Have we forgotten the bigger picture? by Feminist Avengers , Nov 5, 2008 at 21:16, in

First I want to start off saying that I am very glad that Barack Obama won the election. I am extremely glad that this country has finally put aside its racism enough to elect a black president and seems to be to some extent, fed up with the way this country has been ran for the last eight years.


I am not glad that people are so blindly putting all of their faith into one man, who though he is black, is still playing a white man's game. A game that is so wildly sexist any woman who even came near where Obama is now, was shut out by either sexplioting them or calling them unsexy and 'manly'. This is a game that only the rich get to play. A game for chauvinist capitalists alone, founded completely on the hierarchal domination of others.

Did we forget somewhere along that way, that our grand savior does not even support gay marriage? (Though I am hardly calling gay marriage the path to liberation)

Did we forget that he is a supporter of free trade, which ravages the lives of women and men all over the world for capitalist benefit?

Did we forget that the grand promises that politicians often make us for healthcare, education, women's and environmental needs are rarely, rarely fulfilled, because to do so would undermind the needs of the ruling class?

As a radical, I do not wish to sit at a 'table' as I'll call it, that is founded on exploitation, slavery, and sexism. Putting a decent person at the table does not make it a non-corrupt table, it just corrupts its new guests.
As a radical, ignoring the issues that cause oppression-patriarchy and capitalism, and pushing a watered-down 'less harmful' version of these is not change and will never liberate people. I do not wish to sit at the 'table' and negotiate with capitalists, mysogynists, racists, bigots, or homophobes. Real change will not occur doing so, and is only a waste of energy.

Real change WILL occur when we finally grow the ovaries to smash the damn table and build one that is not contaminated with the above ailments. Sexism and all of the above are social diseases. A disease will not stop harming people by putting healthy people around it to 'contain it', it will only spread to them slowly but surely. Only the destruction of those social diseases will stop their harm.

Sure, its great we have a black president, but just cause he's black doesn't mean he's going to save the world. He is a capitalist after all. He just happens to have darker skin and kinder words.