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Hillary's Scarlett O'Hara Act

By Melissa Harris-Lacewell | TheRoot.com

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Hillary's Scarlett O'Hara Act

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  • Posted By:
    jrogers527 at 06/17/2008 11:06:07 AM
    Comment:
    Thank you for your astute observations about the role of Black women in the campaign. I am so tired of white women's ignorance and insensitivity to the ways they oppress us as they exercise their entitlement to the privileges of whiteness. I used to have more respect for Hillary but after that gutter campaign, I can no longer look to her in a positive way. To me, she she has damaged the perceptions of women as leaders.
  • Posted By:
    natelaw8 at 06/13/2008 3:16:36 PM
    Comment:
    You hit the nail on the head. I am so happy that you wrote this article. And it is right on time!!!!Like Chris Rock sez What are you "@iTches waiting for?
  • Posted By:
    truthtopower at 06/10/2008 5:08:26 PM
    Comment:
    Brilliant! Insightful! Honest! Why can't we get more serious, critical analysis like this from our media! Thank you for a well-reasoned and articulated piece. I can't wait to forward it.
  • Posted By:
    What The... at 04/23/2008 5:43:17 PM
    Comment:
    thank you. A Black OPINION. Im tired of these White reporters speaking on Black Issues within this election. Should have been paying attention to have a better arguement on tv.

    I have noticed, the only Black women I see supporting Hillary.....resemble and act like Mammy.
    (....sorry just call it like I see it.)
  • Posted By:
    AprilLynn at 04/22/2008 2:38:06 AM
    Comment:
    Melissa,

    This is one of the most amazing blogs/articles/testimonies I've ever had the pleasure to read. You've hit the nail right on the head with this one and I am copy/pasting it to all of my friends, family and strangers... both white and black! Your analysis of our disdain of HRC and the wrongful assumptions that have somehow attached itself to our cause was incredibly saavy and poignant. I can't begin to thank you for it!
  • Posted By:
    kiki666 at 04/08/2008 12:46:30 AM
    Comment:
    LoveTruth said it best: ...I will never vote for her based on identity politics....because i cannot identify with her.'

    That's in a nutshell..The cries of sisterhood from white women will continue fall on deaf ears because white women have wielded the power of whiteness FOR hundreds of years longer than they've asserted their "solidarity" with other women.

    Sorry ladies, you simply have NOT earned our trust.
  • Posted By:
    teacher1 at 03/10/2008 1:17:11 AM
    Comment:
    The silence is deafening! Our silence as a community...the African American community raged When the Clintons compared Obama's victories with Jesse Jackson, yet the most vile racism came from Hillary on 60 minutes where she left doubts about whether he was a muslim, when her compaign floated photos of him in traditional Kenyan dresss, or when she insuates McCain would be a better president. All the while, many prominent African Americans walk along side her as she STEPS on his humany and by default all of us!
  • Posted By:
    teacher1 at 03/10/2008 1:12:16 AM
    Comment:
    Why are we silent in the face of the outright use of race and fear by Hillary Clinton on 60 minutes, in leaking a photo of Barak O'bama in traditional dress, in implying he has only given a speech? Do we hate ourselves so deeply that we would rather walk along side her as she STEPS on him and by default all of us?
  • Posted By:
    DoubleGoddessGemini at 02/29/2008 1:31:36 PM
    Comment:
    Melissa Harris-Lacewell's consise articulation leaves me quite comfortable to simply say: "Tell it and AMEN!" Thank you Melissa Harris-Lacewell.
  • Posted By:
    LoveTruth at 02/26/2008 6:56:54 PM
    Comment:
    I am the writer of the next three comments. head down about three comments and read it backwards. I apologize, I posted it backwards and was unable to put it all in one or edit it. I had a lot to say.
  • Posted By:
    LoveTruth at 02/26/2008 6:47:47 PM
    Comment:
    I'm have written the all three comments below, however I passed it backwards and am unable to edit it. So scroll down about three comments and read it backwards. I had a lot to say.
  • Posted By:
    LoveTruth at 02/26/2008 6:44:51 PM
    Comment:
    On the other hand, I dont believe identity politics should be the basis of anyone's decision to vote for any candidate. Obama's is not the basis for my support. I praise the African Americans who vote for Hillary because they believe in her and i praise the women who vote for Obama because they believe in him-neither should have to face name-calling and feeling as if they are denying their own identity. However when i hear the media's distortions of black women as having two choices-between a women and African American, when I read Gloria Steneim's piece in the NYTimes and when I was taken to task by various people for not supporting a women and sisterhood and blah blah, I became weary, felt that i needed to speak up and refuse to have my voice supressed as the voices of many of my sisters have been for too long.

    Thank you my sister, Melissa Harris-Lacewell
  • Posted By:
    LoveTruth at 02/26/2008 6:44:35 PM
    Comment:
    I will give hillary clinton, the credit where due however she would not be where she is if she was not linked to white male patriarchy. This is not Hillary Clinton's fault, it is a result of our racist, sexist and classist society. Hillary could work as hard as possible but it was her connection to white male patriarchy that has allowed her to get the respect and recognition that she is getting. if she was just Hillary Rodham? it would have been a different story. Now can you imagine a woman who is not connected to white male patriarchy? A women of color who's male counterparts have been denied the very liberties and opportunities that this country promised in almost every living document. the Scarlett o'hara effect is the idea of black women playing a supportive and even inferior role to that of white women because of white privellege. This is something that cannot be denied and it is the history of our race relations. Scarlett O' Hara was merely a metaphor. During All waves of feminism, white women have been suppressive of black women and women of color. They wanted us to drop our true experiences and realities and our racial identity to side with their agenda. My only disagreement with Lacewell was her choice of movie. While I understand the correlation that she is trying to prove, I would have chosen Imitation of Life!!! The connections are much more stark, modern and easy to understand without much thought. When white feminists were fighting for respect and recognition in the workplace, black women were the reason that was possible. They stayed in their supportive roles and took care of the children and the household so that they can enter the workplace. White women possess a social mobility that black women do not. I would like to shout out to Hillary Clinton, where was the sisterhood when you supported your husband and betrayed Marian Edelman Wright (Children's Defense Fund) when your husband implemented welfare reform that effected the poorest children in this country and their disenfranchised mothers. Anyway, for these reasons and many more, black women know that Hillary Clinton is not a "liberating symbol". Our "glass ceiling' is much, much, much higher. Michelle Obama is more of a liberating symbol.

