Black White Man

The answer is, “neither.” If we, as a nation, are going to get past race and gender as way of judging people, then we, as a Black community and (I presume, being a man) as feminists, have to get past it as well. And I think that, for the most part, Black women understand this a lot better than the white media do. They keep asking leading questions, like the one above, instead of simply asking, “Who are black women going to vote for, and why?”

Take this article, from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, as representative of hundreds of articles I’ve read, glanced at, or seen the headlines for and flipped the page in the last six months. The reporter continually focuses on race and gender, and many of the “experts” interviewed as well. But the people being interviewed bring up a diversity of reasons far beyond race and gender:

They admire [Clinton's] intellect and political acumen.
…
They like [Obama's] intelligence and willingness to work across racial and party lines.
…
Vivian Creighton Bishop, wife of U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.), said she has admired Clinton for years.
“Senator Clinton is a brilliant woman,” Bishop said. “She’s very stately. She’s independent and strong.”
…
“I think he’s smart. I think he’s capable. I like what I’m hearing from him,” [Henrietta] Antoinin said.
…
Patricia Wilson-Smith [of blackwomenforobama.org], a 42-year-old information technology specialist who lives in Lawrenceville, contends that Obama would be the best leader because he reaches out to all Americans. She argues that Clinton is too divisive and too much of a Washington insider.
…
Alston, the president of the Spelman chapter of the Young Democrats of America, explained that she supports Clinton because of her strong stance on health care reform and women’s rights.

Now, granted, I just pulled out all of the quotes that didn’t have to do with race, and there were several — but my point is that the average Black woman has a *lot* more to go in making her decision than simply deciding whether she’s a woman first of Black first.

The whole suggestion that someone should have to choose between their race and gender is absurd. Do people not read Alice Walker anymore? You can’t extricate the one from the other, and you can’t directly compare them. For example, the expert cited asks whether Black women feel more oppressed as a Black person or as a woman. Well, again, I’m not a women, but I would argue that the discrimination that Black women feel as women and the discrimination they feel as Black people is entirely different and not easily compared. Are you talking about catching a cab in New York, or respect in a conversation about football? Are you talking about fear of being lynched or raped? A lot of it is really apples and oranges. And then there’s the stuff that’s specific for Black women. The sum is larger and different than the parts.

Anyway, I’m on a bit of a tear here. My point is really that the media is not only reducing the candidates to their race and gender here, but also the constituency. As a Black community, we’ve gotta prove that our level of discourse is a lot higher than they think it is. We know it is. But they don’t.