Barack Obama Wins the Sojourner Truth Vote

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Sun May-18-08 12:28 PM
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Barack Obama Wins the Sojourner Truth Vote

Run Date: 05/16/08
By Rev. Valda Jean Combs
WeNews commentator

West Virginia primary polling data has underscored Hillary Clinton's claim to the allegiance of white voters who aren't comfortable with black leadership. Rev. Valda Jean Combs says that helps explain why so many black women are going for Obama.

Rev. Valda Jean Combs

...

But first, let me make it plain that my support of Barack Obama is not a failure to understand the damage patriarchy has done to our community. Instead it's an intentional embrace of a brother who eschews paternalism and who himself embraces community.

This contrasts with Bill and Hillary Clinton. Both have marginalized Obama at different times: "He gives good speeches," "he's not electable," "he's another Jesse Jackson" and most recently "hard working whites support me." It's an encoded drumbeat that spreads the message that Obama is "not like us."

Racism Affirmed

Rather than challenge racism, the Clintons have affirmed those for whom race is a barrier to supporting a black Democratic nominee. In their quest for the White House, the Clintons have sacrificed the black vote and the black loyalty that helped to put Bill Clinton in office.

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While leading feminists often acknowledge this historical truth, this acknowledgement did not equal inclusion. Women of color fought alongside white feminists in the 1970s and 1980s, but found our perspective elbowed aside; our loyalty taken for granted.

Feminism's almost exclusive focus on the worth of woman's work outside the home was a non-issue for black women who worked inside and outside the home and whose work was devalued in both realms.

But when we raised the problematic irony of women of color working outside their own homes in the homes of white women--where they were paid low wages with no benefits--this was often lost on white feminists. They seemed more riveted on breaking down the gender barriers to elite schools and high-paying professions.

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Finally, while feminism places priority on women, womanism places priority on the collective whole. While feminism speaks to sexism, womanism speaks to sexism, racism, classism and ethnocentrism. As an endnote to her definition of womanism, Walker writes, "Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender," an acknowledgement that womanism expands the parameters of white feminism to include issues important to women of color and women in poverty.

My support for Obama is a repudiation of the politics that have reigned supreme since Sojourner Truth, a politics that says my dream must wait until someone else's has been realized.

Obama stands for the proposition that we can go forward together, as one. This is what my 94-year-old grandmother and her 84-year-old sister have prayed for, stood for and hoped for. The fierce urgency of now is up against the fierce arrogance of now.

Black women supporting Obama now dare to believe that change can come in our time. A change that offers our boys hope that they, too, can become president; a change that offers our community hope that black families can survive and thrive; and change that says out of oppression can come liberation for not just some of us, but all of us. If we have learned anything from Sister Sojourner, it is that we must speak now, for we are women too.

MORE - entire article worth a read:

http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm?aid=3602