A New Beginning

President-Elect Barack Obama.

Today marks a triumphant and historical day in the lives of many Americans and citizens around the world.  Last night, Senator Barack Obama from Illinois clenched the office for the Presidency of the United States of America.  Undoubtedly a major and very emotional experience for many African Americans and people of color, this election cycle has shown us all that the United States is finally displaying the progression that we have so long yearned for.

As I sat and watched the results come in last night one thing that I kept thinking about was this historic, and often ugly, campaign that has plagued us for so many months.  I am glad that the issues of race and gender were brought into US mainstream consciousness.  Hopefully, this often painful display of the incredible discrimination that is still rampant in US culture will help us continue to have those important, everyday conversations that have led us to such a transformational time in our nation’s history.  I anticipate that this will also offer us the opportunity to give sexual minorities the voice that has often been minimized in our political and social systems.  With that I leave you with a very special quote:

“This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.  It can’t happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice.”         

President-Elect Barack Obama

SNL Backlash perpetuates misrepresentation of Sexism

I couldn’t seem to let this one go.

Carly Fiorina speaks….(from MSNBC.com)

“The portrait was very dismissive of the substance of Sarah Palin, and so in that sense, they were defining Hillary Clinton as very substantive, and Sarah Palin as totally superficial,” McCain advisor Carly Fiorina told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Monday. “I think that continues the line of argument that is disrespectful in the extreme, and yes I would say sexist.”

Webster’s definition of sexism…

“SEXISM- discrimination against people, esp. women, on the basis of sex”

If SNL was indeed practicing sexism how could they be dismissive of Sarah Palin’s “substance” while providing an example of another woman who they believe to be more substantive?  It seems to me that SNL poked fun of Palin because they, as a collective community (generalizing, of course), do not agree with Palin because they don’t believe in her perspective on issues, NOT because of her status as a woman.

One unfortunate byproduct of this presidential campaign is that the word sexism, and its various forms, have been thrown around just as much as we’ve talked about how “Black” Obama is.  The misrepresentation of this idea in our current political atmosphere has lead us to a place where any “attack” on a woman denotes sexism.  To that, I simply refer you to the definition.