Regardless of who we're supporting in the Democratic Primary, I think most of us can agree that this has been an extremely unique and interesting process, not just becaue we've been given two extremely competent candidates, but also because of the deep look at American society and the media that this campaign has exposed.
To me, one of the most interesting things is the by product between of having an African-American and a Woman running for president - an extended look at racism and sexism in our society.
To compare the two directly, I think that sexism is more widespread in our society (and is unfortunately considered acceptable in some circumstances), but racism continues to be a greater problem, partially because of the total lack of vocabulary to describe racism.
While many terms describe racism, the only ones I hear commonly used are racism and reverse racism. Together, they imply that only whites can commit racism, while non-whites can commit reverse racism. Not only are they are both just racism, neither encompasses the wide gradient of behaviors that we call racism - everything from assuming all Asians are good at Math to anti-immigration sentiment towards Latinos and all the way to some of the horrible acts committed towards blacks in the last several centuries.
Sexism, on the other hand, is rarely presented as "Sexism" or "Sexist". We describe sexism with specific terms like chauvanism, sexual harrasment, pay discrimination, or spousal abuse. Those are all negative terms, but we also have neutral terms - like traditionalism (expecting your spouse to assume a more traditional role in the family), and even positive terms, like chivalry. Thus, we rarely call someone a sexist. Depending on what type of sexism they've engaged in, we're more likely to describe them as an "asshole" or "backwards".
None of this is to say that sexism doesn't exist or is less of a problem than racism (most women still don't report sexual harassment in the work place), but I think it does show that we as a society are more mature and more thick-skinned about these issues. We can see them in their greater context. As such, not only can describe what specific types of sexism indicate about society, but we're also able to attribute personality traits on to the people who commit specifc acts of sexism. The benefit of this is that by identifying a more specific problem, we're able to tailor the solution and identify the seriousness/equivalent of the act - not only with our judgement, but with the language that we use to describe it to others.
On the other hand, when we just use the word racist to describe an act, we abandon the benefits of specifics in the language we use. But, much like sexism, there are many different types of racism and many specific acts that constitute racism. Also like sexism, not all of them are equivalent. I think this lack of language to describe racism has increasingly made our society thin-skinned about issues of race, because of the equivalency we draw when we call someone a racist, regardless of what they've done.
(Some) forms of racism
• Institutional Racism / Discrimination
• Hate
• Xenophobia
• Prejudice
• Ignorance
• Intolerance
• Stereotyping
• Situational Racism
The last one, I believe, is an important one. An example, I was trying to cross the street the other day, and a car didn't yield at the crosswalk. I flipped the driver off. They yelled "You F--kin Cracker!" as they drove away. Simiarly, a friend's father worked and lived around black people most his life, but come Sunday any black person who dropped the football was a "n--ger" or "k-ke" or "that f-ckhead Samoan (Junior Seau)". His problem was anger management. I think these things are terribly inappropriate, but they lack any clear intention, other than using racism to express a wider point, often mistakenly.
To apply this to the Democratic primary, I think that the residents of W. Virginia and Kentucky are generally prejiduced towards non-whites. They probably watch movies and sports with non-whites in them, but they would be deeply uncomfortable with a non-white moving into their neighborhood or dating their daughter. Most of them would probably assist a non-white in need of help, and even fewer would go out of their way to be rude. This is a very important distinction to make, between prejudice and racism. Racism, as used in our society, describes a person or a community - as a whole. prejudice describes a (significant) personality or community flaw. Passing judgement vs. criticizing a serious flaw is a big step towards overcoming the backwards attitudes these people have. They would never describe themselves as racist, and if they did, they would point to the reverse racism of non-whites. They would, however, probably agree with the statement that they were prejudiced.
Racism has been an accusation sometimes leveled at critics of Senator Obama, and while I do think that the Appalachians voters do display a type of racism, I think the racism charge leveled against President Clinton was overblown. His true motive was to downplay Obama's victory, which he would've done no matter if Obama was black or white. The manner he chose to do it was more representative of bad judgment than anything - and makes it a borderline example of situational racism.
To move back to sexism, I also do believe that there was quite a bit of sexism directed towards Hillary Clinton, in the form of stereotyping her as a militant lesbian or an overbearing mother-in-law. Most of this was committed earlier in the campaign (until the right-wingers flocked to her because of the fear of running against Obama). She did a great job standing up to it and pushed her personality through regardless. She should be commended for this (I'm Obama supporter, FYI).
I think the mistake that Geraldine Ferraro and other Clinton supporters made in describing the sexism, was to equivocate opposition to Senator Clinton's candidacy to this sexist stereotyping. In doing show, they abandoned the specific terminology that we use to describe sexism and instead described Obama as a sexist. Because of the extremely general nature of this term, these claims have been widely rejected, most recognizing that one does not equal the other.
One last thing I wanted to bring up was this article today in the Washington Post.
From A Different State of Race Relations:
"My first week here, one of the camera operators who was training me was asking me to teach him how to talk jive," said Tania Paxton, a TV camerawoman who arrived from back East in 1992 and found in the clear mountain air contrasts of a brightness usually seen in cartoons.
"When I travel across the state, I become this trophy," said Rodger Griffin, a human resources administrator who moved from Delaware in 1978. "People invite me to their house for dinner because they want their neighbors to see the black man."
Griffin, trained as an opera singer, came to Utah hoping to join the Tabernacle Choir but didn't cotton to being informed, upon his arrival, that he was no longer "cursed."
"I think what Utah can teach the nation is there's hope in terms of sensible race relations," said Darron Smith, a sociology professor and co-editor of "Black and Mormon." "I don't think people in Utah mean to be outlandishly racist as much as they are outlandishly naive about how race affects life."
"Naive's a good word," said Sylvia Morris, 55, the office manager at Calvary Baptist who, on visits to Los Angeles, startles black people by greeting them on the street, as she greets all fellow African Americans in Salt Lake City. "I think there are parts of Utah where children have never seen a black person."
I think this is a perfect example of something that we call racism, that is hurt by the term. Because, while it technically is racism, it's much more specifically ignorance. As such, it's much more universal. When we were Egypt two years ago, people stared at us constantly, and women kept coming up to my step-daughter (who was 9 at the time) and stroking her hair, which was a little odd - but also pretty harmless.
Thanks everybody for reading this far! I feel like I've bitten off more than I can chew with this topic, so discuss away!