    Lacewell is not racist she is simply trying to discuss the reasoning why many black women would not vote for Hillary Clinton based on identity politics. Many would vote for Clinton for her years of public service, intelligence and plan for America. Hillary Clinton is my junior senator. I do, like her despite the fact I completely despise the way she has ran her campaign.

  • Posted By:
    LoveTruth at 02/26/2008 6:43:38 PM
    Comment:
    Let me begin by saying that melissa Harris-Lacewell is no stranger of Barack Obama. She too is from Chicago and even worshiped with him at Trinity United where they use their faith to uplift the black community. I thought I should throw that out there.

    I am no stranger to this type of discourse. I find that many are oblivious of the history and plight of black women in America. They dont understand intersectionality. they are unaware of the relationship of black women and white women in America and they dont understand black feminist theory.

    For the sake of many who dont know the importance of history, lacewell should have probably put it into a more 'modern' perspective. She chose to do it from an historical perspective in order show how deeply ingrained it is. As an American studies and Anthropology major and black feminist, I understood what she was talking about.

    Lacewell was not calling Clinton a racist or Scarlet O' Hara nor was she call black women who are Hillary supporters, "mammies". Lacewell was taking us back into time in order to understand why some black women cannot identify with Hillary Clinton. When a middle aged white woman scolded me for not supporting hillary because I was a female, when the media distorted the identies and motives of black women when they claimed we had two choices (a women or a black man), when I read gloris Steneim's op-ed piece in the nYtimes, when i heard oprah being called a race traitor, when a white female in a lecture class told me that i was a women and i needed to "start acting like one!", when i read this message board, when I met a firing squad when i brought up black women, feminism and identity politics, I realized that people, in general, are very confused about the identies, experience and activism of black women. They aren't to be blamed. How will one know anything about a group of people whose thoughts and identities have been and still is being suppressed. In my commentary, I never however excused black men and Lacewell pointed this out. Black men have also played a suppressive role in this.

    The point is that black women face a double jeopardy, being black and being female. Many also face class issues. This is called "intersectionality" where gender, race and in many cases, class, have worked together to mold a unique experience for women of color. i am also speaking to latino, asian, arab american women etc... i read a great piece by an Arab american feminist who speaks about the ways in which white women and white feminists in particular have worked to suppress them and distort their realities and experiences. she despises it.

  • Posted By:
    ghostgirl at 02/22/2008 10:04:36 AM
    Comment:
    So if, according to you, black women who support Obama are doing so because they no longer want to "play mammy" to Hillary, then I suppose, that given their race and gender, the reason why they are supporting Obama is because they desire to be his concubine? Your flimsy assertions are ridiculous, and this latest ranting, diatribe is a tired, laughable attempt to cement your status as a black, wannabe Ann Coulter (emphasis on wannabe), but unlike you, Coulter substantiates her arguments, however inflamatory or controversial. So you might want to step your game up and take notes.
  • Posted By:
    Susan at 02/21/2008 7:14:31 PM
    Comment:
    As a feminist, I've had to ask myself why I'm not in Hillary's corner. The answer is two-fold. As an American, I need what Obama has to give to our World, not just to the U.S. I want to believe again as I did when JFK was president. And #2, Hillary's decision as a US senator chipped away respect I had for her in her days before she married Bil Clinton. She chose ultra-conservative mentors in the Senate and followed their led numerous times, allying herself with Bush to the point she did not read the 90+ page (for top-secret eyes only) report that denied weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. This is a non-thinking position and along with the way her campaign has acted results in my vote being worth more than what she has to offer. As a white woman, I will be extraordinarily proud to have my vote be a part of moving Michelle Obama into the White House. She along with her husband, I believe, will make us all very proud to be Americans...and they will succeed in bringing out in a great many of us---those actions that will bring about a better America. And, Yes We Can. Thank you Ms. Lacewell for this poignant essay.
  • Posted By:
    0108jddaniels at 02/21/2008 4:42:31 PM
    Comment:
    Crud, hit "submit" too soon. Anyway, there is a reason why the face of feminism is overwhelmingly white, and the denial in the comments section just further shows why. The only thing third wave feminism has taught me is that my opinions and voice doesn't matter if it's not in lockstep with their colorblind rhetoric - and if it doesn't fit their agenda.
  • Posted By:
    0108jddaniels at 02/21/2008 4:40:41 PM
    Comment:
    Preach it!!!!
  • Posted By:
    EO at 02/20/2008 5:22:33 PM
    Comment:
    I cannot believe that you are a professor. It is people like you that make racism still alive. The world is not about Black and White. When we vote this year it should be about who can get the job done..not what there skin color is or whether they are male or female. We as a society need to GROW UP.
    • Posted By:
      DoubleGoddessGemini at 02/29/2008 1:34:33 PM
      Comment:
      Perhaps you might want to re-read what was written in a careful unrushed manner. There is no connection between what you've understood and what was written.
  • Posted By:
    pheenix at 02/20/2008 4:18:17 PM
    Comment:
    Melissa,
    Thank you for such a thought-provoking reminder of historical reality! Whatever the charm is that Obama has going is very spiritual and powerful. When it comes to politics, it always seems like risky business to me. Metaphorically speaking, one places the most chips on the bet that seems to offer the best odds and then hopes and prays that it was the best choice. I thank God we have a choice in this country...and I choose Obama!

