January 15 is Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. I have been wanting to write something relevant about it and find that, in this firestorm of gender vs. race, almost nothing seems balanced, insightful or even worthy. Then, tonight, the phone rang. A woman, I have known for years, called to discuss the campaign. She wanted to cite several occurrences, twenty-five years old, in which two African American organizations did not endorse certain legislation which would have advanced women. I said ~ that was twenty-five years ago. I said ~ that maybe those organizations had changed. Finally, out of frustration, I blurted out, “why do you want to make an issue out of this?” “For Hillary, of course,” she said unapologetically.
Where do I even start? How do I dissect all of that and arrive at anything I can live with. It is so fundamentally messed up that, when we hung up, all I could do was cry. I can’t create and sustain loyalties based on race or gender. I just can’t make such sweeping presumptions. I can’t vote or campaign for or against someone because it affirms or denies I am a racist. There are lots of women running for office I would never vote for. There are lots of African Americans whom I sure don’t want in office – but it is never because of their gender or race or the double bonanza of both Black and female, say no more, Madame Secretary of State.
Yes, I am a democrat and I am on board with the Hillary Campaign. I am having a ball watching her campaign “out” every misogynist in the country, particularly in the media. But I am not jumping on some ugly black-bashing bullshit. And I deeply resent someone’s lame idea that anyone supporting Hillary would OR that anyone who supports Barack is against women. What are we ~ a country of simpletons?
One really odd thing that has occurred to me is ~ why is it that being called racist is utterly wicked and being called sexist is just mildly rude, maybe even comical. Neither of them is okay. Neither the label or the behavior is okay. Here is all I can honestly come to – I am a really nit-picky person who is highly judgmental and I would rather be alone than be with people I don’t like - but on my list of requirements for my friends, my neighbors, my leaders is neither gender or race. So if you are tall and we hug, don’t presume I hate short people. If I like green, don’t presume I hate blue. If I like Hillary, don’t fucking presume I don’t like Barack. I can handle it.
