by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black World
Presidential Candidate Herman Cain is pulling all the stops to cover the intense damage that’s been done in the midst of his sexual harassment scandal. Cain has finally brought his wife Gloria out onto the campaign trail, perhaps to divert media attention and show that there is at least one woman on the planet who doesn’t see him as the creepy old man who scares women at the office.
Cain’s actions seem to fit the standard Hypocritical Republican Recipe for Political Redemption: When women from your past come out and reveal that you’re an undisciplined sexual deviant whose private life is in stark contradiction to your self-righteous public life, you get your wife to stand next to you at a press conference. Rather than dealing with the person that Cain really is, the media might actually be tempted to focus on his wife, who is simply another lifelong victim of “The Hermanator” and his antics.
I feel badly for Gloria Cain. The poor woman is, quite honestly, being made to look like a fool. She’s the woman standing by her man even though he himself has been standing by a slew of other women over the years. She’s the new Ginni Thomas, Clarence’s wife, who supported her husband as the nation heard stories about his fascination with porno flicks and Long Dong Silver.
I don’t condemn Herman Cain for liking women, Lord knows there’s nothing wrong with that. I condemn him for pretending that he’s better than the rest of us, lying about the allegations and destroying the careers of women who came into his path. That’s what makes me lose respect for him, at least in the workplace.
Mrs. Cain has been absent from the Cain campaign until now. I presume it must be because they were saving her for a special occasion. She’s stood beside this oddity of a man for the last 43 years, so she’s already too far invested to run for the hills. So, there the poor woman sits, forced to lie to the world by telling us that Cain’s other female victims are making things up. In spite of the evidence, witnesses and a lack of serious denial on the part of her husband’s team, Mrs. Thomas, I mean Mrs. Cain, is being asked to dumb herself down and pretend that she doesn’t know the things that she’s probably known since the 1970s.
Rather than attacking one another, these women should be dealing with the man in the middle. Cain's wife should not be forced to deal with his messes.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.
27 comments:
I too feel for Mrs. Cain, and all the other good women forced by loyalty to literally "stand by" their men. The ultimate humiliation.
A little opinionated dude!
I though only White women did that..Most Black women would have beat him over the head with a skillet or pour a pot of hot grits over his head....Just ask Al Green....lololololo
I think that Cain, is an ignorant self serving uncle Tom, after all that our ancestors have been through, he's audacious enough to say " if we don't have job, its our fault." Idiot, we built this country,so you haven't seen enough Blacks suffering, our children being killed daily by police, homelessness or people walking through doors that we fought and died to knock down. You're a clown who doesn't deserve a wife.
What about Mrs King?
Cain is a tool for certain families to use in their efforts to secure world domination. He is in the good company of the Congressional Black Caucus and President Obama. Yes, I support President Obama, but his policies toward Africa is something I strongly oppose. http://www.ajabuspeaks.squarespace.com I am running for Congress yall!!
One sign of good editorial writing is to expose all sides of the information shown. When a report or reporter points fingers, instead of providing factual information, people's opinions are skewed with misinformation. If Mr. Cain is guilty of any act, then allow it to be shown by facts, not by biased opinions. Mrs. Cain is the one that has to live with whatever has or hasn't been done, and she has the right to choose what she does because of it. Marriage is not based upon trial and error of the media, but a commitment to love til "death do us part." This country leads the world in divorce, and the public or media opinion should not promote divorce, but support marriages that last. Dr. Boyce, I suggest that in your provided valuable information to the Black Community, that you NEVER allow your own opinions to direct or misdirect your articles. And for the person who brought our President's name into this article, what was your purpose? Let's stop tearing people down, and start lifting and building them up.
