The Automatik

Another currently hot topic in the realm of racism, is the series of comments made by former Vice Presidential candidate and Hillary Clinton campaign Finance Committee member Geraldine Ferraro.

Image from The Huffington Post

In case you haven’t heard about this, here’s what she said:

“I think what America feels about a woman becoming president takes a very secondary place to Obama’s campaign – to a kind of campaign that it would be hard for anyone to run against. For one thing, you have the press, which has been uniquely hard on her. It’s been a very sexist media. Some just don’t like her. The others have gotten caught up in the Obama campaign.

“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.”

In their March 11 follow up story, the Daily Breeze reported Ferraro’s response to the accusations that she was a racist:

“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. Racism works in two different directions. I really think they’re attacking me because I’m white. How’s that?”

She defended her remarks on Good Morning America, saying she was “sorry people think it was a racist comment.” She goes on to say she’s been “fighting discrimination for forty years, not just about gender, but about race, and for the disabled, for the elderly, for gays. . .” She tries to say she meant her remarks in a good way, and singles Obama out for being a successful African-American.

She again defended her remarks on NBC’s Nightly News on March 12, saying:

“If anybody is going to apologize, they should apologize to me for calling me a racist.”

Despite the fact that she resigned of her own volition, Ferraro thinks she has been prevented from exercising her first amendment rights. She calls the accusations “hurtful” and again mentions how she’s been “fighting against discrimination for forty years.”

Is the new national pastime the Oppression Olympics? Who has it worse: gays or the disabled? Women or African-Americans?

Is this the new face of feminism, one which says, point blank, “Bow down to the woman?”

It’s not just Roseanne Barr, it’s Gloria Steinem and Erica Jong.

Steinem: “Black men were given the vote a half-century before women of any race were allowed to mark a ballot, and generally have ascended to positions of power, from the military to the boardroom, before any women (with the possible exception of obedient family members in the latter).”

Jong: “If Michelle attacks Hillary, it’s news. If Hillary attacks Michelle — well she can’t because that would be racist. . . If I have to watch another great American woman thrown in the dustbin of history to please the patriarchy, I’ll move to Canada . . . ”

What do all of these women have in common? They are white.

The party line of white privilege is denial, so let’s translate Ferraro’s comments:

Racism is no longer an issue, but sexism against white women is an issue.
If a person of color calls me on my racism, they are being racist against me.
I am sorry if people thought what I said was racist, but I am not sorry for what I said.
I refuse to question my privilege because I am a white woman and therefore exempt due to the fact that I have been the victim of sexism.
I can’t be racist because I have black friends and I have fought against discrimination against women and other marginalized groups.
By calling attention to your own race, you are making race an issue not me.
I was only trying to say that I think it’s great that you people have gotten as far as you have even though you aren’t white.
I am hurt by your accusations of racism and since I am a white woman, my pain is greater than the pain you have suffered at the hands of racist whites.

Let’s be clear and see this for what it is: a giant load of bullshit.

No person of color who calls a white person out on racism should apologize to the white person for thinking the remarks were racist. White people do not get to decide what is or is not racist. We can’t because we are not victims of racism; it is not our call.

Furthermore, there is no trumping of feminism by racism or racism by feminism. Both originate from prejudice plus power, but then veer off in different directions. Sexism is the oppression of women by the patriarchal power structure while racism is the oppression of people of color by the white power structure.

Feminism is not the same as racism and they should never be conflated.

Many white people, and I have been guilty of this myself, try to come up with analogies to address racism, often in an attempt to deny their own. We will create alternate universes where race isn’t used to discriminate but instead substitute things like hair color, eye color, height, or whether or not someone has freckles. And then we will say, “Oh, isn’t that ridiculous? I would never discriminate against someone based on their hair color so why would I do that to a person of color?”

Let me counter with a question: Why on earth would we need to create an alternate universe to deconstruct racism when we already live in a world where people continue to perpetrate oppression based on race?

There are no analogies needed for racism because there are none. No other oppression of any marginalized group is akin to racism because only racism oppresses people on the basis of their race. To create analogies avoids addressing the fact that racism exists.

Period. That’s it. So leave feminism, homophobia, and everything else out of it.