Why would a little tiny Obama supporter be doing that? Because he feels like it, and he's also going to stop referring to himself in the second person.
To deny that sexism exists in the Democratic race is utterly foolish. Sure, many will say that sexism benefits Clinton because she's a woman and more women vote than men(usually anywhere from 55-45 to nearly 60-40). Granted, she does benefit at times from being a woman. That's undeniable. At the same time, Obama benefits from not being a woman. That's undeniable. There are some who will choose identity over all else, no matter what their skin color is and no matter what their gender is. It's a fact. So should we just say "get over it?" Should we say, "of all the women that could become the first, it has to be this one?"
No, not necessarily. We can agree to disagree on who we individually think will best serve this nation. We can throw out accusations of racism and playing of the race card, just as we can throw around accusations of sexism and the gender card. Certainly, some will. Some always do. It happens. It happens even more frequently when we become as committed to our candidates as many of us, on both sides, have. That doesn't make you a cultist- you need an altar dedicated to the candidate to be one. However, the more we identify with our candidate, the more we allow our perspective to change.
Many of us Obama supporters saw some shenanigans. Real or imagined, we believe we saw them. Many Clinton supporters feel the same way- shenanigans towards their candidate. Real or imagined, they feel like they saw them. Shenanigans. Prejudices. It's nothing we should be surprised about. We should have expected this. Yet we are all, on both sides, so quick to watch out for it. We are so afraid that our candidates will be destroyed by intolerance and hatred. We are so offended when we see things we despise used against those we are committed to and those we are fighting for.
Us Obama supporters need to admit that sometimes, even our candidate can choose his words poorly. Just like Clinton and her campaign have in the past. Just like EVERYONE has. He's not perfect, just as he says. None of us are. We can strive to achieve perfection, but we can't be so arrogant as to think that we'll ever have it. We may see perfection, in our own perspective, but we'll never live it. A perfect world would be one that lacked both racism and sexism. But you know what? That will never happen.
Someone says "shuck and jive," and someone's alarm bells may be going off. Someone says "periodically when she's feeling down," and someone's alarm bells may be going off. We all know where that leads. If we expect our Democratic candidates to be able to do what they've been doing for over a year without slip-ups, then we're truly crazed. I don't think Clinton is a racist. I don't think Obama is a sexist. I don't think Clinton is a David Duke and I don't think Obama is a George Wallace. What I do think is that we are raised to be sexist.
Many here are familiar with the term "gender roles." Self-explanatory. Our upbringings can be a little similar or world's apart- like, say, from Venus to Mars. Our perspectives are vastly different. Just as many of my fellow white Americans think racism is hardly around anymore, there are also those of my fellow white Americans that know racism is still very much alive. We can see it in the disparity between arrests of whites and blacks and browns. We can see it in conviction rates, incarcerations, at a cab stand in some big city. Some of us are also smart enough to see the disparity between the pay that men and women receive for the same job.
I don't know why exactly I felt like writing about this today. Maybe it was from an idle chit chat with my twin sister. I suppose my perspective on this is a lot different from many- that is the advantage of having a member of the opposite sex as my closest relative. Someone that I've known since the womb. Someone that I was told to protect when we were younger, even though she's pretty goddamn tough. Trust me, I learned the hard way. So again, I suppose I see things a little differently than most. I saw the difference in upbringing right up close. You know instantly when your twin is being treated differently than you are.
I'm also the son of a Jewish father and an Armenian mother. I was taught that above all else, there is no room in life for being prejudiced. None.
To close, let me remind everyone that the 24th of this month is the day to remember the Armenian Genocide. I expect there to be at least one or two great diaries from this talented bunch.