Hillary Clinton And The Scourge Of Corporate Feminism

Nice piece in this week's issue of The Nation by Betsy Reed. Betsy was the first New York editor I ever talked to when I was starting to freelance, so it's an honor to be writing in the issue where she has the cover. Here's her take on Clinton ducking behind the cover of feminism:

The sexist attacks on Clinton are outrageous and deplorable, but there's reason to be concerned about her becoming the vehicle for a feminist reawakening. For one thing, feminist sympathy for her has begotten an "oppression sweepstakes" in which a number of her prominent supporters, dismayed at her upstaging by Obama, have declared a contest between racial and gender bias and named sexism the greater scourge. This maneuver is not only unhelpful for coalition-building but obstructs understanding of how sexism and racism have played out in this election in different (and interrelated) ways.

Yet what is most troubling--and what has the most serious implications for the feminist movement--is that the Clinton campaign has used her rival's race against him. In the name of demonstrating her superior "electability," she and her surrogates have invoked the racist and sexist playbook of the right--in which swaggering macho cowboys are entrusted to defend the country--seeking to define Obama as too black, too foreign, too different to be President at a moment of high anxiety about national security. This subtly but distinctly racialized political strategy did not create the media feeding frenzy around the Rev. Jeremiah Wright that is now weighing Obama down, but it has positioned Clinton to take advantage of the opportunities the controversy has presented. And the Clinton campaign's use of this strategy has many nonwhite and nonmainstream feminists crying foul.

Betsy goes on to take on the "A Woman In The White House At All Costs" strategy that she's emerging from corporate feminism. As a guy who's long felt that civil rights-era black leadership has lost the moral high ground, I get where she's coming from. My man Jelani Cobb analyzed this in the Post a few months back when he pointed out how the civil rights crowd has thrown as many monkey wrenches as possible at Obama. What I see here is a generational struggle that cuts across ideology. There's a whole group of older, bitter and angry folks who comprise the Democratic coalition who need to just have a seat.

Comments

[rainydaiyz]

Nobody's bitter. Some young people (like me) identify with the old civil rights crowd too.

You talk about Hillary's "a woman at all cost " strategy..

What about everybody's "a black person at all cost" regarding black people's support for Obama.

Nobody is trying to throw monkey wrenches either. Obama is a candidate, just like everyone else and is not above questioning from our community.

[sfsinger]

It's more than that or I should say, it's worse than that. The CRC supporters are jockeying for a seat at the table with the oppressors to join them. They're still looking for whitey to rescue them so they can feel good about themselves by saying it's 'those' people and not them. Truth be told those organizations were founded mostly by whites to assist them in their ascent up the political ladder. Once they achieved it, they bounced. Also I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the gov't officials who sanctioned to murder of King, Shabazz and both Kennedys as well as other freedom fighters and thwarts to their agenda in other countries around the world. That why Hillary has so easily adapted the Neo-Con strategy and relationship alignment. She wants power more than she wants to transform the country. And honestly so does Obama but I wouldn't say nearly as much. How many people actually speak truth to power who are elected officials? Rev. White was correct about everything he said even if people don't want to hear it. It is really up to the average everyday folk to raise a ruckus and get things to change along with a few politicians.