Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Male Privilege in the 82nd Iowa General Assembly

I visited the capitol with the articles of white privilege and racism in mind. Is the government racist? In my initial glances around the Iowa capitol, I must say that I saw a lot of white people. I was most struck by this overwhelming sea of whiteness when viewing the head shots of all 50 members of the Senate and 100 members of the House of the 82nd Iowa General Assembly. Out of the 50 members of the Iowa Senate, not a single individual appeared to be of a minority race. In scanning the portraits of the legislators, I spotted about five non-Caucasians. That made me think, “Wow, the Iowa government is so racist!”.

In thinking about it further, the idea of affirmative action mentioned in Robert Jensen’s article White Privilege Shapes the U.S. came to mind. Affirmative action means taking positive steps to increase the representation of women and minorities in areas of employment, education, and business from which they have been historically excluded (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). In a state whose government is “by the people and for the people” (Capitol Rotunda), one would think that all races and minorities should be represented. I was quite upset that virtually all of the state’s government leaders are white. White privilege. Whether or not people acknowledge that it’s a problem, it occurred to me that we as a people are supporting and promoting its existence.

I think it would be ideal to employ a modified version of affirmative action in the state government. Make a point to include people of all races and genders, to the extent that it accurately represents the demographics of the state. I originally thought we were horribly racist that approximately only 3.3% of our state’s Senate and House were people of color. In reality, though, that number is not too far off from being an accurate representation of the racial profile of our state. According to the 2006 US Census Bureau, 91% of Iowa’s population is white. We need to bring in about nine more people of color to the state Senate and House to reach an accurate racial sampling of our state.

I am not opposed to having more state government leaders of color, but working with straight numbers seems like a simplistic method to achieve affirmative action. My biggest concern is the fact that of the 150 state senators and legislators, 33 were women. Accurate representation of the state’s population? Absolutely not. Since when did Iowa only have 22% women? This to me is the larger problem. Women are not generally thought of as the target of racism and discrimination as much as colored people, but last time I checked, the state of Iowa consisted of 50.6% women (2006 US Census Bureaus). Of the 150 members of the House and Senate, at least 75 of them should be women in order to accurately represent the population and achieve affirmative action.

There is a larger percentage of both women and colored people in the lower house (legislature) of the Iowa General Assembly, so perhaps they will eventually climb the ladder and stack the Senate. Swati Dandekar, current legislator of house district 36, is running for the Iowa Senate (district 18). She was the first Indian-born US citizen to win a state legislative seat and hopefully will be the first to climb to the Senate and pave the way for both women and people of color. Men, in particular those who are white, have privilege in the Iowa government. Women and people of color are not accurately represented in the state Senate and House. Affirmative action should be enforced by completing the simple mathematical calculations in accord with the census, ensuring that each race and minority is accurately represented in the state government. For example, according to the 2006 US Census Bureau, 2.5% of Iowans are black, therefore 3.75 (4) of the 150 members of the Iowa General Assembly should be black—two of which should be women.

“But we all are the product of both what we will ourselves to be and what the society in which we live lets us be.” (Jensen 103). Society will limit us [women and minorities] if we do nothing to prevent that from happening. In order for my idea of affirmative action in Iowa’s General Assembly to work, women and people of color need to step up. Step up both in terms of voting and advocating for women and people of color in the government, but also for young women and minorities to make it their personal goal to become the next government leaders. I don’t know the exact reason why women and minorities are currently underrepresented. Maybe there proportionately are simply not enough of them qualified in the field right now. If that is the case, women and minorities need to make a point to get the appropriate schooling and qualifications, which would be easier with the state’s support of affirmative action in the government.

The exact pictures that I viewed in the capitol are not available on-line, but there are photos and descriptions of each member of the 82nd Iowa General Assembly available on the following website.

http://www3.legis.state.ia.us/ga/legislators.do;jsessionid=CCBC03EE0231218FF3C81F05B11D00B6?ga=82

Jill Staudt

2 comments:

Images said...

I love Ms. Dandekar, who should be destined for higher offices, in my mind. And yes, more women should be represented in the Iowa legislature. But there is a potential cost. Do we, for example, vote out Sen. Joe Bolkcom of Iowa City because he's a male, despite his being the most pro-active womens and minorities rights Senator in the legislature? Personally I'd be very hard pressed to say yes. So I guess what I'm saying is...good questions with no easy answers.

Ralph

Images said...

So maybe rather than stating that the Iowa Government, Legislature, etc. is racist or sexist, we should take a look at who votes. That would make the Iowan voters racist, not necessarily the goverment.

Historically, how many minorities have run against white males and lost? That would be the more interesting statistic. I'll throw out this comment: just because our state legislature is primarily white males does not mean that we are racist. I would hope that people would vote for a person based on their positions on issues and their abilities to be effective within the senate or house. The same idea goes for gender also...

-Erin Todey