Yes We Can

Today's the day!

Happy Election Day, y'all!!! I hope you got to honk at volunteers on the sides of the road with signs from your favorite campaigns on the way to work!!

Election 08 makes me feel like this

But it also reminds me of a past PWCL employee that I know is out there doing good work and who I miss alot!



I'm excited for tomorrow. Please VOTE. VOLUNTEER. GOTV. 8pm tomorrow night is your deadline, Oregon. Find your county ballot drop off here

Ballots Must be Postmarked by TODAY for Oregonians

This is just a reminder that if you're mailing in your ballot in Oregon today is the last day for post marking your envelope. After today ballots MUST be taken to a county drop-site to make sure your vote counts. Don't know where one is? The Oregon Secretary of State Elections Division Website has it all mapped out for you by county.

VOTE.

Color of Change: Please take action

Dear Friends,

Right now, Fox News is trying to paint Barack Obama as foreign, un-American, suspicious, and scary. They're trying to send Americans the message that our country's first viable Black candidate for President is not "one of us."

I've joined on to ColorOfChange.org's campaign to push back on Fox, publicly demanding they stop their race-baiting and fear mongering. If that doesn't work, then we'll go to their advertisers and the FCC. I wanted to invite you to sign on as well. It takes only a moment:

http://www.colorofchange.org/foxobama/?id=2352-187680

Here's what happened recently:

After Senator Obama won the nomination, he and his wife gave each other a "pound" in front of the cameras. Fox anchor E.D. Hill called the act of celebration a "terrorist fist jab." Then last week, a Fox News on-screen graphic referred to Michelle Obama as "Obama's baby mama"--slang used to describe the unmarried mother of a man's child. It was a clear attempt to associate the Obamas with negative cultural stereotypes about Black people, an insult not only to Michelle Obama but to women and Black people everywhere.

After each of the incidents mentioned, Fox issued some form of weak apology. But what does it mean when you slap someone in the face, apologize the next day, then slap them again on the third? It means the apology is meaningless.

These aren't one-time incidents--they're part of a pattern that continues no matter how often Fox is forced to apologize. Fox has a clear record of attacking and undermining Black institutions, Black leaders, and Black people in general.

If we don't push back now, we will see more of the same from now until November. Please join me in helping to bring an end to Fox's behavior.

http://www.colorofchange.org/foxobama/?id=2352-187680

Thanks.

Michelle Obama Watch

One of my favorite blogs about women and race is What About Our Daughters?

Recently they have launched Michelle Obama Watch where we can all keep tabs on and talk about the media's treatment of Michelle Obama. I think we can all probably agree that the media's treatment of Hillary was/is despicable and I have seen some things in the blogosphere with regard to Michelle that are so offensive I couldn't bring myself to post them here.

Current posts on Michelle Obama Watch include: Fox News Calls Michelle Obama, "Obama's Baby Mama" and an article about an artist who has used pictures of the Obama's daughters with the caption: Nappy Headed Hos. I don't know about you but I think this is going to get even uglier and fast.

Please check out this site and keep informed. We know that sexism was rampant in the way the mainstream media felt they could talk about HRC. I think it is up to feminists like us to keep track of how racism and sexism play into how Michelle and her daughters are treated as we head toward November.

Have you seen this?

From the Women's Media Center (warning: contains a whole lot of cable news channel political "opinion" on HRC. Yuck. This made me glad I don't have cable.)



I'm an Obama supporter, obviously. I even recently purchased my "another mama for Obama" t-shirt, but I keep wondering if Hillary's failure is somehow the feminist movement's failure. Or maybe just the rape culture's success. again.

What do you think? Those quotes in the video are pretty powerful.

Sorry Hillary Supporters...

But I am overjoyed by Obama's campaign tonight. Check out his speech here.

I get emotional pretty easily. I admit it. BUT, this speech, and just thinking about what this nomination means for our country, makes me tear up. It is indeed a historical year for the country, and moreover a historical night. And as the man himself said,

"Tonight we mark the end of one historic journey with the beginning of another... a journey that will bring a new and better day to America...because of you."

