Is the struggle of black people comparable to the struggle of women

[LittleClarkie]

for equality?

When Durbin called Gitmo a holocaust and got blasted for it by progressive Jewish folks, I don't think alot of people understood why the comparison was upsetting.

I am a woman but I am not black, so I am asking if comparing the struggle of women for equality to the struggle of black people for equality does a disservice. Is it a comparable struggle?

My sense is that it would not be. It seems to me that black people have had it far worse throughout history. I'm getting myself in trouble even as we speak for saying that.

So I come to youse guys, my level-headed touchstone, to see what you all think.

[JI7]

1. depends

i can understand what Durbin was saying but the problem was not in his intentions or anything but rather our culture and how most would tune out to Durbin's point just based on that comparison he made.

there will always be comparisons on people fighting for their rights with those who have done so previously. there is a level where it's not the exact same thing and i would agree that it was far worse for blacks than it is for women in an overall general sense.

but the things people fight for are still important and they deserve to be heard.

i know some in the black and other minority communities have problems with gay rights being compared to the civil rights movement. and Kerry offended some when he did that. he explained his position but i think in some ways it would have been better if he talked about it without the comparison.

[sandnsea]

2. Interesting

My first instinct is to say minorities have had it worse, particularly blacks due to slavery and Jim Crow. But then again, they are overtly assaulted. The attack on women is even more culturally engrained. We are beaten and raped and murdered too, by people who are supposed to love us instead of hate us. We are raped and used as tools of war. We've been kidnapped by all tribes and cultures I think, as prizes of war. Then there is the constant struggle to maintain economic independence and keep from being shoved back into baby making mode. All while having to live up to ridiculous beauty and physical and virginal and saintly mothering standards. I don't know that women have had it worse in this country, but when I see what happens around the globe, I think maybe I should take women's rights a little more seriously. I never would have thought anybody in this country would think pharmacists had a right to object to filling birth control pills, yet here we are.

[LittleClarkie]

3. The only thing about the birth control issue is it could be gender

non-specific if men had more of a role in the incubating of babies. The focus is on the baby, not the woman or the fact of her gender. Hers just happens to be the gender that has to deal with it.

But then I've heard it joked that if men could become pregnant, abortion would become a sacrament.

Maybe I just need to go to bed. The caffine of the day is starting to wear off, and my brain tends to get kinda mushy when that happens.

I am of the opinion though that if you knew that something was a part of the job, and you studied to join that profession, then you should be expected to do ALL of that job. If not, then find another job.

I knew a woman who worked in a gift shop that sold tobacco. Her religion didn't believe in smoking, so she decided that she didn't have to sell tobacco. I do believe she got fired.

[politicasista]

4. It depends.

Though blacks have had it far worse (and still do) since Jim Crow. In some ways the struggle of women and blacks can be somewhat comparable, but blacks have had it far worse since Jim Crow. We still have to fight for our right to vote, our place in the MSM, against racism, sexism, discrimination, and so on.

I was sad to hear that Kerry compared gay rights to civil rights beacuse all I would hear was that he didn't care about civil rights or issues that related to Black America and how stupid Iowa was for voting for him. That's why I am glad to read his statements on the passings of Rosa Parks, Vivian Jones, C. Delores Tucker, John H. Johnson and so on.

Sorry to stray off the subject, it's a complicated issue, but I hope this helps.

[k j]

5. Ugly Tradition Persists in India

Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, October 30, 2005; Page A01

A young bride lived long enough to tell authorities that her husband and in-laws had set her on fire for not meeting their dowry demands.
– John Lancaste

NEW DELHI -- Charanpreet Kaur, 19, had been married less than nine months when her husband and his family decided it was time for her to go. Trapping her in the bathroom, her husband clamped his hand over her mouth while his father doused her with kerosene, according to a police document. The father then lit a match, setting his daughter-in-law on fire. She died five days later.

MORE AT LINK
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/29/AR2005102900729.html

[MH1]

6. In which culture?

In the dominant culture in the U.S., treating women as second-class citizens or even as property seems to at least be politically incorrect. In contrast, during slavery, it was completely culturally acceptable to treat blacks as "less than human" and okay to treat them as property.

Those two situations are not comparable in my book.

However as kj notes above, there are places in the world where women are treated as property. So I think it is fair to compare the global struggle for equal rights for women to the struggle for equal rights for all people regardless of racial, ethnic, or national origin.

Also, even in the U.S., there are subcultures who treat women as not equal to men. In many cases the outcome may as well be to consider women as property. The struggle to root out that evil should be comparable to the struggle to root out other subcultures of hate, in my opinion.