New Black Woman

Glenn Grothman: money is more important to men

Posted on April 12, 2012 by New Black Woman

The battle over the hearts and minds of women continue as Republicans continue to put their feet into their mouths. This latest incident of this nonsense came from a Wisconsin state senator, who criticized the state’s now repealed equal pay law.

From The Daily Beast:

Grothman says companies are being bombarded with false accusations of discrimination. “It’s an underreported problem, but a huge number of discrimination claims are baseless,” he says. “Most of them are filed by fired employees, and really today almost anybody is a protected class.” As a result, he says, many companies are forced to pay fired employees to go away. He argues that the Wisconsin law, which allowed for damages of up to $300,000, the same amount as in federal law, raised the cost of doing business in the state to intolerable levels. “It just puts Wisconsin way out of whack with other states,” he says. “I’m not sure there are any other states this bad off.”

Actually, there are—according to data from 9to5, 33 other states have either no cap on damages or the same $300,000 cap as Wisconsin. Still, even if the law isn’t an outlier, it’s not surprising that Grothman would see it as unjust, because he believes that the whole idea of pay discrimination against women is fraudulent.Whatever gaps exist, he insists, stem from women’s decision to prioritize childrearing over their careers. “Take a hypothetical husband and wife who are both lawyers,” he says. “But the husband is working 50 or 60 hours a week, going all out, making 200 grand a year. The woman takes time off, raises kids, is not go go go. Now they’re 50 years old. The husband is making 200 grand a year, the woman is making 40 grand a year. It wasn’t discrimination. There was a different sense of urgency in each person.”

He continues, “What you’ve got to look at, and Ann Coulter has looked at this, is you have to break it down by married and unmarried. Once you break it down by married and unmarried, the differential disappears.”

In fact, despite Coulter’s well-known expertise in the field, this is incorrect. A 2007 study by the American Association of University Women found that college-educated women earn only 80 percent as much as similarly educated men a year after graduation. Part of that is attributable to differences in life choices and family circumstances, but not all. “After accounting for college major, occupation, industry, sector, hours worked, workplace flexibility, experience, educational attainment, enrollment status, GPA, institution selectivity, age, race/ethnicity, region, marital status, and number of children, a 5 percent difference in the earnings of male and female college graduates one year after graduation was still unexplained,” it said. After 10 years in the workforce, there’s an unexplained 12 percent gap…

Grothman doesn’t accept these studies. When I ran the numbers by him, he replied, “The American Association of University Women is a pretty liberal group.” Nor, he argued, does its conclusion take into account other factors, like “goals in life. You could argue that money is more important for men. I think a guy in their first job, maybe because they expect to be a breadwinner someday, may be a little more money-conscious. To attribute everything to a so-called bias in the workplace is just not true.”

Oh, boy. That’s just too much male chauvinist nonsense for me to tackle in one post, but I will try my best.

One: that “different sense of urgency” between men and women could exist because societal pressures often weigh heavily on working women. Along with some women who really desire to stay at home with their children, the working world is all too hostile for women with children. Working women with children often have to balance demanding schedules, rigid employment rules and regulations, work environments hostile to women who may need to pump breast milk during the day and places in which there are no on-site daycares. The working world just doesn’t make any accommodations for women with children and often frown upon women who can’t mold themselves into the superwoman myth.

But this just takes the cake:

You could argue that money is more important for men. I think a guy in their first job, maybe because they expect to be a breadwinner someday, may be a little more money-conscious. To attribute everything to a so-called bias in the workplace is just not true.”

While many men out there are under societal pressures to be breadwinners, I find it absolutely offensive this esteemed senator would even stoop to a male chauvinist point of view about women and money. In his world, Grothman most likely believes young women show up to work out of habit–something to do. Young women like myself could care less about making enough money to survive. Hell, we just completed our Mrs. Degree, so we’re just working to pass the time until we deliver birth and go home to raise the children since that’s the most pressing things on our mind. Why should women need money anyway when we can rely on all those men out there whose first priority is to become the primary breadwinners?

I find it laughable that so many of these male politicians have so much insight into the minds and opinions of women. I mean, just because you have two heads doesn’t mean you’re a genius or give you some special insight into those beings with uteri and vaginas.

