Today in things the Internet is arguing about, Killer Mike, rapper and Bernie Sanders mega-supporter, is fielding lots of criticism for quoting a feminist scholar who he says told him, “A uterus doesn’t qualify you to be president of the United States. You have to have policy that’s reflective of social justice.” Here’s a quick rundown so that you, too, may fight about it!
The comments, as CNN reports, were made at a Sanders rally at Morehouse College on Tuesday. Here’s Killer Mike’s full speech; the part you’ll want to fight about begins five minutes in:
The full quote:
“When people tell us, hold on, wait a while, and that’s what the other Democrat is telling you. Hold on Black Lives Matter, just wait a while. Hold on young people in this country, just wait a while. And then she get good, she have your own momma come to you, your momma sit down and say, ‘Well, you’re a woman.’ But I talked to Jane Elliott a few weeks ago and Jane said, ‘Michael, a uterus doesn’t qualify you to be president of the United States. You have to be, you have to have policy that’s reflective of social justice.’ Paying women a fair wage is social justice. Making sure that minorities have jobs is social justice.”
Jane Elliott is an anti-racism activist, as well as a feminist and an advocate for LGBT rights. She’s best known for the “Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes” exercise, where as a teacher in 1968, the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, she divided her all-white classroom into groups based on their eye color to show them how discrimination felt.
Hillary Clinton’s Press Secretary Brian Fallon told CNN’s “New Day” Killer Mike’s comments were “disappointing,” adding, “Obviously if the suggestion there is that Hillary Clinton is asking anyone to vote for her based on her gender, that’s completely off base. This is just unfortunately the latest in a series of instances where some of Sen. Sanders top surrogates have made comments, to say the least, that are off script.”
Killer Mike, meanwhile, has been arguing with half the people on Twitter, while getting supportive comments from the other half:
A few options here for us all to consider:
- This is stupid.
- This is just grist for the “offense factory model” of online journalism, the tempest of the day, and it would have been over immediately if we didn’t all need something to write about.
- This is not stupid; this is the Bernie Bro phenomenon writ large and worthy of discussion. Can’t we have a single conversation about Hillary’s ability to serve without her uterus wandering into it?
- Literally no one is arguing that someone should vote for Clinton based on her uterus alone.
- But aren’t older feminists, in a way, yelling at us to do exactly that?
- Aren’t you excited for almost another full year of mid-speech gaffes and election-related fighting?
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Screenshot via YouTube/Shawn Brunelle