By now, everyone is aware of the comments made by Geraldine Ferraro last week, but in case you missed them, here they are:
“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position,” she continued. “And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.”
Since making those comments, Ferraro has added fuel to the fire by defiantly defending them. Until stepping down Wednesday, Ferraro, 72, had been a fundraiser for the Hillary Clinton campaign.
Recall my earlier statement:
Anyone who thought this contest would not end up being about race and gender is neither black nor female
And, unfortunately, there are far too few black females amongst the media and the blogs.
To say I’m disappointed in Ferraro would be an understatement. But then again, I understand where she’s coming from. She is, after all, a white female. (Before I go any further, let me get my flame suit on.)
We all know that white women have been the largest group to benefit from affirmative action. They would like us black women to think it was women that made those strides but the real truth is that black women remain at the bottom of the totem poll. We are last to get anything, almost invisible.
When white women were making strides, they left us behind. Look around you. See more than the token black woman in a position of authority? Name me one black female political commentator other than Donna Brazile. How many white women are there? The whole “sisterhood” thing of the women’s movement never embraced women of color, at least not in any large way. White women, particularly ones who came of age during that time, truly believe that they are #2. And they believe that being female is a whole lot worse than being black. Read Ferraro’s statement and tell me she’s not saying that.
Which brings me to playing the victim. I think it’s funny that white folk say that black folk play the victim all the time. Have they ever looked at how often white women play the victim? I daresay it happens more for them than it does for us. I don’t deny that misogyny is a major problem. But white women, as they have moved up the ladder, have gotten real power. Unfortunately, it is not power shared with their sisters of color, only with each other.
As for this election, for the very first time, black women matter. Early on, black women supported Hillary Clinton, some of them, no doubt, because she was a woman. Slowly but surely, through boneheaded missteps of this campaign, she has lost this important voter group. I suspect in many minds it was a pretty easy transition to make. Because, you see, I think black women think of themselves as black first – and women second. It is hard for us to see the injustices of being female when we are whacked over the head daily for being black.
So I think I understand where Ferraro is coming from. But any person of color, me included, is going to see her remarks as over-the-top, in-your-face racism. And fighting sexism by injecting racism is a lose-lose proposition all the way around.
As for Hillary – I think she needs to take a long, hard look at the women (and men) in her campaign. I still support her, because I think that she’s the best person for the job. But she’ll not have the opportunity to do the job if she keeps people like Ferraro around her.
Technorati Tags: Geraldine Ferraro
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Ummm…You’re mis-speaking reality there, Ms. Paige, when you make a limiting statement such as “But any person of color, me included, is going to see her remarks as over-the-top, in-your-face racism.” I’m a White male and I found her statement – essentially a repeat of her 1988 statement about rev. Jackson’s candidacy – to be “over-the-top, in-your-face racism.”
On the general lack of sisterhood – Black women and White women had very little in common during the painful earlier years of the feminist movement. Black women were already working, running businesses and possessing near as much “power” as their menfolk did. The females of the two races were coming from different viewpoints, or at least my girlfriend (Black-Apache-Scottish) keeps telling me…LOL
I’m taking a minute to think about this Vivian, as I always do when discussing issues of race and gender with you. Off hand though I want to voice my disagreement with Jonolan in that I don’t feel that you’re “mispeaking reality there” (or mis-talking grammarily, neither). Hopefully most of your readers understand that it’s not automatically implied that when someone says people of color will find something racist, white people are automatically excluded from sharing a concurrent opinion.
“Anyone who thought this contest would not end up being about race and gender is neither black nor female”
I’m neither of those and I thought it would end up being about one, the other or even both. 🙂
“Name me one black female political commentator other than Donna Brazile.”
There is another one on CNN, she’s a Republican and I can’t recall her name (Amy is her first name, I believe). Even though she’s Republican she seems to be pretty knowledgeable and is usually pretty fair and had they not told me she was Republican it would’ve taken me awhile to figure it out.
Regardless, great post Vivian and I agree with pretty much all of it.
Vivian,
Beautifully put, Vivian. As for me, its the sense of white entitlement that is exemplified by Hillary and Ms. Ferraro that is the deal breaker in choosing not to support Senator Clinton. I strongly object to what Gerry said. However, given how long I have admired Ms. Ferraro, who I believe to be a gifted and talented politician that represented women well on the 84 ticket, it truly is a sad thing to discover that she said something similar twenty years ago about Jesse Jackson.
