In between

I appreciate both the article and the comments. I think the truth is somewhere in between. The women's struggle at the time was split a number of ways: class (with working class women feeling left out of the middle-upper class suffragette movement) and colour (both white women and black men felt in competition for the vote). These divisions were unfortunate and led to some hard feelings and even harsher words. But James Oppenheim was no racist. As a Jew, especially a left-leaning union-supporting Jew, he would have been particularly sensitive to white suppremacy. There is no way he would have endorsed it. Also, at the time, many groups were working hard to gain admittance to the general concept of "mankind" and the "human race" - heretofore reserved for white people and, particularly, white men. In conclusion, his use of the word "race" was indeed provocative, but not in the way you are thinking. Keep up the good fight though, Mr Witherspoon.

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