    We can all: "Be the change you want to see in the world."- Mahatma Gandhi
  • Posted By:
    wulung3 at 02/20/2008 2:27:58 PM
    Comment:
    I think your historical analysis is correct with [some] white women's complicitness thoughout history. However the comparison between Hillary and privelaged white women in this context is an over simplification. Just like the analysis made on race trumping gender with black women. I'm a Barrak supporter but I think Hillary should be judge based on her [personal] record and character not in a historical context of what she might represent.
  • Posted By:
    Lale at 02/17/2008 5:16:02 PM
    Comment:
    "Throughout history, privileged white women, attached at the hip to their husband's power and influence, have been complicit in black women's oppression."

    It's an interesting take. I recently read an article discussing how, in power couples, the woman usually gets the short end of the stick--her merits are never though of as great as the man's, and are usually attributed solely to the fact that she is with him. This has been done from politics (Hillary and Bill Clinton) to music (Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain) I'm not discounting any of the other points made, I just think this is something to think about in the way society views women with power.
  • Posted By:
    cigars and whiskey at 02/16/2008 3:19:42 PM
    Comment:
    Please someone - send this to Maxine Waters (Dem- California) and Shelia Jackson Lee (DEM - Texas) They are surely kidding themselves about why they are supporting Obama
  • Posted By:
    cigars and whiskey at 02/16/2008 3:18:13 PM
    Comment:
    I agree wholeheartedly - someone please send this to Shelia jackson lee, Congresswoman Texas and Maxine Waters- Congresswoman - California - they need to wake up
    • Posted By:
      wulung3 at 02/20/2008 2:35:57 PM
      Comment:
      I'm a Barrak supporter but if Sheila Jackson Lee choses to support Hillary it's because she's knows her and believes she will do a good job at President. She's judging Hillary on her character not on some academic's historical ananlysis of what she feels when she looks at Hillary.
  • Posted By:
    thefloacist at 02/14/2008 6:05:31 PM
    Comment:
    Stop with the separatism. Black feminist, white feminist..? Is there an Asian feminist too? It is all feminism, and feminism is about supporting women's rights (and you don't have to be a woman to do that either) not women supporting women on their own culture. That kind of negates the whole POINT, and blocks your possible open mind of thinking because your brain is so consumed with race.

    I'm not much for Hillary, but I'd appreciate it if people were to stop denying her experience by crediting her husband. I dislike simplified reasoning on anyone's character, regardless of who it is. While I do think the 'experience' tagline is flawed, give credit when its due. Read her biography (and Obama's for that matter) before you judge.

    And to the person who had the nerve to say they 'we' as in black women are 'black first, women second' will fail at life if she identifies herself that way. I am a human being first. Theres no such thing as 'race'. There is no 'race' in opur DNA; not the race you're thinking of, anyway. The race is actually Homo sapiens, and than comes in gender, that is all. Black Caucasian Asian East Asian Native American Pasific Islander is all nonsense, really. We're so accostumed to it that we actually refer them to as 'races'. We are all human beings regardless of our appearance.

    That whole 'Hillary crying thing' is so overblown. I saw the video; she wasn't even crying! There was no propaganda on her part, just mass media exaggeration and hype; which no candidate can control - and that should not be blamed upon. She can't win either way. If she shows no emotion, shes a no-nonsense playing robot. If she does, she is not strong enough to lead this country and weak because of her gender. Make up your mind.

    Last, but not least, stop with the 'African American women/men' or AA anything speak. Its not fair, because not every black person is African American. Think of it as assuming an Asian person is Chinese, when there are Koreans, Filipinos, Japanese, etc.
    • Posted By:
      LoveTruth at 02/26/2008 2:37:24 PM
      Comment:
      Yes, there is various groups with the umbrella of feminism because their experiences are different .There are Asain feminists/feminism, Arab American feminism, Latino/Chicana feminism etc...I read a great article by an Arab American feminist who talked about how ignorant white women were of her experiences, culture and religion. She said that they misrepresent her and people like herself but expect us fight next to them on their agenda. Sorry to break it to you but a person's race and culture drastically changes their experience!! I'm neither black nor female first!! I am an individual who is a black female who's identity politics is different from that of a white woman and....a black man.

      What Melissa Harris Lacewell is responding to is the fact that many black women are being called gender traitors for not supporting Hillary. Many in the media and from what i'm hearing in discourse around the place is that people dont ubderstand the historical relationship between black and white women. They don't understand the concept of intersectionality. Go read about Black Feminist Theory.

      Of course, race is a social construction. However it is a reality in today's age. So I wouldn't say what you are saying.

      Hillary Clinton deserves her credit where due but I will never give her the 35!! Its 35 years of participation, volunteeering and public service which is wonderful. However I dislike how she also only counts Obama's years in the U.S. Senate. People need to give him credit where do.

      I enjoyed her essay and I think that it speaks to the history of the relationship between white and black women. With this history and my experience, I cannot fall for Hillary on the basis of sisterhood. As for Obama as a black man whose experiences are different from mine because of it. I cannot fall for him solely on the basis of race. I am looking at whether or not, they have the right vision for America.
  • Posted By:
    Yappa at 02/14/2008 10:41:51 AM
    Comment:
    If you really care about the issues in your last paragraph, why don't you talk about them in terms of the differences between Barack and Hillary? Both candidates are equally resolved to solve those problems, but Hillary is more qualified to deal with them and has better proposals for how to deal with them.

