Thursday, October 18, 2012

Fearlessness


“It is incomprehensible to me, the fear that can affect men in political offices.  It is shocking the way they submit to forces they know are wrong and fail to stand up for what they believe.  Can their jobs be so important to them, their prestige, their power, their privileges so important that they will cooperate in the degradation of our society just to hang on to those jobs?” 
-Shirley Chisholm, Unbought and Unbossed
           
           Chisholm made this statement in reference to her first major confrontation in Congress.  One of the first processes when a person is elected into Congress is their assignment onto a committee.  This is based partly on seniority and partly on the good ol’ boy system where decisions are made behind closed doors and no one has to answer to them.  Chisholm was aghast when she found out that she had been assigned to the Agricultural Committee with the subcommittee of rural development and forestry (Chisholm 115). 

 Chisholm had been elected to represent an urban population in New York.  The majority of her constituents were Black or Puerto Rican, and the issues that they were most concerned with were unemployment, housing, and poverty.  Chisholm was a trained educator and had no knowledge or interest in forestry or rural development.  The assignment had obviously been given to her stifle her voice (Gill 27).  She made the decision to propose an amendment that would call for her reassignment.  This was considered political suicide because she was going against Congressmen that had much more seniority and power than she did.  She was offered and accepted a position on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, but not without much criticism (Chisholm 118).  

One of her critics included a wire service writer who wrote a piece about how he felt Chisholm should have handled the situation.  In his opinion, more power is gained in Congress from blocking the measures that others propose than promoting one’s own needs.  It is a political gain where decisions are made based on who can provide what favors (Chisholm 118).  Chisholm’s response was that was fine for white congressmen who had time to slowly gain power, but there were “children in my district who will not live long enough for me to play it the way he proposes (Chisholm 118)”.
 
This is a classic example of the differences between white middle class culture and poor black culture.  Some of the differences between womanism and feminism are that womanists are fighting for basic human rights and survival while sometimes feminists can appear to be focused on middle class problems.  Both are oppressed, but the differences end there.  The reporter’s suggestion that Chisholm play the game showed his ignorance on the plight of poor people of color in urban communities. 
 
At the same time, Chisholm almost had an advantage with her oppressed place in society because it made her unafraid to challenge the seniority of leaders.  She was already so far outside of the system that she was able to speak her mind because there was no way that she would be relegated to a lower place.  She was often singled out for ridicule and proclaimed that her first experiences in Congress were miserable ("Shirley Chisholm" 71). This video shows Chisholm speaking about how she was treated in Congress:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia2ngZgo17U                                              

This video makes it clear that Chisholm had nothing to lose when it came to challenging men, and she was able to accomplish a lot of good based on her fearlessness. 

Works Cited 



Chisholm, Shirley. "Shirley Chisholm." Trans. Array A Wealth of Wisdom: Legendary African American Elders Speak. Camille O. Cosby and Renee Poussaint. New York, NY: National Visionary Leadership Project, 2004. 69-78. Print.
 

Chisholm, Shirley. Unbought & Unbossed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1970. Print.  

Gill, LaVerne McCain. African American Women in Congress: Forming and Transforming History. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997. 16-34. Print.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Harnessing the power of women



http://cache3.asset-cache.net/gc/53372627-congresswoman-shirley-chisholm-and-her-staff-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=kysaV6SYguEWnIKVQlINHQQsc75bL%2fxyQiXnHw68m7TOCPqFecFpXqoKL9v9hVbMvz29R67B8pHJWNrSzbnRlQ%3d%3d 
Picture of Shirley Chisholm and her staff in 1970  

Image from: http://cache3.asset-cache.net/gc/53372627-congresswoman-shirley-chisholm-and-her-staff-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=kysaV6SYguEWnIKVQlINHQQsc75bL%2fxyQiXnHw68m7TOCPqFecFpXqoKL9v9hVbMvz29R67B8pHJWNrSzbnRlQ%3d%3d

          Shirley Chisholm did not set out to use her female status as a way to generate votes (Gill 26).  She envisioned a world where she could be recognized only on her abilities and knowledge, but she quickly learned that women had a unique power to organize that she would be foolish to not harness.  Men, certainly, would never be the backbone of her campaign.  She stated that men of all races were outraged when she started her campaign (Chisholm 80).  While some women found her run for Congress to be unwanted, there were many more that she was able to use for support.  She felt that the men she was running against were underestimating how many black women headed households in her district (Chisholm 92).  These women represented a mass number of voters that were not being courted by other candidates.

