Black Women and the Vote
There's a very interesting essay called "Mammy Goes to Washington?" by Melissa Harris-Lacewell. Want to understand in a deeper way why many black women are voting for Barack Obama rather than Hillary Clinton? You can read one woman's opinion. Here's an excerpt from the essay:
Sisters resist the ways that black male leaders try to silence women’s issues and squash women’s leadership. At the same time, black women challenge white women who want to claim black women’s allegiance without acknowledging the realities of racism. They will not be drawn into any simple allegiance that refuses to account their full humanity and citizenship. Black women want out of the war. Black women need health insurance. Black women need decent schools for their children. Black women need a strong economy that creates jobs. Black women need help caring for their aging parents. Black women want a Democratic win in the fall. Sisters chose Barack on Tuesday because they believe he can deliver these things and that is much more empowering than just having a woman in the White House.Want to read the entire essay? If yes, click here
Labels: 2008 elections, Hillary Clinton, Obama, racism
Stumble It!
posted by Ms. Manitoba @ 10:44 PM
4 Comments:
I agree with the sentiment that voting for someone you feel will get things done is more productive than voting for a gender or a race. However, I'm still disturbed by the perceived groupthink women and blacks are still lumped into; "well, black women will vote this way", or "women want this"...I don't hear anyone clumping all men together and pretending they are a homogenous, like-minded group voting based on their skin color or genitals.
Women are still an "other" as far as the mainstream media, mouthpiece of the privileged class, is concerned. Therefore they, like "minorities," are worth scrutinizing through the media's fractionating eyeglass.
It's interesting how the selfsame media mouthpieces skirt nervously (this election) around the issue of class, only occasionally airing the Republican talking point of brie-and-wine liberals versus brat-and-beer conservatives.
Well, PolCat, class is the elephant in the room that too many people ignore. And, they just don't believe that the U.S. has a class system. However, maybe Katrina put a dent in that thinking.
Listen, Ms. M, I just watched the first DVD of Spike Lee's "When The Levees Broke." Ye gads. Not enough psychoactive meds. I'm'a review it over at CultureVultures. (sob!)
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