Friday, April 4, 2008

Who's discriminated against more--blacks or chicks?


Today there are 43 self-identified blacks in Congress and 86 women. Given the numbers of so-called blacks and women citizens in America, that means women have HALF as much representation in Congress as blacks do.

Moreover, blacks got the vote in 1865 (OK, 1965 in the South), while women didn't get the vote anywhere in the United States until 1920 (women got the vote earlier in Utah before it was a state, but had to disenfranchise them in order to join the Union).

Lastly, if you look at all the talk about Clinton and Obama and filter out actual political commentary, you'll find vastly more invective aimed at Clinton based on her gender than you'll find aimed at Obama based on his putative race.

And no, I'm not saying any of this because I favor Clinton over Obama. I do, however, favor reality over fantasy--and I do believe that identity politics has greatly harmed our country's politics, both from Republicans and Democrats. They just pander to different identity groups, then blame the other side for practising identity politics. This is how tribal minds work.

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