Race & Gender Minefields

One of the more fascinating and embarrassing aspects of this primary is watching the fissures within Democratic party, and among liberals in general, get exposed, particularly along racial and gender lines. 

I've already written fairly extensively about the race-baiting that's gone on in the race. (Many charges have appeared since SC that have been such stretches of interpretation that I haven't bothered commenting.)

Well, recently I've been considering a post or three about the fractures within the feminist community about whether voting for Obama is a betrayal of the sisterhood. But, honestly, I've just had too much to work with for this medium (well over 40 articles to reference) and I gave up on the idea. 

Well, never mind that. This week we've got a two-fer. To wit:

Geraldine Ferraro, former representative of NY and the first woman to run on a major party ticket, has managed to step in it recently, getting caught playing both the race card and the sexism card.

First reports came in that she said this:

If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. 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.

Now, leave aside the absurdity of the statement for a sec. I can kind of see what she was getting at. I mean he's an exciting charismatic politician who is also black and stands a real chance at getting elected president. Maybe he wouldn't be enjoying as much press if he were a white guy. 

On the other hand, this is the U.S. Obama is a black man whose name is Barack Hussein Obama. This is lucky? C'mon. What Ferraro fails to see in her frustration is that his "luck" is really an uncanny ability to overcome the huge obstacle of his name and skin color.

Anyway, Obama's camp responded thus: 

"They should be denounced, and she should be censured by the campaign for them," Axelrod said of Ferraro's remarks. If Clinton's campaign does nothing, Axelrod said during a call with reporters, they are reinforcing a politics-as-usual approach.

"They ought to set a tone and do what we've done when people have said things not in keeping with what is the spirit of our campaign," he said, adding, "the bottom line is this when you wink and nod at offensive statemens you really send a signal to your supporters that anything goes."

To which Ferraro responded: 

Right off the bat some fellow bloggers began labeling her a racist, unfairly to my mind. That's a pretty nasty charge to level at someone, especially when they're speaking off the cuff.

Well, it turns out she wasn't speaking off the cuff. She'd made similar comments a week earlier to Fox skeeve, John Gibson, which suggests to me that it was a talking point:

Meantime, the Clinton camp released this down-is-up statement: 

[W]e reject these false, personal and politically calculated attacks on the eve of a primary. This campaign should be about the leadership we need for a better future and these attacks serve only to divide the Democratic Party and the American people.

That's right, Obama's dividing the American people by playing the race card. 

But wait, there's more.

It turns out that Ferraro made virtually the exact same argument back in 1988 about Jesse Jackson's candidacy:

"If Jesse Jackson were not black, he wouldn't be in the race," she said.

Really. The cite is an April 15, 1988 Washington Post story, available only on Nexis. Here's the full context:

Placid of demeanor but pointed in his rhetoric, Jackson struck out repeatedly today against those who suggest his race has been an asset in the campaign. President Reagan suggested Tuesday that people don't ask Jackson tough questions because of his race. And former representative Geraldine A. Ferraro (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that because of his "radical" views, "if Jesse Jackson were not black, he wouldn't be in the race."

Asked about this at a campaign stop in Buffalo, Jackson at first seemed ready to pounce fiercely on his critics. But then he stopped, took a breath, and said quietly, "Millions of Americans have a point of view different from" Ferraro's.

Discussing the same point in Washington, Jackson said, "We campaigned across the South . . . without a single catcall or boo. It was not until we got North to New York that we began to hear this from Koch, President Reagan and then Mrs. Ferraro . . . . Some people are making hysteria while I'm making history."

Wow. 

Still I'm somewhat inclined to give Ferraro a pass because as racist comments go these are pretty tame. I think in her mind she's merely describing the reality on the ground. (Trouble is, of course, the ground has shifted.) And as she mentioned, she has worked against discrimination in her past. 

It seems to me that what we're seeing is a more deeply rooted, almost latent, soft racism that's being flushed out in this campaign (it's happening too with sexism, less latently). One that I think people of an older generation are actually blind to. 

Ultimately, I think that these clashes over racism and sexism are healthy; good things to get out into the open and explore, despite feelings getting hurt. Really, it's absurd to think that most Obama supporters are sexist and that most Clinton supporters are racists. But some of these claims are valid and they shouldn't be dismissed. Because we're all human after all, and we often surprise even ourselves when repellent thoughts or ideas get flushed out in stressful situations. 

Update: Irritated and defensive, Ferraro had this to say: 

"Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let's address reality and the problems we're facing in this world, you're accused of being racist, so you have to shut up," Ferraro said. "Racism works in two different directions. I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?"

Yeesh.

Update II: Project And Project Again.

She also said she is familiar with Axelrod from his work for minority candidates in New York. "He knows damn well that the best thing to do in a situation like this is to come back and hit with race," Ferraro said, adding that the response is a sign that the Obama campaign is "worried" about the first-term senator's lack of experience.

Update III: My Victimization Is Worse Than Yours.

She also echoed remarks of feminist leaders like Gloria Steinem, who argued in the New York Times that Obama would not have succeeded if he were a woman because gender is "the most restricting force in American life."

"Sexism is a bigger problem," Ferraro argued. "It's OK to be sexist in some people's minds. It's not OK to be racist."