White Women’s Rage: 5 Thoughts on Why Jan Brewer Should Keep Her Fingers to Herself

Actually when I saw this picture I thought she might be joking with him about something.

This was recently discussed on “Real Time with Bill Maher”. One of the guest panelists, Martin Bashir, said that her actions were a personification of what many anti-Obama people feel. It just confirmed what is going on in Whatthefucksville, USA.

In all of what was said above, that is what really you CHOSE to take away?  I want to know how exactly does the notion of keeping one’s friggin’ fingers out of people’s faces and the problem of talking to the President of the US like he’s being a naughty puppy translate into a notion of women being told to be quiet.  You can’t actually believe that there’s no other way for someone like Jan Brewer, or any other  woman, to speak their minds except to be so blatantly disrespectful.   Feminists who aren’t interested in being
quiet, proper and polite, figure out how and which ones to cross, and what to
expect in response.  She’ll get kudos from those who think that he’s just another black man, but that doesn’t mean she made some major interventions on behalf of women.  Far from it.  And frankly, I’m not going to defend someone who spends so much time figuring out how to persecute people (which includes women!) of color.  She needs to keep her hands to herself, period.  They teach that in school in Arizona, don’t they?

What strikes me as interesting is that if a man got into his face like
that, he would be accused of assaulting or threatening bodily harm. But
because she’s a woman, she’s allowed to get away with it, and then to
heap insult upon injury by claiming she “felt threatened” = I’m sure she
did – by the fact that he has more power than she does and that he’s
not her lap dog.
 
I’m presuming we’re all adults here, so we’ve been around long enough to know that when you step to someone like that, it’s almost certain that an argument and even a physical fight is going to ensure.  Why? That posture hostile and aggressive body language and intended to provoke.  Thankfully, BO can handle himself.  But there are a lot of people who would have to demonstrate amazing self-control not to push her away.   But that would probably be labeled sexist and misogynist etc.  And to tell her to calm the fuck down and back off? That’d be “paternalistic.”  But that’s exactly what I’d tell her.
 

“Women should be quiet and act properly and polite. Which, in a way, strikes me as very paternalistic and anti-feminist.”
…  How about  a white woman is afforded the luxury to demean the president and get away with it because society was designed to protect her.  Pointing your finger in someone’s face is flat out aggression and disrespect and I wouldn’t accept that from anyone: women included.

I think it’s more like she should respect the office of the president and that style of finger pointing is not respectful at all. My first reaction to that photo was  thinking that she’d never do that to a white president. Would not happen. If she wouldn’t do it to a white president, she shouldn’t be doing it to a black president. Not that one would expect anything else from this particular person, given her record of horrifically racist legislation.

I still think Brewer should apologize for her charade, but she probably won’t because what she did was perfectly fine. As much as some people hated Bush nobody ever disrespected him as much as they have our President today. I understand President Obama is a very warm people-oriented person, but that does not call for him to be walked over. I’m still upset about that year Boehner hollered out during the State of the Union Address, while the President was talking! I have never ever heard anyone scream out while the President is up talking. I don’t think he apologized either. He has no respect for President Obama, period and I don’t like him.

Does Jan Brewer know that the Obama administration has deported record numbers of illegal immigrants?  What is she angry about?  Oh yeah…………….. 

One thing – Why should I respect a persident – I do get  “respect a person”, but the idea I should respect a person  just because he works in the  WH, is a little bit strange to me. Obama,unlike many of the  States  former persidents  at least seem like he is sane ( can you be a sane person and  a politician at the same time – I am still not sure about it) , that is a big plus.  Giving hugs and kisses to the office itself is a little bit strange to me.  Is it American thing ?

I’m european and whenever i see Obama, like  in the first picture, the only thing that pops to my mind is “He is so classy !”. Seriously, each time i see your president next to some white european leader, the white looks nervous and unconfortable and Obama just stands out on himself. 

The white senator just look out of control here… 

“ 
Seriously, can white women and feminists stop derailing discussions about their own racism, classism, or even generic blunders by calling it all anti-feminist or misogynistic? ”

No.  No, they cannot.

Really.  I didn’t recognize her as Jan Brewer, for one.  How much does that information change the interpretation?  At first glance, I thought they were both smiling.

He HAS to stay calm. Look how he was pilloried when he stated the officer who arrested Henry Louis Gates was acting stupidly. He was practically labeled an Angry Black Man. I don’t like the rhetoric that the only way to handle disrespect or oppression is by being “calm” and acting with “dignity and grace”. Sometimes it is necessary to get angry. Unfortunately, as both a black man and the President he has to constantly walk on egg shells and provide a sanitized front.

I sugeest you get a better look, their is finger pointing and then there’s putting your finger in someone’s face. I wouldn’t tolerate that shit from anyone.

“Seriously, can white women and feminists stop derailing discussions about their own racism, classism, or even generic blunders by calling it all anti-feminist or misogynistic?” 
 Nope.  There’s a need to pull this “you hurt my feelings” crap even when interacting with other white women of roughly the same class.  But I think this tendency has noticeably worsened in recent years,  possibly as a result of a growing societal tendency to assume that public space is one’s living room and one has the right to do whatever one wants in it, and damn anyone who mentions that you just bumped into them.  

In other words, HE caused this not her entitlement or opportunity to drive up her book sales (which it did).

In other words, HE caused this not her entitlement or opportunity to drive up her book sales (which it did).

Great article! Just one comment. Recent scholarship shows that Washington was anything but a collaborationist. He was no less radical than anyone politically active in his time. Just because he lived in the past– with a context different from ours– doesn’t mean he didn’t fiercely resist.

He did that AFTER. I need you to find a recording and watch the entire scene before you jump to conclusions.

He did that AFTER. I need you to find a recording and watch the entire scene before you jump to conclusions.

I do know that it’s been a discussion, and I have seen the research, but I would still ask that you not use that language.  I don’t see it as normative, of course.  But a mental illness?  We’ve had that discussion on this site as well, and as a person who is a WOC and lives with MI, it really doesn’t help to have another micro-aggression thrown my way, even if it is friendly fire.

Not to mention that most MI people are a greater risk to themselves rather than others, so counting extreme racism as a mental illness leads to the perception of MI people as dangerous.