Posted in Glenn Grothman, male chauvinism, politics, sexism, Wisconsin, women | Leave a comment

You’re not a victim, George Zimmerman

Posted on April 10, 2012 by New Black Woman

The man who shot unarmed Trayvon Martin is speaking out on the “life altering event” that’s resulted in national outcry and demands for an arrest. George Zimmerman, on his website, is also soliciting funds for his legal defense.

From the USA Today:

On Sunday February 26th, I was involved in a life altering event which led me to become the subject of intense media coverage. As a result of the incident and subsequent media coverage, I have been forced to leave my home, my school, my employer, my family and ultimately, my entire life. This website’s sole purpose is to ensure my supporters they are receiving my full attention without any intermediaries.

It has come to my attention that some persons and/or entities have been collecting funds, thinly veiled as my “Defense Fund” or “Legal Fund”. I cannot attest to the validity of these other websites as I have not received any funds collected, intended to support my family and I through this trying, tragic time.

I have created a Paypal account solely linked on this website as I would like to provide an avenue to thank my supporters personally and ensure that any funds provided are used only for living expenses and legal defense, in lieu of my forced inability to maintain employment. I will also personally, maintain accountability of all funds received. I reassure you, every donation is appreciated.

Sincerely,

George Zimmerman

At the end of the page, he has a quote from Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is that good men do nothing.”

The USA Today article also notes the website has a section that goes into his racial heritage and “the facts” surrounding the case.

When I first heard about this early Monday evening, I thought it was a joke, to be honest. I didn’t think George Zimmerman’s attorneys were this foolish to allow Zimmerman to open himself up to inevitable criticism. However, it appears his attorneys and friends have vouched for the authenticity of the website, so I guess his attorneys are this…flippant about the public image of their client. *shrugs*

Anyway, for Zimmerman to even dwell on how his life has been inconvenienced because of his actions and the subsequent media coverage reeks of privilege. It’s a classic example of how white privilege (yes, I know he’s Hispanic, but you can be Hispanic and identify as being white, black, etc.) operates in the good ol’ U.S. of A.: one person says/does racist thing; person’s actions is criticized; person in question retreats and resorts to assuming the role of victim, thus shifting the focus of the conversation from his racist actions/thoughts/feelings to how his feelings were hurt by overly sensitive people of color looking to blame racism in everything. Zimmerman’s tactics yet another variation in this sad cyclical predicament POCs have to contend with when they take the chance to speak out against racism.

Zimmerman’s statement reflects how he’s ignorant of how deeply rooted racism, whiteness and white privilege are in his mind. His white privilege granted him the authority to harass, follow, confront and shoot Trayvon Martin as his blackness has been equated to evil, criminal activity and something that needs to be policed. His privilege has sheltered him from even experiencing the humiliation and pain of being hunted down and shot just because you fit the bill of a so-called young up-to-no-good black thug, aimlessly roaming a gated, “safe” community just to make trouble.

Notice how Zimmerman, in his letter, failed to mention the pain, suffering, heartache, anger, frustration and helplessness his actions have brought onto the family and friends of Trayvon Martin. Notice how Zimmerman conveniently left out how his decision to racially profile Trayvon Martin’s led to him having to put his life as he knows it on hold and go into hiding. Notice how Zimmerman failed to even feign regret, sorrow and empathy for Martin and his family.

And you want the public to fork over money so you can mount a campaign to discredit Martin and label him a thug who was up to no good?

Zimmerman, you’re not a victim in all this. You have your life, your health, your family and your ability to eventually move on with your life (as it’s highly likely you won’t be charged for your crime). You have the ability to eventually have children, get married, advance your career and possibly live long enough to have grandchildren.

Your actions took all those possibility from an unarmed black teenager you thought looked suspicious because he was wearing a hoodie and you thought looked like he was on drugs and up to no good. Your racist vigilantism took away Trayvon Martin’s ability to graduate high school, go to college, have a career, possibly have children, possibly get married and live long enough to have grandchildren. Your racial profiling–not the intense media scrutiny–brought this situation into light. Your refusal to heed dispatch’s advice and not hunt Trayvon Martin down brought your current life situation into the present–not the intense media scrutiny of your actions.