    You imply that Hillary is a racist who is complicit in oppressing black women, but you provide no evidence or argument to back up your assertion. It seems that to you, just being white condemns her.

    This article is so mind-bogglingly nasty, unfair, illogical and racist that I don't know what else to say.
  • Posted By:
    jeremyajenkins at 02/14/2008 10:38:50 AM
    Comment:
    It is unbelievable to me that they let you teach at Princeton
    University. Your sick racial fantasy about being a "Mammy" if you vote
    for Clinton is disgusting. Welcome to the post-racial generation,
    where no one cares that you are a black woman. Obama's mother is
    white, so does voting for him make you a half-Mammy?
    • Posted By:
      LoveTruth at 02/26/2008 3:09:18 PM
      Comment:
      She isnt saying that Hillary is at all racist. You are implying that. What is mind-boggling is the many people who do not understand the history of the relations between black and white women. Melissa only scratched the surface giving us an idea of the history. She is talking about Hillary's white privillege. A privillege that people like Gloria Steneim forgot about when she wrote her op-ed in the NYTimes. The media in general seems to be completeley oblivious to the societa relationship between women of various cultures and races. She is responding to this call of sisterhood that we all keep hearing. I was called a gender traitor for not supporting Hillary. One women even told me that it is women like Hillary who will breakdown barriers for me. I made sure to tell her (a middle age white woman) that hillary will be breaking down no barriers for me for many reasons. I would be foolish for vote for hillary based on this "false' call for sisterhood. I will vote for if i like her vision, if i like her approach to politics, if i like her ideas and if i like what she has done (legislation, record, what she has fought for etc). Hillary is my junior senator, I think she has done a fine job. I like hillary clinton but i will never vote for her based on identity politics....because i cannot identify with her.
  • Posted By:
    jeremyajenkins at 02/14/2008 9:27:37 AM
    Comment:
    It is unbelievable to me that they let you teach at Princeton University. Your sick racial fantasy about being a "Mammy" if you vote for Clinton is disgusting. Welcome to the post-racial generation, where no one cares that you are a black woman. Obama's mother is white, so does voting for him make you a half-Mammy?
    • Posted By:
      sugar_n_spice at 02/22/2008 9:54:05 AM
      Comment:
      The author has serious issues. I've concluded that a long time ago. It's a travesty to even compare Hillary's actions to those of Scarlett O'Hara!
  • Posted By:
    yeswecan08 at 02/14/2008 12:20:36 AM
    Comment:
    this essay is terribly underresearched and utterly disappointing.
  • Posted By:
    msnikki2469 at 02/13/2008 10:55:04 PM
    Comment:
    Hmmmm...I don't see the connection with Scarlett, but I do believe that the "Clinton Machine" took all African-American votes for granted. Hillary Clinton has my respect, no doubt, but she does not engage me or make me "believe" that she believes we can really change this country. Also, I had never heard about this "memorial to Mammies"....that is pitiful.
  • Posted By:
    xxnoy at 02/13/2008 7:26:41 PM
    Comment:
    Can we be racist now? Wow. Mammy? I haven't heard that for years.

    If black women will recall, they weren't given the vote along with the black man. It was the white woman who froze on the sidewalk, committed to hunger strikes, and endured force-feedings and beatings at the hands of men. The white woman gave us all our rights. You weren't abandoned while she stepped ahead. Thanks for abandoning her when she wanted to take us all a step further, sister.

    The black man wasn't the one to uplift you, and he wont be this time either.
    • Posted By:
      DoubleGoddessGemini at 02/29/2008 1:40:38 PM
      Comment:
      Those freezing white women were no more freezing for your right to vote than thomas jefferson was writing about the rights of Sally Hemmings -his white wife's half sister. Check your history. The only organized group of black women who marched with those sufferagettes were from Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and that's because when they registered no one among those freezing white women realized those women were BLACK. If you think hillary respects blacks -female or male- when she dismisses the struggles of black folks for civil rights by crediting lyndon banes johnson with authoring the social change or when she declares "i ain't no 'wize' 'tarred'" in a black church then you deserve the ignorance you have steeped yourself in.
    • Posted By:
      robinson.tamara at 02/14/2008 10:30:42 AM
      Comment:
      Please do a little more research in your assertion of the role of women's suffrage and the struggle for the African American vote. Many prominent white suffragists were against the right to vote for black men AND women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony had speaking tours funded by known racists, and both resorted to using racist language at times. They definitely weren't trying to uplift us.
  • Posted By:
    xxnoy at 02/13/2008 7:22:56 PM
    Comment:
    Can we be racist now? Wow. Mammy? I haven't heard that for years.

    If black women will recall, they didn't get the vote along with the black man. They didn't get the vote until the white woman froze on the sidewalk, committed to hunger strikes, and endured force-feedings and beatings at the hands of men.

