When I wrote about Geraldine Ferraro’s comments about Obama yesterday, I didn’t suggest she was being a racist. I just thought she had a lot of nerve to suggest that the only reason he is kicking Clinton’s ass is because he is black. After all, Ferraro only got to run for vice-president because she was a woman. So, I thought David Axelrod went a little too far when he said Ferraro’s comments were part of an “insidious pattern”. But Ferraro isn’t helping herself with this:
In a follow-up interview
Geraldine Ferraro today defended comments she made to the Daily Breeze last week saying the media was biased against Hillary Clinton and that Barack Obama would not be where he is today if he were not black. (The Associated Press)
today, Ferraro said her company had been deluged with vicious e-mail messages accusing her of racism.But far from backing off from her initial remark, Ferraro defended it and elaborated on it.
“Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let’s address reality and the problems we’re facing in this world, you’re accused of being racist, so you have to shut up,” Ferraro said. “Racism works in two different directions. I really think they’re attacking me because I’m white. How’s that?”
And this isn’t much better.
She also said she is familiar with Axelrod from his work for minority candidates in New York.
“He knows damn well that the best thing to do in a situation like this is to come back and hit with race,” Ferraro said, adding that the response is a sign that the Obama campaign is “worried” about the first-term senator’s lack of experience.
Ferraro said she was not trying to diminish Obama’s candidacy, and acknowledged up front that she would not have been the vice presidential nominee in 1984 if she had been a man.
But she also echoed remarks of feminist leaders like Gloria Steinem, who argued in the New York Times that Obama would not have succeeded if he were a woman because gender is “the most restricting force in American life.”
“Sexism is a bigger problem,” Ferraro argued. “It’s OK to be sexist in some people’s minds. It’s not OK to be racist.”
I hope I won’t offend any women if I say that Geraldine Ferraro needs to Shut the Fuck Up.
