Geraldine Ferraro, a trailblazer for women as the first woman on a major party national ticket (Walter Mondale’s presidential running mate in 1984), said the following about Senator Barack Obama: “If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is.”
One hardly knows where to begin in commenting on this infamously insensitive and inaccurate statement. Do I think Geraldine Ferraro is a racist? No, I do not. Do I think she radically underestimates the difficulties that African-Americans, even when highly educated and wealthy, still face every day in our society? Yes, I do.
Otherwise, she would never say what she did—and then be so uncomprehending of why it was offensive to blacks. First, no one who has lived as a black person in America for even one day would ever equate being black with being “lucky” in the sense that blackness confers preference and societal advantage. I have been educated and sensitized to this through many long discussions with black friends and colleagues over the years. They have made me aware of the many slights and indignities African-Americans face on a weekly, if not daily, basis that most whites never see because the offending whites do not behave the same way around us. For example, an African-American walks into a department store and the white security personnel follow only him or her, not any white shoppers. Or, a black graduate student notices that when he walks alone across a campus parking lot, people in the cars he passes often lock their doors—something they don’t do when he is walking with a white student or students. Or, black men find they are pulled over by police at disproportionate rates, no matter how expensive their automobile – just because they are black. How can anyone call such experiences “lucky?”
One black businesswoman, trying to explain the outrage she felt at Ferraro’s remarks, said, “You’re always dealing with race and how not to make it part of your message and how really to get people to transcend these lines . . . that’s what it is to be black. It’s to really hope that people really see you for you.”
Barack Obama has been engaged in a Herculean struggle to transcend race in his presidential campaign and to be judged for who he is as a candidate—to transcend identity politics, of race or gender.
Ferraro’s comments also signal that she may herself be a prisoner of the gender and racial identity politics of her era. Born in 1935, Ferraro seems oblivious to the post-racial culture of those under 35 in America—young people who see much hope in Barack Obama precisely because he is a brilliant candidate for national office who happens to be a black man—not a black man running for president.
Lastly, Ferraro’s comments seem to dismiss Obama as an “affirmative action hire” who is where he is only because he is black. Given the fact that he is one of the most naturally gifted and charismatic politicians to arise in the last twenty years, that is a lot like saying that Tiger Woods is where he is because he is black and that he is “very lucky” to be where he is in the PGA Tour.
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posted March 15, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Unbeschreiblich! As you know, English is a Germanic language and has the same “oomph” when it is well used. The “Tiger Wood” analogy ought to, and by rights should, convince even the lowest sot ot dolt that performance is performance……………….res ipsa loquitur. The wrapper (even Cuban cigars have wrappers from Connecticut) is irrelevant to the issue.
Dr. Land: I am a recovering Catholic – I jest, actually, because that is my faith and it is me, but I listen to you like clock work every sunday on the radio here in St. Pete, Florida.
Even if………….may I say that again…………even if Mr. Obama’s accomplishments are few and his rhetoric is glib, he does what Teddy Roosevelt did: he says ad astera per asteram……………shoot for the stars…….then, even if you are a wee bit short of the mark, you are far ahead of the bloated idiot sucking up his ale and port salut cheese whilst farting and getting nowhere.
The House of Representatives controls the United States, and the Senate discusses and orates (bloviates?) the important issues of the day. Thanks be (and our founder saw this coming) that the Senate has only two members from each state or we would have a much more serious problem with global warming and hot air.
posted March 18, 2008 at 12:02 pm
While I appreciate the sensitivity Mr. Land has for the plight of African-Americans in contemporary America, I disagree with his conclusions on several fronts. As an African-American and pastor I see firsthand how “gifted and charismatic” preachers, along with many politicians, come and take both the church and the culture by storm, uttering their rhetoric and saying little or nothing. In 2 Timothy 4:3, the Apostle writes about those “wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires…” I see this happening on the political front as well. I happen to agree with Geraldine Ferraro who said, “If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position…” Many of my peers are enamored by Barack Obama simply because he is an articulate Black man, who has moved as a result of his speech-making skills, into the position of becoming a viable candidate for the office of president of the United States. Ask many of these same people what Obama stands for and they will quickly answer, “Change.” Ask them, “What kind of change?” and stuttering occurs as they attempt to find an answer to my inquiry. I have heard several of my black brothers and sisters saying that they will vote for Obama simply because they want to see a Black man win the office of the president for the first time in the history of the United States.
Your analogy comparing Obama to Tiger Woods is fallacious because Tiger has skills that result from years of training, study and practice. Obama is a good communicator—he can piece together a few words and can both look and sound good while delivering them. Is there any truth and substance to what he is saying? Does he have a track record of accomplishments? Has he been proved as someone who can manage and govern on a large scale? Or, is he simply a gifted communicator? The words of the Apostle Paul found in 2 Timothy 4:3 can be applied to Barack Obama and other politicians as well as preachers like Obama’s own pastor, Rev. Wright. Many of our citizens “wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves POLITICIANS and PREACHERS in accordance to their own desires…”
posted March 24, 2008 at 11:08 am
I can not believe you find her remarks so intolerable. They really are true. You say that Mr. Obama is the most pollarizing politician in 20 years. He has done nothing in his time in politics, except run for a higher office. What legislation has he passed? He stands for things totally contrary to the Bible, yet people and especially christians stand up and cheer? Jesus never said don’t judge people, in fact he said to mark them. This ideal of lets just all get along, is not biblical. We are to love the person and condemn the sin.What Ferraro said in the context of what she said was not at all racial, its truth. Its time to kick out political correctness out of our churches and society.