The Loud Silence Of Feminists (Angry that feminists don't defend Michelle Obama)

Washington Post ^ | June 21, 2008 | Mary C. Curtis

[tlb]

Michelle Obama has become an issue in the presidential campaign even though she isn't running for anything.

And this black woman is wondering: Where are Obama's feminist defenders?

But just as you didn't have to be for Clinton to decry the sexism in the coverage of her campaign, you don't have to be an Obama supporter to defend Michelle Obama against similar treatment.

So I want to know: What does Gloria Steinem think? She was out front with her support of Clinton, promoting the importance of a female president.

How about Geraldine Ferraro, the former vice presidential nominee whose racially tinged denunciations of Barack Obama sparked a media firestorm?

The campaign against Michelle Obama -- who went on "The View" this week to prove her everywoman bona fides -- has not caused a rift between black and white women so much as it has exposed it.

I've long been frustrated, as a black woman and a feminist, with our national conversation. I didn't hear the cause speaking up for women of color or for women who have always worked in blue-collar or service jobs. Choice was not their issue.

The woman who employed my educated mother to clean her house never quite saw her as a sister in the struggle for equality.

Just as the Rutgers women's basketball team was miscast by Don Imus, Obama is being labeled something she clearly is not. Her achievements are being dismissed.

But in America, there's seldom a cost for disrespecting black women.

I'm waiting for feminists who speak of second-class citizenship and being pushed to the back of the bus to remember the civil rights movement that gave birth to those words.

Okay, I get it: Your candidate lost. You're angry.

But frankly, I'm getting a little peeved myself.

[Lancey Howard]

Also, the ACLU lawyer, Sandra Palmer:

[Riverman94610]

I will co-sign for you on that and tell you a little story that affirms what you said.
I am subbing an 11th Grade class last April at one of our few”integrated”schools.30 students of all ethnicities.Eight black females and three black males in the group.The black girls spend the entire period hollering,grinding on each other’s desks,cussing,loud talking and listening to their I-Pods.
What are the three black male students doing?Chatting up the Cambodian and Vietnamese hotties in the class!
And ten years from now these same black girls will be bitching about”those no good black men who ain’t interested in us”
Ironic.
Yet I WILL say many white feminists ARE racist as are many white liberals.Thats the truth.
And sometimes its nice to relate to a sassy,off the chain black woman.God knows I’ve known quite a few and I love them.
But most need to listen to that old Dramatics song with the lyric,”He would never have left you,had you not drove him away”

[Riverman94610]

One black woman explained it to me like this:
“Hell,yeah,we act like bitches.Cuz from the time we are little girls we have to fend off advances from uncles,boyfriends,stepfathers,and perverts.We know the white world hates us but our own people threaten us daily as well,especially the men who use and abuse us.We are always under the spotlight in a world which never stops questioning our feminiity and intelligence.So,yeah,we can be straight up bitches with attitudes much of the time”
I am paraphrasing and not saying that is a GOOD attitude but thats how it was explained to me.

[Earthdweller]

Oh..call the whaaaa ambulance! Get yourself an education and get yourself a home and then pick you a responsible man. All this “hens in a pen” is from the way back machine. Excuses.

[Riverman94610]

Like I said,I don’t ENDORSE the views I heard,but that doesn’t make them less real.
I have lived and worked in the hood for forty years.I am telling you,you cannot make this stuff up!
BTW,the TRULY outrageous stories I could tell would be censored fromthis board.

[Earthdweller]

Same here...lived it. The abuse is real. That said, there are some that don't take advantage of their strengths and just take it, then complain about it. Martyr complex or just blind lust with no forethought for the consequences, they have enabled this merry-go-round for decades.

Those that have made it out of the "pen" are very loving and can have any man they want. They don't sit around complaining about abuse or hating men, they are too involved in picking the one that best reflects their beliefs.

[Riverman94610]

I do agree with you that there are plenty of good black women out there that have managed to exorcise their demons.
Another story:I am in the locker room at work with a dozen or so black men when one good friend of mine blurts out,”Have you EVER known a financially or emotionally stable black woman?”
For ten seconds there was total silence.And then we all laughed because there is more than a grain of truth in his statement.
Another black male friend once said,”The black woman is the most beautiful woman in the world-and everyone knows it but HER”.Lots of truth to that as well.Many black women try to fill that emptiness and lack of self esteem by buying and possessing things in the vain hope they will finally “be somebody”.
And don’t get me started on dark skinned black women.The issues THEY have could fill an ocean!

[Earthdweller]

I know numerous black women who own their own homes, are financially stable and well respected for their contributions. Problem is they are overwhelmed with people looking for a hand up that eventually turns out to be a hand out.

[Riverman94610]

Well,I know plenty of OUTWARDLY stable middle class black women as well.Yet,believe me,most are balancing some SERIOUS credit card debt and are living way beyond their means.
Yet what you said about those with”their hands out”is sadly true.Blacks have traditionally been very good to the neer do wells in their extended families.In some ways,thats a cultural virtue but mostly its a recipe for financial disaster.