Attack on Sarah Palin Shows Richard Cohen's Ignorance of History
I just came across this bizarre article in the Washington Post by Richard Cohen: Attack on Michelle Obama shows Palin's ignorance of history. If I understand it correctly, Cohen is arguing that Michelle Obama's infamous comment about feeling pride in her country "for the first time" is one for which Palin ought to have more sympathy--and would, if only she understood the history of slavery in the United States:
It's appalling that Palin and too many others fail to understand that fact--indeed so many facts of American history. They don't offer the slightest hint that they can appreciate the history of the Obama family and that in Michelle's case, her ancestors were slaves--Jim Robinson of South Carolina, her paternal great-great grandfather, being one. Even after they were freed they were consigned to peonage, second-class citizens, forbidden to vote in much of the South, dissuaded from doing so in some of the North, relegated to separate schools, restaurants, churches, hotels, waiting rooms of train stations, the back of the bus, the other side of the tracks, the mortuary, the cemetery and, if whites could manage it, heaven itself.
I have no idea what Michelle Obama was really thinking when she made that comment, and I'm happy to give her the benefit of the doubt--probably she didn't mean it the way it was taken. But it's clear Cohen thinks she should have meant it the way it was taken: By his logic, anyone whose ancestors (literal or metaphorical) were slaves or second-class citizens in the United States is justified in feeling scant pride in America today.
The argument is incoherent and at best indifferent to history. By its logic, Sarah Palin (and I, for that matter) would be equally justified in contemplating the history of the United States and concluding that we have no reason to take pride in it. By "we," I mean women. In the early history of the United States, men owned their wives much as they did their horses. The 14th and 15th Amendments granted citizenship and suffrage to blacks but not women. Women had no right to vote until 1920.
Does Cohen realize that when Jim Robinson was alive, married women could not hold property in their own names, sue or be sued, make contracts, sit on a jury, or write a will? Does he appreciate that women were under the control of their fathers until they married and became their husband’s property? Does he know that they could not dream of leaving an abusive marriage, no less having access to higher education or holding political office? And can he follow this argument to its logical conclusion--that Sarah Palin is therefore just as entitled to feel ashamed of America as Michelle Obama, or conversely, that Michelle Obama is just as entitled to feel pride?
I could drown the reader in arguments to the effect that the subjugation of women in the United States was extensive and grievous, enshrined in law and tradition, terrible to contemplate, and no less appalling, by the standards of the late 20th and early 21st century, than slavery itself. Would it therefore be natural for every woman now alive in America to feel ashamed of her country? By Cohen's logic, yes.
Or one might feel--with better justification, I'd say--exceedingly proud of a history in which, through a massive moral awakening, slavery was abolished and women's rights secured.
The concept of "rights for women" was essentially inexistent in the world in the period he is considering, or seen as a joke; the United States was far from unique in this regard. Women were chattel the world around and in many places still are. Likewise, slavery has historically been the global rule, not the exception. But the United States rid itself of these monstrous evils in simultaneous and linked struggles, the fruits of which have been an extraordinary advance and gift to human civilization:
In the early Anti-Slavery conventions, the broad principles of human rights were so exhaustively discussed, justice, liberty, and equality, so clearly taught, that the women who crowded to listen readily learned the lesson of freedom for themselves, and early began to take part in the debates and business affairs of all associations. Women not only felt every pulsation of man's heart for freedom, and by her enthusiasm inspired the glowing eloquence that maintained him through the struggle, but earnestly advocated with her own lips human freedom and equality. When Angelian and Sarah Grimke began to lecture in New England, their audiences were at first composed entirely of women, but gentlemen, hearing of their eloquence and power, soon began timidly to slip into the back seats, one by one. And before the public were aroused to the dangerous innovation, these women were speaking in crowded, promiscuous assemblies. The clergy opposed to the abolition movement first took alarm, and issued a pastoral letter, warning their congregations against the influence of such women. The clergy identified with anti-slavery associations took alarm also, and the initiative steps to silence the women, and to deprive them of the right to vote in the business meetings, were soon taken. This action culminated in a division in the Anti-Slavery Association. In the annual meeting in May, 1840, a formal vote was taken on the appointment of Abby Kelly on a business committee, and was sustained by over one hundred majority in favor of woman's right to take part in the proceedings of the Society.
