However, I’ll confess that I get a little irritated because everyone acts like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was just about racism, when it covered other criteria for discrimination as well. Most interesting to me amongst those criteria was the last minute addition of “sex” in the list as a consensus breaker so that this legislation wouldn’t pass. That’s right, “sex” was an after thought and then only to prevent this act from passing.
In light of past statements from Justice Scalia about the 14th Amendment not applying to women and now the Hobby Lobby ruling that allows discrimination in compensation packages for female employees if an employer finds female employees medical needs “repugnant” to their religious sensibilities, I think there needs to be more emphasis on the escalation of sex based discrimination and the erosion of women’s rights since the turn of this century.
At least many people are willing to admit racism is an issue. Sexism however really gets short shrift. I just wanted to bring attention to this issue in light of yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling is all, especially when I went through the news feeds on this and saw not a single mention of any other criteria enumerated in the Civil Rights Act. Understand that I know black people really made this happen with their activism and sacrifices but even one mention of women’s issues in relation to this anniversary would have been refreshing.
