Of the 9 Facts [that] Shatter Obama’s Claim that Black America Is Better Off Since He Took Office, the most salient is : “In 2009, white households were 7 times richer than black households. Now [2014], white households are 8 times richer.” In fact, from 2009 to 2014, the percentage of black Americans struggling below the poverty line increased from 25.8 to 26.2.
America, if Hillary Clinton wins, don’t do to women what was done to black folks after Obama was elected in 2008. A magical wand declared America as a post-racial state. Suddenly, MLK’s dream was a reality. A man was elected based on his character and not the color of his skin. Rather than demolish the institutional barriers maintaining America’s racial structures, the myth of the post-racial meritocracy was actually bolstered by Obama’s rise to the presidency. For a quick read that breaks down “racism and white denial in the age of Obama”, check out Tim Wise’s book brilliantly titled Between Barack and A Hard Place.
If we have our first Madam President, a glass ceiling will be shattered, but the structures and barriers which made her climb nearly impossible will not magically be removed. What we’re witnessing in Trump-ism is a backlash to the moderate/neo-liberal progressive nature of Obama’s presidency. In the same way that Obama symbolized hope (albeit, a mythical hope), Trump symbolizes a return to the good ole days before women had the right to vote and before wealthy elites shipped the wages of poor white folks overseas.
Nate Silver’s frightening tweet of the election results if only men voted a perfect symbol of the turbulent politics we are headed for if Clinton wins the election.
The deep sexism that Trump has permitted in this election cycle will continue beyond November 3rd when the polls close. When xenophobia mixes with the violent culture of entitlement, we see headlines like “Oklahoma Man Charged With Killing Arab Neighbor While Awaiting Trial for Attacking Victim’s Mom“ or this headline from the city I went to college in, “Students expelled after Facebook group calls for ‘execution’ of Jews, black people”.
Imagine the headlines when the sexism that has been out in this 2016 campaign reacts with the dominance, control, violence, and sexual aggression that Trump’s toxic pathological brand of masculinity has heralded. A woman in the oval office will be a powerful symbol of hope for all genders in America, a tokenistic beacon of freedom and possibility. The sentiments and rhetoric in the three images below will not be cured by a symbol, but by a major restructuring of the institutions that hold these dominant and oppressive ideologies in place.
A win for Clinton is not our entrance into a post-sexist state, but rather, the beginning of the unveiling of the deep sexist ideologies at play in the American experiment for democracy.
Brace yourselves. The worst is yet to come.
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Photo: Getty Images
Sexism will flourish, under Clinton, but against men, continuing to flourish, just as we see in much of this far left progressive rhetoric.
There is a hate movement afoot, In fact, there are two, but only one is being spoken of, bullying those that would speak of the other into silence.
That’s how oppression works, and the line between victim and perpetrator is sometimes very thin.
It’s similar in some ways to the racism issue in the US. Lots of systemic sexism is still left.
Aren’t you the guy who said it was unjust for your friend to be arrested when he physically assaulted someone after a soccer game?