For days now, I've been meaning to blog about The New York Times' post-election headline:
The story's first paragraph read:
Barack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States on Tuesday, sweeping away the last racial barrier in American politics with ease as the country chose him as its first black chief executive.
Um, what? Ok, first of all, this was easy?! Also, more importantly, one person of color at the top does not mean the glass ceiling -- or any other barrier -- is gone. Yes, Obama surpassed that barrier. But that doesn't mean it isn't still firmly in place. It doesn't mean that now the floodgates are opened, and we now live in an America where race is no longer a factor. A few months ago, I wrote about this in the context of women in politics:
And to be totally fair, I don't think Hillary Clinton's nomination for president (or even her election as president) would have, in and of itself, shattered the glass ceiling, either. That's because when we talk about the invisible ceiling holding women back, we're talking about broad, systemic problems that can't be solved by one woman, no matter how fierce.
Yes, Obama's election is historic. Yes, it is a sign of progress. Yes, it is a huge triumph. But the "racial barriers" to ascending the highest ranks of society and politics are far from gone. There is still a lot of work to do. Again, as I wrote with regard to Hillary Clinton,
This can be applied to Obama, too. And I think this is at the heart of why many of us will be watching as his Cabinet and other appointment announcements are made in the coming months. (I refuse to freak out about the white-dude-ishness of some of the "short lists" created by the media. But I will certainly not be happy if Obama's actual appointments are mostly white men.) Because while Obama's election alone does not immediately shatter barriers, he is now uniquely positioned to make some great strides in dismantling them.Hillary Clinton would have been a far greater ceiling-smasher than Palin -- not because Clinton was a presidential candidate while Palin is a VP candidate, but because Clinton has shown she actually cares about dismantling the ceiling that holds all women back. She has advocated for policies guaranteeing equal pay and paid family leave, and elevated many women to positions of considerable power within her campaign.
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I was actually talking about this in counseling today (I have a penchant for off-topic discussions). We still have a big mountain to climb.
I've read so many similar statements from other prominent papers, and it's rather annoying and even dangerous.
Like the op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal that went as far as to call racism-as-a-barrier a "myth," stating that Obama's win "can put to rest the myth of racism as a barrier..."
Yikes, I didn't see that. Do you know who wrote it, or is it an editorial? I don't see a byline. If the latter, that's even more frightening, as it doesn't just reflect one asinine columnist's denial.
This is why I always avoid the opinion pages when I read the Journal.
Thanks for posting this, Ann. I too have been meaning to write about it and have been surprised I haven't read more responses like yours to that troubling headline and lede. As soon as my nytimes.com homepage refreshed itself on election night, I cringed and wondered what exactly the paper was thinking.
In the days just following the election, I spent a lot of time at work basking in all the gushing headlines and reader comments on major newspapers worldwide -- mostly ones in the Roman alphabet, so I could parse out the other languages, but also to an extent Al Hayat and whatever Japanese and Chinese papers contained front-page mention. Le Monde, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Die Zeit, La Repubblica, The Globe and Mail, The Daily Nation and the big couple of Mexican papers -- I really was struck by how, well, struck I was at how many compliments to America I found there.
Anyway, I found one headline -- in either the Hindustan Times or Times of India, I can't remember which -- that I found really apt and moving: "Obama Overcomes." He didn't necessarily remove barriers for others -- the extent to which he may have circumstantially remains to be seen -- but he sure as hell overcame them himself.
"Barack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States on Tuesday, sweeping away the last racial barrier in American politics with ease as the country chose him as its first black chief executive."
They can’t be serious. What a bunch of dipshit yayhoos!
Oy! What baloney!
I've been afraid people would use this as "proof that racism is no longer a going concern", and I guess it occured to me that the news media would follow suit (or lead the pack, I suppose), but still -- this and the WSJ headlines are waaaaaaay out there crazy stupid talking.
There's any number of counter arguments to be made, but I say I'll get back to them when we have 10 black US senators.
And of course, whatever one thinks of Hillary, her crashing the glass ceiling would've reflected the unfortunate pattern of women coming into power on the coattails of their husband. Not, of course, for any lack of their own skill, but that it still sort of took that male sheen to get them in the door. Of course a woman president in the US of any kind would be a big step, but the next even BIGGER one would be a woman president who was more famous and more qualified than her husband.
I wonder if Obama will suffer from the results an Indian study had a couple years ago: their equivalent of affirmative action helped women become local council leaders around -- I can't remember if it was the country or within one state -- and it was more or less random for other reasons, making it a stronger conclusion: women on average increased the welfare of their towns more, but were perceived as being less
i think tavis smiley said it best - (paraphrasing from his appearance on the today show last wednesday morning) i hope this doesnt stop the discussion of race. we do NOT live in a post-racist society.
I have a bit of a problem with the following: "But I will certainly not be happy if Obama's actual appointments are mostly white men."
I think that it's unfair to say that President-Elect Obama should appoint a cabinet full of persons of color simply because he himself is a person of color. That being said, he obviously should obviously not cross anyone off his list based off of race, gender, nationality, etc.
