Q Of The Day: Tokenism At Work?
http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=8774Autumn Sandeen
Tue Dec 23, 2008 at 13:30:00 PM EST
The eighth name on the list is Rep. Tammy Baldwin's.
Perhaps if the official email's subject line was something to effect of Inaugural Co-Chairs Named, instead of Rep Tammy Baldwin Named Inaugural Co-Chair, I would have saw this as the organic inclusion of an LGBT American as part of the Obama inauguration team. As it is, now it looks like an intentional highlighting of an LGBT congressperson by the Obama transition team to pacify LGBT Americans who supported Obama for President -- LGBT Americans that they feel need to be pacified by the future Obama adminsistration because of the choice of Pastor Rick Warren to give the Obama inauguration invocation.
So what do you think? Is including and highlighting Rep. Tammy Baldwin's participation as one of President-elect Obama's Honorary Inaugural Co-Chairs genuine inclusion of an LGBT American, intentional tokenism (or pandering) to pacify LGBT Americans who supported Obama, something in between those two choices, or something else altogether?