          Chisholm began to ask these women for help and lamented that “tremendous amounts of talent are lost to our society just because that talent wears a skirt (Chisholm 92)”.  Chisholm started to view using women in her campaign as not drawing attention to her gender, but instead she saw it as a way to give women a larger voice in their communities and lives.  Women organized parties for her to come and speak about her candidacy.  She found that they were natural leaders and felt that they were a large reason that she was successful (Chisholm 94). 

          After she was elected to Congress, Ms. Chisholm continued to use female power by hiring an all female staff.  Half of her staff were white women and the other half were black women (Gill 27).  This was not because she believed women were superior but rather because she believed that so many women had missed opportunities to succeed only because they were women.  It was her way of showing that women were just as capable as men and that they could succeed without the help of men.  She eventually did hire some men, but she always welcomed women who had been denied in other offices (Gill 27).
                                                       
          Shirley Chisholm’s belief in the power and unity of women during her campaign showcase her womanist spirit.  She recognized that in order to succeed in a male dominated environment, women needed solidarity.  It is very possible that she never would have been able to succeed without women banding together to help her.  Men were threatened by her, and they were all to eager to keep the power in their own hands.  This is still true in today’s society. 

Works Cited                         

Chisholm, Shirley. Unbought & Unbossed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1970. Print. 

Gill, LaVerne McCain. African American Women in Congress: Forming and Transforming History. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997. 16-34. Print.



Saturday, October 13, 2012

Race or gender?



Shirley Chisholm was not a woman who played by the rules.  This was true in a lot of ways, but one paradox that she created is related to a topic she mentions frequently: gender and racial equality.  Ms. Chisholm states in her autobiography that she was subjected to more oppression because of her sex than because of her race (Chisholm 32).  She contradicts herself in several parts of her books, most notably when she says that her initial choice of a career in education was made mostly because very few other options existed for black women (Chisholm 45).  This is a curious inconsistency, and it goes against so much of what womanism and much of women’s studies courses teach.  I would like to explore some possible reasons for why she would have felt this way.  

Ms. Chisholm was born in New York to parents who were immigrants from the Caribbean Islands.  She was sent to live with her grandmother in Barbados when she was a young child and remained there for 7 years.  During this time, almost all of the children and adults that she saw were black (Chisholm 14).  She enjoyed her time there, and when she returned to the United States her father instilled in her a sense of pride in her race (Chisholm 18).  Is it possible that having so many healthy, happy, loving role models who were black in her early life made it hard for her to see oppression that was caused by race?  Perhaps it was attributed more to gender because she felt so much pride in her race that it was hard for her to believe it to be a cause of oppression.
      
            Another plausible explanation would be the lack of support that she received from black men, white men, and white women.  She was told to stay home and care for her husband, and her intentions were questioned.  Many black men felt she was taking over territory that had rightfully been earned by them, and many white people felt that a black women or any woman had no place in politics (Chisholm 52).  She was also accused of dividing the black vote by running against a black man in a primary election (Chisholm 60).  Since commentary of this nature was coming from both men and women of all races, it would be reasonable for her to have assumed that it was being caused more from them being upset about her gender than upset about her race.

            We will obviously never have true insight into all of Ms. Chisholm’s rationale, but we do have a wealth of information that tells us that she used her struggles as a platform to fight for the rights of others who she felt were not having their voices heard.  Some historians believe that as a legislator, Ms. Chisholm was largely ineffective because she represented people that were not cared about, and she was unable to build networks the way that white men were able to (Ellis and Smith 103).  Even considering this, her impact cannot be overestimated when one considers all of the barriers that she was able to break through.

Works Cited                                  

Chisholm, Shirley. Unbought & Unbossed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1970. Print. 

Ellis, Catherine, and Stephen Drury Smith, ed. Say It Loud! Great Speeches on Civil Rights and African American Identity. New York, NY: The New Press, 2010. 101-111. Print.