Manifest Destiny with an American empire stretching from Israel to Iran and possibly to Pakistan
The American people can't afford to elect anyone -- man or woman, who holds such a regressive and dangerous world view.
bfp is white. has white husband. white children. nice to know color folks worry about white girl while my black ass is ignored in Fl.
Well, without affirmative action none of the hires of people of color would have been done. So the shibboleth of 'merit hiring' brings the memory of 'merit pay'. The standards and amounts were to be determined by your supervisor. I had the top enforcement numbers for my unit-number one in the Commonwealth. My co-worker, who bragged she was too stupid to be accepted by Penn State, barely made the minimum to be retained. Through contacts I learned that she was to be awarded the entire budget for 'merit pay'.
Mold
Bfp is a Latina/Chicana with light skin. Race and identity aren't solely determined skin color. Someone black posting here should know that, considering the many shades that we come in.
bfp mama is white. her mama raised her. she hates her white side. her husband is white. her children is white. if she was not fat she would embrace her whiteness. don't be fooled by the false chola. its all about her. just like her white girls.
If any of that is true, anon then bfp is still Latina, it is irrelevant who her other parent is. She can claim Latina. I think you're one of the many pro-Amanda toadies who just needs to hide the inherent tendencies she obviously has to imperialize poc issues and capitalize off of them.
"2.) urged Bill to intervene in the Rwandan genocide"
LOL! And how did that workout? Pssst
Her view of the world is no different from the conservatives. We are better off with the real conservative who actually has real experience in the real world.
She needs to go back and play with her dolls and make believe.
"Second, white women belong to the most protected class in this country, so I have always been somewhat confused as to just what the fuck they have to complain about."
Oh, that's easy, Field. Being part of the most protected class in this country isn't the same as being part of the freest class. As such, I've always, as a white woman, felt I had plenty to complain about regarding my position relative to white men. Black men, not so much; I'd never claim sexism is worse than racism.
You're absolutely right, of course, about the pictures.
Good point,
Feminism in America, especially mainstream feminism has been centered around white women. It is so important that we realize that sexism is only a biproduct of racism in this country. The reason why white women have been oppressed was because white men wanted to have a reason for to justify their violence against black people....in particular black men, during slavery, the idea that black men would rape white women became the justification for slaughtering black male slaves, or torturing them, after slavery the same idea existed during the time of Dr. King, thousands of black men have been killed in this country because of this threat to white women's purity....funny, today, it seems as though over half of black men want to date white women, not because of love, but because of their self hate, if only they knew, their private parts were cut off for that, and also white man has never been convicted of raping a black woman in this country!!!!!!!EVER!!!!! so sexism here in America was a way to keep the elite, the elite, by having a woman in her place, but this place was way higher for a white woman that for a black woman, i know this sounds cold, but it is the truth, hopefully people realize we do not need a woman president but a person who is black, latino, asian ,or the real americans, native americans to be the next one...but will this happen in this country..? i wonder ...
While I do agree that many middle to upper middle class white women are and always have been a protected class, I do not think that is the case for the working poor or those living in poverty.
Well, after seeing Amanda MArcotte's reaction to Brownfemnipower's complaints about appropriation I don't take Ms Marcotte's or Seal Press's apologies seriously
There are many good things in the feminist movement however behaviour like Ms. Marcotte's to her well meaning critics actually hurt the desire of many feminists to see be more inclusive, but then again the onus is on white feminists to convince the white supremacist patriarchy to recognize the humanity of all women.
For more information you might want to read folks like Blackamazon
"Because at the end of the day, the pie is only so big." Not true, the national economic pie can be grown, though not always in socially or ecologically healthy ways. One way to grow it is to act as though, as Bill Clinton said in his younger days, we don't have a person to waste. Beats the current way of growing the economy by growing the prison industrial complex and the hard drug biz.
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