Burning Words

I haven’t really said much about the primary battle in the US thusfar, but I’ve been pretty disappointed in the approach of some of the feminist “big bloggers” in the last few days, as demonstrated in this thread at Feministe.

All of this concerns Obama’s “periodically down” comment about Clinton. Was it sexist? Probably. A conscious dogwhistle? Pfft. It was an awkward comment made on one occasion, and which was clearly not intended to be a campaign talking point. In contrast, Clinton made marginalising Obama as “the black candidate” a fucking campaign strategy in the early primaries, only realising that being blatantly fucking racist was perhaps a bad idea after black voters kicked her arse for it in the South Carolina primary. The haste that the likes of Feministe’s zuzu have latched onto that one remark into a cry of “but Obama’s sexist!” to seemingly drown out criticism of Clinton’s ongoing rotten record on race issues is disgusting.

The misogynist garbage Clinton has taken throughout her presidential campaign so far is well-known and vile. Yet this seems to be being excused by some well-known bloggers - and some of their commenters - as a chance to roundly shit on Obama at the slightest opportunity, and with a vitriol that reeks of racism.

The post I liked to above concerns an open letter to the LGBT community which contains a shopping list of promises to fix every major and remotely politically winnable issue our community faces in this year’s US election season. On at least three of those issues: gender identity coverage in anti-discrimination legislation, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and the Defence of Marriage Act, he points to active support at a time when the Clintons were actively working against the LGBT community. I’m unimpressed at the ability of Clinton supporters in that thread - among them zuzu - to grasp at straws to find something, anything, to oppose. I find it interesting how a number of white women on that thread come out stridently against Obama for positions - such as immigration and the ERA - that are exactly the same as those held by Clinton. It seems that in this section of the “progressive blogosphere” you only get a pass for taking stands that won’t definitively lose you the election if you’re white.

I’ve always held Feministe in higher esteem than some of the other big blogs which already have a bad record on racial issues, such as Feministing. After this primary season, though, I have to say that I’m far from impressed with their stance too.

Tags: feminism, queer issues, racism, the american election