Black People Have It Easy
Geraldine Ferraro, feminist icon turned apparent race-baiting klanswoman (klansperson?), threw on her nicest hood Monday and had some “interesting” things to say about Barack Obama:
“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position… if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is…”
Yes, but good luck getting a cab.
Update: Hillary says it’s “regrettable” that any of the candidates’ supporters would “say things that kind of veer off into the personal.” Wow. Those are strong words!
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But hey, it gets even better. After the backlash, here was Geraldine Ferraro’s response:
“Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let’s address reality and the problems we’re facing in this world, you’re accused of being racist, so you have to shut up. Racism works in two different directions. I really think they’re attacking me because I’m white.” [my emphasis]
Oh great, so now YOU’RE the victim!! And where did Geraldine Ferraro spew such garbage? On Fox News!
I guess we gotta admit that if MLK had been white, he woodn’ta been in his position, either. Or Medgar Evers. Or Leo Frank (What? Close enough, anyway). Lucky them.
It’s unbelievable that the race-baiting just keeps coming from the Hillary campaign, her surrogates and her supporters. What is wrong with these ostensible “progressives”? Honestly, I think it goes back to some degree to the internal race v. gender wars within Second Wave feminism itself — Hillary’s old guard feminist icons truly just do not get it, despite racism having torn apart the feminist movement itself. They’ve apparently learned nothing. Will always pit race v. gender. Worse, they sound like disgrunted right-wingers griping about how they or their girl can’t get ahead because of those damn blacks and presumably affirmative action. Never give Obama any credit for his own achievements, character, charisma, and grassroots organizing and movement. And yes, turn this back on Ferraro and ideally Hillary herself and make them out to be the victims of their own race baiting tactics.
Okay, now Geraldine Ferraro has truly gone insane. After saying Obama is “lucky” to be black, then saying she’s being criticized for “being white,” she now has the nerve to ask for an apology. “He knows I’m not racist!”
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/12/20339/1093/547/475403
I was only six when Ferraro ran for Vice President in 1984, but now I understand why she and Mondale lost 49 states.