From: peter@beeker.rosemount.com (Peter Swanson)
Newsgroups: soc.men,alt.dads-rights
Subject: Re: Men's Issues Newsbriefs #48
Date: 13 Aug 92 21:30:23 GMT
Organization: Rosemount, Inc.

In article <1992Aug07.171311.20902@rat.csc.calpoly.edu> dgross@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Dave Gross) writes:
>
>===============================================================================
>
>	SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS ARE MEN
>	Original article by Lisa Nee
>	San Francisco Chronicle, 28 July 1992
>	-------------------------------------
>As our presidential candidates jockey for ways to court the public, they should
>really consider the majority of the voters -- women -- with more care.  Yes,
>women are concerned about abortion and child care and education, but there is
>one issue that has yet to come to the forefront in this campaign.
>
>It could make a significant difference in women's lives, and surely in the life
>of a candidate bold enough to seize it.  All women should receive a tax break.
>
>The cold hard facts are that women spend a tremendous amount of their income
>protecting themselves from unpleasant situations created by men.  I know it's
>not all men.  I love men.   Some  of  my  best  friends  are  men.  I am
>married to a man and my husband and I are both frustrated by the situations I
>find myself in.
>
>Yet it is men who create the majority of these dangerous and sometimes
>repulsive situations.  For the most part women are a calming influence,
>peacefully beautifying the city and some men are making it more dangerous and
>difficult.
>
>Men are the major perpetrators of the most brutal and inhuman crimes:  rape,
>robbery, shooting children and abandoning families.  On a beautiful summer day
>men can squelch your appreciation for the outdoors by leering, honking and
>making that monkey-sucking noise if they find a woman attractive.
>
>Until these brilliant male policymakers have this situation figured out, cut
>women a break.  Cut us a deal on taxes.
>

This isn't original, is it?  Substitute "white people" for "women",
and substitute "African-American people" for "men", and you'll have the version
I saw.  The original version was also substantially longer, but the
parts reprinted here are word-for-word. (I specifically remember the
words "monkey-sucking noise", which was the most appalling part
of the article.)

Yes, it's horrifically racist.  I couldn't believe someone would
publish something like that (it was in one of these publications:
Minneapolis Star Tribune, Detroit Free Press, Detroit News, Newsweek,
or US News & World Report, reprinted from somewhere else).

I believe it was a veiled attack on some politicians' advocacy
of the capital gains tax cut and receptiveness to special interests. 

That is,
men = African-Americans 
    = middle class and poor
    = individual voters
women = white people
      = people who make a lot of money with capital gains
      = special interest groups

Of course, that's just IMHO.
-- 
Peter J. Swanson                peter@ernie.rosemount.com
Software Engineering Intern     Rosemount Inc. Control Systems Division
Disclaimer: Rosemount has neither control over nor responsibility for
            what I say.
Newsgroups: soc.men,soc.women,alt.child-support,alt.dads-rights