"Hard truths..." (Hillary Group)

[yallerdawg]

Hillary, Bernie, Gender and Race: Hard Truths about Bias Among White Male Progressives

From #HillaryMen by Peter Daou and Tom Watson


In recent weeks, the Democratic nomination battle has veered into sensitive territory: race and gender. Bernie Sanders supporters are falsely accusing Hillary of “playing the gender card” and of unfairly calling out the racially-charged urban/rural distinction on guns.

We are long-time Bernie admirers and certainly do not believe he is sexist or racist. Neither does Hillary Clinton. Contrary to the media’s attempts to stoke Democratic conflict and despite the protestations of some of Bernie’s supporters, Hillary is not accusing him of being sexist or racist. She is doing something much more targeted and much more significant: pointing out unspoken and uncomfortable blind spots among white males on the left.

Emily Crockett explains:

What Clinton was pointing out was a subtler, more pervasive kind of discrimination — and the disbelieving response of both the Sanders campaign and the media shows why she was right to bring it up.

Clinton made a spot-on point about how women are perceived. She didn't say or imply that Bernie intentionally slighted her based on her gender. She did imply that her gender made him see her differently, and that many women have this same experience all the time. That idea should be a lot less controversial than it often turns out to be.

There's a reason so many women instantly identified with her remark. It's because across the board, people tend to mentally turn up the volume when women speak — and research proves it.

As white male progressives, we welcome Hillary’s willingness to confront a problem on our side. Insensitivity on race and gender is cultural and it isn’t isolated to the right. After all, the early history of the liberal blogosphere and the netroots, of which we are original members, is one dominated by white males. Exclusion and invisible bias exist everywhere.

Much, much more at: http://www.hillarymen.com/latest/hard-truths-about-hillary-bernie-gender-and-race

[Walk away]

1. Thank You for this post!

[yallerdawg]

2. This is just so timely!

Our friend Rebecca Traister, a progressive who is admittedly ambivalent about Hillary’s public policy history, captured this chasm perfectly in her incisive Elle essay last month:

And oh, those guys—my friends, my colleagues, my professional sparring partners—make me mad. Not just because they'd never in a million years admit that their preference for a white guy has anything to do with gender, or because they suggest that I'm the regressive one for caring that Hillary's a woman. I mean, obviously those things make me mad too. But the real bitch is when I hear her attacked by men who claim to be feminists but actually despise her with inexplicable intensity, when I hear her supporters belittled for their cute investment in a non-male presidential power. It makes me spittingly angry. It transforms me into a knee-jerk defender of a candidate about whom I actually feel very torn. I'm allowed to criticize Hillary all I want, but damn if another round of sniping from liberal white boys isn't going to radicalize me in her defense all over again.

[Thinkingabout]

3. A lot has been said, our candidate is still great and running a good campaign.

[William769]

4. Kick & highly recommended!