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Sisters doing for themselves, in spite of some “same-race-gender-hate.”
So I see three issues here: Macho caveman behavior, an entitlement that they did it on there own; wife didn’t help me at all mentality and the two many tokens in a jar drowns out how special they think they are…kind of like a man of color in the Republican Party. Elections are decided in the marketplace of emotions, a marketplace filled with values, images, analogies, moral sentiments, and moving oratory, in which logic plays only a supporting role. Writer Dorothy Allison once said, “Class, race, sexuality, gender and all other categories by which we categorize and dismiss each other need to be excavated from the inside.”
by Donald W.R. Allen, II – Editor in Chief/The Independent Business News Network
Minneapolis, MN (IBNN/Politics/Editorial/July 31, 2012)…First of all, I want to make something perfectly clear; I like Raymond Dehn – he’s a nice fella and always speaks his mind around
Now we see who’s zooming who!
me. This story is not about support of any candidate, party or platform – this is just a critical look at why local Black male politicians have rejected our smart, strong Black sisters in Minneapolis. This is evident by the company two Black elected officials keep. “If everyone matters and everyone counts – why leave out support for Black women running for office in north Minneapolis?
The reality and shock happened when I saw a picture on Facebook, which had Congressman Keith Ellison in it with the text, “Congressman Ellison supports Ray Dehn.”
Well, okay – I guess Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District representative can support anyone he wants – but has he committed a first degree no-no for toward his own Black female counterparts by putting his support behind a White male candidate running for office in a mostly Black neighborhood? Or is this how the DFL political plantation works in the Twin Cities?
Maybe we can find an answer on why State Representative Bobby Joe Champion, running for State Senate hasn’t really publically endorsed any of the candidates running for his seat. Champion does keep close company with Mr. Dehn – but that’s another story.
From Trayshana Thomas to the current north Minneapolis Black female candidates, Congressman Keith Ellison will not openly support a few select Black women in his district. There’s been an ongoing “whisper campaign” that I’m glad to get tiny nuggets from, but heck nobody wants to wrinkle the feathers of the congressman, he’s a celebrity.
After reading and excerpt from Lipstick Alley from the story, “Why are black women so increasingly ignored, abhorred, disrespected and rejected” might provide a little insight on why this significant same-race-different-gender dislike happens:
It reads, “Black men do not care because they do not want to lose their hierarchical position, and all others do not care because it does not benefit them. Thinking that these people are “hating” and want to be like you is mentally draining, and I could only imagine the health problems that it can lead to. The real issue that we must discuss is why do we not make noise, and speak up when our character is assassinated I understand that there will be someone at the top and someone at the bottom, but we do not have to accept the bottom position?” (Cite Insert)
Getting the current Black Minneapolis political structure to openly support Black women, or women in general has been a daunting task.
Today’s Black politicians are doing something the Black males did at the start of the Black Power Movement in the 1960′s. Regardless if Black women, who were the head of the households wanted to adventure out to position themselves in society to join movements like the Black Power movement, there was still patriarchal social system in which the Black male acted as the primary authority figure central to social organization, and where fathers hold authority over women, children, and property.
In Minnesota, and within the DFL, it’s easy to put Women on the back burner. For example, the hiring of Corey Day as the executive director of the MN DFL upset many DFL feminists who were more qualified for the position. Day, who sat in front of IBNN’s cameras in 2010 and openly told viewers that Impact Minnesota (the voter education non-profit), was supporting now Gov. Mark Dayton and the DFL. In our opinion Day’s comments seemed to lack leadership qualities but he has become a somewhat powerful pundit for the Minnesota DFL.
We also must look at the Black self hate and throw in some Minnesota DFL and then you have the real answer on why the two “premiere” Black male, elected officials won’t support our Black women running for office in north Minneapolis?
This doesn’t mean the Republican Party is any better – just wanted to make that very clear.
