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Opinion ‘Cavemen’ Keep Sexism Alive “Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now” B ERNIE F OSTER Founder/Publisher B OBBIE D ORE F OSTER Executive Editor T ED B ANKS Advertising Manager J ERRY F OSTER Account Executive L ISA L OVING News Editor H ELEN S ILVIS Multimedia Editor B RUCE P OINSETTE Reporter D AVID K IDD Graphic Designer M ONICA J. F OSTER Seattle Office Coordinator J ULIE K EEFE S USAN F RIED Photographers The Skanner Newspaper, established in October 1975, is a weekly publica- tion, published each Wednesday by IMM Publications Inc., 415 N. Killingsworth St., P.O. Box 5455, Portland, OR 97228. W omen serve in almost every high-powered job in the United States: CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, Senators, university presidents, race car drivers and even astro- nauts. Yet, there are some male bozos who think women should be treated as inferior beings. Conservative blogger and Fox contributor Erick Erickson is the latest man to come out of his cave. After the publication of a Pew study that found that women are the primary or sole source of income in 40 percent of all Amer- ican households that have minor children, Lou Dobbs had the poor judgment to assemble an all-male panel May 29 for “Lou Dobbs Tonight” to discuss the report. Lou Dobbs: “Erick, your thoughts on this study and what it portends?” Erickson: “Lou, I’m so used to liberals telling conservatives that they’re anti-science. But this is — liberals who defend this and say it’s not a bad thing are very anti- science. “When you look at biology, look at the natural world, the roles of a male and female in society, and the other animals, the male typi- cally is the dominant role. The female, it’s not antithesis, or it’s not competing, it’s a complemen- tary role. We as people in a smart society have lost the ability to have complementary relationships in nuclear families, and it’s tearing us apart. “And what I find interesting in the survey is that three-quarters of the people surveyed recognize that having moms as the primary T HE C URRY R EPORT George E. Curry breadwinner is bad for kids and bad for marriage, and reality shows us that’s the truth.” After pushback from a lot of women, many of them conserva- tive, Erickson tried to clean up his remarks the next day on his radio show, but only made matters worse: say it, tend to out-perform those where the mother is the primary provider of the family outside of the home. Those are the facts. All I have done is pointed them out. “… And I understand that some women believe they can have it all, and that’s the crux of the prob- lem. I have to tell you, as a man, where women are told that men have so many more advantages in society, we can’t have it all. Women, you can’t have it all either. Life is a series of compro- mises and choices.” “America Live” anchor Megyn Kelly challenged her Fox News colleague. Kelly: So I’ll start with you, Erick. What makes you dominant ‘What the study highlighted, and what Erickson and his fellow Fox News commentators ignored, is the persistent class divide among mothers’ “It is a fact that children in a two parent, heterosexual household tend to have a more stable upbringing and a better chance of success than those of single par- ents or gay parents. This is a fact. This is not to insult gay parents. This is not to insult single parents. It’s just a fact. And the, of the sub- set of children who are raised in a two-parent, nuclear, heterosexual household, children where the father is the one who is the leader of the family, or the breadwinner of the family, however you want to and me submissive, and who died and made you scientist-in-chief? Erickson: …This isn’t healthy for society when we think that roles of gender are completely — can be interchangeable. No one’s saying women can’t be or should- n’t be a breadwinner or even the primary breadwinner. It’s just that when we forced ourselves to this point in society where they have to be, that’s not a good, healthy thing for society. Other women Fox contributors also weighed in. “I’m sincerely confused as to why you used behavior of animals to suggest that women shld stay at home,” Fox political analyst Krisen Powers tweeted. Katie Pavlich wrote on her Twit- ter account, “Not offended by idea of a strong male leading the house- hold, offended he implied women aren’t capable of doing so.” MediaMatters, the press watch- dog group, noted, “What the study highlighted, and what Erickson and his fellow Fox News com- mentators ignored, is the persistent class divide among mothers. According to the data, married mothers who earned more than their husbands were ‘dispropor- tionally white and college educat- ed.’ The single mothers, on the other hand, were ‘more likely to be black or Hispanic, and less like- ly to have a college degree.’ They also made significantly less: single mothers in the study had a median income of $23,000, about a quarter of the median income of couples with a female primary earner. If those single mothers were never married, their median income dropped to $17,400, hovering near the poverty threshold. “Furthermore, though more women may be ‘breadwinners,’ women still earn significantly less than men. The report showed that 75 percent of husbands still make more than their wives. In fact, women’s wages decreased in 2012, causing the gender-wage gap to widen with women earning only 80.9 percent of what men earned, or about $163 dollars less per week.” George E. Curry is former edi- tor-in-chief of Emerge magazine. Telephone (503) 285-5555. E-mail: info@theskanner.com World Wide Web site: http://www.theskanner.com Fax: (503) 285-2900 The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Associ- ation and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re - spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. © 2012 The Skanner. ALL RIGHTS RE SERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION PROHIBITED. To see The Skanner News on your smart phone go to theskannermobile.com or scan this QR code with your app. • • • • • • • • Local news Opinions Jobs, Bids Sports Entertainment Music reviews Bulletin board RSS feeds Hip Hop Can Maintain Political Momentum H ooray! The Associated Press reported that Ameri- ca’s Blacks voted at a higher rate than Whites in 2012 for the first time in history. Was it because there was a Black man running for president, or because threats of voter suppression? Was it a combination of the two? Or, did White America vote in fewer numbers because they felt, like many Blacks have felt for years, that neither candidate represented them and their views? Whatever the reason, 1.7 million more African-Americans voted for Obama in 2012 than in 2008. That raises another question: Do we understand what role we play in American politics? When I was a young girl, I asked my mom if we were Democrats or Republicans. She told me we were Democrats. I asked why, thinking I was going to get an explanation with so much sub- stance that I could rush to school and educate my classmates. Her reply was simple and direct: “Because we are Black.” As I ventured out into the world, what my mom said seemed to res- onate among most Black Ameri- cans. People really don’t ask African-Americans if they are Republican or Democrats unless they are the stereotypical Black conservative who goes out of his or her way to walk, talk, dress and act differently from the rest of Page 4 The Portland Skanner June 5, 2013 H IP H OP U NION Jineea Butler Black America. As conservative darling Ann Coulter put it, “Our Blacks, are so much better than their Blacks.” Our Blacks? This is not slavery and Coulter is not my slave mas- ter. For most of my life, I went to the polls and voted a straight Demo- cratic ticket, never learning about rats to run game on us by not par- ticipating or only choosing to be Democrats. On the other hand, should vote for Republicans simply because they are not Democrats? Accord- ing to the last NAACP Legislative Report Card, every Republican in Congress earned an F when voting on issues deemed important to us. Not even a D in the whole bunch. We must hold Democrats – including the ones who vote like Republicans – accountable. Black Americans want better for our Black Americans want better for our communities, but just don’t know how to get better from either Democrats or Republicans the candidates and the political process. It wasn’t until a Black Republican entered my life and challenged my reasons for being a Democrat did I begin to see the process clearly. He made me think, if all Black people are Democrats, what happens when Republicans or any other party wins? Do we expect those who won without our support to vote for legislation that resonates with the Black plight? We make it easy for Republicans and even Democ- communities, but just don’t know how to get better from either Democrats or Republicans. In Malcolm X’s acclaimed speech of 1964 “The Ballot or the Bullet,” he says we should control the politics and the politicians in our own community through Black Nationalism. He says, “We must know what part politics play in our lives. And until we become politically mature we will always be mislead, lead astray, or deceived or maneuvered into sup- porting someone politically who doesn’t have the good of our com- munity at heart.” We underestimate our political power. Thanks largely to Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Procla- mation, Blacks voted solidly Republican until Franklin D. Roo- sevelt’s New Deal. Even as late of 1960, Republicans were receiving 30 percent of the Black vote. Blacks left the GOP in droves after Barry Goldwater’s right- wing presidential defeat in 1964 and the Party’s adoption of a “Southern Strategy” – concentrat- ing on White voters at the expense of Blacks. Many worry what will happen now that Obama’s name will never appear on another presidential bal- lot. But Hip Hop can play a unique role in keeping our issues on the front burner. Rev. Jackson Sr. put it best when he said “We never lost a battle that we fought, but if we don’t fight we can’t win.” Most of us who don’t vote, are certain not to win. Our non-vote is also a vote – a vote for the opposi- tion. As political season begins and petitions begin circulating, don’t suck your teeth and walk away. Demand that these candidates that are asking you if they can have a job representing your community have a plan for fixing problems and a vision for the future.
