Gender and racial identity in the political sphere is something that I've been thinking a lot about recently. We live in a country where for the first time, it appears that either a woman or an African American man may have a legitimate chance at being our next POTUS.

I was watching one of the Sunday morning shows with my Uncle Ted this past weekend and I remember one person reporting that tennis legend and feminist icon Billy Jean King made the remark that it felt like "the entirety of my life's work as a feminist is going up in smoke" because of this election. Her general thinking that this is the best shot women are going to have at electing a president in the foreseeable future.

And that remark hit me pretty hard. I both agree with it and also can't disagree with it more. As a self-identified feminist, I really want to see a woman president. There are few things I want more in this world than for my daughter to grow up in a world where there are literally no limits for women in their careers.

But at the same time, I felt that her remark was kind of off putting. For too long, I think that all of the different caucuses have fallen into this pattern of only thinking about "what's best for my constituents," instead of thinking about "what's best for equality" overall.

Because I think that regardless of who wins, it's a winning situation for both gender and race because they're both intertwined under the banner of "equality." So for me, Billie Jean King's remarks were a little off putting. I thought that all believers of equality were in this thing for equality period, whether it be gender, race, gender identity, class, or sexual orientation.

But on the other hand, I do realize that, being a white male in this society, I've never had to live in a world where one of my lifelong dreams was to see "one of my own" in the highest political positions in the world. The only limitations that I see are the ones that are self-imposed.

So I do not want to discount anyone who has waited their whole life for this moment. But at the same time, I think that we need to broaden our horizons past our own identities.

Part of what made her remark off putting to me was that nearly all of the "progressive" movements in our country's history have had a history of being short sighted when it came to race. The anti-war movement of the 60's was often seen as a college educated white boy's club. The feminist movement of the 19th and 20th centuries were largely segregated by race until they tried to be more inclusionary in the 80's, 90's, and oughts. Gay and Lesbian groups were often hit with the same critiques.

I read an Andrew Sullivan article a while ago that made the case that Obama is in many ways a product of a new progressive ideology that sees people more as a wheel than as each of the individual spokes. I've been (and continue to be) around college activists since August 2000, so I know a thing or two about how student progressives are thinking these days. And by and large, while they see each identity as being important both in the personal and social fabrics of their daily lives, they also see that a victory for equality in one avenue is a victory for equality in all avenues. So HRC and Obama supporters who come into my office will often remark that while they support their candidate, they feel that either one's nomination would be a great step forward for gender and racial equality.

Thoughts?

- Matt