WomenCo.

When a Feminist Icon Breaks Your Heart

There is a harsh reality to affirmative action and diversity initiatives: They sometimes make people of color and women uncomfortable. While many of us support affirmative action, it really is a double-edged sword.

This sword was in full view in the recent comments of Geraldine Ferraro. Well known as the first woman to run on a major party’s Presidential ticket, she has also frequently and honestly said that she knows she was picked for the vice-president spot mostly because she is a woman. That doesn’t mean that she wasn’t qualified to be VP, but the Democratic party and Walter Mondale looked around and decided (most likely due to a poll) that they needed a woman for the ticket.

The backlash against affirmative action is such that knowing you are chosen “just because” you are a woman or a person of color can be debilitating. You start to think others “know” why you got the job. You fail to remember your long list of qualifications and focus on your plumbing or your ethnicity. This is what anti-affirmative action forces want. This distracts you from noticing that someone’s frat brother was hired or that, despite other worthy candidates, a Texan is chosen to balance a Presidential ticket. Sure he’s qualified, but he will also deliver a wad of electoral votes.

Which is why I was shocked to read Ferraro’s recent comments about Barack Obama being “lucky” to be black – more precisely, a black man – and running for President. She obviously knows the pressure of being an only or a first. She also should know what comments like hers can do and what message it sends. There are already many myths about black men, we don’t need another. One myth that keeps coming up in this election, which I believe has been spoken of by Senator Obama himself, is the idea that there are more black men in prison than in college. The Rev. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite repeats this myth in Obama’s defense.

In order not to muddy this train of thought, I won’t cover other race- and gender-based comments by either campaigns. I want us to focus on Ferraro’s comments here.

Yes, I will admit it can be fun, sometimes liberating, to be the only girl on a football field. It feeds your need to be seen as not girly. You know people are watching. But it can be this glare that can break you. Ask Shannon Faulkner, the first woman to enter the Citadel. Try being the only black woman engineer at a conference. Yes, recruiters will certainly notice you, but everything you say will be scruitinzed. Far too often, a misstep will be attributed to your skin color or gender and not your lack of experience. For every Sally Ride there is a Lisa Nowak.

Unfortunately, this is why I feel that what Ferraro said may be mostly true – Obama is getting a lot of attention becuase he is a black man. Sadly, as awesome as this country is, we are amazed that a black man is this close to moving into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Hillary? Maybe since her run has been talked about since before she left the White House nearly eight years ago, we are not as much in awe.

At the end of the day, Ferraro’s comments were insenstitve and offensive. I expect more from a longtime feminist leader who I am sure has been at the receiving end of these type of comments. I’m glad that she resigned from Hillary’s campaign. Hillary has enough of an uphill battle without having her allies playing this anti-affirmative action slander game.

About the Author: Veronica I. Arreola is a professional feminist living in Chicago with her husband & Mini-Me daughter. You can read more of her rants at http://vivalafeminista.blogspot.com .

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