Furthermore, Zimmerman, that quote by Edmund Burke, is highly inappropriate, suspect and indicative of your refusal/apathy to understand how your racist actions have deeply affected Trayvon Martin’s family and this country. If you really want good to triumph over evil, you need to come forward and tell the truth about what happened when you racially profiled, confronted and shot Trayvon Martin.

What do you think of Zimmerman’s website and his request for help?

Posted in George Zimmerman, racial profiling, racism, white privilege, whiteness | 6 Comments

“I am not Trayvon Martin”

Posted on April 8, 2012 by New Black Woman

Finally! At least one white person is well on their way of understanding whiteness and white privilege and how both operate to suppress and subjugated people of color.

Of course, some folks are pushing back against the video’s message. The blog Sherry Talks Back is at least one I’ve found to present the most…interesting argument against the young woman’s video. In her analysis, The Paralysis of “White Privilege,” Sherry essentially takes the young woman to task for ignoring the class component of her anti-racist, anti-white privilege message.

Some excerpts:

One, wearing an “I am Trayvon Martin” t-shirt, or chanting it, is an act of solidarity with victims of racism, not an assertion that everyone faces the same oppression. Trayvon’s own mother has called for multiracial crowds of protesters to identify with Trayvon and the fact that thousands have done so is a testament to a growing disgust with racist police, courts and actions.

Wearing these t-shirts and chanting that you are anybody other than who you actually are is a collective means of expressing outrage at the system, sympathy with victims of injustice and unity with others who feel the same way. It’s why it became so popular among abolitionists to wear “I am Troy Davis” t-shirts in the run-up to that innocent Black man’s execution in September 2011, and why his sister Martina Correia insisted everyone wear one. Visual solidarity is powerful.

The video woman argues that white people wearing these t’s must think that they are making Trayvon into a white, middle class person — presumably like themselves — in order to render him sympathetic in the eyes of racists.

Isn’t it possible, even likely, that people protesting racism wearing these t-shirts actually oppose racism and don’t seek to justify it? If not, then everything we do is called into question as possibly its opposite; nothing we do matters, nothing we say or argue has any validity, but must be suspect as meaning its complete opposite. This is possible, I suppose, but it’s a also a recipe for doing nothing, saying nothing, challenging nothing — paralysis.

Two, arguing, as the video woman does, that white people could only wear “I am George Zimmerman” t-shirts exposes the essentially reactionary core of this argument. Like Zimmerman, who is Latino, white people have been indoctrinated in racism and though video woman, according to her account, has managed to escape the worst of its clutches through great parenting, education and critical thinking, she along with all other whites are condemned to only identify with oppressors, never the oppressed. In fact, to identify with the oppressed, she argues, is an act of immaturity. Au contraire!

Racism, according to this thinking, is not the result of a ruling class’s need to structure oppression in order to gain profits and spread crappy ideas that divide the working class majority from itself. The social construction of racism by those in power centuries ago in order to justify slavery is absent in this analysis.

Instead, racism is conceived as a sort of ideological cancer of no clear origin that metastasizes in all white people, regardless of what they do, think or say. And like a dystopic nightmare, there’s no way out.

Third, according to her “white privilege” argument, there are no distinctions between whites in positions of power and the majority without. In fact, there’s no accounting for how a Black president could preside over a racist system in which a Latino man has killed a Black man and was let off by a mostly white police force led by a Black police chief.

She refers to “the system,” but has no class outlook in which to analyze how the system works and in whose interests. Because if all white people benefit— which includes the majority of people on food stamps, on unemployment and living in poverty in the United States — then these benefits are rather illusory, aren’t they?

She goes on to say:

The video ends with an argument for whites — again, all conceived of as middle class in the midst of the worst depression since the worst depression — to jettison racist ideas and use their “privilege” to fight the system. While I certainly agree with challenging racism, the video ideologically disarms any antiracist white person from actually joining the struggle — whites better not show up to Trayvon marches wearing “I am George Zimmerman” t-shirts!

This video reflects a politically confused way of talking about race as if it were simply about bad ideas in people’s heads and not conscious structures of oppression kept in place by the 1% in the interests of the 1%.

Worse, it’s often counter-productive because by reducing racism to bad ideas and telling all whites they’re beneficiaries, the privilege argument demands ordinary white people relinquish privileges that they do not have, rather than unite to win what’s been stolen from all of us.

