Djelloul Marbrook

The gray region between sexism and misogyny is a gloaming filled with turned around street signs and delusions. I ought to know because I’ve been wallowing in it. I wrote in this space that Senator Hillary Clinton was marching like the Energizer Bunny off a cliff. I faulted her for playing the race card. I called her Pillory Clinton for coarsening the level of discourse in her campaign against Barack Obama by talking about his problem with white male voters.

I repent. My conscience is troubled by my feckless language.

I still prefer Senator Obama as the Democratic candidate for the presidency. But the language I used, in the context of a campaign that had already been marred by sexism and misogyny, was bigoted and stupid. It contributed to the very coarsening of the debate of which I complained.

My belief is that it is essential we put a woman in the White House, essential, as well, that we put an African-American in the White House. I was deeply troubled when the Obama-Clinton campaign tripped into a race-related rat hole. I felt the campaign had been cheapened, but that was not a license to speak in sexist terms about Senator Clinton.

Perhaps it is inevitable there will be smear, racism and misogyny in our political life, and that is reason enough for the lowliest blogger to at least dwell on this promising plateau we have reached: a woman having run an exciting campaign for nomination and an African-American having been nominated.—DM