2016 Postmortem

but when I first read this last night, I was filled with sorrow.

I will tell you up front that many of your specific examples mean little to me. I do not say this to say that they are wrong. I say it because the use of terms like "vagina voter," or referring to Hillary as "herself," are not particularly moving to me. BUT I at least can recognize that the reason they seem insignificant is for a reason which I know all too well, albeit in a different context. I am a man. I do not carry with me either the historical context of the experiences of the millions of women who came, and suffered, before me, or the personal experiences of a female living in a male-defined world. I cannot feel the same way you, or for that matter any woman, can feel when exposed to such comments. I simply lack the requisite knowledge. For this reason I beg your understanding for the first sentence in this paragraph.

My ignorance, however, does not keep me from completely agreeing with what you have said.

As a black man, as a black person, I can empathize with you. As I ventured out from the AA group, where I originally came to seek some solace after the reaffirmation of slavery that was the events in Ferguson and their aftermath, I was struck by the seeming nonchalance with which (often) white posters "educated" me about how much this candidate or that, or this official or that, "cared about black people." It wasn't simply that I disagreed (I have made my living out of disagreement), it was the crushing message that white folks still think they know what was best for me, for us, and that they have the standing to tell me so. In my youth, that message was answered with force, but now it just tears at my liver. I may not know your, and other women's, pain, but I can understand it.

In addition, and I have spoke of this before, there was another form sexism that one can understand without the female life-experience. Poster after poster has pointed out Hillary's various "flaws." I even agree that some of them at least were indeed flaws. Here, however, is what enrages me and should enrage every sentient being. Each of these were flaws she shared with every male presidential candidate who went before her. "Secretive and mistrusting? Can we even count the number of male candidates who fit that description? Beholding to Big Money? Again, is their a male candidate in history of whom we cannot say the same? Were these "flaws" held against her male counterparts? And yet, it isn't merely that they were held against her. It is that they were considered so "disqualifying" that people cued up and voted for someone who basically announced himself as a beast. That, to me, is the most discouraging example of just blatant sexism to come out of this election. Not that Hillary was held to a higher standard, but that even the most reprehensible male to ever run for the presidency was deemed preferable to so many. We, as a country, are where the rest of the world was a hundred years ago. We are overrun by beasts.

Take care my friend.