Perhaps the most telling thing about this “white privilege” argument is that many radicals have had their sights for justice set so low that it has come to be thought of as a privilege not to be gunned down in the night on a snack errand while wearing a hoodie because of the color of your skin. Isn’t that simply a human right?

While I understand and actually agree with a good bit of Sherry’s assessment, I find her dismissal and criticism of this video troubling.

(More…)

Posted in class privilege, Occupy Wall Street, racial profiling, racism, white privilege, whiteness | 2 Comments

White people: check your privilege when talking about the Trayvon Martin tragedy

Posted on April 4, 2012 by New Black Woman

On Monday morning, I did a status update on my personal Facebook profile that said: “White privilege: being able to shoot an unarmed teenager and not be arrested and/or charged with a crime.” Two friends of mine, both of which have proclaimed themselves to be liberal/progressive individuals who are tolerant/aware of racial disparities and other oppressed minorities, responded with:

Friend 1, the white self-proclaimed proud feminist: ”George Zimmerman looks more Hispanic than White… not that changes anything, but he is multi-racial. (which was liked by another friend)

Me: “You can be Hispanic and still consider yourself white (which was liked by the same 3rd friend). I went on to say I was told this information a while back by a U.S. Census Bureau official.

Third friend: “Okay, I disclaimer time: I did not want to debate this issue because I don’t believe that race should be the topic of debate in what happened in Florida., but I think there might a misconception about where we’re all standing on this issue…so here goes.I think Laura is aware of that fact and the history behind this issue… and I know you know that, so I’m not sure why this reaction is happening… I can’t speak for other Hispanics in this debate but I don’t think of myself as black or white. I was never raised to think of myself in that context and I am okay with. I’m an American who is of Hispanic descent. What she’s saying is that there is a real danger of perpetuating the stereo-type that any racial tension in this country always a white man vs.<insert minority here>. What happened to Trayvon was horrible and Zimmerman was an over zealous idiot, but I think we need to be very careful about throwing around phrases like hate-crime and and privilege if we are to learn what really happened in this case and to move forward with due process.”

White feminist friend: The leaked evidence and endless race baiting by the media and New Black Panther Party (which is a hate group the Huey P. Newton Foundation condemns) has guaranteed a fair trial cannot happen. Anyone who wanted to see Zimmerman arrested and tried in a court of law, has witnessed a defense attorneys dream.

I logged into my Facebook account to discover this exchange happened and immediate was filled with disbelief, rage, disappointment and anger. I basically responded to them both saying I was speechless and thanks for the thoughts.

I also informed them I’ll be writing an extensive rebuttal on why their statements are troubling, so here goes…

I am tired of being told by white people, in an effort to dodge the glaring issue of racism in this case, that we need to get all the facts out before we can rush to judgement. I am tired of white people shying away from talking about the blatant use of racism, whiteness and racial profiling by George Zimmerman to pursue Trayvon Martin. I am tired of white people telling people of color to drop the race issue in this case when whiteness grants them the privilege of using my race and blackness as a yardstick to measure my worth.

I am tired of white people in this country telling black people and other people of color to let go of race and quit obsessing about slavery, Jim Crow and lynchings. I am tired of being told by white people that ”not everything is about race” and that they don’t see race when they see me or any other person of color. I am tired of listening to white people justify the use of racial profiling by George Zimmerman as his neighbors have claimed eight previous burglaries have been committed by black males, thus implying Zimmerman was right to pursue Trayvon Martin.

I am so fucking sick of white feminists wanting to have their cake and eat it too. I am so fucking sick and tired of these white, faux social justice activists who want people of color to rally around their causes and put their concerns of racial inequality on the back burner for the greater good of a certain movement. I am so fucking sick and tired of white feminists clinging to their contention they are oppressed by male chauvinism, while refusing to acknowledge and check their privilege in the company of other oppressed minorities.

(More…)

Posted in George Zimmerman, racial profiling, racism, Trayvon Martin, whiteness | 4 Comments

Do I look suspicious?

Posted on April 3, 2012 by New Black Woman

A NEWMecca Movement Production has partnered with a few Howard University students to produce this video, which criticizes the use of racial profiling. The Howard University students have a Facebook group, Howard Students for Justice, they are using to spread their campaign.