There is a difference...

I have a problem with America not learning from, nor paying attention to, history. Truthfully, I have a problem with women acting like racism and sexism is ok, because they don't seem to know or recall history...

Right now, I'm not happy with the Clinton campaign. Specifically in this instance - for this blog - it is the fact that they are using race as a means to defeat Obama. It is something that has been happening for a while (go on - google stuff... see Bill Clinton, Ed Rendell, Robert Johnson, and now Geraldine Ferraro... I will not go into details. I think you all, as readers of this blog understand what I am talking about. If you don't, please, google, seriously).

I find it shameful that I, as a woman in the year 2008, am seeing sisters using the fact that they are women as a way to fight a black man for the democratic nomination. Not shameful, actually embarrassing, to tell you the truth.

This is not what Elizabeth Cady Stanton (originally: abolitionist) wanted, Nor Susan B. Anthony (originally: temperance) ... oh, and yes... Even Lucretia Mott (originally: quaker) . I could go on with a lot more of our sisters who fought fiercely to 'regain' our DESERVED rights to be where we are today. (these rights should never had to have been fought for... love you guys, but seriously... this country has had some issues... )

These were OUR suffragettes. They fought, they got arrested, they protested in the streets. Woman wanted to be considered people, NOT property. We wanted the right to vote. The right to OWN property... The right to have a banking account of our own. The right to not give up everything that was theirs because they got married. The right to an education. The right to get paid for a days work. The right to work. The right to leave an abusive husband and not lose everything... including our children. The list goes on. Most importantly, they wanted the right to be equal. They did this not just for themselves but for their children and and, eventually, for ALL women, and when I say women, you have to understand, that was not exclusive. The hope was truly that equality would spill forth. Equality would have no sex or colour or race.

Yes, this is what our fore-sisters fought for. EQUALITY. It was a pretty big deal at the time. We have the luxury of taking it for granted.... or do we?

Guess what? We are as women doing pretty well. We have to do a lot better, and the fight DOES still go on, but we are doing ok. Not great, but ok... ;)

Why am I pissed? I never wanted our sisters to think that they are doing so well that it would become ok to put down our black brothers. Suffrage was about EQUALITY. NOT dominance.

The Clinton campaign, no - Hillary Clinton, seems to want to neglect that fact. I, as a female, as a woman who considers herself a feminist and and Equalist, I find this very disturbing. I hold her responsible ultimately. I hold anyone who is running for office as the person responsible for how the campaign is run, ESPECIALLY for the highest office in the land.

Where am I going? Not where you may think. Do you know a man named Frederick Douglass? Among MANY things, He was actually a candidate for Vice president. Victoria Woodhall was at the top of the ticket... Another thing for you to google...

He was fond of saying: "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong."

Yes. that meant he did not care if you were a woman or a man, black or white, Native Amercan, he did not care... oh yes, btw, he was a slave. He wanted equality, just as did our sisters in the suffrage movement. HE fought hard for suffrage, and he fought hard for abolition.

I would venture to say that if alive today, Federick and Elizabeth would both be ashamed at the what Hillary Clinton is allowing to be done in her name. I am sad to say that if informed of our suffragette history, she would not 'get it'.

I am not asking woman to take a seat in the back of the bus. I know that blacks achieved the right to vote before women. I know that history. We as women STILL ended out on top... to the shame of this nation. Did we as women suffer thru Jim Crow? Did we as women need the civil rights act? As women -- no we did not.

We are doing quite well, although we still have serious equality issues. We should NEVER allow ANY Democratic candidate to use RACE to try to win an election. And seriously, to my fellow sisters, we should never allow this to be done in our name.

I am asking that her campaign stop and look at our sisters who made history without demeaning our black brothers (and in turn, any minority or group that suffers injustice at the hands of our government or fellow citizens) it is easy to forget the abolitionist and suffrage movements. It is. ESPECIALLY when we as women have gained so damn much.

What women like Stanton, Anthony, Mott, Tubman, Bloomer, Stone, and MANY others did, took grace, class and hubris, and it was not done without dissent (many factions split and some relations never got mended). But, the reality is this, Elizabeth never put down Frederick because of his color, which was, at the time, truly considered a *class* of people. Women were a class as well, and we both had sub classes... (I will not go into detail about what the definition of people were at the time. it is not a pretty definition).

We have a chance to go forward in this nation where we don't have to make a choice between color or sex. This is what Frederick and Elizabeth gave to us. They did not run against each other, granted, but he was a great supporter of the suffrage movement, and she was a supporter of abolitionists.

I personally think that Obama get's that *idea*. Perhaps not in the context of the history that I tried to present, But, IMO, Senator Clinton does not get it. Senator Obama has not used his race, but she HAS used her sex. And truthfully, as a woman, I don't think we should have to use our sex to show that we are better for the office of president. We should not use our sex period, unless we want to get laid... (Come on, I needed to get a joke in eventually)

Here is the bottom line:
.... Is it acceptable for Senator Clinton to fight this fight using race against her opponent while using her sex as a reason to propel herself?

If this is the case, if sex trumps race, Elizabeth Cady Stanton is crying, and Frederick Douglas is consoling her. And quite honestly, if it were the other way around, I think Elizabeth would be consoling Frederick. But right now, it isn't the other way around.

And, sadly if this is true, we have truly forgotten everything Suffrage was all about. March is Women's History Month. Let's celebrate. Not tear down.

See y'all inside.

:peace: and
Raine