Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

'Brilliant' Ifill Cousin Scours Palin As 'Offensive to Black Women'
Newsbusters ^ | October 2, 2008 | Tim Graham

Posted on 10/02/2008 10:07:23 AM PDT by Anti-Hillary

Here are more signs Sarah Palin could face an uphill battle with PBS host Gwen Ifill. Professor Sherrilyn Ifill of the University of Maryland Law School, whom Gwen Ifill has lauded as "my brilliant baby cousin," has written that black women are not buying Sarah Palin’s "false claims to feminism" and is portrayed as too perfect: "when women who are privileged present as though they have it all together, it’s offensive to black women." (Photo from Soros.com)

The Community Times, a suburban Maryland newspaper, found Professor Ifill was ardently opposed to the Alaska governor when they did an e-mail interview:

"From the first day, Palin presented herself as shooting a bear in the morning, field dressing it, cooking up the breakfast, diapering the babies, passing legislation in the afternoon, cleaning the house, satisfying her husband, etc., etc., etc. And it's just not true," she wrote in an e-mail interview. "It's hard to be an average working mom, really hard. And when women who are privileged present as though they have it all together, it's offensive to black women."

She said, "black women are not easily confused by false claims to feminism. When women like Palin lay claims to ‘representing' average women, I think that black women have a visceral reaction to it."

Ifill added that Palin "missed her opportunity when she announced Bristol's pregnancy to explicitly talk about how painful it was to her as a mother - instead of making it as though this too was also part of her perfect life.

"Hillary has the sympathy of women because of what she went through with Bill in front of the whole country. Michelle [Obama] takes pains to be self-deprecating and to talk about her concerns and fear about her girls. She insists that she couldn't do what she does without the help of her mother. Most importantly, both champion issues that affect the lives of real, average women - universal health care, equal pay, choice, etc. To do so is a recognition that real working women (not political wives or politicians) need policies that will help them maintain their families. What's the point of Palin's brand of feminism if it doesn't translate into real returns for average women?"

It can be noted that the professor is so passionate an Obama supporter that she also denounced Hillary Clinton as a phony feminist: "When she knocked back a shot and a beer in that bar in Pennsylvania, Mrs. Clinton ended any pretense of running as a feminist." She compared it to Michael Dukakis in a tank, a failed "macho stunt."

Gwen Ifill’s family pride came through in her monthly washingtonpost.com online chat on October 4, 2007:

Pittsburgh, Pa.: Is Professor Sherrilyn Ifill at the University of Maryland Law School, who's spoken out so eloquently and thoughtfully on symbols of racial hatred lately, any relation to you?

Gwen Ifill: She is indeed my brilliant baby cousin, and the author of an excellent book "On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the 20th Century."

Cousin Gwen supported that book at an event at the liberal D.C. bookstore Politics and Prose. As The Politico reported in February of 2007:

Ifill's reading illustrates how decisions are made. She had everything you need: a name to draw a crowd (her cousin, moderator of PBS's "Washington Week," introduced her); a friendship with Jim Lehrer of "The News Hour," also on PBS; and a book with a liberal, social-justice bent, about lynchings that took place outside the Deep South.

"Jim Lehrer's a great friend of the store," Meade said, adding that the store probably would have held the reading anyway, given the content of Ifill's book. "If it's something that involves civil rights, civil liberties, we're pretty interested in it usually."

The idea that Politics and Prose has a liberal bias has caused the store some consternation, but it's rooted in reality. The bookstore draws a graying, turtleneck crowd in a neighborhood known for its liberal politics in a city that gave George W. Bush fewer than 22,000 votes in 2004. Would you expect the shelves to be buckling under the weight of Sean Hannity and Co.'s latest books?

The bookstore's most well-known snub went to Matt Drudge, a conservative and the creator of The Drudge Report. Cohen reportedly called him "a rumormonger and a troublemaker" in 2000 when the store rejected his request for a reading.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2008vpdebate; feminazism; gwenifill; howtostealanelection; notafeministmovement; palinbashing; racecard; riggeddebates; sherrilynifill; tnb
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-58 last
To: drzz

I am sending my message against Gwen Ifill direct to PBS, her employer. She should have refused the moderator task based on that book she is authoring, or at least given all participants and their teams the opportunity in advance to comment and say thanks, Gwen, but NO thanks.

Clearly, the woman is not adhering to any journalistic ethics code whatsoever and should be off the air.


41 posted on 10/02/2008 10:35:10 AM PDT by CaliforniaCon
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: CaliforniaCon

LOL...journalistic ethics. Talk about an oxymoron...


42 posted on 10/02/2008 10:37:50 AM PDT by PennsylvaniaMom (The 0bama Youth Choir, Making Joyous Noise Unto 0bama, From Whom All Glories Flow.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: CaliforniaCon

“Self depreciating”? When, when she was talking about the Stimilus Package only being good for a pair of earrings or her complaining about the high cost of dance lessons for her daughters?


