The Politics of Race
It seems the Democratic presidential contest is getting more contentious as the race continues. In the past few weeks, presidential politics have been replaced by racial and identity politics, with everyone entering the fray–from Geraldine Ferraro to Barack Obama’s pastor Jeremiah Wright.
Even before the recent campaign surrogate skirmishes, everyone from political pundits to mainstream media outlets were dissecting the Democratic race, grouping supporters into categories based exclusively on race and gender.
Will white men vote for Obama? Does Hillary have a lock on white female voters? Will Latino voters go for the black candidate instead of the white female candidate? How much of the black vote will ensure Obama victories in Southern states?
It also seems the race about race has also become an argument over which group is more oppressed, white women or black men? Gloria Steinem’s article in the New York Times posed that question.