    We didn't abandon you to your own fight. Thanks for abandoning us, sister.
  • Posted By:
    alyceclover at 02/13/2008 7:08:56 PM
    Comment:
    My thought's are that if the Clinton's were not a bit snobbish, they would stop thinking about Obama as being black (he is Irish/American, is he not) and making comments about "the black vote" as if African/Americans are of a singular mind. It may have been my imagination, but I hear patronizing and condescending tones in Hillary's voice as well as the way she looks at Obama. As a feminist she should be giving Michelle some respect for her accomplishments, because truly Michelle had a rougher road to success than Hillary in obtaining degrees and high paying careers. Hillary does not consider Iraqi females to be humans either. I think the analogy is appropriate.
  • Posted By:
    jrrice at 02/13/2008 1:54:54 PM
    Comment:
    lol Whut?
  • Posted By:
    Choicetobe at 02/13/2008 12:45:08 PM
    Comment:
    Oh, my goodness, I do not know where to start in responding. I think Melissa Harris-Lacewell???s last paragraph, if you replace Black Women with Americans, could sum up why ???some??? support Obama and not Hillary ??? choice. The rest of her rhetoric should be sifted and the not so desirable dumped ??? especially the Scarlett and Mammy references. Folks are playing the race card. Folks are playing the gender card. Is it not time folks play the intellectual card? Ms. Harris-Lacewell, along with those who agree with her article and those who believe that women should support Hillary because she is a woman or Obama because he is black, are the poison in America. As a Black Woman who initially supported Congressman David Kucinich, Ms. Harris-Lacewell and others have failed to place at the pinnacle of their list that, perhaps, the support of some Black Women is not with Hillary because those Black Women reviewed and analyzed information on candidates and made an intelligent choice for whom they felt to be the best candidate. There is a failure to acknowledge that as Black Women, we have been making decisions ??? some very tough decisions ??? for such a long time that we have evolved to this placed where our decisions are based on what we perceive to be the best choice for the issue at hand.
  • Posted By:
    karla.s10 at 02/13/2008 11:44:58 AM
    Comment:
    Comments from a southern white woman: I completely agree with your appraisal of Hillary, and if I were a democrat, I would vote for Obama. However, my favorite choice would have been Condoleeza. However, coming from the south and actually talking to many old people who lived with relatives who remembered the years after the war, some of your facts are not exactly wrong, but not the whole story. There were families that treated their servants well and loved them as part of the family, as were there blacks who didn't want to leave their families. Of course, this does NOT wipe away the fact that there were just as many or more who exploited them. But the Mammy is NOT a myth...it's just not the whole story and shouldn't be the way we define slavery. But, in agreement with the comment below, we must stop pushing the stereotypes of race forward when we've all been trying to overcome them. I'm a 40-something that wasn't exactly "blended" in our peer groups with blacks at school, but they were my lifelong schoolmates and friends, that now have grown to be my peers and friends of choice in many ways. So, from a real, live, small southern community: "We dont' have a problem loving our black brothers and sistsers, actually being color blind...we're often getting along just fine, and all the race dialouge and sensationalism really can be divisive, but is often just plain unnecesary any more.
  • Posted By:
    tiny1949 at 02/13/2008 11:30:07 AM
    Comment:
    Melissa, having researched the candidates background,voting records, and the issues pertaining to Africain American's, I simply will say that Hillary Clinton hasn't been in "our struggle"! she can't identify w/unemployment,undereducated and all other ills pervasive in African American communities.I am a "baby-boomer),and concur with you entirely!
  • Posted By:
    blackeducator at 02/13/2008 11:10:56 AM
    Comment:
    GREAT!!
  • Posted By:
    blackeducator at 02/13/2008 10:55:11 AM
    Comment:
    Melissa:
    Thank you for your insightful historical analysis. You expressed my sentiments 100%.
    Dr. Mealy
    CUNY Adjunct
  • Posted By:
    blackeducator at 02/13/2008 10:53:28 AM
    Comment:
    Thank you Melissa:
    You could not have expressed my sentiments any better.
    Professor Rosemari Mealy
    CUNY Adjunct
  • Posted By:
    ThadT at 02/12/2008 10:02:45 PM
    Comment:
    Please remember that if Obama is elected, he will be the first Keynan American President. His history is not my history. He knows where his grandparents are buried and maybe even his great grandparents because they were 1- not from America, 2 they were on the white side of American History. They were not involved in Selma or Birmingham, unless they were on the wrong side of the bridge or holding the dogs. You see I am an African American American. When I think of going home, I think of Columbus, Georgia, not Kenya or Hawaii. Obama has not suffered as we have over generations. He is the first generation Africian American. His Father came over either on the airplane or the cruise ship, not the slave ship. This is why he is no threat to white Americans. He does not understand the pain of slavery in his past. He does not hold them accountable.
    Thad Turner
    • Posted By:
      LoveTruth at 02/26/2008 3:16:32 PM
      Comment:
      One word...offensive!!! my family is from the Caribbean. They identify with the black American experience because they know their history and have to face discrimination. I am very weary of the xenophobia that exists. Remember that you are just an aspect of the African diaspora and all the people our black persuasion around the world...is opressed. Barack was born in the United States. He has done for black people in this country more than many of their 'own' would do for them. Barack knows how it feels to be a black man in America because....he is a black man in a America.

      has fought against discrimination
  • Posted By:
    emery_r at 02/12/2008 9:55:13 PM
    Comment:
    Several comments already posted essentially say what I want to say -- that this is a shallow, unconvincing and self-contradictory screed. The final paragaph is a total embarrassment -- one could substitute the word "white" for the word "black" (in front the repeated word "women") -- or omit black or white ENTIRELY -- and have a paragraph that's equally true. In fact, WHO (with any sense) doesn't want/need/expect to get out of the war under the next President, and to have health insurance, decent schools and proper care for aging parents? Tremendously weak essay, Dr. Harris-Lacewell.
  • Posted By:
    obamaswhitemother at 02/12/2008 9:11:58 PM
    Comment:
    Ms.Lacewell LOOKS A LOT MORE LIKE SCARLETT O'HARA THAN the mammy figure in the background. That's why she has to over-compensate with "blackness". Just like Obama!
    • Posted By:
      LoveTruth at 02/26/2008 3:18:56 PM
      Comment:
      Wow!! You are ignorant. so how do black people look? And just so you know...alot of black people in this country have white blood!!! And alot of white people have black blood. you are ignorant.
  • Posted By:
    obamaswhitemother at 02/12/2008 9:07:40 PM
    Comment:
    You're a MULATTO YOURSELF, MS.LACEWELL. Are you half-white (and ashamed of your white family), or like, from one of those long lines of yellow/mixed people THAT OWNED SLAVES AT HIGHER RATES THAN WHITE PEOPLE back in the antebellum south. Yeah, blacks who owned black slaves. Or more like mulattos.

