Tuesday, December 2, 2008

A Challenge to Privilege










From today’s Politico Playbook:
Time managing editor Richard Stengel, interviewing former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at last night's 'FORTUNE 500 Forum' opening dinner in the State Department's Benjamin Franklin Room: 'Will there ever be a male secretary of State again?'

Albright: 'I think that there probably, someday again will be a male secretary of State.'
And yesterday’s MSNBC First Read:
*** 'Change' at Foggy Bottom: One more extraneous item about the National security team -- the appointment of Clinton will mean it will be more than a decade since a white male has held the post of Secretary of State. Then again, maybe it's time that we in the media don't need to take notice of facts like this anymore. Isn't that one of the messages the public sent on Election Day?

Are we seriously worried about the position of Secretary of State locking out white, male men? Hmmmm, let’s see. So far the score is:

1789-1996: 65 white, male secretaries of state
1996-2008: two white women, one African American man, and one African American woman.

As my friend, PJ, said: "We can only hope that one day little boys will once again be able to look up to men in positions of leadership."