I'd like to apologize to the women of european descent here.

[Anouka]

I'm allowing my intense disgust with Hillary and Bill Clinton to define this as a racial struggle, when it should be about policy.

I'm probably going to continue to mention the racial struggle, because it's something I can't personally ignore; but I am bothered with myself for the things that bubble up within myself towards whites, male and female, particularly in the wake of New Hampshire and the racial politics of gender.

I am bothered, and I feel like this is a second bamboozling going on.... a side-tracking, intentional or organic.

So I apologize to those of you whom I may have offended with some of my previous posts. I'm probably going to continue to offend, but it's not you personally.... it's feeling forced to choose sides I do not wish to choose, and do not feel I should have to choose if I don't want my woman card (or black card) revoked by whomever.

And I do not wish to choose against a man, just because he is a man, either.

I am disgusted by the gender politics Hillary and Bill Clinton are playing. I am disgusted that race is attached to those gender politics. But I have no solution on how to get this back on track.

Does anyone else? besides Hillary dropping the 'I am woman and that's enough' headgames and headfakes.



To the women of european descent, nemaste and a tired hug.
To the women of color, peace and joy and an embrace.
To the men, much love and respect to you.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

1. racial division is the greatest danger our party faces in 2008

I like your comments. Racial division is one of the few things I can see costing us the election.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Hekate]

3. Well gee thanks

I do so love to be lumped together in a big vat of "them" and then dismissed. Just as I'm sure you love it when it is done to you.

Get.A.Grip.

Hekate

[Tess99]

4. People who defend what Bill and Hillary

are doing to Obama, the racial smears and the denigrating of his character and accomplishments,deserve to be dismissed. Are you one of "them". If not, then I wasn't talking to you.

[LostinVA]

20. Don't forget that Gloria Steinem is a racist

:eyes:

[cali]

5. you have a lot of nerve. I'm a white woman

I've written post after post about my disgust with the dog whistle politics being practiced, and you damn well know it because we had an exchange today- and I doubt that you missed thre threads I posted. Using that broad brush of yours to condemn all white women on this board is disgusting.

[Liz7]

6. careful, Tess

You appear to be lumping all "white women on this board" together. Some of us ARE bothered and do get it.

[Sparkly]

7. !!

:wow:

"Defending racism?" "Denigrating a black man, simply because he dare not know his place?"

Unbelievable.

[JeffR]

8. I hope you do keep speaking, but the broadbrush about

white women isn't helpful, isn't accurate, and really cheapens what women (of all colors) still face in the way of systemic bigotry every day. You need to rethink this a little bit, I respectfully suggest.

[Cameron27]

9. Defending racism,

defending white female victimhood

denigrating a black man, simply because he dare not know his place.

This is disgusting, and you've got hell of a lot of nerve posting that here.

[Adelante]

10. Racist

You are a racist.

[Anouka]

14. Tess isn't a racist. Tess is telling the truth, from a different side than yours.

I don't know why Tess' comment was removed. Were people really offended?

[Liz7]

19. you must be kidding

I do agree that her comment didn't need to be removed, but it was offensive, and your assertion that it was true is laughable. I support Edwards, and I won't vote for Hillary just because she's a woman. I am a white woman. Therefore Tess is wrong in her assertion that "all white women on this board" are Hillary supporters blinded by the gender rhetoric.

I agree with your original post, by the way.

[readmoreoften]

11. Tough times, my friend.

It will probably become tougher. Thanks for being courageous enough to post this. Peace.

[Fresh_Start]

12. Why would you use racial slurs when you pretend you are worried

about racism.

Apparently you neither worry about racism nor sexism since you are willing to practice both.

[Anouka]

15. I'm worried about racism and sexism... but racism more.

There are some black women who worry about sexism more than racism. I'm not one of them.

I feel left out when the discussion becomes about women, because those discussions are never about women of color. They are about white women.

Because I am left out of those discussions about 'women's issues', it follows that black men are left out of discussions about 'men's issues'. Therefore I am doubly appalled when a black man, a man who belongs to a race which has unique issues in America, is treated like The Evil Man Who Has Run Things Into The Ground.

White women weren't being lynched as a group even through the 60s, for attempting to exercise the right to vote. Blacks, men and women, were. The faces in the crowd shouting hatefully at those black men and women... were white men *and* women.

So here Senator Obama is -- only THE THIRD Senator of African American descent since the 1870s, reconstruction, the end of slavery....... and these editorials and letters to the editors and cartoons are trying to present white women as seeing some kind of victory in Hillary Clinton beating Senator Obama, because Obama is the stand in for Men (tm) Who Have Always Held Power and Screwed Up That Power?

It's enough to make me shiver away and vomit. It's depressing to me. It makes me grind my teeth. It makes me scream.

It makes me think about the old Southern 'conventional wisdom' about the fears of blacks holding power.

It makes me think of D. W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation"... and those horrible scenes of 'what those darkies did after getting emancipation when they tasted a little power' -- because the code I see in New Hampshire and the aftermath of New Hampshire is not of women beating men, but of whites preventing blacks from gaining power in the nick of time... and saving silly, innocent, pure white womanhood in the process.

That is where my anger comes from, and my depression.

It's also where my apology to the white women of DU, what it is born of.

I can't brush all white women with a single brush stroke, just as I ask women not to paint all men with the same brush stroke or engage in sexual oneupmanship.

That is my fear, my worry, I fear that I have painted entire groups with a broad brush that may not be warranted. That's not fair. The struggle is everyone's. We just don't all come at the struggle or attack the struggle from the same angles, and that's fine, that's life.

There really are women who see sexism as the single greatest threat to American society, and I have to respect that, even as I don't really believe it. I'm not going to ever respect 'Symbolically kill all men because men fucked up everything', however.

Perhaps I need more life experience.


But again, I apologize to those who were brushed broadly and should not have been.

[FrenchieCat]

18. I heart you sister!

I do! :loveya:

[Desertrose]

21. What a post....thank you....

You opened your heart and said it well. (Are you a writer by chance? If not, you should be.:) )

:hug: to you sister. As far as I'm concerned, the more colors/genders/people/experiences we embrace the better. I like to think maybe I have a tiny bit of an idea of what you feel, considering I never experienced life with a skin color other than this one,. If not I certainly have compassion for any who suffers from the cruelty of another.

This primary is certainly bringing up a lot of things we , as individuals and a society,thought we'd dealt with or simply repressed to the point they were no longer there....in the long run it will hopefully be a good thing, but pretty rough to go through when all our sensitive and tender spots get poked & prodded again.

Reminds me of birthing pains...excruciating, but hopefully, the result in the end is worth the pain and struggle.


Anyhow, blessings & :grouphug:
DR

[Evergreen Emerald]

13. "our time is now"

[sandnsea]

16. That's a sweet post

I encourage you to stay and fumble through. DU needs to hear your voice, believe me. :hug:

[VotesForWomen]

17. when did Hilary say 'I am woman and that's enough'? you might as well say Obama is demanding that pe

people vote for him because he's black, and if they don't, they're racist. sheesh.