Freaky Friday
When it comes to core issues, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are Donny and Marie. She's a little more country and he's a little more rock 'n' roll, but they're both singing the same song. Their differences come down to personality, experience, and phenotype. Personality makes subtle shifts from state to state and experience can be exaggerated, but no matter what the candidates do they can't alter their observable physical characteristics. As Bill Clinton once said of his wife, "I can't make her younger ... taller ... male."
But I can.
Here's a brief exploration of how the candidates' resumes, and our reactions to them, might change if they'd been born in each other's skins.
If Barack Obama Were White and Female ...
• When he was growing up, no one would have questioned that his mother was his mother.
• He wouldn't have been the first female editor-in-chief of the Harvard Law Review. Susan Estrich smashed through that glass ceiling in 1977--13 years before Obama became the journal's first black editor.
• It wouldn't be as big a deal that he "passed up a job on Wall Street," since the wage gap means that women earn only 77 percent of what men make.
• He'd be slammed as a bad mother for spending month after month on the campaign trail while his two young daughters are left at home.
• He'd get a lot more criticism for wearing the same suit over and over again.
• Reverend Wright would not have been his pastor, since the Trinity Church's website asserts, "We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black."
• He would have shaved a couple years off his real age instead of adding them, as he did in the recent debate when he implied that he was 48. (He's really 46.)
• It would have been even cooler that he sunk that three-pointer on camera in South Carolina.
If Hillary Clinton Were Black and Male ...
• She never would have been admitted to Wellesley College.
• She would have been charged with flagrant sexism for elbowing Westchester politician Nita Lowey out of the race for Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan's seat, back in 1999.
• Celine Dion's "You and I" would never, ever have been selected as her official campaign song.
• Wearing those bright yellow suits would really make her look like Chelsea's pimp.
• Misting up in New Hampshire and mewling, "I just don't want to see us fall backwards," probably would have cost her votes, not gained them.
• She and Bill Clinton would be on the "down low."
• In 1994, she might have pressured her presidential spouse to intervene during the Rwandan genocide that took an estimated 800,000 innocent lives.
• According to Geraldine Ferraro, she'd be lucky.
This post was originally published at vanityfair.com, where Scovell writes regularly
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
If Hillary were a black male, she'd be Al Sharpton.
If Obama were a white female, he'd still be unique.
JP
Ouch. I'd go with Harold Ford, Jr. A fine candidate but still lost.
Spot on man Spot On
Mccain was unique in 2000 and got jobbed by Bush and his own party. Now out of desperate ambition and the realization he's out of time Mccain has been forced to flip and is no longer unique as a Republican let alone relative to Obama.
Hillary could have been everything Obama is now and probably even more had she had the guts, foresight, and timing. 2004 should have been and could have been her year. If John Kerry barely lost than Hillary surely would have won. She could have simultaneously corrected her mistake on Iraq and silenced her detracters by coming out and admitting Iraq was wrong and the country needed new leadership to finish the job.
It's a matter of message, persona, and most importantly timing. Barack Obama has got them all right now. Not four years ago and not four years from now but right now.
People can condemn Wright for saying things he said but remember, while we judge the black people, we didn't live through segregation, lynching, slavery,..
Robin, you obviously don't know what a loop is because that's what they did to some things that Rev. Wright said.....h
I think you should start with finding out the whole truth then fight racism....
Obama gets it. He is unusual, visionary. He understands that our only hope is the middle class coming together, regardless of our differences. But he faces an uphill battle. The old politics of division and hate, the politics that have gotten us into this intractable situation where nothing is being done, is still admired by the vast majority of Americans; the idea that you fight for what you want and you smash your adversary.
And that works, and it has worked for the last seven years . . . but it hasn't worked. What happens is that you eventually destroy each other, and this is happening as we slowly destroy our country. It began simply enough with a few pundits using conflict, dissention and division in order to get TV and radio ratings, but now the hate is everywhere, even on our highways where we are becoming a country of road rage haters, not much different from the terrorists that we are supposedly fighting.
Obama understands all of this. And if we are middle class Americans, and we don't understand who we are, then we may vote the way we did last time. When all we have left is our ideology; no home, no job, no food, then the reality of who we really are, which is a middle class American, will become evident. It is almost evident now, enough for middle class Americans to find their identity, and see who the culprits really are — who really runs congress.
Yes. Imagine Hillary had spent the last 20 years attending a church that claims to be "Unashamedly White." Imagine that her pastor repeatedly made comments that were anti-Black and anti-American. Imagine Hillary made negative comments about typical Blacks. Her career would be over. Everyone would agree we don't need a racist in the White House. Yet Obama has attended a racist, anti-AMerican church for 20 years. He has said that his white grandmother “is a typical white person. If she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know - there's a reaction in her that's been bred into our experiences that don't go away and sometimes come out in the wrong way and that's just the nature of race in our society.” He has said that small town folk have antipathy to those different than them. Why should we tolerate racism in a black candidate more than we would a white candidate? We should fight racism wherever we find it.
Robin... I hope you are able to think through how ignorant it is to call a black candidate for president of the US racist. In fact, it is pathological-- what shrinks call "projection".
--Hillary has been a member of a church which has been unashamedly white for 2,000 years-- and condoned slavery for 90% of that time.
--Barack meant to defend his grandma by saying she is an "ordinary" white person--"Typical" was a poor choice of words because it is a buzz-word for people, but like anybody she has racial preconceptions-- you clearly do.
--The vilification of immigrants has been engineered by GOP as cover for economic policies which hurt working class whites. If you dont see or understand that, you need to read more about it.
- The comments of Rev. Wright were addressed to the Governmnet of the US, not the poeple. And I challenge you to disprove a single thing he said.
-- You can hide behind your charge of "reverse racism" (nonsensical because racism implies a power advantage) or you can open your mind and join the young and progressive minded people who are hungry for a better nation and are backing Obama and defending him against backward, fearful, ignorant baiters like yourself.
--why cant we all get along?
So, you're saying that Trinity is racist, because of those two brief excerpts from a sermon? I would agree if there was multiple examples, especially considering that Pastor Wright did 3 sermons every Sunday! You'd think there would be more examples of his hate speeches floating around YouTube. I guess its just a stereotype that white women have crossed the street when they saw a black man approaching them? It's the same look that older white people give when they see an interracial couple. But I guess that's imaginary too. And small town folks aren't distrusting of people different from them? Its human nature to be suspicious of things different from us, so it seems that the things he said had validity. If you think Obama's a racist, then you must think America is full of racists. Then again you don't seem to be very objective, so I'm not surprised!
First off, I wholeheartedly agree that we should fight racism wherever we find it. The problem is that the point of view that you are arguing refuses to acknowledge the historical framework that race has in this country. To illustrate this point, there is nothing inherently wrong with "unashamedly" embracing your identity. Currently the homosexual community will tell you that they are "unashamedly" gay, not because they hate straight people, but because they are underscoring the fact that they embrace who they are. The reason that even saying "unashamedly white" is taboo in this country is becuase the history of that sentiment. There is nothing wrong with me feeling prideful of my heritage (which is European); the reason why it is viewed so skeptically is because of the violent history of those who cloaked their violent hatred of blacks with the terms "white pride" and "white power". I respect your dedication to fight rascism wherever you find it, but please do us a favor and instead of having knee-jerk reactions every time a racial category is mentioned try cooly taking comments in context.
You mean like "The Family" prayer group she attends?
First off, Rev. Wright and Trinity weren't and aren't racist.
Secondly, I think you're confusing superficial symmetry for true equality.
Loading comments…
Posted April 18, 2008 | 01:30 PM (EST)