This is American history. Is this not a history of which to be proud? Are these not Americans of whom to be proud? I have no idea how well Sarah Palin understands this history, but it seems Richard Cohen doesn't understand it at all.
I remain perversely thankful to have been born in America when I was; it seems to me I got a better deal than any woman born in any other time and place in history.
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Jul '10
Re: Attack on Sarah Palin Shows Richard Cohen's Ignorance of History
I just want to state, for the record, that I have never, in my entire life, been proud of Richard Cohen or the Washington Post. The difference between America and many countries is the number of Americans that have always had higher expectations for this country and were willing to work to make it happen.
Aug '10
Re: Attack on Sarah Palin Shows Richard Cohen's Ignorance of History
I'm not American but I give thanks ( perhaps not quite daily) for my good fortune to live in a time when the USA is the dominant world power, and that it prevailed over the USSR which might have swept Europe but for the resolute support of the US for it's allies- whether that is appreciated by the younger citizens of Western European countries is another matter?
May '10
Re: Attack on Sarah Palin Shows Richard Cohen's Ignorance of History
I'm in Malatya, eastern Turkey, to serve as a juror at an international film festival--as a first time visitor, I feel like I'm finally reading Claire Berlinski in "the original". Claire's observations about women's advancement are pin-sharp, as usual, and I can see why Turkey offers her plenty of contradictory material to chew over for us. Lots of working class women wearing headscarves, but around the festival there are also young women smoking Viceroys and arguing about Metallica. Mainstream newspapers enthusiastically show bikini photos that would draw angry women's letters in the L.A. Times . I don't understand why more Americans aren't finding out about this rather crucial place; read Berlinski now or weep later.
May '10
Re: Attack on Sarah Palin Shows Richard Cohen's Ignorance of History
"They don't offer the slightest hint that they can appreciate the history of the Obama family"
Huh? B. Obama Sr. was a Kenyan, a member of the east african Luo tribe, and never a slave.
---
Number of West African slaves brought to North America: 600,000.
Number of European slaves taken to Africa: 1.2 million.
Nov '10
Re: Attack on Sarah Palin Shows Richard Cohen's Ignorance of History
Even by your own high standards, Claire, this is an exceptionally fine post — full of Passion. Allow me to add a few logs to the Fire.
When people (usually liberals) start using the Past as a cudgel against the Present, I always remind them of the brilliant opening line from L. P. Hartley's The Go-Between:
"The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there."
Michelle Obama is not now, and never was, a slave. She is not the daughter of slaves and her own daughters are not the children of slaves.
I never owned a slave, and my parents never owned a slave. I am reasonably sure that the same can be said of you and Sarah Palin. As caucasians, you, Sarah Palin and I owe nothing to Michelle Obama, or any other African-American. No apologies and, especially, no reparations. I refuse to grovel and beg forgiveness of people I never wronged. I leave that to the "guilty liberals."
Solely as a matter of simple logic, Michelle Obama has no reason to hold any sort of grudge against America for events now 150 years in the past.
P.S. Richard Cohen is an idiot.
Edited on Nov 26, 2010 at 3:54amAug '10
Re: Attack on Sarah Palin Shows Richard Cohen's Ignorance of History
Your rapier is bloodied, Claire! Touche. Someday Cohen and his 'progressive' cohorts will have a grim and awful awakening. Their minds are sieves, and their knowledge of history a mere patchwork amnesia.
I would only like to add that many laboring people in history, white, black, red, yellow, lived a slave-like existence. Some black slaves lived better lives than many laboring poor. News flash, Mr. Cohen! Life is unfair, and labels don't take the place of truth. Poverty and wealth, power and powerlessness, are relative.
Another thing: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants - yes, the WASPs which have been ruthlessly attacked by the Left for a generation - were the heart and soul of the Abolition movement. From the Englishman William Wilberforce (1759-1833), to the Americans Harriet Beecher Stowe, William Lloyd Garrison, and John Greenleaf Whittier in the early 19th Century.
