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PrintMarch 24, 2010
The 'Root' of Disproportionate Representation
On the day following the passage of the most invasive restructuring of American society in the last 75 years, The Root, a black oriented site whose editor-in-chief is presidential pa; and Cambridge cop racism accuser Henry Louis "Skip" Gates, complains that women -- especially black women -- are under-represented as elected officials.
Women are only 17 percent of the United States Congress, with the 21 African American, Hispanic and Asian females comprising only 4 percent. The number of black women in Congress has flat-lined since 1992, the so-called "Year of the Woman": There were 11 black women in 1992; 13 in 2002, and only 13 today.
The Pronoun-in-Chief also sees a problem saying:
America "must correct persisting inequalities" facing women in every sphere of life.
The Root article theorizes that the primary challenge facing black women with political aspirations stems from societal structure, specifically, the lack of a spouse in the household:
[A]ccording to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, black women, especially since the 1970s, have traditionally had fewer of these support systems--and are more likely to be the single breadwinners in their household.
Burdened with the obligation of raising their out-of-wedlock children (and the concomitant lack of opportunity to raise their earning capacity through education,) black women lack personal wealth to finance their political ambitions. And, if that were not enough of an obstacle, they face an unfair challenge in raising donations:
Fundraising is even tougher for women representing communities of color that are less accustomed to handing money to candidates. "Oftentimes our communities are the beneficiaries of governmental goodwill," explains Yvette Clarke, who represents Brooklyn in the House of Representatives. "And the prospect of financing a government official, even in the political realm, is one that people haven't quite grabbed hold of yet."
To add insult to injury, black women face the ultimate hurdle-as borne out by this Root observation:
And there is yet another layer to the glass ceiling for women, and particularly black women: the media.
Lastly, there is the traitorous posture of their own gender:
Contributing to this dilemma... are other women--who, as the 2008 showdown between Hillary Clinton and Obama showed, are not always eager to favor gender in their voting decisions or speak up when women candidates are being treated unfairly by the media.
Two observations by George Will in a recent article http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/will032110.php3 cut to the heart of these issues:
[R]esearch suggests that about 90 percent of the differences among the proficiency of schools can be explained by five factors: days absent from school, hours spent watching television, pages read for homework, the quantity and quality of reading matter in the home - and the presence of two parents in the home.Government can do next to nothing about family structure, which is why it is pointless for [Education Secretary] Duncan to suggest that "access" is why "the door to college still does not swing open evenly for everyone." It will not so swing as long as 71.6 percent of African American children and 51.3 percent of Latino children are born to unmarried women. The political class flinches from talking about those numbers, preferring to take refuge behind talk about "rights."
In other words, black female candidates (like all other candidates) are all products of their childhoods and their families. In this sense, black females are disadvantaged, and the blame for that fact lies squarely at the feet of progressive Democrats.
Progressive ideologies and policies are responsible for: the predominance of single-parent households in the black community [welfare]; for the diminished earning capacity of black females [public education/welfare]; for the dependence on "governmental goodwill" [welfare] that stifles voluntary charity; for the hypocrisy of the MSM and its failure to support candidacies of black females [public education/post-secondary education bias]; and, for the two-faced behavior of women toward each other [my wife won't let me assign attribution for this problem].
But, the most damning quote from the Root article comes from Ayanna Pressley, a Boston City Councilwoman:
"I know what it is to live in the margins; I know what it is to feel that your government doesn't reflect you, represent you, or advocate for you."
Gee, that's kind of how the MAJORITY of Americans felt on Sunday.
