Blacks versus Women, again

<![CDATA[The Week two weeks ago featured a picture of the White House with a “No Girls Allowed” sign in front, bemoaning Hillary Clinton’s demise as the Democratic Party Candidate. The text read, “Was It Sexism?” My first thought was, “If it had been Obama rejected, it would have read “Was It Racism?” and the sign would have said “Whites Only”.

The pitting of women against AfricanAmericans is not a new thing. As the Civil War was drawing to a close, arguments occurred over whether or not freed slaves should be given the right to vote. Many white, middle class women had been fighting for the vote for a long time, and making headlines since the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention. Why should uneducated freedmen get the vote, and not educated, intelligent women? They would have to wait over 50 years to be able to vote nationally for President.

At the time, there were several arguments against giving women the right to vote. One claimed that, marriage being the staunch tradition it was, wives would only vote the same as their husbands. Another claimed that, female biology and psychology being what it was, women’s votes would be emotionally-based rather than reasoned. The overall perception of women was similar to the view we have of children today: they are to be protected because they are not full adults yet. No one would think of allowing a 10-year-old to vote, not matter how well-read and intelligent that child is. (Except me, as it turns out. I was very frustrated by being unable to vote since I was 11 years old, when I first started working on political campaigns. I know several children who are more versed on the issues than many adults I could name.)

The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1870, forbade infringing upon the right to vote on the basis of race, color, or having been a slave. Certainly freedmen were not welcomed at the polls in many places, and the KKK and other organizations infringed upon that right through intimidation. But this amendment had little affect on females. The Fourteenth Amendment, however, did: it said that all people born/naturalilzed in the U.S. were citizens who could not be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process. In some states, married women could not own property — was this not a violation? In 1872, suffragists brought cases to court to show that voting was a right or privilege (as the Amendment put it) of citizens, and therefore they should be able to vote. A UMKC law page gives a brief summary of the fight to the Nineteenth Amendment.

Given the history, it is not surprising that there should have been resentment on both sides of the Democratic Party campaign, and that accusations of sexism and racism would appear. It’s important to keep in mind that, as with the Fifteenth Amendment’s right to vote, laws do not dictate how people feel. There will be any number of Americans who do not want a black (or worse, half-black) President, just as there are any number who did not want a woman. There will be some who, despite a candidate’s positions on important issues, cannot vote for someone who personifies something to which they object, even if that objection is not conscious. And it will be, I fear, more Americans than one might think. I’ve heard a great many people saying how far we’ve come, and while that’s true, old resentments and habits of hatred or suspicion do not simply disappear.]]>