As difficult as it was, I resisted the initial urge to answer a Gloria Steinem column that appeared in the New York Times earlier this year that basically argued that African-Americans have had it easier than White women and that sexism is not taken as seriously as racism. I didn’t want to get into a protracted debate over which mistreated group had been mistreated the most. However, now that former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro has asserted that if Barack Obama were not a Black man, he would not be where he is now, it’s time to take off the gloves and go toe-to-toe.
For the record, neither racism nor sexism should be minimized. The first paragraph of the introduction to The Affirmative Debate, an anthology I edited, began with a quote from a report from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights: "Historically, discrimination against minorities and women was not only accepted, but was also governmentally required.
"The doctrine of white supremacy, used to support the institution of slavery, was so much part of American custom and policy that the Supreme Court of the United States in 1857 [in the Dred Scott decision] approvingly concluded that both the North and the South regarded slaves ‘as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.’"
I wrote in the next paragraph, "Women, like African-Americans and other racial minorities, were treated as less than full citizens throughout much of American history, though to a different degree. As Justice William J. Brennan observed, neither slaves nor women could hold office, serve on juries, or bring suit in their own names, and married women traditionally were denied the legal capacity to hold or convey property or to serve as legal guardians of their own children."
Clearly, both groups have been victimized by privileged White males. Therefore, it’s surprising that Steinem and Ferraro are directing their anger at African-Americans rather than at White men. In her column, Steinem complained, "Black men were given the vote a half-century before women of any race were allowed to mark a ballot [translation: even before White women], and generally have ascended to positions of power, from the military to the boardroom, before any women (with the possible exception of obedient family members in the latter)."
Even if Blacks rose to the top of the corporate ladder faster than women, they were quickly surpassed by White women. The number of Fortune 500 Black CEOs fell from seven in 2007 to five this year. Meanwhile, the number of women CEOs has increased over that same period from 10 to 12. Neither figure is sufficient. For example, if African-Americans were represented at the top of the corporate world in the same proportion they are in the population, there would be 63 Blacks CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, not five.
As a reporter who covered Ferraro’s vice presidential campaign for the Chicago Tribune and witnessing how she was stereotyped, I was surprised by her insensitive remarks about Obama. In an interview with the Daily Breeze, a Torrance, Calif, newspaper, she said: "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept."
Obama has two Ivy League degrees (from Columbia University and Harvard Law School) and to say he is where he is simply because he was "lucky" enough to be born a Black man insults his accomplishments and shows a profound ignorance about what Black men are subjected to living in this country.
If anyone is lucky, it’s Geraldine Ferraro and other White professional women who have climbed the ladder of success by riding on the backs of African-Americans. Let me be more specific: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 has been hailed as a major landmark for Blacks. And there is no question that it removed many long-standing racial barriers. What is not widely known is that the law opened as many doors for White women as it did for Blacks.
In fact, including (White) women as a protected class was proposed by Howard W. Smith, a conservative Virginia Democrat who chaired the House Rules Committee, as a ploy to defeat a bill Smith opposed. The Congressional Record noted that when Smith proposed the amendment, it was greeted with laughter. Alabama Rep. Carl Elliott, another segregationist, explained, "Smith didn’t give a damn about women’s rights…he was trying to knock off votes either then or down the line because there was always a hard core of men who didn’t favor women’s rights."
Instead of rejecting Smith’s proposal to add women as a covered class under Title VII of the bill, supporters of the proposed law, to Smith’s surprise, accepted his amendment and that is how women became a protected class under the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Instead of complaining, as Steinem did, that "gender is probably the most restricting force in American life," she should acknowledge that women wouldn’t haven’t gotten this far without riding on the back of the civil rights movement.