    OVER-COMPENSATING A BIT FOR YOUR LIGHT SKIN-TONE, HUH?
    You look white in your picture!
  • Posted By:
    obamaswhitemother at 02/12/2008 8:51:26 PM
    Comment:
    Still stuck on the plantation/slavemaster act, huh? 90% OF WHITE AMERICANS ARE NOT DESCENDED FROM SLAVE-OWNERS. 500,000 white men died in the civil war 200 years ago to free black slaves. MEANWHILE, AFRICA STILL HAS BLACK ON BLACK SLAVERY.

    SHAME, SHAME ON YOUR RACIAL GRIEVANCE PIMPING!

    GO SUE THE AFRICANS AND ARABS WHO SOLD YOUR ANCESTORS INTO SLAVERY FOR REPARATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • Posted By:
    obamaswhitemother at 02/12/2008 8:49:33 PM
    Comment:
    SHOCKINGLY not very post-racial. I guess this should be expected, seeing as how this is a special "blacks-only", segregated, black racist publication. Shockingly DIPPED IN RACIAL GRIEVANCE.

    SATURDAY night live did a great skit about people like you, who bring everything back to the "plantation" and slave-masters.
    AFRICANS AND ARABS SOLD YOUR ANCESTORS INTO SLAVERY. Go ask them for a reparation. Pathetic.
  • Posted By:
    veralynn at 02/12/2008 8:48:02 PM
    Comment:
    Brilliant!!!Absolutely brilliant!! As a southern white woman who is for Obama, they don't understand my motives either. I never would have thought of the Mammy angle, probably because I never liked "Gone with the Wind", but again, brilliant!!

    Myra
    Concord, NC
  • Posted By:
    justaskinman at 02/12/2008 8:22:47 PM
    Comment:
    In HRC I see another image from African American history--the Anglo-American, Christian, northern liberals who spent over 100 years linking the bible to emancipation, changing people's minds before the Aboliton movement reached critical mass.

    Using Ms. Harris-Lacewell's logic, white voters would be justified in voting for HRC because BHO reminds them of that black kid who got in to a better college because of affirmative action... and black voters would be justified in not voting at all, because BHO is half white [slaveowner].
  • Posted By:
    justaskinman at 02/12/2008 8:13:39 PM
    Comment:
    What a hateful, racist screed. When you compare a woman to slaveholder simply because she's white... you are a racist. You have become what you hate most.

    People don't like HRC for the same reason that I don't like this article: America hates second wave feminism and black militancy. For good reason and with slower, more meaningful results, feminism took a hard turn away from oppression politics and embraced motherhood. In the slanderous attacks on Bill Clinton's comments about LBJ and MLK, what was left unsaid is that Malcolm X accomplished NOTHING but selling T shirts. Obama is transformative, not least because he has risen above oppression politics. I won't spend too much time on this comment, because frankly, Ms. Harris-Lacewell is not worth the energy.

    In a way, I am relieved to see that Princetonian arrogance is not the exclusive domain of European Americans.
  • Posted By:
    yanone at 02/12/2008 7:46:59 PM
    Comment:
    Do sister believe that Barak can deliver just because he's half African-American? Where in his "yes, we can" campaign slogan do you see that?
    Which part of his "Change" slogan promised anything more material than just that? Change what?

  • Posted By:
    Vermeer at 02/12/2008 7:40:06 PM
    Comment:
    Where to begin with this misshapen mess of agitprop? So I'm now to believe that the woman who famously insulted Southern women by slandering Tammy Wynette and 'Stand By Your Man' country; the same woman who was viewed as a carpetbagger when she ran for a New York Senate seat; the same individual who wrote, It Takes a Village, is now the embodiment of Scarlett O'Hara. Professor Lacewell spends an inordinate amount of time writing what appear to be articles of political analysis that have no basis in reality except in her supercharged literary imagination. If you want Obama for president just state that fact but don't write some overbaked Mammy analogy piece to justify that he's your choice. If you want readers to come to this site to discuss the merits of the choice between Obama and Clinton and the racial and feminist implications of that, fine. But please don't insult our intelligence with this sort of drivel. The idea that Hillary is using this 'Mammy' trope, consciously or otherwise, as some signifier to the electorate is beyond absurd. The electorate is clearly volatile and the Democratic Party has seen fit to roll the dice on both of these candidates. It's frankly ridiculous that this election might actually be close but when I read articles that serve to perpetuate these sort of absurd dichotomies, I fear the results for the republic in November.
  • Posted By:
    MissSpell at 02/12/2008 7:08:23 PM
    Comment:
    Also, seriously, how in the world could this have been written by someone who is a professor at Princeton U? It makes me weep. My 8th grade paper on WWII was better researched than this.
    • Posted By:
      obamaswhitemother at 02/12/2008 9:09:31 PM
      Comment:
      Affirmative-action, that's how!!!!!!!!!! Lower standards, and special rewards for blacks, and, in this case, mulattos/biracial people!

      I told Ms. Lacewell how white she looks. And how blacks owned slaves in the ante-bellum south!
      • Posted By:
        LoveTruth at 02/26/2008 3:21:19 PM
        Comment:
        you are hateful and ignorant. white woman are the ones who benefit the MOST from affirmative action.
  • Posted By:
    MissSpell at 02/12/2008 6:44:10 PM
    Comment:
    I couldn't think of a weaker comparison, nor of a more attention seeking article than this (other than whatever Ann Coulter has ever written). Melissa Lacewell, YOU are the one throwing the stereotypes out there. You give both us, and true democrats a bad name. This sounds like a stunt that Rush Limbaugh would pull. I'm an Obama supporter, and this just makes me upset.