I want to thank M Winfrey for saying what I was about to say. Mr Boyce your comments are entirely irresponsible. To whoever much is given, much is expected. You have done a great job of getting the attention and respect of many. You should use what you were taught educationally to voice your concerns. Your comments about Mr Cain and his wife do not reflect higher education or responsibility to the readers. For your sake and ours, please do some research. Most men face a double edged sword with respect to romance. We are expected to be the aggressor. If not we are considered weak and unwanted. But, on the other hand, if we are aggressive with the wrong person, we can be threatened with the loss of our reputation, finances, employment, etc.
With respect to marriage men face another double edged sword. We are expected to head our households and have only one mate. However if that mate proves to be inadequate or uncooperative, we have no current method of gaining that cooperation or making up for the inadequacies. In the past men could abuse, cheat, disrespect, abandon, etc. his wife and the law allowed it. And that is the reason many men are caught with other women today. Women can divorce and retain child custody, respect, income, legal rights, etc. It is cheaper for a man to keep her. And I bet you disagree with the "sister wife" option. All this is to say Mr Cain is not necessarily bad for attempting to have relations with other women. In fact thank goodness the women were adults, and not gay or forced. Your criticism is premature, lacking perspective and not an adequate reflection of your title, Doctor.
The double standard of the media as it relates to black allegations of discrimination and sexual harrasment is evident in the Herman Cain story. I challenge any media network or media personality to investigate and report on my racial and sexual motivated employment discrimination and retaliation experience and the fact that I was victimized by Eliot Spitzer and the New York State Attorney General’s Office. Unlike Herman Cain’s alleged sexual harassment cases there isn’t any confidential agreements or settlements to overcome to overcome in order to get direct evidence that I suffered discrimination and retaliation while employed at Albion Correctional Facility and that Spitzer filed the perjured declarations and of Lee Gould, Director of Personnel for New York State Department of Correctional Services, Ms. A. Andrews, retired Superintendent of Albion Correctional Facility, Sergeant William Reed, James Berbary, Deputy Superintendent of Administration of Albion CF, Jerald Goncalves, Affirmative Action Representative, and Mike Russo, Assistant New York Attorney General. I have the declarations and deposition testimony of Andrews, Berbary, and Reed that proves that they lied in declarations signed under penalty of perjury and filed in federal court by Eliot Spitzer. If interested I will send you my book which includes the perjured declarations, deposition testimony and documents that were submitted to two US Dept of Justice Attorneys who referred my case to the FBI after agreeing that perjured was committed.
Vera Richardson Author of Screwed by Former Governor and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer
Don't make excuses for philandering husbands by saying their wives might be "inadequate" or,somehow, not satisfying the husband. There are scores of women who are very loving, loyal and true to their spouses, and the men STILL run around. The worst part of the cheating is the lack of respect it shows. The cheater should at least try to be discreet.
Cain is like a slave from history who will degrade and cross many blacks to please his master which is the Republicans in order to accomplish his own destiny. Anyone in their right mind knows that the people who represents Cain like Donald Trump and Rush Limbaugh has no use for any blacks as a President but still they uses Cain just so they can dictate to him if he ev er do becomes President.
I suspected from the beginning that Cain was guilty. The moment I heard him say " If circumstances of settlement were discussed, it could be legal liable". I actually could not believe the nerve of that man.
He was actually throwing a warning to the women and reminding them ON NATIONAL TV OF THEIR LEGAL AGREEMENTS TO KEEP OF SILENCE !
Once in my lifetime I also was given legal hush money and warned if ever I discussed the details of the settlement, I would have to pay every penny of it back.
I'm sure this is the same situation with the Cain settlement and the women are unable to speak out about it in public because they will have to pay back the thousands of dollars paid to them to keep quiet about it. I can already see that Mr.Cain would probably try to sue them for ruining his chances of becoming president of the United States if they spoke out the truth.
The women are the victims in this horrible crime and they need the help of the public. This is why there should be an internet campaign to encourage donations from the public for the women in lure of paying the law suit after she speaks out to the American people regarding what Mr. Cain has done to them.
Sexual harassment is offensive and disgusting. It has a never ending effect upon memory and lingers in your mind for life. If Mr. Cain has left such a lasting impression upon "Women", the public should be aware of it and able to make their rightful decision as to w/or not they want him to represent them and their country.
