Young white Obama supporters- here’s a cookie, you’re not racist.

I am imploring the Obama camp- please please please give us an idea that you know what’s going on with Hilary in this campaign its sexist bullshit. Obviously, Obama is not responsible for the nasty YouTube videos popping up that degrade Hillary as a “crazy” woman (see bitch) however, the support that Obama is garnering form a distinctly misogynist gathering worries me. That those out there seem to think that supporting a black male candidate makes them somehow progressive or PC enough to call a white women crazy. Which is interesting, because so many of these supporters seem super desperate to gain status as a card carrying anti-racists….

Those white Obama supporters who think they aren’t racist, by adding Obama to their hand of “I’m a good white person” cards, need a reality check. Let me quickly review some often coveted cards in that hand….

“My black friends say…”

“When I spent a summer in an (insert African country) village…”

“Isn’t it terrible about (insert common Africa stereotype here, genital mutilation, starvation, lack of clean water) I’m involved in this great non-profit”

Other tokens commonly seen- pictures with brown babies, “traditional” tokens for service trip. 

White people it seems, especially the young white “progressives” who seem to be supporting Obama, love to collect these cards in order to protect themselves against the thing that they know is real- being prejudiced and racist is kinda part of being a white person in America. Unless you grew up in a cave, you’ve been exposed to racial stereotyping, the myth of the white norm, and used your observational powers to see who gets ahead in this country (while being told that all it takes is hard work.) That leaves most white americans in the camp of being racist (yes, get over it, you’re a product of a racist society.)  Racism does not mean that you overtly hate PoC. That’s called bigotry and hatred. 

This being true, we’ve got a bunch of white liberals who are pretty freaking scared of deeply seeded ideas about race, because they know its not “right” but they still catch glimpses of it every once in a while- and don’t have the understanding to talk back to it. Take that (white guilt) add a black man running for president, and you’ve got a liberal white boys wet dream.  We’re talking someone who is “safe” because he’s highly educated and speaks as they do (safe black guy, good black guy) yet is also “black” (read hip and down) and can prove how cool these young white guys are.  

So young, white, hip Obama supporters- if we give you a cookie and tell you that you’re not racist will you be happy?  Congrats. Now for the “how not to be sexist lesson 101″- calling women “bitches” is a misogynistic term. 

To be clear- I totally agree that Obama has faced racism across this campaign.  I’m NOT saying that white progressives have not said some messed up things, or that all white boys are voting for Obama, or IN ANY WAY that Obama has received privilege due to his race in politics. But he has because of his gender.