5.13.2008

Something clever in The New York Times

I missed this column when it was first printed, a couple of weeks ago, but it's an excellent and witty criticism of those who argue Obama has only gotten where he is because he's black. Colson Whitehead writes about his experiences as "The Guy Who’s Where He Is Only Because He’s Black" in an extremely humorous way. Little of what he says is radical, but it's a good satire. For all my reservations about the ways in which the two Democratic candidates have been portrayed in the media, I find the rant against Obama's success as being a "benefit" of his race is a pretty excrecable and flimsy position. I suspect that my attempts to explain why I still think Clinton's media and public treatment as misogynist has occasionally sounded as though I object to Obama on some less savory grounds. But I do think we, as Americans, treat race and gender radically differently, and that sexism can be hard to pinpoint.

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