The Baptism of America

Free Post - Loose Threads in My Head

Race is one of those weird constructions of the mind that we rarely discuss but is almost constantly on our minds. Third wave feminism has made it clear that what the women's rights movement stands for is not biological equality but simply gender equality. Gender is a social convention, a set of expectations we place upon a certain group of people. It's ideology or hegemony or what have you. Just as you act a certain way around a cop, a man acts a certain way around a woman and vice versa. So calling for gender equality is asking a male-driven society to accept and not malign women based solely on their gender. Biological equality isn't going to happen and we can live with that. What we can't live with is repressing women because they have periods, birth babies, have different emotional outlooks (partly due to our expectations of gender) and generally act differently than men. It's not an attack on masculinity (although many men have taken it as such). It is just asking for men not to denigrate women because they are women.
Race, on the other hand, has been handled in a far different way, even though it is, for the most part, a social construction as well. Race is more about culture than it is about skin color but it so happens that skin color plays a vital role in the social construct. Black culture is different than white culture and white culture is different than latino culture. To say so is completely obvious but misses the point, I think. White culture has this habit, just as white male culture does, of expecting different cultures to either act like them or act in a way that somehow threatens white male culture. The same goes for black culture as well.
The issue of race in America has often been packed away, hidden from public view, but arising in strange and sometimes destructive ways. The events of the 1950s and 60s are examples of how racial issues could find no other outlet other than protest, sometimes violent protest. And through speeches, through sit-ins, through water hoses and dogs and tear gas America moved beyond Jim Crow and his separate but equal ways. We were no longer separate but the equal part we're still having problems with. And it's a problem for both blacks and whites.
When white culture put away their debate on race before they got to the equal part America was left with an open wound, a wound that was previously scabbed over and unhealed. And we have let it scab over again. Black anger at whites isn't surprising in this light. Nor is the white anger at blacks who insist on continuing the debate. We must have this debate though. Sen. Obama has given America an opening, a chance to start this debate again on even ground. We cannot simply air our grievances and expect that to be enough. We must arrive at new solutions and a new dialogue, one that whites can't simply put away again. In this world of changing identities and centuries old questions of person, existence and consciousness, we must deal with the issues of race quickly.
One way to confront race in America is to treat it much like we have with gender constructions. If we accept that race is in part a social construct then we can deal with how race is something that is culturally ingrained. Once we accept that then we can begin the work of shifting the culture towards one of race equality in the same sense of gender equality. It's one path we can take to deal with the difficulties of race, of resentment and hatred. It's a way we can craft new identities that are beyond the simple white/black dichotomies of the past. What's more, it's a way that we can deal with even the issues of brown/black/white differences, religious differences and nationality differences. It's a new dialogue and its final shape is no where close to complete.

Why We Need Hope

The Feminist Case for Obama - Adele Stan @ WaPo

Coming from a male perspective it's a bit of mental gymnastics to understand the loyalty many women feel towards Sen. Clinton, however misplaced I think that loyalty is. I can understand the humiliated wife who stood by President Clinton as he took the nation through his affair (albeit, one that hardly comes close to an Eliot Spitzer type of affair). I can understand the women who have waited for generations for a woman to come this close to the presidency. And I can understand the argument that a woman like Sen. Clinton is representative of second-wave feminism as well as a woman of the baby boomers. Adele Stan, writing for the Washington Post puts all of this forward in writing about her decision on who to vote for in the Democratic primaries. And she has one of the most compelling reasons for why she put her mark next to Sen. Obama's name.
At this juncture in history we need an individual like Sen. Obama who can lift our spirits and help us believe again in the American dream. For all of Sen. Clinton's intelligence and grasp of policy details, she does not inspire the people. After the Bush presidency we need a new kind of politics and a renewed vision of America as that shining city on the hill. Yes, electing the first woman president would stand as a testament to how far we have come as a nation but electing the first black would do far more.
I had a conversation with a close female friend last night about this divided loyalty. But when it came down to taking a side, my friend believed more in Sen. Obama's ability to lead this nation. Looking at the way Sen. Clinton has acted and presented herself throughout this primary season, my friend could not help herself from being angry. How can a woman who has acted in the way Sen. Clinton has deserve her vote? And how can that same woman walk into the White House and expect to achieve anything significant?
Both my friend and Adele Stan have recognized what this election means to the nation. The inspiration Sen. Obama would bring as president and his abilities to unite and do the work of a president far outweigh the moral victory of electing the first woman president. There are future elections and future presidents. We will have a woman as president, that much is true. But the woman running for president at this moment in our nation's history is not the person we need as president. It comes down to what kind of America we want and the candidates we have at hand who will bring such an America about. That feminists can see past gender loyalty to vote for a man tells me that yes we can have that America and perhaps an even better one for a woman president to inherit.

Men Bring Out the Knives

Men Have a Harder Time Forgiving than Women Do - Science Daily

Now this I can believe. Being a Scorpio myself, I tend to take an all or nothing approach to things. Or at least I did until the wonderful world of anti-anxiety medication mellowed me out some more. Plus, studying cultural history played a role since a cultural historian is supposed to try their best to see the world through the eyes of people of the past. Even so, I can take a scorched-earth attitude towards those who piss me off sufficiently. I'm not above cutting a bitch.