Its hard for me to gin up any anger because of her iconic status and her age. When she candidly admitted that had she been named Gerard Ferraro instead of Geraldine, she wouldn’t have been chosen for the ticket 24 years ago, was illuminating. The name Gerard wasn’t taken out of thin air. It was her older baby brother’s name. He died in a car accident at 3 and her mom blamed herself for the rest of her life. Her daddy left/died, I don’t remember which and her mom struggled to raise her. She saved to send her to private school and went without eating meat sometimes to do it.
Gerry never forgot that and when she graduated from college and law school and found a husband, she kept her maiden name to say thank you to her Mama. That’s the kind of person she is-human. I still don’t like what she said and certainly don’t agree with her stubborn defiance, but I understand it.
In contrast to Ms. Ferraro’s struggles, Hillary’s had it relatively easy. Her struggle, if any, was dealing with Bill’s serial infidelity and accommodating to the ideological shift from progressive to right-wing DLC democrat.
The execution of Rickey Ray Rector, a black Arkansas death row inmate who attempted to commit suicide after killing a cop and instead lobotomized himself, was both unnecessary and form of “racist grandstanding” as Christopher Hitchens put it.
At the height of the Gennifer Flowers flap and the New Hampshire primary, Bill put him to death and Hillary sat back and let him do it after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case, a decision that then Justice Thurgood Marshall dissented from.
To tell us that she has always defended civil rights is emphatically not true. I could go on, but I’ll leave it there for now.
Vivian,
These comments aren’t just insulting to black people, or women, or democrats, or Americans, they should be considered insulting to humanity.
Obama is one of the most talented legislators in Washington (see Ethics Reform and Nuclear Proliferation, not to mention his vast list of successes in Illiniois), one of the most informed civil rights attorneys, one of the best Constitutional scholars. On top of that, he is one of the most inspirational leaders on the national political scene today.
For a democrat to stand up and say that he is where he is today because he’s black is blatantly racist and therefore against any code of common decency.
It’s plainly shocking that Hillary didn’t “reject and denounce” and condemn these insane statements, and more shocking still that Clinton supporters continue to see Hillary’s “play the victim and attack” as somehow helpful to anyone in the world save, dubiously, Hillary herself.
As a lifelong male feminist, I’m personally disappointed that Hillary seems to believe that the only way she can get elected is by sponsoring overt racism and claiming to be oppressed.
She’s not helping herself, she’s not helping the party, she’s not helping the country, and as it turns out, she’s not really hurting Obama. So what’s she doing? Helping Republicans. I’m truly embarrassed for her and her campaign.
skepticalbrotha,
I’m not so sure that it’s “white entitlement” so much as “Clinton Entitlement” on Hillary’s part and the ranting of a bitter feminist on Ferraro’s part. That Ferraro is a racist seems apparent, but the “entitlement” idea seem off base. It’s probably more a case of bitterness and jealousy turning into racism.
The radical / militant feminist “manifesto” seems to include a lot of ranting about how Blacks got the vote before women did and other such comparisons.
jonolan,
I’m 100% sure it’s about white entitlement although you may not be. Thanks for your comment. It is both reasoned and thought provoking.
I’m inclined to agree with skepticalbrotha, at least up to a point. As Vivian astutely points out, white women–especially the ones that came of age at the same time as my mother and Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro–were absolutely certain that they’re #2. A strong #2, even. It simply isn’t true, and I bet it’s frustrating the hell out them. Racism and misogyny both exist in America today (and will continue to exist in this country after the November election, regardless of the outcome). The difference is that racism is largely frowned upon publicly. Sexism, by contrast, is kind of/sort of okay. If anything, it’s kind of/sort of okay enough that no body even notices it anymore.
So we have a large section of white women who thought they’d finally shattered the glass ceiling, they were ascendant, their time had come. In short, yes, brotha, they thought they were entitled (though it’s not so much because they feel whites are more deserving than blacks as much as it is that they’d thought they’d already won, and this was supposed to be their reward).
