You lost me at hello

So everyone thinks that Barack Obama made a fabulous nearly 40 minute speech about the state of race in America (watch it yourself below if, like me, you actually had to be at your desk at work 11am on a Monday).

Thing of it is…I couldn’t get more than three minutes into it. I couldn’t get past the point where he says:

Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded in our Constitution. The Constitution that had at its very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law. The Constitution that promised its people liberty and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time. And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, to provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States.

Living as a I do in a city that is so racially divided that it is impossible to bring up race without being called a racist (FYI: I think it is possible to have an adult dialogue about race without being racist), I’m accutely interested in how the whole racism vs. sexism dynamic is playing out on the public stage.

In DC when we have a conflict between residents and church goers who come from outside the city, park illegally, and keep residents from getting to their cars the issue becomes not about the rights of people who pay taxes to access the streets but about race simply because the congregants are black and the complaining residents are white.

Consider carefully for a minute Geraldine Ferraro’s words, her actual quote rather than the media spun interpretation, about Obama:

“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,” she said. “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,” she continued. “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.”

(Read the whole interview if you like)

Here’s the thing, when you remove the knee-jerk cries of racism she’s not entirely wrong.

Let’s admit that on a policy level Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards were basically all the same politician. The differences in their health care plans, their stances on gay and lesbian marriage rights, on social security, and on the war are miniscule at best.

While I would argue that Ferraro goes too far in attributing all of Obama’s success to his race – he is, after all a U.S. Senator (for whatever that’s worth), a lawyer, and a former State Legislator in addition to being a very good public speaker – it’s specious to say that his race has not played a role in both his novelty on the public stage and in the way he has been marketed to voters. Take away Obama’s mixed race status, consider him as a white man, and then tell me what the material difference is between him and John Edwards. Both good speakers, both holding very similar policy positions, yet, one is the same type of face we have been seeing for decades on the political scene and one is novel, something voters haven’t had the chance to seriously experience before. Yes, race is a factor. Ferraro’s slight exaggeration aside, what is wrong with pointing out the obvious?

Perhaps it’s a judgement call as to whether or not coverage of Hillary Clinton’s campaign has been sexist. I don’t remember anyone writing about Obama’s laugh or making a nut cracker out of John Edwards (find that one yourself, it’s a simple Google search).

Basically, this boils down to an arguement about which is worse, racism or sexism. As a white woman it’s natural for me to think that sexism is worse but the reality of the power hierarchy in an America that only takes into account black and white looks something like this:

Whites oppress Blacks.

Yes, historically, white women have had more privileges in society than black men in many ways, access to facilities, ability to move about without being challenged. Except, even as I type that I know it’s not true, for women of every color are consistently hassled by men, subject to verbal and physical assults simply because of the fact that they are female.

Whites have historically had more advantages than blacks, yet women have been subject to harassment by men of both colors.

So in reality the power dynamic looks something like this:

• White men oppress everyone.
• White women, by virtue of their race, have access to more privileges than black men yet they are still subject to harassment from both white men and black men.
• Black men, by virtue of their sex, have access to more privileges than black women, whom they also have the ability to harass.
• Black women, in turn, get the short end of both the sex and race sticks.

So you tell me what’s worse, racism or sexism. Yeah, I thought so.