Fuck That, I'm Angry Too

Man, I'm starting to get quite pissed.

As the reign of the Queen of Darkness draws to a close, a lot of media folks are trotting out stories about how her supporters feel cheated and angry for the way their candidate has been treated. The stories are filled with angst about what sort of retribution these women will seek against Obama and Democrats in general, and trot out the usual complaints about male media bias.

For one of the latest spiels in this vein, check this out.

You know, I can respect women's complaints that Hillary got a raw deal when it came to sexism in the media and in the general public. I remember the Bros vs. Hoes t-shirt (I wrote about it here.), I remember the "Iron my shirt" comments and I have noticed some of the ways Hillary has been defined by men.

But, I draw the line at people claiming that Obama got some sort of "boost" because he was a man. That he had an easy road, that he doesn't deserve to be where he is and his success was "given" to him. Y'all know those code words, y'all know what these mainly white women are trying to say.

The nigger didn't earn shit.

And that sentiment is wearing really, really thin.

Come on folks, you can protest the sexism directed at Hillary without making backhanded insults towards Obama about his qualifications or his campaign. The man graduated from Harvard Law, he graduated from Columbia, he's been a state senator and a U.S. Senator. The man is not some random bum off the street with no job and no degrees. This is a man who has achieved just as much in his life as Hillary Clinton without the benefit of being white and being married to a powerful white man.

Let's get this shit straight right now.

Hillary did not have to deal with questions about whether she was woman enough or white enough to be President. She did not have to deal with accusations that she was a Muslim spy sent to overthrow the American government. She did not have to deal with death threats as early as Obama, nor have to explain her association with any random black person that white folks don't like. Nobody gave the right wing accusations that Hillary was a lesbian the same national attention that they gave the accusation that Obama loved Farrakhan and disliked Jews. No national newspapers wrote treatises on Hillary's sexual orientation the way they did about Obama's faith.

For the last damn time, Obama has not gotten a free fucking ride and every time I see a white woman claim that he has I get a little more pissed, and a little more certain that racism is still a massive problem in this country. There is no logical way anybody can examine Obama's resume and compare it to past presidential candidates and say that he doens't deserve to be winning. Just because you don't support the man doesn't give you the right to impugn his qualifications.

Look, these claims are rooted in a deep-seated belief by far too many white women that they are the ones really getting the shaft in America because they do not get all the "help" that minorities receive. This idiotic belief ignores the fact that white women benefit the most from affirmative action, that they have always benefited from being white and that they have actively worked to keep minorities down while aiding the white power structure.

Susan B. Anthony once complained that it was digusting that the law allowed a nigger man to vote while white women were denied suffrage. She convienently ignored the fact that few black men could actually exercise their "right" without becoming strange fruit on Southern trees, or receiving beatings in the North. White women rush to label themselves as the ultimate victims throughtout this country's history, yet forget that they actively worked to exterminate Native Americans, enslave African Americans and deny rights to every other minority.

True, sexism has always been a problem, and likely will always be a problem. But, for so many white women to insinuate that they have always been the oppressed and never the oppressors is beyond ridiculous. In fact, I would argue that very few minority men have ever been in a position to hamper the progress of most white women. In fact, it's much more common to find white women in positions of authority over minorities.

Every time somebody claims that Obama doesn't deserve his success, I feel like they are saying I don't deserve my success. I feel like they are claiming that there is a white woman somewhere who would have gotten my job if I didn't have black skin and a penis.

And that pisses me off.

It's time that the media address the fact that the claims made by white women are demeaning to black folks and based in longstanding racial stereotypes. It's time that they allow us to rebut those comments with facts of our own about just how vapid the complaints of many of these privileged women really are.

My anger is just as important as theirs.