Thanks, Gaile Jr., for saying what I wanted to say myself.
These comparisons are odious and they hurt people.
Best,
Hilde
At 02:47 PM 6/8/2008, you wrote:
Yes, indeed.
I wonder what people think about the chances of Obama’s success, given
the hard and deep reality of racism in the US. Is this country
really ready to elect a black president?
Joan
From: Feminist ethics and social theory
[
mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Janine Jones
JCJONES2
Sent: Sunday, June 08, 2008 2:34 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: FW: NYTimes.com: Judith Warner: Woman in Charge,
Women Who Charge
And piggy-backing on what you say
here, Gail (thanks for your comments), a lot of racist comments directed
at Obama and his voters/supporters were not conceivable as such, for the
reasons you give. Front certain viewpoints it was absolutely clear
that Obama dealt with a great deal of unnamed, dare I say unnameable
racism. In postings a couple of weeks ago Sarah Hoagland made
reference to the construction of ignorance. (She was referencing Charles
Mills, who is concerned with certain forms of cognitive
dissonance.) I think that leaving things unnamed, making them
unnameable -- e.g. certain forms of racism -- is one of the key ways in
which ignorance is constructed. As you say, racism and sexism
operate in different ways. Going hand-in-hand with Mills project
one might ask both why certain forms of racism are unnamed, they have
become unnameable, and what are the effects of the kind of ignorance
thereby constructed.
-----Feminist ethics
and social theory <[log in to unmask]> wrote: -----
To: [log in to unmask]
From: Gaile Pohlhaus <[log in to unmask]>
Sent by: Feminist ethics and social theory
<[log in to unmask]>
Date: 06/08/2008 01:46PM
Subject: Re: FW: NYTimes.com: Judith Warner: Woman in Charge, Women Who
Charge
I think it is very
important that we recognize the amount of misogyny that has transpired
over H. Clinton's bid for the nomination and I also think juxtaposing
that misogyny to the popularity of Sex in the City is brilliant (a show
that my students continue to tell me is "really
diverse"because each of the 4 women have really different attitudes
about sex... there are so many different ways white women can
relate themselves to men! Imagine that?). Still, I am not
sure how helpful it is to say "if similarly hateful racial remarks
had been made about Obama, our nation would have turned itself inside out
in a paroxysm of soul-searching and shame. Had mainstream
commentators in 2000 speculated, say, that Joe Lieberman had a nose for
dough, or made funny Shylock references, heads would have
rolled." Racism and anti-Semitism don't operate in the exact
same ways that sexism and misogyny do, so why would we expect such easy
comparisons? While I imagine
the statement is intended to emphasize how far we have *not* come
with regard to sexism and misogyny, it can (and I think does) have the
effect of making it seem like we *have* come a long way with regard to
racism and anti-semitism/Christo-normativity. And the ironic thing (to my
mind) is that one of the reasons (I believe) that we don't hear blatant
racist jokes out in the open in the media is precisely because white
America wants so much to pretend that race & racism do not exist
anymore (one of the ways racism operates: problem? what problem?) so it
would seem that many would be very quick to read the statement in the
"wow racism just doesn’t exist anymore, does it?" way.
Consequently, the _effect_ of the statement is to make a (purportedly)
feminist point off the backs of people of color and nonChristians, isn't
it?
There's been plenty of racism abounding in this primary and the Obamas
lives have been plenty disrupted by it--they can't even join a new
religious community until the campaign is over for fear that reporters
will continually disrupt that community hoping to get sound bites that
will scare white America. The fact that that racism comes in ways
that are different from the ways in which sexism comes should be no
surprise to this list. Easy comparisons at the expense of
nonChristian women and women of color only undermine feminist
work.
In Solidarity,
GP, jr.
Hilde Lindemann
Professor of Philosophy
503 South Kedzie Hall
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
517-353-3981
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