    People, please don't waste your time actually listening to Ms. Lacewell, she's really just another Ann Coulter. Do we really need these type of people spewing hate and sensationalism?
  • Posted By:
    bradyap at 02/12/2008 6:39:38 PM
    Comment:
    The article doesn't address the title. How is Hillary acting like Scarlett? Furthermore, black women are not monolithic. Melissa Harris-Lacewell needs to reconsider her position and stop thinking she can speak for millions. NOBODY voted for her. And I'm rooting for Obama!
  • Posted By:
    bradyap at 02/12/2008 6:37:55 PM
    Comment:
    The article doesn't address the title. How is Hillary acting like Scarlett? Furthermore, black women are not a monolithic. Melissa Harris-Lacewell needs to reconsider her position and stop thinking she can speak for millions. NOBODY voted for her. And I'm rooting for Obama!
  • Posted By:
    SurinT at 02/12/2008 6:11:24 PM
    Comment:
    Oh dear. There is an excellent refutation to this pitiful excuse for political commentary on http://tiny.cc/Y2uAP

    Hillary's work on Head Start, the Kinship Caregiver Support Act, and Universal Health Care all give her credibility in her stance of helping minorities. This article is inflammatory, poorly researched, and reads like a college freshman's exaggerated op-ed.

    Ms. Harris-Lacewell has certainly made me question one woman's competence -- her own.
  • Posted By:
    lisat at 02/12/2008 6:04:51 PM
    Comment:
    At last a thoughtful representation of the Clinton candidacy - for women of any race. I am a 47 year old woman who worked hard at my career for a very long time - I don't consider Hillary Clinton a "feminist" or a person who had to work hard to achieve influence or power. I don't consider her to have more than 8 years of experience as a public figure. I would much rather vote for an experienced candidate who has worked to a position in public life (state and federal politics, in Obama's case) than a woman whose principle experience is being the wife of someone. I can't understand why other women don't find this weakness in Hillary Clinton. Vote for the person's record - whoever you are - PLEASE!
    • Posted By:
      democrats08 at 02/12/2008 7:39:01 PM
      Comment:
      Uh - Hillary has been U.S. Senator for New York State for two terms now. That's her experience, not merely "being the wife of someone." She has been active in politics far longer than your boy Obama. You are obviously so biased in favor of Obama that you have to resort to blatant lies. That's telling - you can't support him with real facts.
      • Posted By:
        LoveTruth at 02/26/2008 3:22:37 PM
        Comment:
        No Obama has been in elected office since 1997
  • Posted By:
    v61693 at 02/12/2008 5:55:00 PM
    Comment:
    This is yet another naive article with a twist. Mrs Clinton did not invent, nor does she subscribe to, the Mammy Myth. She was born into her skin just like the rest of us were born into theirs. That includes Obama. If black women look at Hillary and think Scarlet O'hara, it is not due to anything she did or failed to do;rather it is the result of their feelings about the complex history of their nation. Obama has not done a single thing or offered a single idea that can help to change the "status" of black womenor that of their thinking. Their attraction to him, if I may be crass, is based on emotional impulses. He represents all that black women ever dream of and want to have as a husband, a father, a role model.. He is successful, attractive, faithful to his wife, a responsible provider, has an education a AND he is a brother... a very rare phenomenon in a large swath of our communities today. Black women can finally find a male figure to love and hold from within their own race.. White women support Hillary for similar reasons: by breaking the glass ceiling, she represents HOPE..
    SO in my humble opinion it is not so much about Hillary representing Scarlett as much as Barack standing in for a black Rex or Brett or whatever Scarlett's beau's name was..
  • Posted By:
    rladso at 02/12/2008 5:45:30 PM
    Comment:
    This article is inflammatory and prejudiced. Hillary doesn't deserve this. I'm a Barack Obama supporter, and I'm African American, and as a black person living in America I shoulder a heavy load. Like Sisyphus, I???ve spent a lifetime rolling the boulder of racism up the hill, only to have it roll back down the mountain of history. That is not, however, because of Hillary. She has been a friend to black people, and she has tried to be part of the solution, and not part of the problem. I realize in a race like this it's easy to be cynical. One might be tempted to reach into the recesses of history and draw the most hurtful and painful comparisons.

    But perhaps a better approach is to recognize that this contest, between these two great Americans, is a contest in which all Americans - black men and women, white men and women, and men and women of all races, colors and creeds - can be proud. Instead of demonizing and demeaning the candidates, perhaps it is more fitting to celebrate their courage and their sacrifice.

