Sunday, July 05, 2009

Queen Bees v. Quota Queens

Isn't that a Queen Bee? Last week's preview ("The Quota Queen's on her head") resulted in a number of e-mails. No, a Quota Queen and a Queen Bee are not the same thing.



Take Gwen Ifill of Washington Week. She's a Queen Bee. She made it to where she is via hard work and she's bound and determined to make sure she's seen as an exception by not waiving through a lot of women. A Queen Bee arrives at a certain level of achievement as a result of her achievements. It's not an accident. Nor is it an accident when she makes the choice to shut other women out.

nationstats



Take Janine Jackson of FAIR. She's a Quota Queen. Janine's unimpressive academic record led to her being hired as a researcher director at FAIR. Shortly after, she's program director at FAIR (and one of the hosts of CounterSpin). Those who believe she worked her way up to the posts (despite no work anyone can point to) apparently are unaware of how quickly she became involved with FAIR's Jim Naureckas (also our Best F**king Friend). By 1997, they were married.



And Janine just managed to rise higher than any woman had prior.



And if you believe that, we've got some subscriptions to Extra! we'd love to sell you.



Janine's rise had nothing to do with her abilities. And now she's window dressing for one of the most sexist outlets on the left. They point to Janine and say, "See, we do hire women!" She's a two-fer. She also allows them to pretend they hire African-Americans too.



Quota Queens are nothing but window dressing. They exist to hide systematic and continued discrimination.



A lot of time, they realize that fact on some level.



Take Janine who loudly and repeatedly insists bi-racial Barack Obama was Black. For those not in the know, her husband Jim is White. For those not in the know, they have a daughter.



A bi-racial daughter.



It takes a lot of self-hate to lie about your daughter. But colonization, the term often tossed at Janine, leads to a lot of self-hate.



Quota Queens are figureheads. They have no real power.
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