I worked hard on issues like Title IX, pay equity, and to advance women to the most senior levels in all professions. Within the Women's Movement, women of color had to struggle to advance issues related to race and class. For Black women this struggle goes back to the Women's Suffrage Movement and earlier. If white women got the vote before Black men it might have delayed the vote for all blacks since it is likely that feminist foremothers would have turned their focus to issues of self-advancement and their backs to black women. Why else would white women seeking the vote for themselves resist enfranchisement for black men? Was this a tactical disagreement or an example of the same narrow-minded, self-serving position that the gender gentry advance today.
If Hillary Clinton had won the nomination, even given some questionable tactics of her own, most black women would have supported her. More to the point, this level of loyalty would have been expected.
Let me make my position perfectly clear. Hillary Clinton has enjoyed many advantages based on her gender. She moved to New York and bypassed others in line to run for Senator based upon experience gained as a spouse. She then ran for president with the advantage of the Democratic machine behind her and a former President at her side. Had she won the nomination, it might have been argued that more than advancing women, America was witnessing the birth of a modern aristocracy.
Hillary Clinton had money, name recognition, favors, and experience but she lost. She did not lose because she is a woman. She lost because she ran on experience and America wants change. Barack Obama is more in tune with the American people, possesses qualities once attributed to Bill Clinton: political acumen, charisma, outstanding oratorical skills, and of course, exceptional organizing ability. He did not cheat, he simply beat the Clinton machine and now a few white women are angry and willing to vote against all that Hillary Clinton stands for to get a white woman in the White House. I wonder what their position would be if Condoleezza Rice were on the ticket instead of Sarah Palin. I bet that they would argue the importance of voting on the issues rather than gender.
These same white women love to argue that race is not a factor. Of course it is. Why? Because the desire is not for progressive change, equality of opportunity, or fairness. The desire is singularly for the advancement of white women. There is a progressive black male candidate that shares virtually all of the key positions held by Hillary Clinton and now there is a move to Palin. Let’s not act like it is about gender.
To my feminist sisters, all I have to say is go ahead and vote to reverse a woman's right to control her body, vote to limit access to birth control, vote for an extended stay in Iraq for men and women, vote for a more conservative Supreme Court, vote against universal health care and any relief for the middle class—which, by the way, is where most feminists reside. Go ahead and work for Palin. By feminist standards she has proven herself well qualified--she possesses the proper body parts.
As for black women, we are about change. We are working for the day when race, gender, and class are no longer the lens through which we assess qualifications. We invite you to join us in the effort to provide quality education, health care, and opportunity for all. We invite you to stand with us as women united for change. We respect your right to vote for Sarah, but please don’t try to justify it as anything other than what it is.