A number of Muslim leaders, particularly in North Africa, have recently restated their right to take and keep slaves. Women are de facto slaves in most Muslim nations, and the 'progressive'/Statist/crypto-Marxists here and abroad never say a word about it.
We're seeing great evil at work here.
Note to Moochelle: You ingratitude is extremely unattractive.
Edited on Nov 26, 2010 at 5:52amMay '10
Re: Attack on Sarah Palin Shows Richard Cohen's Ignorance of History
Mrs. Obama grew up in comfortable middle-class circumstances (her father was a Chicago city employee and Democrat Precinct Captain, I'll speculate the fix was in). Went to Princeton and Harvard. Was Vice President for Community and External at the University of Chicago Hospitals where in 2006 her salary was $273,618.
Nice work if you can get it, nothing to be proud of though.
Jun '10
Re: Attack on Sarah Palin Shows Richard Cohen's Ignorance of History
Claire,"I have no idea what Michelle Obama was really thinking when she made that comment, and I'm happy to give her the benefit of the doubt--probably she didn't mean it the way it was taken."
You are too kind and give Mrs. Michelle too much benefit, for she meant it exactly how she said it. As a matter of fact, this comment was part of her horribly depressing "they keep raising the bar" speech which she gave numerous times until the campaign yanked her off the stage. I do not know Michelle Obama, but what I have read and seen leads me to believe she is more inclined to be mean and bitter than kind and sweet. So even a day after, I will add one more thanks to my Thanksgiving. Thanks God that Michelle Obama is merely the First Lady and not the President.
May '10
Re: Attack on Sarah Palin Shows Richard Cohen's Ignorance of History
Claire,
I agree entirely that RC is arguing like an ignorant dolt in this passage. And I too hate the grievance culture that incubated Michelle Obama's personality and world view.
But I resist to a degree the comparison between the pre-modern plight of women and blacks. Women lacked civil rights and equal opportunity with men. But unmarried daughters were never owned by their fathers the way slaves were owned by their masters. They were never bought and sold in marketplaces. They couldn't be abused with impunity. They were never considered subhuman.
The institution of slavery was a national disgrace in the way the treatment of women never was. And it (clearly) left deeper scars.
Sep '10
Re: Attack on Sarah Palin Shows Richard Cohen's Ignorance of History
To quote the great Glenn Reynolds - "Credentialed, not educated".
Jul '10
Re: Attack on Sarah Palin Shows Richard Cohen's Ignorance of History
Richard Cohen belongs to the worst generation in history, one that among other calamities spawned the hippies who felt themselves wrongly born into an uptight culture of inhibitions, a sense of duty and a desire to get ahead. Self indulgent to a degree never before seen, they tried to tear down all that had gone before, and succeeded to a great extent. Promiscuity, drug use, the collapse of family values -- nowhere more than in the black community whose pathologies Michelle never had to endure -- and the growth of ever more intrusive government, endless grievance mongering and political correctness are just a few of the legacies they leave. Cohen remains as stuck in Sixties as those doddering rock musicians out on reunion tours playing the county fair circuit. He's still telling us how wrong we are, man, how evil. It wouldn't surprise me if still has a pony tail.
Sep '10
Re: Attack on Sarah Palin Shows Richard Cohen's Ignorance of History
The screed of Richard Cohen can only be heard at dog frequencies; I long ago tuned him out. That said, I must say I am INCREDIBLY tired of hearing about Michelle Obama's exercise of her right to keep and bare arms.
Jul '10
Re: Attack on Sarah Palin Shows Richard Cohen's Ignorance of History
"Did (Palin) once just pick up the phone and ask Michelle Obama what she meant by her remark?"
I don't know Dick. Hey, since you asked, did you ever call Sarah and ask her for the context of her critique? No? Busy, huh?
I suppose that crafting thoughtful, fair-minded gems like, "She knows more about grizzlies than she does about African Americans - and she clearly has more interest in the former than the latter" must take awhile.
