Aint She A Woman?

[Tanya]

This peice is by Tim Wise..He is one of my favorite writers and speakers right now. If you have heard of Michael Dyson, he is alot like him in style. He specializes in anti racist writtings. He wrote one peice called "Your Whiteness Is Showing" and it was a dedication to those that wont vote obama because of their let down in a HRC loss...and the article is much deeper then is sounds...much much deeper..

Here is his picture..in case you thought he was black..haha

Here is another one called "Aint She A Woman?"

June 19, 2008

So, I'm just wondering...

Ain't Michelle Obama a woman?

The reason I ask is this: During the Presidential primaries, there were numerous examples of sexist media commentary aimed at Hillary Clinton, from comments on her cleavage, to her pantsuits, to her laugh (described as a "cackle") to her voice sounding like "the voice every husband knows" when being asked to take out the trash. Messed up stuff for sure. And white women, by and large, rushed to her defense, angrily (and correctly) denouncing the misogyny that was so commonly on display these past few months.

And yet, as Michelle Obama has come under fire (much of it also blatantly sexist in nature) these white women, many of them self-proclaimed feminists, have said virtually nothing. So when commentators have called her aggressive, or "angry," or "hard-edged" (just a few of the words I've heard used to describe her)--and indeed, these are sexist in nature because they imply that women should be passive, sweet and soft, almost as an achetype--white women by and large say nothing in her defense. And worst of all, when FOX News recently displayed their infamous on-screen caption about Michelle Obama, describing her as "Obama's Baby Mama," there was little if any outcry from nationally prominent white women and/or feminists, including the ones who were so animated in their defense of Hillary Clinton.

Where is the New York state chapter of NOW, whose leader Marcia Pappas absurdly and grotesquely compared Obama and John Edwards's treatment of Clinton during the primary debates to a "gang-bang?" Why no words of feminist outrage for the black woman, being attacked by white men? Hmmm...inquiring minds want to know.

Ain't she a woman (to borrow from Sojourner Truth)?

Or do black women scare white feminists, just as much in 2008 as they did in Truth's day, by challenging the way in which womanhood has been racially-constructed as white, and white women typified as the prototypical woman, the norm, the ideal, the standard?

To continue the thought I was trying to begin with the Open Letter to white women who, despite being progressive, are threatening to vote for McCain...once again, their whiteness is showing.

http://www.redroom.com/blog/tim-wise/aint-she-a-woman

[Michelle2005]

Tanya...as I've said to you before...you never cease to amaze me. Thank you for posting this, and the web site address. I've now created a page there as well (I see a lady from Sacremento has, too)

T. Wise has the perfect name...as the things he writes are, indeed, W-I-S-E!

Michelle

[Cherry 4 Obama]

GREAT Piece

[Stacy]

I make it a personal policy to ignore idiots. I carry a huge pink bag that works like a book bag, up over my shoulders. On the back of that bag, facing anyone behind me are my most important messages to the world. A few Obama buttons, a button that says 'speak even if your voice shakes' a button that says 'who would jesus bomb' and a Michelle Obama button. Now get this, that's the one people remark in a negative way about most often. I tell them if she was ANY OTHER WOMAN in the history of this country, women globally would stand up and protest the venomous assaults made on her by politicians and the media. If they want to talk common sense, we can have a conversation and I've had a few good ones. Some do, some don't. And then, it's time to ignore the idiots.