From Politico:

Now, I disagree with getting into the oppression Olympics, as he sort of does here, but he is right that Jews have been marginalized for a long part of their history, and that we should be extra sensitive to libelous, gross character assassination like the Obama-is-a-secret-Muslim BS.

(And yes, I know that being a Muslim is not a bad thing, I was engaged to a Muslim for almost two years.)

Lately I’ve been paying attention to intra-feminist debates on the inclusion of different issues into the feminist sphere. (Be patient, I swear this is relevant.) To me, all social justice issues are feminist issues. I cannot understand how one marginalized group can turn around and perpetuate the same injustices on another marginalized group. I can’t comprehend Jews who don’t like black people or feminists who are angry at immigrants (or worse, feminists angry at transgendered people or at sex workers), or Latinos who don’t like gays. And these are all different groups and of course they intersect, overlap, and the boundaries blur.

Obama may be threatening to some people simply because he cannot be quantified or pigeonholed. He is not black or white or rich or poor or liberal or centrist. To some degree he, like all politicians and especially presidential candidates, who run for an office that is as much about our national identity, our view of ourselves, is a scrim onto which we project what we want to see, or what we fear to see.

He must be hiding something behind these multiple identities. That seems to be the thought process behind these email campaigns. We can’t simply accept that he is who he appears to be, as much as any politician ever is and far more than the people he’s running against.

As a feminist, as a Jew, as a human being who sees that all of us are connected in ways we can’t quantify, I consider all issues of justice, of human rights, my issues. If you perpetuate slurs against someone because of their race, their religion, their sexual orientation, their gender, their size, their nationality, their choice of work, you do it to me.

Posted: April 8th, 2008 under Feminism, Politics, Religion.
Comments: 1