Te Bible says that which has been kept in secret shall be brought out to light"...Sexual harassment is such a dirty secret and Mr. Cain's secret should not remain that way.
It is her choice to stand by Cain, she does not need anybody's pity. For all we know, Cain may be innocent. Confidentiality agreements make people look guilty, but they do NOT mean that people ARE guilty. I want some facts before I jump on his back. I also think that if they took the money, they are supposed to stay "quiet"----after all, that is what they AGREED to do. There are women (and men) who have such a strong sense of justice that no amount of money would have kept them quiet if they were wronged. The only real victim here is male-female relationships. This was also back in the 1990's where sexual harassment allegations were thrown around like crazy. I'm sure the company found it cheaper to pay up front regardless of guilt or innocence than it would be to slug it out in court.
One thing that has not been mentioned so far is that Herman Cain is also an ordained baptist minister. I know this doesn't mean that he is sinless but it makes his sexual indiscretions even more horrible. Cain's wife will most likely go along with his charade but his campaign despite the current front-runner status is just about over. Because this controversy will not die.
Mrs. Cain is hurting behind her husband's folly and must have known of his women doings. Some of the American people are so ugly inside their souls that they will support H. Cain though they can see that he is a big shot business man with sex on his mind, a hustle, a lier, a worst kind of politician, and a gamer!They will vote to put this kind of person in the White House because they hate Obama who is a real decent man, a good and trusted husband, a loving father, and a president who is doing much better than our last president!
Come on folks what happened to the innocent until proven guilty theory. Personally, Mr. Cane doesn't do much for me as a Presidential Cadidate or as a Black Man but he should be given the benefit of the doubt at this point.
I'd say that Dr Martin L King did a lot more than it is alleged that Mr Cain did! Everyone knew MLK was always cheating on his wife, but oh no....we can't bring that up! Doc, you are not a journalist! You are a biased nothing!
From Curious:
Why are references being made about Martin Luther King? His behavior is not relevantin respect to Cain's situation as he did not run for an elected office.
From Curious:
Why are references being made about Martin Luther King? His behavior is not relevantin respect to Cain's situation as he did not run for an elected office.
Wanting to be sexually harrassed and not wanting to be sexually harrassed are both indiscretions but still different. MLK never ran for public office and put his life on the line for a huge cause, it wasn't just about him. Cain's life has served only himself and family. We are all sinners and none righteous But don't compare Cain to King indiscretions or otherwise.
Wow, people are funny. I'm not a Cain fan. From the moment he came on the scene I've thought him to be too good to be true. Without all the facts, I'm not willing to judge this situation. What does bother me is that weather the allegations are true or not it has been suggested that these women accepted money and agreed to not disclose information. If that is the case they need to keep their mouths shut. They are now no better than he in my eyes. If they wanted justice or even fealt that they could obtain it, then they should not have signed any confidentiality statements or accepted hush money.
Mrs. Cain doesn't deserve to be pitied. She is no vi ctim. She is just a woman like most married women. I applaud her for standing by him, if she genuinely believes in him. I don't know why anyone would insult the uncle Tom character by equating him with such a jokester as Herman Cain and I'm offended that anyone would find any comparison with MLK.
Theres a UNCLE TOM in the building.
www.blackconvo.com
I would like to say that a woman must stand by her man. She has not been with him every minute of the day for the past 43 years, so as far-as-she- knows he is not a harasser. She has to believe what he says. Those of you who attack her have not been married to someone for the majority of your lives. My problem to this situation is the timing. Where have these accusers been before? Who's putting them up to pointing their fingers? Black folks don't get confused. Herman Cain is only a scapegoat to confuse voters. Ignore him. What does he have to offer America?
