The Black, the Female and the Invisible.

The recent media obsession with identity, centered on presidential candidates who represent constituent groups other than white men, has created a public conversation about race and gender. The hope for those of us working in the justice sector is that the conversation pushes past the humdrum of the oppression olympics, but most of the talk to date has gone wasted on a battle of who has it worst--black men or white women. The loss is that at a time when concern and interest by voters is focused on issues of race and gender and we have a key opportunity to push the conversation in new directions, we are stuck with the terms set in stone in the post-Civil Rights language of oppositional identities.

Sentiments expressed in Maureen Dowd's misfire of a column the other day about "shoulder-pad" feminists supporting HIllary Clinton's nomination, is a perfect example of this obsession gone bad. We have come to expect the worst from Dowd, but assuming that racism and misogyny are in the past is a new low.

With Obama saying the hour is upon us to elect a black man and Hillary saying the hour is upon us to elect a woman, the Democratic primary has become the ultimate nightmare of liberal identity politics. All the victimizations go tripping over each other and colliding, a competition of historical guilts.

People will have to choose which of America's sins are greater, and which stain should be removed first. Is misogyny worse than racism, or is racism worse than misogyny?

As it turns out, making history is actually a way of being imprisoned by history. It's all about the past. What will be expunged more quickly? America's racial past or America's sexist past?

I'm not sure what Dowd means in calling the situation "the ultimate nightmare of liberal identity politics," but I don't think it's her frustration with a lack of intersectional analysis or the ways that women of color have been rendered invisible in the national dialogue of race and gender. Dowd's attempt at a post-racist, post-feminist consciousness is so clearly distorted by her hate for feminists and for women ( something very much in style right now) that it is no wonder that she is completely comfortable calling women that support Clinton un-fun, old, unattractive in her feeble attempts to coin a new pop-demographic category -- "shoulder pad feminists."

Some women in their 30s, 40s and early-50s who favor Barack Obama have a phrase to describe what they don't like about Hillary Clinton: Shoulder-pad feminism.

They feel that women have moved past that men-are-pigs, woe-is-me, sisters-must-stick-together, pantsuits-are-powerful era that Hillary's campaign has lately revived with a vengeance....

As a woman I know put it: "Hillary doesn't make it look like fun to be a woman. And her 'I-have-been-victimized' campaign is depressing."

What is depressing is when women espouse anti-feminist, anti-woman tendencies and confirm the sexism at the root of people's fear in the potential for a woman to become president. There is nothing post-feminist about that, that is old-fashioned sexism. And of course, Obama totally makes it look fun to be a black dude, which is why he has garnered so much support. Right, of course, that must be it.

Ironic that the same voices that demand we end the battle of identity politics are the ones that are most reliant on it. So while Dowd is worried about which candidate looks like they are having "fun" those of us that are dealing with the issues in personal and practical ways have a different perspective. Both race and gender matter in this election not because Clinton is a woman and Obama is black, but because racism and sexism still exist and have profound impacts on policy. So while some continue the battle of who had it worst and who deserves the seat first, those of us working at the grassroots are very aware of the actual lives of people that are suffering from housing foreclosures, expansion in prisons, lack of access to health care, poor education and no jobs. For us, it is a matter of who will actually make decisions that most support our communities.

It is a key time to talk about race and gender in ways that matter. The mainstream media suggests we see the issues as just black and white, male and female, but we need a thorough recognition of the ways that all of our identities interact and the different places that puts us in the political spectrum. It's wishful thinking to hope a Clinton or Obama victory will somehow "erase the blemish" of sexism and racism and the people most directly hurt by racism and sexism are fully aware of this.