I also do think that while it may not be perfect, the Bush administration should be lauded for its appointment of more women and persons of color than prior administrations. Whether or not I agree with them, I respect Secretaries Rice, Chao, Peters, Spellings, and USTR Schwab.
I would love for our Cabinet to be more reflective of our population as a whole, but I realize that our Cabinet should instead reflect the population qualified for each respective position.
If right now that means that white men are overrepresented, I think that only means we should focus on getting more people qualified through improving access to higher education to all members of society rather than putting unqualified people in positions that are of such importance to our society.
Obviously, there are qualified woman and persons of color for every position on the Cabinet, but no president should appoint any underqualified Cabinet members to try to appease portions of the population.
(Think Associate Justice Clarence Thomas.)
What a load of baloney. One person of color in power suddenly means the rest of the underrepresented will now be lifted past bigotry and prejudice on wings made of rolled up newspaper editorials?
Just the "blacklash" concerning Prop 8 disproves it.
I share your horror at the sheer hinting that racism could be over with one election, but I had a completely different reaction to the headline. I immediately imagined how the hardcore racists are probably reacting to it - and it made me smile. They're not saying, "Oh, well, the racial barrier is gone, now we can stop talking about race." They're writhing right now at the thought of what America has chosen in a landslide. (The TIMES article about the poor, aging South quoted a woman in Alabama complaining that Obama needs to know his place.) America's not the country they thought it was. And they can either grow up and join the 21st century, or they can keep writhing in their self-inflicted misery. The more that fact is rubbed in their faces in headlines, the lighter I feel.
Yeesh. The NY Times is so clueless sometimes. Their privilege really, really shows if they think this was "easy," not to mention the "last racial barrier" in politics. wtf?
wtf is right!
It's difficult to understand how it is that there are people who believe we live in a post-race, post-sexist, post-anything society. Though the candidacy of a woman and election of an African American man are undeniably steps in the right direction, we're far from the utopic society imagined in statements that assert racial (or gender...or class...etc.) biases are elements of the past. Forward movement is good, but blindness in that movement is not.
Considering the circumstances and performance of that particular woman I don't see how it's a step forward that she was a candidate.
Hopefully this will help people to understand how much of the perceived racial barrier is actually classism.
And hopefully, someday, we'll be able speak about racial diversity as a positive instead of merely a means of victimization, but that could be a while.
"Perceived"?
So sayeth the white man.
Angel, I agree with the sentiments you've voiced (e.g., objecting to someone's reference to "perceived" racial barriers), but you've speculated now on the race of two commenters. I don't think that's really fair.
i think that this is such crap. If America was past racism then the cops wouldn't have arrested a man for planning to assasinate Obama if he was elected president.Every day there is stuff on the news about racism. Just the other day four white kids from new york were arrested for beating a hispanic man to death. Does this sound like a country that is over racism??.. i don't think so.
It wasn't "easy" but it was surprisingly smooth. Obama ran a *phenomenal* campaign, but his opponents (both Hillary and McCain) self-imploded and Bush + economy would have doomed McCain no matter what, even if he hadn't run a loser campaign and picked a nitwit for VP. No lack of credit to Obama and Axelrod and those of us who suspended the rest of our lives to work for them, but a whole hell of a lot of things broke our way and in the end it never really was a competitive race.
0+|0-] kbhvac said:
Here is the question for the day:
When your mom was pregnant with you, what species of embryo/fetus was present in her uterus?
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November 11, 2008 8:54 PM[0+|0-] kbhvac said:
The twin mudflapesque silhouettes that are at the top of your home page appear to be giving the one finger salute, flipping the bird....
Is that what you intended or am I misinterpreting the icons.
Even if their not flipping the bird, the idealistic shape of their female forms is communicating a message that this is the thing to be attained.
It seems to 'objectify' the female form. Does it not?
yor bro ken
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November 11, 2008 9:16 PM[0+|0-] kbhvac said:
“Comments Policy
We view Feministing as a platform for not only discussion among feminists and allies, but for reaching (rational, not hateful) people who may not agree with every word we write. However, we require that discussion in comments should be respectful and be directed toward the ideas and argument, not the person. All comments with hate speech, personal attacks, or offensive language will be deleted.
I was just perusing your home page and listed under regular features is:
http://feministing.com/friday-feminist-fuck-you/”
I believe a Unites States Supreme Court Justice once said, “If free speech is anything it is the right to be offended.”
But this is your web site and I am an univited visitor, but I presume, welcome guest.
So could you define ‘offensive language’ for me please? I do not want to violate your
rules, and if possible, I do not want to offend anyone.
yor bro ken
On November fifth, one cable news station reported that America had elected it's first African-American President. Another cable news station reported that America had elected it's first mixed race President.
It was something I hadn't even thought of until I saw both of those reports. Then I remembered that Obama referred to himself as black during the campaign.
Do we need a ruling on this?
"Every day there is stuff on the news about racism. Just the other day four white kids from new york were arrested for beating a hispanic man to death."
