Comments on: Which came first, my uterus or my skin?

By: Velvet Verbosity » Gloria Steinem and Velvet Verbosity With Their Foots in Their Mouths

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 09:14:25 +0000

[...] The Angry Black Woman, writings from a gender and race activist. I was a little surprised to see Gloria Steinem being raked over the coals so I had to go see what that was about. Turns out Steinem had made a faux pas in the way she said [...]

By: jim

jim — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:33:21 +0000

Gotta say, I re-read my comment from before (it was late when I wrote it, and I’d had a few), and I think I fell under one of the rules on here (I.E. the one about saying “let’s all just ignore race!” to ignore the problem of racism).

Sorry.

By: Dianne

Dianne — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:12:12 +0000

Developmentally, your uterus came first. Skin (at least keratinization) comes fairly late in fetal development. Politically…what was that about crabs in a barrel?

Re: people saying race/sex shouldn’t matter. No, it shouldn’t. But neither should people be dying because Bush and bin Laden have ego problems and take it out on the world. Yet both are happening and pretending that they aren’t is not a particularly useful strategy.

Right now Obama and Clinton seem to be fighting to see who can be the most obnoxious. I’m voting for the first one to say, “I’ve made some obnoxious racist/sexist comments. I apologize profoundly and will do my best to reevaluate my assumptions and be less racist/sexist in the future.” I’m not holding my breath waiting for either of them to say it, though.

By: Kay

Kay — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:15:38 +0000

Gloria Steinem, Hillary Clinton and NOW are so out of touch with woman’s issues today. The woman’s movement isn’t addressing the issues that the majority of women face in this country today and its economic. Most women are head of households supporting their children on pink collar slum wage jobs with very little child support. Most women don’t want to hear the old “I am woman hear me roar” crap that the U.S. Women studies courses in universities are coming up with. One thing that the media, Clinton and G.S haven’t mentioned is that white women have beneifited more than any group from affirmative action. I am a several generations feminist and I’m not going to vote for Hillary because she is a woman. I supported a woman for president in the last election and she was black too. She was Carol Moseley Braun and she told it like it is. The only people in this country that are making sense to me is the Black Congressional Caucus, because they tell the American people that we are all in the same boat which is sinking. When will the American people realize that the politics of divide and conquer are hurting us. I’m radical liberal white woman and I’m proud of it. I’m voting Obama in Feb and I do like Edwards. I’d love an Obama and Edwards ticket in 2008. Gloria Steinem is so yesterday and too rich to know what women and their children struggle with today. Most of the American males are growing up in households headed by women and poor, which is something that the feminist movement hasn’t noticed. My favorite feminist was Sorjourner Truth.
Now all of you send me positive thoughts because I’m applying for a job as a labor activist, because all American families deserve better wages, housing, health care and education. Well its back to the trenches for me, and remember we have the power if we unite against the richest 1%.

By: Saladin

Saladin — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:21:20 +0000

Ya Aaminah

Ron Paul is a Buchananish Libertarian-Republican hybrid. He’s an isolationist — anti globalization, anti imperialist (good things) but VIRULENTLY anti-immigrant (bad!). He’s radically pro-life and seems anti-gay, but he sneakily avoids seeming far right on these issue b/c he’s above all a states’ right guy. Thus he does not support federal responses against Roe V. Wade or banning Gay marriage, but would be happy to let states impose these things (which they will, without question). His anti-federalist stance means he’s been one of the most consistent opponents of the Patriot Act and the Iraq war.
I agree, of course, that the Federal govt has a terrifying amount of power. But scratch most states’ rights folks and beneath you’ll find a white supremacist (they’re still mad about Brown v. Board of Ed). That seems to be the case here. Needless to say he’s rabidly opposed to affirmative action in any form.

He’s also a nut economically. He thinks corporations should be essentially unregulated, so long as they don’t send all of their jobs overseas. He thinks environmental issues should be left to the whims of “Private industry”. He’s against basically all federal aid programs.

My sense is that a RP presidency would be better than a Bush presidency for the first few years. Then we’d descend into a white supremacist/Dickensian/Handmaid’s Tale nightmare.

By: Lmary

Lmary — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:28:16 +0000

Sorry about the swearing a million mea culpeas on my part and the reason I use the term feminazi is because I’ve ALWAYS had issues with the Gloria Steinems of this country and feminist period. Especially when they have clueless,self-centered ideologies like in the Times piece I mean who is she kidding?!! She likes her white skin privilege and probably wouldn’t have it any other way yet has the nerve to bemoan about where white women are on the food chain what a crock. I called her that because she and a lot of her ilk are full of it to their rotten core and won’t even admit it and all her talk doesn’t change the fact that their movement has done nothing to include women of color. Or gives a damn about any of us either.

By: Aaminah

Aaminah — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 21:01:56 +0000

Asalaamu alaikum Saladin,

Okay, so you seem pretty above average intelligence… what’s the deal with Ron Paul? (And anyone else can feel free to answer that too). My dad thinks he’s wonderful, which in and of itself makes me leery. I have some concerns with him… but then another Muslim woman who I respect is talking like he’s the best thing you can hope for while waiting for the Mahdi, LOL. I’m not buying it… I don’t like his response to the “some-guy-I-won’t-name-who-doesn’t-work-for-me-wrote-all-that-but-I-had-no-clue-what-was-in-my-newletters-for-all-those-years-so-it’s-not-my-fault” story. She points out that alot of people of color love him and that should mean something… but didn’t Muslims block vote for Bush his first time around? The fact that we ignorantly support someone who is bad for us doesn’t exactly make me want to jump on the bandwagon. Am I totally off base on this guy?

By: Saladin

Saladin — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 20:33:04 +0000

Oh – that should say “Wa Alaikum Salaam”, BTW. I’m apparently in the running for ABW’s most typo-ridden guest!

By: Saladin

Saladin — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 13:17:56 +0000

Wa Salaam Alaikum Aaminah, and thanks.

It’d be awesome if Mosely Braun ran on the Green ticket. Besides being a Black woman, she is one of the very few Senators in U.S. history whose policies reflected the priorities of a decent human being. Sadly, her own party (the Dems) treated her as some sort of cute novelty the last time she ran.

Also, I love watching the Democratic faithful get their knickers in a twist when a Green candidate runs. “How dare those fringe lunatics steal OUR votes”, they say. They’re still furious at Nader, as if he somehow ‘cost’ them the election. I actually remember a Dem-fanatic buddy of mine saying in 2000 “either you’re with us or you’re against us” — years before Bush!

By: Aaminah

Aaminah — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 11:44:30 +0000

Asalaamu alaikum Saladin.

You are funny! :) I agree with it all, but the way you put it is also so amusing.

Yes, the choices are depressing, but at this stage Obama and Clinton are either of them way better than any of the Republican options. They’re still problemmatic, but better.

I think it is important to note, as you have, that Clinton isn’t really such a savior for women, nor is Obama a savior for people of color. They both have terrifying foreign policy stances that have done nothing but hurt women and people of color outside the U.S. And neither of them is really offering anything significant to women or people of color in the U.S. except the feel-good-see-a-face-like-your-own-in-Washington thing. You’re right, it might be historical to see a Black man or a woman win, but that doesn’t make the change in scenery actually mean anything.

Rumors are out that Mosely Braun may run on Green… see, there you get a Black woman: two for one! LOL. Actually, I LOVED her ideas in 2004; being Black and a woman are, as I’ve said before, just icing.