April 20, 2008

positive action pawns?

When Chryssa looks at the thinly veiled rage in Hillary Clinton's face when dealing with Barack Obama -- and hears what Geraldine Ferraro (the 1984 token woman VP Democrat candidate) said about his refusal to run as Hillary's token black second in command -- she feels disappointed at their insincerity in relation to equal rights and positive action and wonders what this means for her, personally, as a disabled woman in a disability industry job.

"Obama's rise to prominence is the inevitable consequence of the race industry arm of the equal rights movement," says Chryssa. "If you classify people by the color of their skin -- or physical ability or whatever -- and allocate opportunities and resources accordingly, it was inevitable that someone like Obama would someday emerge and capture the imagination of not just this country but the whole world – and the same rationale applies for all other positive action classifications."

"I support Obama wholeheartedly because his victory would represent a victory for equal rights in a way that Hillary's victory would not."

"Her message to women is regressive," explains Chryssa. "If all the feminist arm of the equal rights movement can give us is the wife of a former president who stands by her man no matter how much he humiliates her then that's not good enough. Had she ditched Bill and rose to prominence in her own right, as Hillary Rodham, then that would be a victory for feminism, even though her former status as First Lady would leave many women feeling helpless because without that background she might never have made it."

"As a disabled woman I have achieved a modicum of success as a result of the disability industry arm of the equal rights movement – you could say that my disability destined me for the job I have," says Chryssa. "Yet if I am merely a token, a pawn in a game played by liberal elites who assuage their guilt by championing people they don't live amongst, don't associate with socially,and don't have anything other than condescending pity for -- and most certainly don't want or expect us to rise to such a prominence that we gain our own voice and deprive them of their jobs in the industry as well as their power over us -- then how hypocritical is that and what does that do to my self-esteem?"

"Up until now I've felt reasonably secure in my position and prospects thanks to positive action," says Chryssa. "The disability champions have not been as loud and as numerous as those for race and gender -- in that nobody bats an eyelid at a black or female person rising up through the ranks, but people still stare at disabled people and discriminate against them -- so if Obama’s run for the presidency is sabotaged by his own party which supposedly champions equal rights, then things will never improve for disabled people and may, indeed, get worse."

"Either the equal rights movement and all of its arms is a sincere attempt to eradicate discrimination or it isn't," says Chryssa. "And when I consider how Obama has been treated I gain the distinct impression that it isn't."

"When Geraldine Ferraro said words to the effect that Obama wouldn’t be where he is today were it not for the color of his skin and the efforts of people like her – in the same way that I would be unemployed or stuck in an attic or institution were it nor for the efforts of people like her -- she's showing her age in a most unflattering way and telling us that our destiny will always be determined by factors other than our innate abilities."

"Like everyone around here of my age and younger -- I'm 34 -- I grew up without prejudice and when I look at Obama I see a brilliant man who would make a wonderful president," says Chryssa. "How unfortunate that despite her so-called equality sentiments Geraldine Ferraro sees only a black man."

"Rather than feeling joy that the movement they championed had achieved its aim, freeing them to champion another cause (like disability) or fade into the background like parents do, or should do, when their children grow up, these ageing liberal elites are showing their true colors and the prejudices of past generations."

"Face it, guys, your positive action schemes have come back to bite you and you're flabbergasted because you never believed in your own spin -- you never believed that a black person was your equal -- and you undoubtedly feel the same way about disabled people, too."

“Shame on you.”

This story first appeared as disabled pawns of liberal elites


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