Here's a heads up. Last week I was invited to dinner in the elegant, custom built home of an aristocratic, retired APS classroom teacher, and long-time female business owner here in Atlanta, GA. She in close proximity to the Herman Cain family for many, many, years at a previous residence while he was growing up, through his years at Morehouse College, and beyond. After a fairly extensive, in-depth discussion of Mr. Cain, the man, and his POTUS GOP "campaign" including such things as his "9-9-9" tax plan and the Koch Brothers connection, her closing statement to me was: "I know him and on that basis I would NOT vote for him". Although that was/is only one person's conclusion, it was good enough for me based on the circumstances and historical close proximity AND considering the source.
A little opinionated - where is your wife? I am sick of all these righteous,HOLY media types, dictating their truth. Glad I don't belong to Democrats or Republicans. Sick of all of you self-righteous nut cases. Folks, read, pray, search for yourselves. Journalist...simply put info out.
I am not voting for the President's wife, mother, cat or dog, I am voting for the individual, his actions will speak for themselves. Americans are too emotional and gullible of the tricks and traps of the media, especially, the LIBERAL LEFT media!
The purpose of these allegations is to affect the outcome of the Presidential election. A dirty political trick. Why can't the sex harassment discussion be tabled entire after the election if he loses or after his term if he wins. Whether Cain has interests in other women would not be in the top ten list of the concerns of most sapient Americans.
As a doctorate student, it is essential to research and present viable information to the public. One who holds a doctorate as a higher calling to present accurate information with a certain understanding that the title holds a measure of accountability and responsibility.
I respect Dr. Boykin's efforts to report "black" news; however, those efforts have to be honest and accredited to have any substantial power. I have come to know that many folks are all to willing to trust those they believe are surveyors of "truth".
While I do not nor will I endorse Mr. Cain as a candidate, I find the alleged victim suspicious. If Mr. Cain is ignorant enough to grope someones girlfriend (a guy he may/will face at some time or another) then perhaps her story is plausible. She's telling her story for "free" yet she is in the company of a "celebrity" attorney who introduces her story.
Her story is also suspect. She has several one on one meetings, coffee, drinks, then dinner etc. She was aware he upgraded her room. Hello, "news flash". She could have called her boyfriend at any time; yet at no time does she indicate that she did. In the car Herman put his hand under her dress and with the other hand pushed her head down?
While I understand the story took place 12 years ago, and perhaps the woman was intimidated, but she certainly wasn't shy to suggest coffee, then drinks at the hotel (which is suggestive in itself) and then proceed to dinner.
I don't know. There are legitimate cases of sexual harassment where women never receive retribution, particularly women of color.
We may disagree and think of Cain's as a "pain", but let us be cautious of media hype. If these allegations are true, then may he receive his just due. I think it is more powerful to remain open and ethical than to join the political filth and mud slinging that carries on during elections.
Let's be smarter black people that we recognize lies and manipulation when we see it, and be brave enough to call it what it is even if we don't care for the person. We shouldn't let ourselves be played by the same media outlets that ignore us for the most part.
And to Eric,
There is nothing wrong with men liking other women. It is natural. Just as it is natural for women to be attracted to a number of men and even grow tired of having one lover. Both men and women can cite numerous reasons why "sisterwives" or "brothahusbands" could be beneficial to both parties. Any marriage will hit moments of stagnation and need refreshing. In fact, the same can be true when we remain on the same job for years.
The issue with marriage is committment to partnership. Unfortunately, people will be in faithful service to a job for decades, but as soon as a partner seems "inadequate" we're ready to run for the hills or just simply run around.
There has to be boundaries, lest we all runamuck which is neither healthy and at sometimes unsafe for partnered people unless it is an equal agreement.
So Eric, if you are married, I hope your wife or "sisterwives" (which is an oxymoron)are satisfied with you and not secretly behind your back keeping a diary of your inadequacies.
No one knows Herman Cain like Mrs. Cain. And I'm quite she has bust him upside his head in the 40+ years they have been partnered.
Don't count sistah gurl out.
Regards,
mozlyric
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