Al Gore’s Career Success is a Triumph of the American White Male Supremacy Paradigm
Some American insist that they cannot support US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton or Senator Barack Obama for the Presidency because they feel compelled to support the "best man for the job". Although people who hold this belief may not consider themselves to be "racists", they unwittingly propagate and perpetuate an American White Male Supremacy Paradigm through the practice of "White Male Supremacy Mental Gymnastics". Readers who disagree may not know all they should about Al Gore and may be willfully ignoring what they know about Senators Clinton and Obama.
But first we pose some trivia questions about Al Gore, to determine how qualified DailyKos readers are to select the "best man for the job of President of the United States:
Al Gore Trivia Questions
- Which American President attended the graduation ceremony when Al Gore received his law degree from Vanderbilt University Law School?
- At which national law firm did Al Gore practice law before he ran for the US Congress in 1976?
- Who received a higher final grade than Al Gore in Natural Sciences at Harvard University?
- Did Al Gore pass the Tennessee State Bar Exam on his first try?
Merriam Webster’s dictionary defines "white supremacy" as follows:
Main Entry: white supremacy
Function: noun
: a doctrine based on a belief in the inherent superiority of the white race over other races and the correlative necessity for the subordination of nonwhites to whites in all relationships MERRIAMS: WHITE SUPREMACY
Here, I define white male supremacy as:
The "belief that white males, no matter how much and how often they fail, are still, by virtue of their male gender and white skin, are inherently more qualified than blacks and women who succeed.
The corollary to that definition is that white male supremacy is also:
The belief that Blacks and women, no matter how much or how often they succeed, are inherently inferior to white men, no matter how much or how often white men fail.
To show how the White Male Supremacy paradigm functions in practice, we compare the educational qualifications of all of the candidates for President, with a particular focus on those of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Senator Barack Obama and ex-Vice President Albert Gore.
US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Education
US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was the commencement speaker when graduating from Wellesley College in 1969 and graduated from Yale Law School in 1973. HILLARY CLINTON'S SENATE BIO According to US News and World Reports, Yale is the top rated law school in the United States, based on factors such as competitiveness of admissions, selectivity, difficulty of coursework and univeristy prestige. US NEWS & WORLD REPORTS"Two figures play a pivotal role in law school admissions: grade-point averages and LSAT scores. Top schools look for a high number on both." US NEWS & WORLD REPORTS
US Senator Barack Obama’s Education
US Senator Barack Obama graduated from Columbia University undergraduate school and then from the Harvard University Law School, where he was elected President of the Law Review. SOURCEWATCH The Harvard University Law School is number three among the top ranked law schools in the nation, based on selectivity, difficulty and prestige. US NEWS
Having graduated from Harvard and Yale Law Schools, do Senator Obama and Senator Clinton have the quality of legal education and attainment that we expect of person who seeks to "faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and . . . preserve, protect and defend the Constitution"? Art. II, Sect. 1, US Const.
Graduating from Yale or Harvard Law School and becoming the President of the Harvard Law Review would normally be considered as good preparation for election to the American Presidency:
While Yale Law has been secure in its place at the top of law school rankings, Harvard Law School remains the pinnacle for most people outside the legal profession . . . [I]mmortalized in movies from "The Firm" to "Paper Chase" . . . [the Harvard name on one’s resume] gains instant credibility and respect. Nevertheless, there is far more to attending the world's most famous law school than the unlimited career prospects and grueling academics it is reputed to command-although it is undeniable that the greatest benefit of attending Harvard Law School is the multitude of choices that any graduate has at his disposal. Regardless of whether one wants to be a judicial clerk, a law school professor, or work at one of the top 100 law firms anywhere the nation, Harvard Law School opens all doors [and so does Yale]. TOP LAW SCHOOLS
What about Al Gore’s Legal Education?
Does Al Gore have the kind of education that we would expect of an American President? According to the Boston Globe,
Gore's undergraduate transcript from Harvard is riddled with C's, including a C-minus in introductory economics, a D in one science course, and a C-plus in another. "In his sophomore year at Harvard," the [Washington] Post reported, "Gore's grades were lower than any semester recorded on Bush's transcript from Yale." Moreover, Gore's graduate school record - consistently glossed over by the press - is nothing short of shameful. In 1971, Gore enrolled in Vanderbilt Divinity School where, according to Bill Turque, author of "Inventing Al Gore," he received F's in five of the eight classes he took over the course of three semesters. Not surprisingly, Gore did not receive a degree from the divinity school. Nor did Gore graduate from Vanderbilt Law School, where he enrolled for a brief time and received his fair share of C's. THE BOSTON GLOBE
Two Washington Post reporters released loads of academic information about Al Gore, concluding that the vice president "was often an underachiever" (verbal: 625; math: 730). SALON
In "An Inconvenient Truth", Gore says that his mother sat him down at the dinner table and read Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring to him, impressing upon him the importance of appreciating the natural environment. He says in "An Inconvenient Truth",
Since my childhood summers on my family farm in Tennessee, when I first learned from my father about taking care of the land, I have been deeply interested in learning about the threats to the environment." [See "An Inconvenient Truth", Introduction]
Gore also says that Professor Roger Revelle at Harvard inspired in Gore a profound and enduring lifetime commitment to the science of climate change. But, when he was a student at Harvard University, "Gore's lowest grade of D came in a natural sciences course." FOCUS Gore had an unimpressive undergraduate record at Harvard University, receiving a "C" in political science, for example. INSIDE POLITICS
Should the educational records of unqualified white male candidates for employment be ignored in order to achieve rigid gender and skin-color quotas, giving lesser qualified whites an advantage over Blacks and women in the Presidential hiring process? In 2008, if the contest comes down to Senators Obama, Clinton and Vice President Gore, then the only way to perpetuate the 43 consecutive-term exclusively white hegemonic monopoly on the Presidency will be to ignore the educational qualifications of the candidate and select a white man who is less qualified.
