Report: Wife Scratched Tiger Woods' Face, Chased His SUV; Update: Police Unable To Interview Couple Today
Senate Report: Bush Missed Chance To Catch Bin Laden
Dogs Rescued From Puppy Mills And Shelters Arrive In L.I.
State Dinner Party Crashers Want Money For Interview
Tiger Woods Says "Embarrassing" Accident Was His Fault
The NY Times took the Excel spreadsheet of donors to NYC Democratic mayoral hopefuls and decided to call up the donors listed as "homemakers" and ask them about their contribution. The ensuing article, "Homemakers Are the Fat Cats. Who Knew? Their Husbands.," made Gothamist laugh, cry, and then grind our teeth in anger. An example:
Another Ferrer contributor, Anna Cuneo of West Harrison, N.Y., whose husband is one of two executives at a Manhattan construction company who contributed to Mr. Ferrer, seemed unprepared for questions about her check.Sure, using a spouse to double a political contribution is a common practice, we get that. But there's something about not knowing how much your spouse has donated in your name and for whom, as well as the breadwinner not informing the spouse what the donation was for, that makes us crazy. Possibly because Gothamist would be all up in our spouse's business, especially if it involved political donations, we're also mad because the article also seemed to reinforce the stereotypes that wives are generally clueless about their husbands business practices, which isn't always the case. We much rather make donations in our pet's name but at least that's plausible deniability."I'm going to have to get back to you," she said. "And this was a contribution to whom?"
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Fernando Ferrer was there, but I don't know how many housewives were at the 'Road to Gracie Mansion' mayoral candidate forum last night.
Hosted by Stonewall Dems, NYState Young Dems, Village Reform Dems at the NYU Law School, the moderator -- NYS Young Dem President Evan Lederman -- didn't know how to call on people of color.
Of the nine questions asked of the four mayoral candidates, all nine came from white members of the audience. Of those nine, only two women were called upon.
Last night, people of color had longer shots at getting to ask a question than they do winning the Mayor's race. While Asians, Latinos & African-Americans composed at least one-third of the audience, not one was called upon.
These young Democrats seem to have the same problems as the national Democratic Party. They do not want to make space for diversity.
I just came across this post and feel a need to respond and defend myself and my organization. First off, let me point out that the forum was coordinated on behalf of my organization by Frieda Menos, an African American female and the NY State Young Democrats Communications Director.
Your comments are completely off base, offensive, and are targeted at an individual and a group (NY State Young Democrats) that works day in and day out to advance the cause of people of color. We have a completely diverse leadership, consisting of men, women, blacks, whites, Hispanics, Asians, gays, heterosexuals, etc.. Every minority "group" is included among NY State Young Democrat's leadership and no one has ever expressed a concern about our group excluding any group. The facts are simple: we are a diverse and an inclusive group. Something you could have found out if you took any time to learn anything about our group before jumping to hasty and wrong conclusions.
Moreover, we also have a caucus structure comprised of a "Caucus of Color", a "Disability Caucus", an "LGBT" Caucus, a "Women's Caucus", and a "Labor Caucus" who specifically work to advance the interests of those groups on behalf of our state organization. I bet you did not knwo that either, again, 5min of research would have exposed just how hard we fight for people of color.
As for the forum you refer to in your post, after the forum you brought to my attention that no people of color were called upon in an accusing tone, as if I have purposefuly did not called on people of color. I apologized profusely explaining that I was completely unaware of this oversight and certainly did not intend to exclude any group from asking questions. I then asked Frieda, who was monitoring the Q and A if I had not called on people of color who had their hand raised to ask questions. She responded that no people of color to her knowledge had raised their hand to ask a question.
I hope this post will be put on your website and I hope to receive an apology from you soon. You jumped to conclusion without an ounce of research or insight. You should be ashamed!
Best,
Evan S. Lederman
President, NYS Young Democrats