Sometimes It's Accurate

Last night on CNN a Republican consultant stated plainly that sometimes it's OK to call a woman a bitch.



I think there's plenty of racism in American society. I think there's plenty of sexism in American society. I think cultural mores allow us to publicly express the sexism. And that's sad. At the same time, the fact that racism is so pushed into oblivion and mustn't be uttered actually masks its prevalence, too, and gives the false impression that it's an old subject that has been covered and reached a successful conclusion.

This Presidential race is exposing a lot of old wounds in American life, and with the media we're saddled with, the exposure has not been elevating. If and when the next Democratic President is inaugurated in January 2009, many of those wounds aren't going to heal. In fact they'll get worse. There's no magic bullet to make America a racist-free or sexist-free country. But something has to be done about the casual acceptance of sexism in this campaign.