I bleed therefore I am

So...have you ever thought about the term "hysterical" and it's connection to "hysterectomy"? "Hyster" means "womb" and the whole idea that women are irrational and emotional is because of their wombs. Notice that the term is rarely used to discuss men; white men that is. Hysterical was a term used to describe black men back in the day in order to emasculate them (just another way race and gender are so inexorably intertwined!). I know, focus.

So....did anyone catch Senator Lindsey Graham tell Judge Sonia Sotomayor how she would be confirm as long as she didn't have a "meltdown"? What he was saying, as long as you don't get HYSTERICAL, as long as you don't act like men think women act which is IRRATIONAL and EMOTIONAL, you should be okay. And don't even get me started when he read all those complaints about her, it was way for him to be sexist and racist without donning the hood.

The Wage Gap

From November 2008 to February 2009, the Financial sector lost 250,000 jobs. Of that quarter of a million jobs lost, 72% were held by women. Where is the outrage? Where is the news coverage?

This Hillary thing has got to stop!

I still don't understand why Hillary is being tapped for Secretary of State, but the pundits are going into overdrive trying to get some female angle on this. I hate to state the obvious, but what exact glass ceiling is Hillary breaking? Madeline Albright and Condi Rice did it for her - on both sides of the aisle. The problem with so many of the second wavers (at this moment) is that they are forgetting the strides that have happened, which means they don't completely understand the strides that have to happen next.

Mighty White Women Everywhere

White women make my life as a white woman very hard. Everyday I have to fight all those horrible stereotypes (deserved or not), everyday I have to show that I actually do understand how race works in this society, everyday I have to fight as a woman for all women. And just when I think things got better after the Hilary/Geraldine horror show, along comes Sarah Palin and it starts up again.

How can white women do this to me and to the country?

Let us call this for what it is. This isn't about vaginas. This is about race. This is about white women wanting a white person, preferably a white woman, in the white house. Really, all these white women could less about their politics and committment to a better world - voted for Hilary is the same for Sarah? No. Racism strikes its ugly head. And as usual, white women are going to forget the common fight.

I give up.

Post race

In reporting on Jesse's nuts gaffe, the NY Times states,

"if Mr. Jackson is no longer the leader of black Democrats, it seems fair to ask if Mr. Obama, in fact, is."

Blacks must have a leader!!! I mean, they are this giant monolith and only listen one person, and that person was Jesse! No, it was Farrakhan! Wait, wasn't it Al? And now you tell me that there are Black people who don't listen to any of them? Head exploding!

Seriously folks, so many white people are chomping at the bit for a "post-racial" world - that by breaking apart the old black guard (which was going to happen at some point), and then questioning if the "new black leader" can lead blacks (this is where I interject, where is the leader of the white Democrats?), what they are hoping for is that there is no "black leader." Without a leader, and everyone is on the Obama train, regardless of race, then we must live in a post-racial world.

Except this post-racial world would still run by white people (Obama running the country or not). Did anything really change?

Money

I think it is ridiculous that Clinton people expect Obama to pay off her debt. Where are all those big time donors she flaunted now when she needs them?

Its just that this whole scenario kind of reminds me of some of the White Overseers/Plantation Owners (Bill/Hillary - Hill did marry down) who would "cajole" former slaves into "helping" run the plantation after freedom. It was called sharecropping and it goes something like this:

The cotton needs to be picked, and its a win win situation if you help us Barack.
We will (pretend) to pay you,
we will try to get our former supporters to vote for you - but of course, we can't promise you any real votes
and by helping us, we will protect you from the white lynch mobs that are forming,
we will call off our attack dogs, the biggest one being Bill, and we hope you don't mind that Howard Wolfson just joined Fox News!
So get back to work for us!

Maybe its just me.

Reflections of Youth

There is a new movie out about white kids in the summer of 1994, trying to find themselves in "The Wackness." And yes, mandatory hip-hop soundtrack is included. As are Adidas shell top sneakers! (really 1994? then I remember, these are white people memories!) I go back and forth between ideas of white authenticity rooted in "blackness" versus the shared American experience (though its not like the majority of Americans willingly admit to the Black experience as being the American experience). And who am I to judge, given that I went through a similar stage, though five years earlier and without the white friends part.

Oh, and without the drug part. See, this is where the white/black divide really comes into play. The point of the story is of a young white kid who sells pot for pocket money. But we all know that he is going to college after the summer, and not about to become the next Pablo Escobar. So it is safe. No one is really going to judge him for his youthful indiscretions. This is not really the case for young black men. We don't have Black coming of age movies where there is that automatic happy ending of a middle-class life. Where we can laugh off the drug dealing. And ten years from now, that white kid uses his drug habit as a way to have "Street Cred." (with who? other white people)

The Overseer

I have to admit, Bill Clinton has always been a little too redneck white trash for me. And one can never really get rid their roots, you know? No what how much money you make, lose, etc., your core is your core - even people who had terrible childhoods have to work really hard their entire lives to not lapse. Doesn't mean people can't change, they just to work at really hard every day.

So, this whole Bill is going to endorse Barack makes me a little uneasy. The fact that Barack has to kowtow, and they are going to have dinner "on the former President's turf," makes me feel like someone has a lot of power and is forcing someone, who also has a lot of power, to bend. Its like Bill has become the Overseer of the (Democratic Party) plantation, and will let Barack know he doesn't tolerate any kind of "uppity-ness." And why isn't Bill the Plantation Owner? Like I said, he's white trash and we all know who did the dirty work for the slave owners.

The Tennessee Hussle

So this is what Karl Rove has to say about Obama:

“Even if you never met him, you know this guy. He’s the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by.”

Now we know what he is implying by the "country club with beautiful date" is Obama likes the white girls. So this how is the Republicans are going to go after him and Michelle (and don't even get me started on the cover of US Weekly - "Why Barack Loves Her." Though could you imagine if they tried to do this with Hillary and Bill?). They are going to pull a Harold Ford. How very 2006.

Subway Musings, Part II

I got on the subway today and there were two people taking up a lot of space - which meant there was room for me to sit down. One, was a man with his legs spread apart (why do all men sit this way?), and there was a woman next to him reading a rather large bible (with highlighter in hand, of course). So in order to sit, the woman was going to have to move a bit. And while I let my hips do the talking, I ever so slightly bumped into her bible. After jamming myself into the seat (I am not a large person - but the woman refused to move an inch), I looked at her and apologized (for the bible bumping, not the hips a thumping). And she GLARED at me. Not very Christian of her, was it?