- Ishmael Reed (Counterpunch) continues on from Clinton's comments to critique Gloria Steinem's defence of Clinton and the wider impact of race on the nomination race.
- Edward McClelland (Salon) thinks that Chicago black politics were key to Obama's rise.
- The New York Times wonders if Obama, as an African-American, can win over Hispanic voters.
- Rosa Brooks (LA Times) writes about sex, race and "Generation Y" voters:
In the context of the 2008 election, the question, “Would you vote for a black man for president?” takes for granted certain assumptions: that there is a clearly defined category we can label “black men,” that Obama fits into that category and that belonging to that category matters.
Iincreasingly, there’s evidence that younger Americans just don’t think about race in the same simplistic ways. They’re more likely than older Americans to be minorities themselves, for one thing. In 2006, only 19.8% of Americans over 60 were minorities, compared with about 40% of Americans under the age of 40. And younger minorities come from a far wider range of racial and ethnic backgrounds than their older counterparts. Once, “minority” largely meant “black,” which in turn meant “descendant of the Africans brought to the U.S. as slaves.” Some of today’s young minorities fit that profile, but others are descended from Filipino farmers, Chinese schoolteachers, Iranian engineers, Mexican construction workers, Congolese doctors, or Haitian shopkeepers.
1 comment:
Hi again Scott - here's an article which you might've read already but if not, I hope you find it informative:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/magazine/10politics-t.html
I for one am glad in the UK we do not carve entire demographics up into voting one way or another - I think it's bizarre how in the US it's made to seem so simple that an entire demographic can be appealed to on the basis of one advert or policy.
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