43 posted on 10/02/2008 10:40:19 AM PDT by massgopguy (I owe everything to George Bailey)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: Anti-Hillary
when women who are privileged

Yeah right born into big $$$$
44 posted on 10/02/2008 10:41:34 AM PDT by uncbob
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: indylindy
I bet she is offensive. She has worked hard for all she has. 5 kids and a loving husband. She hasn’t spent her time needing the government to make her success.

That's exactly what people like Obama mean by the "wealthy", which are the ones who should be supporting (through taxes) the rest of the "poor" folks.

45 posted on 10/02/2008 10:42:29 AM PDT by Cementjungle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Anti-Hillary
So let me get this straight, by merely being white, you are automatically privileged? Who would of thunk it? Well , my mom was a single mother of 2, didn't finish high school, I joined the Navy because I couldn't get into college on scholarship playing football (a whole different story) and it was the best d@mn choice I made. This story truly reeks of victim hood and alot of whining. My God people, don't depend on the Government for your happiness, you have to get it yourselves, jeesh.
46 posted on 10/02/2008 10:44:11 AM PDT by claymax (Vote for a HERO...........not for the ZERO!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Anti-Hillary

“I can put tracing paper over your face and trace me a moose!” - Fred Sanford


47 posted on 10/02/2008 11:24:24 AM PDT by Jeff Chandler (The Democrats drove our financial system into a ditch.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Anti-Hillary

Apparently the Ifils don’t like Governor Palin because she is white, period.


48 posted on 10/02/2008 11:25:42 AM PDT by austinaero
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Anti-Hillary

What a nasty and racist remark!! Is she implying that black women can’t and don’t “have it all together”. Why would any black woman have a “visceral” reaction to Governor Palin? They are just as capable and Ifill is insulting them. Look at Halle Berry any doubt she has it all, Ifill. If any white person had suggested that they would be attacked. Shame on an educated black woman like Ifill suggesting such racist trash.


49 posted on 10/02/2008 11:27:57 AM PDT by nclaurel (I think therefore I vote Republican.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Anti-Hillary

Comments like hers and thesis like Michelle’s make me think whites will be very sorry if Obama is elected! Definite hatred on the part of supposedly intelligent women.


50 posted on 10/02/2008 11:37:36 AM PDT by nclaurel (I think therefore I vote Republican.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger
Privileged? Sarah! is nowhere near privileged..........

Liberals all believe in something called "white skin privilege" which means that if you were born white, you are automatically privileged.

Guess they never heard of Appalachia.

51 posted on 10/02/2008 11:38:24 AM PDT by hunter112 (Gov. Palin is ten times the woman Hillary could've hoped to be, if she had stayed a "Goldwater Girl")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Anti-Hillary
The Ifills are black, Governor Palin is white. That is all they are basing their ideology upon. Its that simple. The majority of blacks are racist, very racist. I have noticed a significant difference in the attitude of the ethnic population since Obama garnered the Democrat candidacy. They are becoming more aggressive and forceful and its not in a respectful way. I saw insight on this phenomenon when Willie Herenton won the Mayoral race in Memphis. Memphis has improved greatly (cough, cough) since Herenton beat Hackett so long ago.
52 posted on 10/02/2008 11:38:45 AM PDT by vetvetdoug
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nclaurel

Cousin is also suffering under the feminist delusion that there are two kinds of women, “leaders and breeders”.


53 posted on 10/02/2008 11:40:23 AM PDT by hunter112 (Gov. Palin is ten times the woman Hillary could've hoped to be, if she had stayed a "Goldwater Girl")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: Attention Surplus Disorder
It seems the good professor can only respect women who see themselves as permanent victims.
54 posted on 10/02/2008 11:41:10 AM PDT by Churchillspirit
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: weegee
Photobucket
55 posted on 10/02/2008 11:43:50 AM PDT by GitmoSailor (AZ Cold War Veteran====McCain/Palin 2OO8==My Mouse is a MOOSE=Donate to FR)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: hunter112
Guess they never heard of Appalachia.

Or Mississippi....................

56 posted on 10/02/2008 11:51:39 AM PDT by Red Badger (I'm gonna use "Sarah!" from NOW ON since Hillary uses "Hillary!"......)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: Anti-Hillary
"has written that black women are not buying Sarah Palin’s "false claims to feminism" and is portrayed as too perfect: "when women who are privileged present as though they have it all together, it’s offensive to black women."

Privileged!!! Since when was Palin "privileged"? What she really means is black women are JEALOUS of White women who overcome their humble beginnings and move on up because of their personalities, moral convictions and hard work and dedication to their principles.

They sure aren't jealous of black women who get spoon fed into celebrity though. So I also read from this that she is telling us black women are jealous and racist towards white women who move up in society despite having humble beginnings.

57 posted on 10/02/2008 11:57:48 AM PDT by Nathan Zachary
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge
"Stuff it, Sherrilyn. You don’t get to be Governor by being cute.. unless you’re a democrat."

You think Democrats who make it into office are cute? LOL! Your lucky (and so is everyone else) I don't store pics of those "cute" democrats on my hard drive. (they might turn into viruses and destroy it)

58 posted on 10/02/2008 12:05:19 PM PDT by Nathan Zachary
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-58 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson