Compared to what some would have us believe I don't think Geraldine Ferraro was making a case that affirmative action or racial preferences are involved in the 2008 presidential race. I think she was making a very astute and genuine observation about our society that was given in response to a very specific question posed by a reporter.
I think she was saying that today it is easier to be a man of color than it is to be a woman running for President of the United States. In particular, it is easier to be Barack Obama, a Black man, than it is to be Hillary Clinton, a White woman, running for the Presidency. If you doubt it, look at the heads of the Fortune 500 companies as an example. There are far too few Black men who lead those companies but they far outweigh the number of White and Black women that hold the top positions.
Ferraro was asked to look at the Democrat candidates still standing – Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton -- and comment on why she thought they were still there and why they were in the relative positions they were in.
“ 'I expect them (the superdelegates) to look very carefully at who has the experience, John. Between me and you and your millions of listeners, if Barack Obama were a white man, would we be talking about this as a potential real problem for Hillary? ... If he were a woman of any color, would he be in this position? He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.'”
Ferraro's comments forced her to distance herself from the Clinton campaign.
What Geraldine Ferraro was saying – albeit not very artfully – is that there is no purely logical explanation for Barack Obama to have overtaken Hillary Clinton as the heir-apparent to the Democrat U.S. President candidates. Clinton was the overwhelming favorite over everyone – including all of the white males who have since dropped out of the race -- coming into the primaries.
Obama, a junior senator from Illinois with not a single bill or action to distinguish him, was just another of the pack. Obama distinguished himself not with substance but with his loose message of “the audacity of hope,” and with being the candidate of “change.” He's young, he's charming, he's good-looking, he's smooth-talking and a whole bunch of people started jumping onto his bandwagon. Women are fainting at his feet. People who were disillusioned with the current government took from his rallies their own substance. Obama is lucky to be who he is.
Bob Johnson, who created and later sold Black Entertainment Television (BET), later said the same thing and got much the same hostile reaction as Ferraro. Johnson too said if Obama were white he wouldn't be his party's leading candidate. In his case he suggested that Obama earned the support of a large number of black people straight out of the gate.
There is no denying that Barack Obama is an attractive candidate because of who he is and though we are loath to say it a good part of who he is is black. To fail to note his blackness as one of his primary attributes and as among his reasons for success would be tantamount to denying Halle Berry or Denzel Washington's skin color have anything to do with their attractiveness or success.
We are all the products of our total package, skin color included, and although we may like one part of the package more than another consumers don't usually have the option of buying only a portion of the package.
Let's face it. Obama is enjoying rock star status. He's the (The Artist Formerly Known As) Prince (or whatever he is known as now) of politics and it's not based on the depth of his message. Obama has articulated little in the way of policy positions with which one could agree or disagree. As far as I can tell his popularity is based on the way he looks and smiles and charms his followers. He promises to bring change but his promise is only a promise not backed up by details of what that change would entail. He's a rock star and he croons a message of hope without substance and a lot of intelligent people are falling for it.
There is no doubt that we are a misogynistic nation. What Ferraro could have said is that it is okay to be Black but it is not okay to be a woman running for President of the United States in 2008. That is why Ferraro said what she said.
People who once were or who would expected to be loyal to Sen. Clinton have switched their loyalty to Obama for no discernible reason other than his rock star status, of which I once again remind you his blackness is a part.
We may not recognize on a visceral level that race is a part of our selection processes but there is no doubt that it does. There is nothing wrong with having or being a race. To the extent it is not relied upon as the primary trait, or as the opportunity to be dismissive, exclusionary or antagonistic toward someone there is nothing wrong with noting the race of someone. We all have one.
Most of the terms used to describe Sen. Hillary Clinton apply to her femaleness and not in a pleasant way. She's a “bitch.” She's “hard.” She's “shrill.” She “can't be trusted.” “She's a whore.” “She's a monster.” “She can't control her husband.” When you look at how she is described it is easy to see that she is loathed almost exclusively because she is a woman, not because of anything she has done or plans to do. The woman who is married to the man who comes out in some polls as one of the most admired and successful presidents ever is apparently vilified purely because she is a woman who doesn't know her place. Thus even before she even announced her candidacy for presidency; the vilification started with her stint as First Lady in the Bill Clinton Administration.
Ferraro might have learned from her experience that it is okay to criticize or call women names but you can not even mention a person's color in polite company.
There is no question that in a nation that has had 43 White male presidents and 45 White male vice presidents the fact that a White woman and a Black man appear to be serious contenders for the office of the United States Presidency is cause for both note and celebration. Some might say we are finally in a time when we are seeing beyond gender and race. Ferraro, who was the first woman to run as a serious vice presidential candidate, ought to know that there are things that matter beyond intellect and politics. Geraldine Ferraro is in the unique position of knowing what it is like being in a position based on a physical attribute as she was selected as Walter Mondale's running mate because of her gender. She knows that, among other things, makes her uniquely qualified to discuss the Clinton-Obama dynamic.
Ferraro compared Obama's situation to hers when she ran as the first female vice presidential candidate on a national ticket. His situation is in fact similar to hers. He is the first serious African American contender for the U.S. Presidency, perhaps more serious a contender than she was in the nation's eyes because she was a woman running in a nation not yet ready to accept women in that position. Ferraro was saying that the nation does not yet seem to be able to look beyond gender to elect the more qualified candidate.
Actually we should not seek to see beyond race and gender. They are inextricable pieces of us all. Any attempt to look past those pieces is to attempt to look past important parts of the person. They are not bad things as would seem to be suggested by an Obama supporter, Emma Coleman Jordan in the Washingtonpost.com, “'It is so sad that we've come to this, that a Democratic Party liberal (Clinton) has chosen to pick up the dirtiest tool in the political box [the race card] to win. I'm sad!'”
Rather than taking comments like Ferraro's and Johnson's as reasons to go ballistic and start name calling (racist!) and demanding apologies and resignations, we should take these as opportunities for understanding and discussions about race and gender, issues which we understand oh too little about.
If you would like to know more about race, particularly about White people and race, I recommend an excellent book by Dr. Janet E. Helms, "A Race is a Nice Thing to Have: A Guide to Being A White Person or Understanding the White Persons in Your Life." We have a limited number of first edition copies available for $7.95 plus $2.95 shipping or slightly used copies are available for $3.95 plus $2.95 shipping. For more information or to order contact hmmanagement.consulting@yahoo.com
A bigger, better version is available from Microtraining Associates. While the first edition might be described as pocket-sized, the second edition has more pages and more illustrations for your learning and reading pleasure. Write us and we'll get you more information.
The following articles were used as resources for this article:
Josh Drobnyk and John McCormick, Tribune Newspapers, March 12, 2008, Fairless Hills, PA, http://www.chicago/
“Ferraro: 'They're attacking me because I'm white', from Rebecca Sinderbrand, CNN Washington Bureau, http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/11/ferraro.comments/index.html
“Race Tangled in the Race: Geraldine Ferraro's Pointed Campaign Discourse by Kevin Merida, Washington Post Staff Writer, Friday, March 14, 2008, CO1, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/13/AR2008031304270—p...3/15/2008
“Johnson cites race in Obama's surge, by Jim Morrill, posted on Tuesday April 15, 2008, http://www.charlotte.com/
All contents of this site Copyright (c) 2008 Jacalyn L. Helms Mindell
