NOTHING’S SHOCKING

Via racialicious, Ta-Nehisi Coates on Hillary’s privilege in RE: her comment that she was “shocked” at the sexism she encountered:
Why the hell was Hillary Clinton, and many of her allies, “shocked” by the sexism she encountered? I’ve been wondering this for months. I mean think about: Nobody black is “shocked” that Clinton won West Virgina and Kentucky 2 to 1. Nobody black is “shocked” that there is a Curious George tee-shirt of Obama. Nobody black is shocked that a Kentucky Congressman called Barack Obama “boy.” Black people can’t afford to be shocked. If anything we’re shocked Obama won Iowa, Oregon and Idaho. In other words, we’re shocked that America is evidently less racist than we thought it was.
I think this reflects how gender interacts with privilege–and arguably white privilege. No black woman who has to walk down Lenox Ave. and endure the cat-calls, who has to deal with the latest ho-slapping Snoop single, who has to function in a culture where “pimp” is now a postive word, is “shocked” by sexism. Indeed, Essence magazine has been on this shit for years. In fact, I’d argue that no white woman who spends her days, say, as a waitress in a diner would be shocked. That is how you know Hillary is an elite–she has the right, indeed the privilege, to be shocked by sexism. If she’s shocked by what she saw running for president, let me submit that a day as black woman, a Latina, or working white woman would send her into cardiac arrest. .
Hear, hear. I would also add to the above: any woman who walks down any street in nyc at any given time, maybe barring the gossip girl quadrants, i dont know, dont spend a ton of time in rich manhattan. anyway. go ta-nehisi.