But Al Gore Graduated from Law School, Right?
Vanderbilt University’s website includes Al Gore’s mother on a list of distinguished graduates, but does not include Al Gore on the same list. Al Gore attended but did not graduate from law school at all. WIKIPEDIA: VANDERBILT LAW SCHOOL ANSWERS.COM GORE BIO As a result, Al Gore never passed the Bar of any state, and never practiced law at a top law firm or small law firm or anywhere else.
Unlike Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, Al Gore has never taught at the University of Arkansas Law School or at University of Michigan Law School, nor even at the University of the Philippines Law School. Al Gore never even passed the Bar Exam because, after leaving law school without a degree, he was not even eligible to sit for the Bar.
Corrections
Published: March 19, 2000
Because of an editing error, a chart last Sunday with an article about Gov. George W. Bush of Texas and Vice President Al Gore misstated Mr. Gore's law school background. He attended Vanderbilt from 1974 to 1976 but did not graduate. THE NEW YORK TIMES
Does it Matter that Al Gore NEVER GRADUATED FROM LAW SCHOOL AT ALL?
Gore dropped out of law school and nearly failed his college science courses, in spite of his professed lifelong interest in the science of climate change. If Gore did not do so poorly because of lack of motivation, (and he certainly did not fail for lack of family money and support), and if the fact that his mother had graduated from the same school did not give him a lift, then did Al Gore fail because he simply was not as smart as the other students, students like Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama?
But, does it matter in the year 2006 that Al Gore failed to graduate from law school three decades ago? I think it does. Because after having failed to graduate from law, he able to immediately become a US Congressman principally because his father was a US Senator and Gore came from a wealthy family and, above all, Gore is a white man.
As a white man, Gore could become Vice President even after failing to graduate from law school. Meanwhile, his supporters often imply that woman and Black candidates who graduated from law school at the top of their classes lack the qualifications of Gore, who never graduated at all.
These are the "Mental Gymnastics of the White Male Supremacy Paradigm".
One Internet message board discussion addresses the question:
Jimbo
05-23-2002, 08:29 PM
Originally posted by winkwilliams
Remember, it's not merit that matter it's who your daddy knows!
That's very true! Look at Al Gore, whose daddy was Tennessee Senator Albert P. Gore, Sr.
SNIP
In 1971 Gore enrolled at Vanderbilt Divinity School as a graduate student and received 5 F's out of 8 courses during 3 semesters. (Gore never did not receive a degree from the school - he dropped out).
Contrary to what many people have been led to believe, Al Gore did not graduate from Vanderbilt Law School, where he enrolled for a brief time and again received his fair share of C's. (Yet when introduced by PBS news anchor Gwen Ifill as a "graduate of Vanderbilt Law School" Mr.Gore failed to point this out - he never lets a little thing like the truth stand in his way).
Of course with such outstanding academic achievements, you can understand why Gore hesitated to include little honesty in his failed presidential campaign. SITCOMS ONLINE
If, after all you have learned about Al Gore, you still believe that he has a formal education equal to or better than that of Senator Clinton and Obama, then you are a white male supremacist. You hold the belief that white males – no matter how often they fail - are still more qualified than Blacks and women, no matter how much they succeed.
In his provocative and stimulating book, The Price of Admission, [Daniel] Golden makes a powerful case that the number of well-to-do whites given preference to highly selective colleges dwarfs that of minorities benefiting from affirmative action. He follows this central theme in a wide-ranging series of case studies of systematic preference for the wealthy, the privileged and the famous, as well as legacies, faculty children and -- most innovatively -- athletes in such patrician sports as rowing, horseback riding, fencing and even polo.