And it simply isn’t true, at least not nearly to the degree that they thought. Sexism runs a whole lot deeper than that, it’s been part of Western culture forever, and it may be here still long after we’ve had a black president. It’s actually even older than racism (don’t believe me? The ancient Greeks thought that Africans had darker skin because they were perpetually burnt on account of living so close to the Gods of Olympus. The ancient Greeks also thought a woman’s role was to make babies and service her husband. Western Civilization at its inception used to love black people but hated women).
Anyway, my overarching point is that some white women like Ferraro are finding themselves on uncomfortable ground, and it’s leading them to say things that are rightfully being roundly condemned. I don’t necessarily believe that it’s motivated by racial antipathy, however; I think it may simply be that some proto-feminists are starting to realize that they haven’t actually won, and it’s frustrating and angering them into saying some ridiculously stupid things.
Wow, this is the only intelligent post I have read on this. As an experience politician, Ferraro should have known better, putting everything else aside.
I go back an forth, right now I support Clinton, mostly because of Obama’s brilliant idea that you can disenfranchise two entire states.
We have a black and a woman running, all of our society’s weird attitudes are going to come to the surface. It won’t be pretty.
Alice, dear, it isn’t Obama’s choice to disenfranchise two states. They did not follow the rules like the other 48 states did. They moved up their primaries. The candidates, all of them, agreed not to campaign in those states cause they did not matter as far as delegates are concerned.
So… by blaming Obama, you should also blame clinton. And why does this matter now? Cause Hillary is behind, way behind. And the corportate media has made it their cause.
And what about the people that did vote in Fl. You going to take away their vote by revoting? Is not going to happen.
Rules are for everyone but George Bush.
Alice,
The politicians running Michigan and Florida disenfranchised their own people by moving up their contests. Obama had nothing to do with it. The Florida Party made the best of a bad situation and the Hillary supporters in the congressional delegation are getting in the way. They could agree to a caucus but they won’t since they believe they can’t win. Don’t be bamboozled, dear.
This white middle-aged professional woman actually agrees with a lot of what you say. The unspoken reality is that when people, particularly men, see a woman, quite often they will react to that woman as if she can’t be a professional or may not be intelligent. I still remember being called “girlie” and “missy” by a crotchety white, middle-aged lawyer when I was first starting out. I’d introduced myself to him as my client’s lawyer, but all he saw was a short, plump mommy-looking type whom he mistook for a social worker. He was mortified when he realized his mistake (which I rather forcefully pointed out to him). This type of thing happened quite a bit in the 80s and early 90s.
Over the years I have pondered experiences such as this. I’ve watched the number of black women lawyers increase in the courts, and I’ve pondered how often they are mistaken for social workers or court clerks or litigants. The thing is, I can understand that others – particularly white men – might accept that I am an intelligent woman who happens to be a lawyer, but I sense also that black women lawyers have a higher hill to climb. They can’t just be smart women who are lawyers. They have to be smart BLACK women who are lawyers, and they have to be able to make that point not only with the men (and I’m talking about men of all races and backgrounds), but with the white women, too. It must be a hell of a burden. On top of that is the unspoken assumption by many, many whites that a black woman in a position of responsibility must have gotten her education and her position as a result of affirmative action or due to some racial guilt on the part of some unnamed liberal somewhere in a position of authority. Some men make this assumption about all women, but it is a far more pervasive notion about black people, and most particularly about black women. To be frank, black folks are always having to prove that they’re smart or educated or moral or capable of making good decisions. I’ve seen and heard whites complain about the group of loud black kids on a train or at a beach, but their assumption seems to be that this is the way all black people comport themselves. When a bunch of white kids is acting obnoxious no one goes around saying that’s just the way whites in general comport themselves.
The hardest thing about all this is the sense that there’s only so much outrage over inequality to go around, that if one is outraged over the way that women have been treated then there’s not enough room to be outraged over the way that minorities have been treated, or, for that matter, how anyone of any background has been treated on the basis of that person’s background. From my point of view outrage over disparate treatment is not a zero sum thing. There’s plenty of room for outrage over all silly assumptions about anyone based on color or creed or gender or national origin.
Well, there is Amy Holmes.
Anyway, I didn’t look at Ferraro’s statements as being as much racist as they were just flat out wrong.