Watching the Sunday morning political shows is always entertaining, if not informative. Sometimes, the talking heads are so full of themselves that I just laugh. Of course, the hottest national political topic these days seems to be Barack Obama. This post isn’t about him, but expect one (or more) from me on him soon.
Clarence Page, the Chicago Tribune columnist (no, we are not related – notice the missing i 🙂 ), brought up the issue of race versus gender in discussing Obama and Hillary Clinton. Page argued that we will have a white female president before we have a black male president. He bolstered his claim based on the fact that we currently have just one black US senator while there are fourteen white women.
Take a look at this chart, which I devised a number of years ago. I think it’s safe to say that in the pecking order of things, white males are at the top and black females are at the bottom. Male is preferred over female and white over black. The only question is which is next preferable, gender or race? In order to buy Page’s argument, you must believe that race (white) trumps gender (male). That makes white women #2 and black males #3. But is that accurate?
Who got the right to vote first, black males or white women? Why, that would be black males. (Of course, with Jim Crow laws, they weren’t allowed to vote.)
Who served on the Supreme Court first, black males or white women? Thurgood Marshal, in 1967. Sandra Day O’Connor, the first female, joined the court in 1981.
The first black man was elected to the Senate in 1870. The first white woman to serve in the Senate was appointed in 1922, but she only served one day. The first white woman elected to the Senate was also appointed but won the seat in an election in 1932.
So the argument can be made that black men are #2 while white women are #3. Gender (male) trumps race (white).
Have the gains made by white women, the largest beneficiaries of Affirmative Action, skewed the numbers so that it appears that they have moved up to #2?
I don’t know. I’m a 4. There are none of us in the Senate or on the Supreme Court.
Technorati Tags: Clarence Page, Race, Gender
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Vivian, I agree with your thoughts on this. But I was making the point that the beef the “4s” have is with the two major political parties for all races outside of local governments.
Me?
I’d vote for Condi Rice if she was the best option I had on the ballot.
Frankly, I like Condi Rice.
And yes, I have met her and spoken with her . . .
Oh, and if tomorrow Senator Hillary Clinton work up as a white male – other than her Republican opponent being Satan, she’d not get my vote – not because of her gender, but rather due to the content of her character.
But hey, that’s just me (well okay … and a whole lot of others too, or so they tell me.)
Satan is a white male – is he not? Well … maybe a red male.
But if HC woke up as a WM, then you would only be looking at the content of her character. Because her race and gender would already put her at the top of the pile.
Vivian, what I failed to say/clearly articulate was should HC wake up as a white male tomorrow and she was on the ballot a the DNC candidate for POTUS – and her opponent was Condi Rice; me, a white male – would cast my vote for Condi Rice instead of the white male candidate.
Why?
Because Condi is the better choice.
Race and gender ranked lower than character in my decision-making process.
But, giving credit where credit is due – I “see” your point about the political pipeline not having an adequate number of females groomed for Congress/Senate/SCOTUS – and thus in the pipeline for POTUS down the road. It’s an accurate observation from what I observe.
Let me ask you something – do you think people like Cynthia McKinney hurt all other Black Females seeking Federal elected representative offices?
If so, why didn’t the DNC and the Congressional Black Caucus take appropriate actions following her assault on security personnel?
I have wondered about this ever since the she hit that poor guy that was simply doing his job.
Let me ask you something – do you think people like Cynthia McKinney hurt all other Black Females seeking Federal elected representative offices?
Let me ask you something – do you think people like Virgil Goode or David Duke will hurt all other white males seeking Federal elected representative offices?
“Condi ain’t a real 4. She usually forgets that she’s black.” -vjp
Obama forgets that his mother is White, too.
So, hypothetically, where would Michael Jackson fall on this scale if he decided to run for President?
I’d guess the first not-white-and-male (NWM) president will be a black man: even though more people are coming to more fully embrace egalitarianism, families still reproduce gender roles, making the barrier to a female commander-in-chief much slower to diminish, even if the pay gap is closing fast (which it’s not).
Also, in terms of the mechanics of electing a NWM: female political identity isn’t as strong or as dependably one-sided as black political identity, providing the black Democratic candidate a significant boost to get him over the hump (once it appears small enough that the party will nominate a NWM). Maybe more accurately; female politics is more centered around issues (e.g., abortion) whereas black politics responds with astounding positive energy when the candidate is black.
But it is noteworthy that the equation is entirely different for a Democratic and Republican NWM. If the first NWM elected is a Republican, I wager it’ll be a white woman, because nobody thinks black Republicans mean a damn thing they say — period. They’re just puppets. And the last office you want a puppet to hold is that of the President (ahem, GWB); meaning the last person you want as your presidential nominee is an obvious puppet.
So if the Dems get there first I predict a Black man, if the Pubs get there first I predict a white Woman, but it’s rather telling — and I think this is something we should all take a moment to reflect proudly upon — that the entire national conversation about whether America is ready for a NWM, and what kind of NWM it is most ready for began on account of two Democrats who haven’t even announced. Go us, and go U.S.A.
p.s. Although I didn’t choose to take the “course of history” train of thought, I did want to add that the Democratic party has blready nominated a woman for VP (and I think the first NWP VP could well be a woman) — but only 16 years after they had nominated a black man.
p.p.s. Vivian, this discussion was so thought-provoking I had to share it with the VaP crowd. I hope you don’t mind, I told them to come on over here and join in the convo.
First
In a perfect world, race, sex, age, etc would make no difference what so ever….
but we live in reality
There is a segment of the population that will not vote for a woman and there is a segment of the population that will not vote for an african american. I am sure there are quantifiable studies that show what proportion of the population believes this just like the studies that show who will not vote for a muslim, mormon, homosexual, etc..
Here is my personal analysis. For the most part I believe that currently, for most minorities to be elected they need to live in an area that has a “decent” minority population and tends to be more blue than red. In the case of African Americans who vote, I believe that many of them tend to be Christian. Depending on your interpretation of the bible women have more of a helper role than a leadershp position. That is the double wammy that African American women face.
As far as minorities vs women overall I would place women ahead of minorities at the local level because once again currently most minorities are only elected from areas that have a “decent” minority population. However, for higher offices we get into the “leadership” issue again and I would submit that just like in white majority districts that are overwhelmingly male in their representation minority area districts followsuit.
This trend is similar to what is occuring in business with women outnumbering minorities at the low and mid managment levels but minority men outnumbering women at the top executive levels.
Of note I would say that the percentage of districts open to trending female are going up and the overall minority districts are trending up. However, African American districts are flat or trending down.
One final note in terms of what you are “stacked up against”. Generally in red areas the 1s have it locked down. So that means 50% is already out and then the 1s, 2s, 3s, and 4s, are all duking it out in the blue areas with 1s still having a majority of positions.
.
Michael Jackson is a “5” – he is simply off the chart (on this blog & in the music industry).
Hello, maybe everyone should go and look back at the piage/moss norfolk election and see what race had to do with that election. it had everthing to do with that election, piage was the winner!
Gender in my experience is more intractable an issue even than race but race clearly still matters. That explains why black (minority?) females are 4. And, why I believe that black (minority?) males are 2.
*Vomits*
You spend more time talking about race then those racist skinheads do, do you notice that?
*Cleans you off my election choices forever*
In the space of about 5 minutes, you are very close to becoming the first person to be banned on my blog. We don’t do personal attacks here. Either clean it up or expect every comment to be marked as spam.