I've got Obama fever.

PWCL GOTV

Hey PWCL Blog Readers! It's May 19th, 2008 and we've got one more day to drop off our Oregon ballots. Let's make sure our fabulous feminist voices are heard!

Ballots are out!

Hey PWCL Blog Readers! Do you vote?

I do. I miss the polling places but I was excited this morning when my ballot (Nia called it my "red mail") showed up.

So, please vote your mind and heart! And while you're at it, check out Color of Change and take action to tell Democratic superdelegates to follow the will of the people. Here's an excerpt from the letter they are asking us to send:

It has come to my attention that elected officials and party leaders are actually considering using their status as "superdelegates" to hand the nomination to Hillary Clinton against the will of voters, an action that would disenfranchise millions.

Following this course would be a shocking attack on voting rights and democracy. It would also give your seal of approval to an "electability" strategy executed by stoking race-based fear and division among voters. We expect that from the Republicans; we fight them on it every year. But now the leadership of the Democratic Party is poised to cosign this strategy of division and disenfranchisement. This could be the worst mistake the party has ever made, yet it's being talked about as a legitimate way for this campaign to end.

Coincidence?

I was off work this past week while Barack Obama was in town. Did any one brave the crowd and see him?

I'll be upfront with you all. I'm an Obama supporter now. His recent speech on race won me over. If you haven't had the chance to read or watch it, it is well worth the time. I can not think of the last time I felt proud of a public figure, a politician no less. And I feel proud of Obama for giving this speech. Backlash, be damned.

So, I was listening to the news and hearing reports of how quickly tickets to see him speak were going out of his campaign office when I realized something...PWCL had just the week prior purchased a bus bench for Sexual Assault Awareness Month and where will it be located?

In front of Obama's campaign headquarters at 30th & SE Division. It's our only bench (all other ads will be on buses so that they move around the city - keep an eye out for them!) and we love it. Here's the design:


Sorry about the low quality. If you can't read it, it says: We live in a rape culture, but we don't have to. Decide to End Sexual Violence.

I guess I'm just excited that Portlanders who support Obama are going to see this bus bench as they stop by the office. I don't believe in coincidences so I personally think the universe was looking out for PWCL when we chose that bench.

If you haven't had a chance to read or listen to the speech I'm fawning over, here's the YouTube video:

You can read the transcript here

White Feminists: Please Read This

Yet another pioneering feminist wholly and thoroughly disappoints me.

Geraldine Ferraro says Obama is "lucky" to be a black man

One of my favorite bloggers responds here (FYI - she used lots of curse words!)

You'll notice that Geraldine panders to women of color but she is really just talking about a black man versus a white woman. Who has it rougher out there? sigh. sigh. sigh.

Let's not pretend this was a slip of the tongue. In 1988, she said that " if Jesse Jackson were not black, he would not be in the race."

Could we mandate some kind of nation-wide oppression training, maybe? I wish that Hillary's camp would start talking about their own culpability and their own privilege. Maybe they could recognize that just 150 years ago, black men and women alike were OWNED by whites. So what if they want to vote for Barack? Suck it up, ladies.

Unpack your invisible knapsack, Geraldine. It's hard work but we all have to do it.

ETA: More disapppointing quotes from Geraldine and good commentary from the Daily Kos

Saturday Morning Satire

I'm taking it slow this Saturday morning, after a whole week of juggling a child with a double ear infection and a couple of big deadlines coming up at the office.
So I offer this link to Tina Fey on SNL last weekend. It's just a link because NBC won't let you embed (Booo!) and she does make an opressive comment about Kirstie Alley (Double Booo!), but watch the Hilary schtick. B*tch is the New Black!

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/#mea=221773

Thinking on the Election: The Oppression Olympics are on!