A tough investigative reporter, Golden does not hesitate to name names -- not only of specific institutions (including Harvard, Duke, Brown, Notre Dame, the University of Virginia, Princeton, Stanford and Amherst) and administrators, but also of individual students (including the sons of Al Gore and Sen. Bill Frist) whom he deems to be beneficiaries of preferences for the privileged. The result is a disturbing exposé of the influence that wealth and power still exert on admission to the nation's most prestigious universities. BARNES AND NOBLE
Obviously Al Gore has not succeeded in the American political system because he was the best. Instead, his male gender and white skin-color have helped him to succeed politically ahead of others in spite of his being academically among the very worst. White male supremacy is the conviction that white men are necessarily more qualified than others, even when they have achieved less than others.
Graduation from Harvard and Yale open all doors, unless you are Black or a woman running for President. If your are Black or a woman, your graduation from Harvard or Yale, even at the top of your class, is summarily discounted in America so that white men from wealthy families and with lesser qualifications can be given special preferences to make up for their failure to succeed academically in spite of their advantaged backgrounds.
In Grutter v. Bollinger, a 2003 US Supreme Court case, a white student argued to the US Supreme Court that she had been discriminated against by the University of Michigan Law School when the law school ignored the fact that she had better grades and tests scores than some of the minorities who were admitted. The case turned on the question of whether it was permissible to consider other important factors such as the diversity of the law class and the admission of historically disadvantaged students when making admissions decisions?
The Supreme Court struggled mightily with the question, but ultimately decided that, in making admissions decisions, it is permissible to consider diversity goals and promote access for students who have been historically discriminated against. CORNELL.EDU FIND ARTICLES
In 2008, the voters will be faced with a very different question when selecting their President. The issue raised will be, "Should voters disregard the superior qualifications of the minority women candidates in order to make the Presidency less diverse than it would be otherwise. Should white men with inferior educational backgrounds be given special consideration in order to preserve the 43-consecutive term exclusively white male monopoly of the American Presidency?
Who benefits most when we ignore the most basic qualifications such as educational attainment that are expected of a candidate while making our decisions based on entirely subjective and inherently un-measurable factors? The only way to elect Al Gore President in 2008 is to reach past the woman and Black man who worked hard and graduated from America’s best law schools while selecting a lesser man who tried and failed, and who never graduated from law school at all.
According to the US Supreme Court.
All government racial classifications must be analyzed by a reviewing court under strict scrutiny. Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Peña, 515 U.S. 200, 227. But not all such uses are invalidated by strict scrutiny. Race-based action necessary to further a compelling governmental interest does not violate the Equal Protection Clause so long as it is narrowly tailored to further that interest. E.g., Shaw v. Hunt, 517 U.S. 899, 908. Context matters when reviewing such action. See Gomillion v. Lightfoot, 364 U.S. 339, 343—344. Not every decision influenced by race is equally objectionable, and strict scrutiny is designed to provide a framework for carefully examining the importance and the sincerity of the government’s reasons for using race in a particular context. CORNELL.EDU
I worked damned hard for my law school diploma, just as Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama did. My mother cashed out her retirement annuities and paid my rent and books. Unlike Al Gore, Hillary, Barack and I went to school in northern states where we often had to walk or drive through snow to reach or classes and pass our tests. My car often got stuck in the Boston snow, but I somehow finished law school anyhow. Al Gore went to law school in a state where it almost never snows. Why couldn't he finish his coursework like the rest of us did?
Why is it that Al Gore, from a wealth white family and with a mother who was an alumni from the same law school that Gore attended, was not able to graduate from law school? And why should Al Gore now go to the front of the line?
Now let's look at the educational attainments of the other white men who claim they are qualified to be President, and compare these attainments to those of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator Barack Obama:
US Senator Joseph Biden
US Senator Joseph Biden graduated from Syracuse University College of Law, J.D. 1968. BIDEN'S SENATE BIO The magazine has ranked Syracuse about the same over the past six years. During this time, SU never ranked higher than 87th (which it did in 2001) and never dropped lower than the third tier, which is theoretically the 100th-150th best schools, but U.S. News & World Report only ranks them as a group, not individually. THE DAILY ORANGE
General Wesley Clark
Wesley Clark is a graduate of West Point, and was awarded a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University where he earned a Masters Degree in Economics. WIKIPEDIA: WESLEY CLARK
Ex-Senator John Edwards
Ex-US Senator John Edwards graduated from North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law. SOURCEWATCH US News and World Reports currently considers this university to be the 27th best university in the United States. http://www.usnews.com/...
Governor Tom Vilsack
Governor Tom Vilsack of Iowa received a bachelor's degree from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York in 1972, and received a law degree from Albany Law School in 1975. VILSACK BIO The Albany Law School is a "tier three" law school that is not even among the top 100 best law schools in America. US NEWS RANKINGS US NEWS REPORTS
Governor Bill Richardson
Governor Bill Richardson earned a bachelor’s Degree from Tufts University and then added a master's degree from Tufts' famed Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. WIKIPEDIA: BILL RICHARDSON