Aug '10
Re: Attack on Sarah Palin Shows Richard Cohen's Ignorance of History
katievs:
But I resist to a degree the comparison between the pre-modern plight of women and blacks. Women lacked civil rights and equal opportunity with men. But...
I think KatieVS has a point, particularly about women in early America.
Tocqueville's "Democracy in America" has a substantial section devoted to American women and girls, and, if you believe what Tocqueville has to say (which I do), it seems that well before women had whole and formal equal rights with men in this country, they were at least informally given autonomy and respect that their European sisters too often lacked.
Tocqueville noticed that American fathers were more likely to educate their daughters, listen to their wishes, and protect them from importunate suitors. American women, he noticed, were treated less like fools than European women, and consequently acted less like fools. Rapists were also severely punished in America, unlike in Europe, where a mere payoff or popping the victim into a convent might do. And so on.
It seems long before women's rights sprouted into a visible movement in America, it had subtle but deep roots in our culture. But that's often how it is.
Aug '10
Re: Attack on Sarah Palin Shows Richard Cohen's Ignorance of History
Nice closing line.
So, two questions. Wish you could be home to show Cohen your halberd , or watch him haul himself onto his own ?
And, halibut ?
Edited on Nov 26, 2010 at 5:13pmSep '10
Re: Attack on Sarah Palin Shows Richard Cohen's Ignorance of History
By PC rules, Cohen is right. Relevant PC rule: anything embarrassing, illogical or inflammatory by a minority or associated sycophant is never to be mentioned. Even better, never remembered. To do otherwise is racist.
Nov '10
Re: Attack on Sarah Palin Shows Richard Cohen's Ignorance of History
For my part, I think the Richard Cohen, like so many others, doesn't much care if he has history right. It's the sentiment, not the facts, that matter. We feel guilty for how bad we treated the blacks and the native Americans and women and the Hispanics and the gays and anyone else upon whose rights we white folks have trampled. The fact that Palin is a woman means as much to Cohen as the fact that Walter Williams is black. Conservative women are not really women, and conservative blacks aren't really black. They can't be. And whatever Michelle Obama says must be right, because of who she is the most uplifted of all: a black woman democrat. Those guys on the left are about as racist as they think we are.
Edited on Nov 26, 2010 at 11:27amAug '10
Re: Attack on Sarah Palin Shows Richard Cohen's Ignorance of History
I am trying to figure why they write this stuff. Who buys it ?
It is just a straight subsidy from some Ford Foundation clone ? How can any business continue to be so wrong and stay in business ?
No wonder they talk about a government subsidy for their media. It is a giant superfund site of toxicity littered with NYT and WaPo copies and other trash.
Claire needs a bigger gun, but asking the enemy for them....which brings a question to mind ?
What do you think of Jennifer's new post @same ? Will it give her a bigger bully pulpit ? I hope it gives her governmentesque boodle.
Jul '10
Re: Attack on Sarah Palin Shows Richard Cohen's Ignorance of History
As someone who visited the South in the late 60's, and who's father worked a few blocks away during the DC riots, institutional racism and the transition to its current form was not all smooth sailing and easy going. In Georgia and southern Virginia, construction teams were self-segregated and at least one black team lead I ran across very confrontational, trying "edge the man." His team was the first gone when the work load started to ramp down.
To this day, when I run across hate literature in the DC area, it is Black Nationalist and/or Farakhanner. The don't be a hater meme is still used by some black management to channel the confrontationalism into constructive discussion. Some of the people I admire most are the blacks who have avoided the scars and the hate memes.
Michelle Obama has leveraged racial tension to intimidate and scold all of her life, with Rev. Wright as one of her coaches. She got yanked from the campaign circuit because she is a loud-mouth loser. Richard Cohen was born to feed haters on all sides with his ignorant-yet-condescending "consciousness-raising" pap. Trapped in the 70's.
May '10
Re: Attack on Sarah Palin Shows Richard Cohen's Ignorance of History
I'm asking myself where are the pigs flying? Claire defending Palin! It really is a new day.
Of course, the analysis is spot-on. Just as is the comparison of personal finances with GM's.