A couple of thoughts and good links on the democratic candidates. First, I just want to say that even though the media is only going to get increasingly more obnoxious as we head toward November, I am getting more and more drawn into blog discussions with particular regard to the Clintons (cause c'mon they are running together), Obama and the intersection of race and gender in politics. I'm glad that Americans are having this discussion, even if it is only in the blogosphere.

First off, if you heard about or read the Gloria Steinem's op-ed in the NY Times, Gloria Steinem: Pitting Race Against Gender is an interesting analysis of how feminists are talking about the presidential race.

One of my favorite bloggers over at Racialicious Latoya Peterson rounds up a whole lot of commentary on the oppression olympics we are starting to see (in my humble opinion, of course) in Politics and Intersectionality

And I have to include this wonderfully snarky article: The Uncompromising Journalistic Standards of the NY Times

And lastly, an article that lays out what the candidates are saying they will do about poverty. Taking on Class and Race Obama is the only one that addresses domestic violence. Here is what he proposes:

Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Families Act of 2007 - Amends part A (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) (TANF) of title IV of the Social Security Act (SSA) with respect to: (1) funding for responsible fatherhood programs; (2) requirements to ensure proce more...dures to address domestic violence; (3) activities promoting responsible fatherhood; (4) grants to healthy family partnerships for domestic violence prevention, for services for families and individuals affected by domestic violence, and for developing and implementing best practices; and (5) elimination of separate TANF work participation rate for two-parent families.

What do you all think about this change to TANF? I'd be really interested in hearing what those of you who work with people on it think. It kind of makes me like Obama more but I am still undecided.

Your daily dose of media activism!

A follow-up to this post:

If you are as tired as I am of Chris Matthews' outrageously sexist and petty rants against Hilary Clinton, join me in contacting MSNBC and Chris Matthews to let them know that ridiculously misogynistic statements DO NOT equal journalism. Media Matters helpfully provides email and snail mail addresses, along with a nice summary of his most recent offenses, here.

More on the election

Mitt Romney actually admits he is "not familiar" with the Federal Violence Against Women Act

That's VAWA to those of us who are funded or work with people funded by it.

Well...in the very least I am not undecided on not voting for him.

Wouldn't it be a shocker if interpersonal violence was actually discussed intelligently by the candidates? Maybe we should keep an eye out for it.

"Ah the remnants of sexism...Alive and well"

I have been feeling a little bit sorry for Hillary in the past few weeks. It seems like she has had her passion in the right place (though I am not sure that she's my candidate, I'm still undecided) and is running for President for the right reasons, yet she continually gets protesters and reporters heaping this nonsense on her.

At least in this case, I think that she handled it with grace. Can you imagine if people were protesting Obama with the same oppressive nonsense? I don't think it would fly. BUT telling a powerful national leader who happens to be a woman to "iron my shirts!", well that's just a quirky little news story.

Protesters ask Clinton to iron shirts

By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press WriterTue Jan 8, 5:34 AM ET

Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign stop was interrupted Monday when two men stood in the crowd and began screaming, "Iron my shirt!" during one of her final appearances before the New Hampshire primary.

Clinton, a former first lady running to become the nation's first female president, laughed at the seemingly sexist protest that suggested a woman's place is doing the laundry and not running the country.

"Ah, the remnants of sexism — alive and well," Clinton said to applause in a school auditorium.

The two men were removed from the hall after raising a pair of signs that said, "Iron my shirt!" They also shouted the same slogan.

"Can we turn the lights on? It's awfully dark," Clinton said, cueing the lights to come and police to come forward to take the men away.

The overflow crowd burst into applause and some began shouting, "Iron my shirt" as the two were taken from the hall.

"As I think has been abundantly demonstrated, I am also running to break through the highest and hardest glass ceiling," she said.

Clinton later joked about the incident as she invited questions.

"If there's anyone left in the auditorium who wants to learn how to iron a shirt, I'll talk about that," she said with a smile.

Clinton placed a disappointing third place in Iowa's caucuses last week and faces a tough challenge in Tuesday's primary from Barack Obama, who leads her with just one day remaining.