COMMON GROUND
On political issues, black men and white women have a lot in common
BY HEIDI HARRIS
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Heidi Harris hosts “The Heidi Harris Show” weekday mornings, 8 to 10 a.m., on NewsTalk 720 KDWN in Las Vegas. Visit her website www.heidiharris.com.
Other stories by Heidi Harris
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One of my favorite listeners of my show on KDWN is a man named “Sir.” He’s a black liberal who calls whenever he wants to take issue with something I’ve said. We usually disagree, but he’s always polite and passionate about the issues. Recently, I invited him to join me in studio on air for an hour, and we had a great time discussing various issues from our own unique perspectives.
As we began to talk, I realized that a black men and white women have far more in common than most people would believe. For example, as a black man, so called “black leaders” attempt to speak for him. He’s expected to follow lockstep with what “they” say, and if he’s not “black enough” he’s considered a traitor to his race. He’s also expected to watch BET and listen to rap music.
For a white woman, it’s very much the same. Feminists attempt to speak for me, and there’s a lot of women’s issues to talk about, as if all women have the same opinions. Many politicians lump us together, and some foolishly assume that I’d be more likely to vote for a female candidate. To be a real American woman, I’m expected to watch Oprah and Lifetime, and complain about how my husband’s not doing enough for me.
On the career front, my friend Sir and I face the same hurdles — no, not the real ones, but the ones we’re supposed to believe actually exist. The feminists tell me that there’s a “glass ceiling” no woman can overcome. In Sir’s case, black leaders would have him believe that he can’t even get a job to begin with, just because of his pigment. Why should we even bother since “our representatives have already counted us out!”
When it comes to affirmative action, we’re in the same boat. I’m considered a “minority” even though my sex constitutes half the population. There’s always concern about the ratio of females to male in certain occupations, without regard to how few women might really want to be engineers or scientists.
Experts try to sell me the bill of goods that because I’m a woman, I’ll never earn the salary as a man for doing the same job. Gee, thanks for the encouragement!
For my friend Sir, being an actual minority is a double-edged sword. He’s an accomplished person who’s achieved a great deal in his career, but with so much emphasis on affirmative action and quotas, regardless of his qualifications, he has to constantly fight the perception that he got his job because he’s black.
Political leaders can’t control us unless they can put us into a tight little ideological bundle. If they can’t speak for us, we might actually think for ourselves, and that would be devastating. What would the NAACP and NOW do if we rejected their condescending rhetoric? Let’s put them out of business.
