Posted by
Black Knight on Sunday, January 13, 2008 9:43:54 PM
It wasn't Jesse and Al who interjected race into the Presidential race at this point, post Iowa, pre-New Hampshire, but Hilliary Clinton's friend Gloria Steinem, who said this:
"That’s why the Iowa primary was following our historical pattern of making change. Black men were given the vote a half-century before women of any race were allowed to mark a ballot, and generally have ascended to positions of power, from the military to the boardroom, before any women (with the possible exception of obedient family members in the latter)(GS)."
***
Not only was Steinem first but she happens to be incorrect:
For example, white Madeline Albright was Secretary of State before Colin Powell.
White women have been heads of major hollywood studios. No black man has ever been head of any major studio.
White Sally Ride, who was not a pilot,(then a prerequisite to the astranaut corps), went first into space ahead of the better qualified black pilots, many of whom had Ph.Ds.
White women were citizens at the birth of the nation. It took blacks 300 years to become citizens. In fact Chief Justice of the Supreme Court said "Free or slave, blacks were not now citizens, were never intended to be citizens, and will never be citizens." (Dred Scott-1856}.
White women never had to pay poll taxes. Black people did.
White women never had their votes suppressed. Black men and women have had and continue to bear the brunt of voter suppression.
So this notion that blacks have had an easier path than white women is pure right-wing fiction coming from Ms. Steinem, a so called liberal.
And this notion that black people are the first to play the race card is also pure fiction.