Sexism and racism...You Play the Hand You’re Dealt…

(Initially posted as a comment - reposted as a Dairy by request)

None of us have any choice or control on where, when, who or in what condition we are born. You are what you are and that's that! But it is certainly true that some of us have more obstacles, mountains and holes to surmount as we journey on the road of life.

In this campaign none of the participants had any control over their gender or race, so all of the candidates had to play the hand they were dealt.

So when Senator Clinton complains about the "sexism" and "misogyny" in the campaign being worse that the "racism" it deserves some thought... in today's Washington Post, the Senator is quoted as saying...

"It's been deeply offensive to millions of women," Clinton said. "I believe this campaign has been a groundbreaker in a lot of ways. But it certainly has been challenging given some of the attitudes in the press, and I regret that, because I think it's been really not worthy of the seriousness of the campaign and the historical nature of the two candidacies we have here."

Later, when asked if she thinks this campaign has been racist, she says she does not. And she circles back to the sexism. "The manifestation of some of the sexism that has gone on in this campaign is somehow more respectable, or at least more accepted, and . . . there should be equal rejection of the sexism and the racism when it raises its ugly head," she said. "It does seem as though the press at least is not as bothered by the incredible vitriol that has been engendered by the comments by people who are nothing but misogynists."

I was born  three years and three days after Pearl Harbor, the seventh child in a family of nine. My parents were poor and relatively uneducated. We were Black in a White society where the rules were not ours to make.  I used to think that made me special. Not special as in set above, but special as in having more obstacles in my life than others. For my peers and I had to overcome tremendous adversity, by dint of will, effort, work and yes, even good luck.

And as I placed my feet upon the road of life, fearful of the mountains arrayed before me, my parents taught me something that carried me through life. Son, they used to say, you play the hand you’re dealt in life. You’re Black and poor, you’re gonna have to work twice as hard to get half as much. That’s just the way it is. Don’t start crying about it, cause if you do, you’ll never stop. Just make up your mind that you can do what you want to do, and don’t let no one tell you different!” But I just knew that God had saddled me, my family, and friends, with some extra heavy burden. Being born Black in a segregated America.

But the road of life is filled with many lessons, and whether you are attentive or not, it will teach you many things. I served in the U.S. Military in a time of war.  I witnessed friends and co-workers go off to war and not come back. And some who came back with less parts and pieces than they had gone away with. I saw families devastated by loss and grief, children forced to grow up without parents and loved relatives. But I also witnessed dirt poor subsistence farmers being uprooted from the poor villages they lived in. People who had no medicine, no food, no roof over their heads.

I have been fortunate to travel a bit in my life. I went to Spain when Franco was alive and saw the Roma begging on the streets, despised and wandering without a homeland that would accept and acknowledge them. I’ve traveled in Africa and watched women getting up before dawn to walk miles to bring home heavy containers of water drawn from a dirty pond, or cutting wood in the early chill to make a meager breakfast of mealie mush.

I have been befriended by people who are illiterate and outcast. Have shared life and stories with people who are gay and lesbian, female, and many different races, colors and ethnicities. I struggled for social justice along side of Native Americans, Asians, Latinos, Whites and Blacks.

In my current job I see, on a daily basis, folks whose bodies have betrayed them and left them hurt, maimed, crippled and mentally impaired.

So I am always taken aback when one of the ones who have made it to the top start to cry and complain about how hard life has been on them. It’s always a shock to he system!

So… New Rule! If you are privileged, educated, rich and American – you don’t get to whine! If you have made it to the top of the heap -  No Crying!

Somebody tell me, how on God’s Green Earth, a uber-rich White woman in America who has risen higher in the political firmament than any other woman in American history, and higher than 99.9% of the men, of any color, gets to whine about being discriminated against? Hilary – you don’t get to whine – period!

And that goes for Clarence Thomas, who rose to the highest possible legal position in the land, too.  

Is there sexism in America – hell yes! Has it held Hilary back – not hardly! Give me a break!! I know lots of women, of all colors, who have struggled with discrimination – even defended a few. Like the woman who was fired from her supervisory position because she defended two young women from a predatory boss, or the woman who was practically raped on the job by a co-worker. Or the many women that were subjected to naked pin-ups plastered all over the work place and had to tolerate the lewd jokes of male co-workers everyday.  I know lots of poor, single mothers and struggling working poor, married mothers who struggle to make ends meet working 2 and 3 jobs to do so – and taking tons of s**t in the process. Those women have reason to complain about sexism and discrimination. But Hilary? Oh-no!