Book Review: Who Should Be First?

A review of Who Should Be First?: Feminists Speak Out on the 2008 Presidential Campaign. Edited by Beverly Guy-Sheftall and Johnnetta Betsch Cole, SUNY Press.

The Danger of False Divides
by Janell Hobson

The 2008 Presidential campaign not only tested our nation’s readiness for change, it catapulted feminists into a firestorm of competing priorities. Much was at stake for racial- and gender-identity politics in the Democratic primaries that pitted then-Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama against each other—the first time a man of color or a woman had emerged as a leading candidate for the presidency. During those months, Guy-Sheftall and Cole were gathering personal archives of written material related to the unprecedented campaign. They have honed their collections into an anthology of writings on the subject, including personal reflections, open letters, op-ed pieces, petitions, critical essays and speeches, most of them contemplating or agonizing over the nagging question: Who should be first?

The result is a contemporaneous record of a riveting rhetorical battle, especially among feminists, over the preeminence of race or gender. Guy-Sheftall and Cole’s compilation of the perspectives of journalists, professors, public intellectuals, students and bloggers—including such influential voices as Gloria Steinem, Katha Pollitt and Mark Anthony Neal—has captured the mood of this momentous event.

Read the Full Essay @ Ms. Magazine

Hello Brooklyn! Thinking About Shirley Chisholm

from Critical Noir @ Vibe.com

What Would Shirley Chisholm Say?
by Mark Anthony Neal

“Hello Brooklyn!” I imagine that Bedford-Stuyvesant (Bed-Stuy, do or die…) native Shirley Chisholm might have said that when she addressed a crowd of hundreds, as she stood in front of a Brooklyn Church 36 years ago this January, to announce her candidacy for President of the United States. Ms. Chisholm, was the first black women elected to Congress in 1968 and a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC)—her announcement in January of 1972 was historic. That Ms. Chisholm is not more often recalled in our current political season is a reflection of a corporate media structure that possesses a criminally short memory (particularly in relation to black folk). Shirley Chisholm was a political maverick who held both the black political establishment and professional feminists accountable as she toiled on behalf of the poor, Black and Latino/a constituents that she represented for 14 years. I wonder what Ms. Chisholm, who died in 2005, would have said about the current debates about race and gender in the presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama

Read the Full Essay at CRITICAL NOIR @ Vibe.com