    Running for office is not easy. It takes more than most people are willing to give. And yet these candidates care enough to spill their time, energy, blood, and treasure on the political battlefield for the entire world to see. These two great competitors are making their last political stand, and only one will emerge the victor. It is fitting to salute them for their honor and their courage, not demean them. They are fighting the good fight, and they deserve, if not victory, at the very least our greatest measure of respect.
  • Posted By:
    bsltiger15 at 02/12/2008 5:32:36 PM
    Comment:
    What a ridiculous assertion that Hillary's (hard-earned) 'privilege' relegates her to being unfit for the vote of a black person. She didn't choose to be white any more than Barack chose to be (half) black. She also made her own way in life and was successful in business and in law before she even met Bill Clinton. You play the hand you're dealt in life and to somehow connect slavery with voting for Hillary is absolutely ludicrous. Obviously your distaste for anyone white in power trumps your good judgment. I almost regret my vote for Obama now as I fear that it will just give people like you a 'mandate' to play the race card should he win (or lose). And this from an Associate Professor at Princeton? I hope you don't get tenure.
  • Posted By:
    edgar05 at 02/12/2008 5:32:04 PM
    Comment:
    Huh? Your thesis is a non sequitur. As near as I can make out, you are asserting two things: 1) Hilary is like Scarlett O'Hara and 2) the role of the Mammy has been used by Southern white women (eg Scarlett O'Hara) to demean black women. You give tons of supporting evidence for the second theory, but NONE for the first. If you're going to accuse people of racism, back that assertion up with actual evidence, rather than touchy feely "Her tears are not moving" vaguenesses. PS. You actually teach at Princeton? Good lord.
  • Posted By:
    bsltiger15 at 02/12/2008 5:30:40 PM
    Comment:
    What a ridiculous assertion that Hillary's (hard-earned) 'privilege' relegates her to being unfit for the vote of a black person. She didn't choose to be white any more than Barack chose to be (half) black. She also made her own way in life and was successful in business and in law before she even met Bill Clinton. You play the hand you're dealt in life and to somehow connect slavery with voting for Hillary is absolutely ludicrous. Obviously your distaste for anyone white in power trumps your good judgment. I almost regret my vote for Obama now as I fear that it will just give people like you a 'mandate' to play the race card. And this from an Associate Professor at Princeton? I hope you don't get tenure.
  • Posted By:
    katrinav at 02/12/2008 5:15:34 PM
    Comment:
    You are infuriating, and YOU seem to be the racist one. Clinton's policies on giving money to HeadStart and social security benefits to families of public service have been well documented, including her lobbying for universal health care. What about the Kinship Caregiver Support Act..."more than half of Black coresident grandparents were responsible for their grandchildren." (2000 census) Do your research, or stick to Princeton.
  • Posted By:
    kreicken at 02/12/2008 5:10:22 PM
    Comment:
    This article is opaque and visionless. The author makes no connection, whatsoever, between 'Mammyism' and any specific act on the part of Clinton. Her weighty sin in to be both 'privileged' and white, and thus undeserving of black votes, a priori.
  • Posted By:
    rladso at 02/12/2008 5:01:00 PM
    Comment:
    I'm a Barack Obama supporter, and I'm African American, but I have to say this article was harsh and unfair to Hillary. Perhaps it's more constructive to confine your arguments to the facts and the issues, instead of reaching into the recesses of history to find the most inflamatory and divisive comparisons imaginable.
  • Posted By:
    Madame Defarge at 02/12/2008 3:51:14 PM
    Comment:
    What exactly was it that Hillary did for African American women (or Latinas for that matter) while she was in the Senate? There must be something, but nothing pops out. Was she more outspoken than Ted Kennedy, on women's rights? Did she make speeches, and stump for minorities and women's issues?

    My memory may be a bit hazy, but I don't think so.

    • Posted By:
      LoveTruth at 02/26/2008 3:29:42 PM
      Comment:
      she is my junior senator. I like her and admire her but i refuse to hold her on a pedestal like i would with anyone else. She has spoke about issues that can relate to minorities and women. That is what I recollect. What she has done is mostly universal like exapnding healthcare and hospitals etc.. she came through for our city on 9/11 etc.. She attended this conference that i was present at and what i found to be alwarming was her constant talk about BLACK MEN. Interesting. She worked with an all balck male school in NYC, she spoke for 100 Black men, she went to the conference "Black Male; endangered species' where she lied about her husband's aiding in making black men an endangered species etc... I havent really seen her set up about black female issues the way i would like. As a woman, i thought she would try and speak about issues that effect black women. if i am wrong may someone correct me, but from what i recollect....no.
  • Posted By:
    SLynnT at 02/12/2008 2:26:53 PM
    Comment:
    As a white woman, I was deeply impressed by this article. I have found Hillary's campaign to be condescending and opportunistic in its use of identity politics all around. I don't believe that a Hillary Clinton presidency would be good for any women: white or black. The only interests she really cares about are her own.
  • Posted By:
    lil mini at 02/12/2008 1:39:07 PM
    Comment:
    thank you for your insightful articile, well stated and much needed, i just don't understand why black women are torn, we are black people first then women, our loyality should be with Obama, most blackss are so brained washed to chose white over black its sickening, obama will be a great president, and I know he will look out for our best interest, much better than clinton who only wants our vote, you "mammy black women who support hillary, you're just wasting your vote.GET READY YOU CAN'T STOP PROGRESS,what will you tell your grandchildren when you had a chance to complete "the dream" you chose to stay on the plantation rather than to chose progress? don't you want them to read about the first black president that you helped put in the white house? VOTE OBAMA FOR OUR CHILDREN BORN AND YET UNBORN.
  • Posted By:
    jim doug at 02/12/2008 1:31:58 PM
    Comment:
    thank you for your insightful article. as a member of the white community i am keenly interested in the thoughts and opinions of my fellow americans in the afro-am community. your comments are very helpful to me in understanding the time and place in which we all live.
  • Posted By:
    democrats08 at 02/12/2008 1:16:43 PM
    Comment:
    What on earth are you rambling on about? This "Mammy" obsession of yours has absolutely nothing to do with Hillary Clinton. Obviously you have swallowed the Obama hype - well, here's a newsflash - he will do less for you, if elected, than Hillary. Hillary has the interests of the whole country - including the working poor - at heart. Obama does not. Example - only Hillary is proposing mandatory universal health care coverage for all. Obama is not - under his healthcare plan, there will still be gaps, namely the same working poor who lack coverage right now.
    I'm so sorry you have got sucked in by Obama's cheap rhetoric. I suggest you research your candidates and their platform's before writing such inflammatory and racially charged bullsh*t.