What's really motivating our dislike and distrust of Hillary? President Obama has an idea.

Eric March
11.02.16

On the stump in Ohio this week, President Obama directed a crucial part of his speech to men:

Photo by Ty Wright/Getty Images.

In particular, he asked us to search our feelings about Hillary Clinton — and ask ourselves why they're often, in his view, disproportionately negative.

"You know, there's a reason why we haven't had a woman president before... I want every man out there who's voting to kind of look inside yourself and ask yourself: If you're having problems with this stuff, how much of it is, you know, that we're just not used to it. When a guy's ambitious and out in the public arena and working hard, well that's OK, but when a woman does it, suddenly you're all like, 'Well, why's she doing that?' I'm just being honest. I want you to think about it."

A sitting president asking half of the electorate to examine their own prejudices against a current presidential candidate is a pretty unprecedented move.

Photo by Ty Wright/Getty Images.

Not only has a woman never led a major party ticket before, but asking men to search their souls about their unwilling, unconscious participation in structural discrimination against women in general is not something that, historically, has gone over particularly well with... you know, men.

Predictably, there was outrage, notably in the conservative press.

A Breitbart report on the speech claimed the president was "ridiculing" Trump supporters and suggesting that "men are sexist if they support Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton."

Hot Air's Allahpundit found Obama's speech patronizing and mocked the president for "politely scolding them for their sexism towards poor, crooked Hillary."

There are, of course, valid reasons to dislike Hillary Clinton other than sexism.

You might be a conservative-minded person spooked by some of her left-of-center policy ideas. You might be irked by her close ties to Wall Street. Her 2002 vote for a pivotal Iraq War resolution might give you pause.

But implicit gender bias is a real thing, and the fact that it's unconscious is what makes it so hard to acknowledge and fight.

And science backs up the notion that it's a particular problem for women seeking positions of authority or applying for jobs in general.

A University of Texas study found that women applying for fellowships in geoscience were 50% less likely to receive "excellent" recommendations from their references, compared to their male peers.

A McKinsey/Lean In analysis found that women's share of the workforce declines at every subsequent level of management — while 46% of entry-level employees are women, only 19% of C-suite executives are. Women in the study reported feeling unfairly treated, and a majority felt promotions in their workplace were not awarded based on merit.

The notion that ambitious women are untrustworthy and unlikeable isn't just a Hillary Clinton thing either. Elizabeth Warren, frequently held up as the ideal "if only" candidate for left-leaning Democrats, was subject to many of the same attacks when she ran for senate in Massachusetts.

Now that a woman is applying for the most important job in the world, President Obama is right — we should at least ask ourselves the question and be honest with ourselves.

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

Not to flagellate ourselves for being bad, sexist idiots, but to try to identify a small, unconscious piece that might make life subtly harder for the women in our lives — and in public life.

If it's not there, then great! But it can't hurt to try and know one way or the other — and to work on it if it is.

It doesn't mean you have to vote for Hillary. It just means ... think about stuff. You know?

Like, just think about it. A little.

The stakes are too high not to at least wonder.

power structures culture voting gender barack obama sexism hillary clinton feminism current events citizenship & democracy presidential election 2016 election gender inequality implicit bias patriarchy
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Can we send HIM back?

PBS NewsHour/YouTube (left) The Guardian (right)

I'm staring at my screen watching the President of the United States speak before a stadium full of people in North Carolina. He launches into a lie-laced attack on Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, and the crowd boos. Soon they start chanting, "Send her back! Send her back! Send her back!"

The President does nothing. Says nothing. He just stands there and waits for the crowd to finish their outburst.

WATCH: Trump rally crowd chants 'send her back' after he criticizes Rep. Ilhan Omar www.youtube.com

My mind flashes to another President of the United States speaking to a stadium full of people in North Carolina in 2016. A heckler in the crowd—an old man in uniform holding up a TRUMP sign—starts shouting, disrupting the speech. The crowd boos. Soon they start chanting, "Hillary! Hillary! Hillary!"

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France has started forcing supermarkets to donate food instead of throwing it away.

via EarthFix / Flickr

What will future generations never believe that we tolerated in 2019?

Dolphin and orca captivity, for sure. They'll probably shake their heads at how people died because they couldn't afford healthcare. And, they'll be completely mystified at the amount of food some people waste while others go starving.

According to Biological Diversity, "An estimated 40 percent of the food produced in the United States is wasted every year, costing households, businesses and farms about $218 billion annually."

There are so many things wrong with this.

First of all it's a waste of money for the households who throw out good food. Second, it's a waste of all of the resources that went into growing the food, including the animals who gave their lives for the meal. Third, there's something very wrong with throwing out food when one in eight Americans struggle with hunger.

Supermarkets are just as guilty of this unnecessary waste as consumers. About 10% of all food waste are supermarket products thrown out before they've reached their expiration date.

Three years ago, France took big steps to combat food waste by making a law that bans grocery stores from throwing away edible food.According to the new ordinance, stores can be fined for up to $4,500 for each infraction.

Previously, the French threw out 7.1 million tons of food. Sixty-seven percent of which was tossed by consumers, 15% by restaurants, and 11% by grocery stores.

This has created a network of over 5,000 charities that accept the food from supermarkets and donate them to charity. The law also struck down agreements between supermarkets and manufacturers that prohibited the stores from donating food to charities.

"There was one food manufacturer that was not authorized to donate the sandwiches it made for a particular supermarket brand. But now, we get 30,000 sandwiches a month from them — sandwiches that used to be thrown away," Jacques Bailet, head of the French network of food banks known as Banques Alimentaires, told NPR.

It's expected that similar laws may spread through Europe, but people are a lot less confident at it happening in the United States. The USDA believes that the biggest barrier to such a program would be cost to the charities and or supermarkets.

"The logistics of getting safe, wholesome, edible food from anywhere to people that can use it is really difficult," the organization said according to Gizmodo. "If you're having to set up a really expensive system to recover marginal amounts of food, that's not good for anybody."

Plus, the idea may seem a little too "socialist" for the average American's appetite.

"The French version is quite socialist, but I would say in a great way because you're providing a way where they [supermarkets] have to do the beneficial things not only for the environment, but from an ethical standpoint of getting healthy food to those who need it and minimizing some of the harmful greenhouse gas emissions that come when food ends up in a landfill," Jonathan Bloom, the author of American Wasteland, told NPR.

However, just because something may be socialist doesn't mean it's wrong. The greater wrong is the insane waste of money, damage to the environment, and devastation caused by hunger that can easily be avoided.

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