Dayna, I assume that part of the news report was that the man was murdered because he was hispanic? Just looking for clarification.
Seperate point, I don't understand why Obama's race should be much of an issue before or after the election. The only things that matter now are the decisions he makes as President. I think the media is making too much of a deal of this whole race thing.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=american+history&x=22&y=17
Shorter WIDave:
"Here is my white privilege, let me show you it."
Must be nice.
"I don't understand why Obama's race should be much of an issue..."
Are you kidding me!? What planet do you live on? Did you miss all the discussion on race during the election? You had not thought about this before?
Second, Angel H. in that only someone with white privilege could say something like that.
hey, have you seen this? the war is over??
http://www.nytimes-se.com/
"Here is my white privilege, let me show you it."
Excuse me? You obviously don't know me. I will leave it at that because I have no desire to make the discussion about myself.
"Are you kidding me!? What planet do you live on? Did you miss all the discussion on race during the election? You had not thought about this before?"
I am quite aware of how much of an issue the main stream media made of race in this election. I just fail to share the same level of importance someone's ancestry has upon their candidacy or their upcoming term in office.
"Excuse you"? From willfull ignorance about the improtance of racial issues in this country, and failing to see the "improtance of someone's ancestry" when historically, those ancestors have always been looked down upon, brutalized, whose land was colonized, and whose people have been treated as less-than-human?
No, you're not excused.
~ Angel H.
P.S. to All: Sorry about switching up my username. I'm logged in as one user at my office PC, and as another user at home. And I can't remember the password for the other one!
Angel H., I come to this blog in order to have my views and opinions challenged along with hoping to challenge some views and opinions of the people that both post and comment here, maybe even have a little fun along the way.
I do not come here for personal attacks. Please, unless you have some proof of my "white privilege" I would much rather you argue me with logic and facts.
I think you may have understood some of the statments I was making. Are racial issues important? Yes they are. I have ancestors that were looked down upon. However, I think it is much more important for me to concentrate on the actions that I take in my life and be the best person that I can than compared to anything else.
Also, I think the mainstream media should be concentrating much more on the decisions that Obama makes and much less on his ethnicity.
The whole orgy of newspaper headlines the day after was pretty much the peak of race consciousness in the media. I believe Obama ran a campaign with very little racial issues and by and large race was not the dominant issue of the campaign. It would have been ludicrous if it were. The economy, the war, health care, "associations" were if I recall correctly widely covered.
There's your white privilege.
Black people were, and are, still being villified just because we're Black. That's what makes Obama's presidency so historical and so amazing.
If you're able to "forget" about his race, good for you. As for me, my color doesn't wash off.
"There's your white privilege."
I'm sorry, I must not be smart enough to understand how you drew that conclusion. Any chance you could explain further?
brownfemipower says it more eloquently than I ever could:
Also, if you're geniunely interested, check out The Angry Black Woman's Required Reading List, and Resist Racism's Racism 101 section.
~ Angel H.
1. So this comes down to: "My ancestors had it harder than yours"?
2. You assume I am white.
3. I was really hoping the six year old would be asked why he thought he would get shot.
1. To be so willfully ignorant about the role race plays in this society, it's pretty damn obvious that you are white.
2. If that's all you came away with after reading such a poignant piece, then there's really no help for you.
3. That being said, I'm not going to sit here and hold your hand and teach you the basics of race relations. It's not my job. If you were truly interested in viewing the world from a different perspective other than you're "white-is-right" POV, you would've checked out those links I gave you from the last post. Hell, you would've picked up a damn book in the past I-don't-know-how-many years of your life, instead of expecting a some good lil' Negro on the Interwebz to show you the light. Fuck that.
Stay in the darkness. You're on your own.
1. I am not white.
2. That's not all I came away with, but I thought it would have been important information with the story.
3. I asked you to explain why you used a certain dismissive phrase to me and your response is "It's too complicated"? Oh well.
"To be so willfully ignorant about ..., it's pretty damn obvious that you are Asian."
"To be so willfully ignorant about ..., it's pretty damn obvious that you are Latino."
"To be so willfully ignorant about ..., it's pretty damn obvious that you are Middle Eastern."
All of those statements would be very inappropriate to say, so I am going to conclude that your similar statement is inappropriate as well.
I've given you resource after resource after resource, and all you've given me are strawmen. I'm going to say this one more time:
I'm not going to sit here and hold your hand and teach you the basics of race relations. It's not my job. If you were truly interested in viewing the world from a different perspective other than you're "white-is-right" POV, you would've checked out those links I gave you from the last post. Hell, you would've picked up a damn book in the past I-don't-know-how-many years of your life, instead of expecting a some good lil' Negro on the Interwebz to show you the light. Fuck that.
The fact that you're not white doesn't give you a pass. IMO, it just makes you more pathetic for not understanding and refusing to educate yourself.
This is the last time I'm posting on the matter. I geniunely hope you take some of my words to heart. If you don't, it's your loss.
You proved that change can happen. You built an unprecedented grassroots organization in all 50 states that brought a record number of people into the political process -- many for the first time, many for the first time in a long time.
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