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Read the Women Blog
January 18, 2008
Sexism, Racism and Classism - How long will they define the ballot?
Only in America could a woman, a black man, a coal miner’s son, a guitar-thumping Baptist preacher, a war hero, a wealthy scion, a Hollywood actor and even a Jewish billionaire on the sidelines, be joined in their aspirations to become the new leader of the free world.
One of the greatest moments in the tradition of American democracy is unfolding, at a time when our nation’s moral authority has plummeted around the world.
The diversity of the roster of the 2008 presidential contenders is not, in itself, transforming our nation. But it has given way for the intersection of sexism, racism and classism to emerge as key player on a stage that forces us to confront the entrenched tensions lurking beneath the surface of our national conscience. Given the cast of characters, as we move into the deeper political rhetoric of the elections, we will be repeatedly challenged to confront our biases. The question is whether the end result leaves us further separated or united as the ‘one-America’ Sen. Barack Obama describes. Little fuel is needed these days to ignite gender, race and class discords.
Hillary Clinton was booed earlier this week at an event honoring Martin Luther King, a few days after she said “Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” The hecklers who called Clinton a racist, and the opportunistic dismissal of her comments by Mr. Obama’s campaign, ignore the historic events that led to the passing of a series of legislation that secured the promise of the Constitution to all. The Civil Rights Acts were possible because vision and leadership collaborated to inspire and produce change. As Joseph Califano wrote in a Washington Post article, “That’s an example the presidential candidates and civil rights leaders of 2008 would be wise to follow.”
In predominantly white Iowa, Obama’s victory in a Byzantine caucus process was, for many, emblematic of race neutrality. A closer look might indicate that it was precisely the state’s demographic homogeny what afforded him the triumph. The almost entirely white voters have little opportunity to live with and to hold bias against African-Americans.
Andrew Kohut wrote in the New York Times, later that week, that the less affluent and less educated voters that, in New Hampshire, supported Hillary were likely to be more biased against voting for an African-American candidate. In New Hampshire we also learned that women are willing to flex their voting muscle. Just about every reason was cited to explain Clinton’s victory last week. Less was made of New Hampshire’s long history electing women to public office, which first elected a woman governor, starting in 1996 when Jeanne Shaheen was elected as its first woman governor. An unprecedented number of women are in the state’s legislative ranks. Could it be that women didn’t want to see Clinton’s campaign die on the altar of New Hampshire? Will this phenomenon be repeated in other states, tapping our impulses to make history?
As this weekend’s primaries get underway, an avalanche of polls and news analyses will prognosticate whether Latino voters in Nevada will look past ancestral antagonism and vote for an African-American. Others might examine the role of religious beliefs in the South Carolina women’s vote. In a Jan. 15 article by Katharine Seelye of the New York Times, a woman was quoted as saying “I feel like the Lord has put man first, and I believe in the Bible.”
One positive aspect of all of this is that we are talking about the issues in a manner that hasn’t been heard in recent memory. In newspapers, TV shows, at the water cooler and the dinner table, Americans are discussing what role gender, race and class will play in electing our president. Will women vote for Hillary? Is Obama getting the South Carolina black vote? Who will the working class go for? Will the religious right be a force to which candidates will pander? At the end of the day, the most important discussion will take place in the voting booth, after the voter gives the pollster the correct answer to our aspirations, but continues the American way of all white male presidents, voting along sexist, racist, classist lines.
This moment in our democratic evolution calls us to re-examine our innermost beliefs and attitudes toward our own gender, skin color or socioeconomic status. How we respond to the call will determine whether Americans will give up, even a little, on the deeply-rooted divisions and a new class of voter behavior materializes that reflects the diversity of a truly multicultural society. In the process, we’ll be forced to wrestle with fairness, tolerance and equality in our concept of democracy.
Moving toward a more accepting society will require even more profound changes in our collective conscience and at the core of our individual values. These changes won’t happen overnight, but hopefully, we’re moving forward, so that the next time we elect a president, sexism, racism and classism will not be a defining ballot issue.
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