“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:
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.
