CNN asked a New York woman in her 50s (Hillary supporter) if she was going to support Obama now that Hillary have lost, where she answered that was going to vote for MaCain. She also said that she didn’t want a black man to be president
CNN aired this clip on thursday. They showed it once more on friday, but **without ** the part where she said that she didn’t want a black man to be president
What do you think about this incident ?
have these old feminists been racist behind our backs all these years ?
I think it’s a little ridiculous to denigrate an entire group based on the actions of one individual who may or may not be even a part of the group in question. And I no more find Hillary supporters racist then I find Obama supporters sexist.
Whatever. Are you going to let one batty old woman speak for the entire Hillary supporting population? You and I both know there’s crazy people and less crazy people in the world, and I’m sure alot of the less crazy Hillary supporters are doing their conscious best not to let race affect their decision. Is there room for a great debate here?
Clinton probably has a few racists supporting her. But there’s no reason to suppose that her supporters are any more racist than the population at large.
When it came to getting the vote, both women and black folks were deprived of the franchise and were seeking it; some folks cynically played them off against each other saying in essence “well we can only extend it to one group at a time, be reasonable”; and when the vote was extended to all men regardless of race first instead of being extended to all white pepole regardless of sex first, I think it left a certain legacy among women, among feminists, a sort of “all right, fine & OK but why the fuck do we always come in last?”
In the period from the late 1950s thru late 1970s, new civil rights and social movements erupted, which (to grossly oversimplify) started with race, expanded to economic & class, then came to include sex & gender issues. Many women became feminists along the same trajectory as Robin Morgan, starting off as radical activists on class or race issues and then being told “make the coffee and do the phone calls and us guys will talk policy” or “the position of women in the movement is prone”. Women’s liberation cropped up and made its statements but was found threatening by male activists and divisive by black women who identified more with race as the social justice issue of most importance. Again, it left a certain legacy among feminists, “We get involved on behalf of social justice for other folks, but when it is our issues no one else is quick to get on board.”
Some of that got resurrected, old memories included, for this campaign: “uh uh, race is important but dammit this one’s ours, we earmarked it already, y’all knew a woman was all lined up with a great shot at becoming President, can’t this young first-season Senator with the sparkly future wait his turn?”
Of course there are are also racist feminists. There were in the late 1800s (some suffragists argued that the female vote was necessary to protect society from black people recently unenslaved, etc). There are now. Just as there are sexist black activists, etc. It would be silly to argue otherwise.
A friend’s mother is a Southern woman in her 70s. He describes her as an ‘Old School Democrat’. She told him that she would not vote for Obama because she’s not ready to have a Black man as President. She’ll vote for McCain instead.
My friend tried logic on her: If you don’t want a Republican in the White House, your only choice is to vote for Obama. He said that she considered his argument and would consider it more when she votes. Now, I know this woman. She has never in my presence made any comments I would consider racist. But this revelation indicates that she does still hold racist thoughts. Will she vote for McCain? Or will she decide she’d rather have a Black man as President than a Republican? I don’t know, and I might never know.
In this thread there are anecdotes. There isn’t enough evidence to say that ‘Older female Clinton supporters are racist’, but race is an issue with some of them.
True, and Wildfire is a well known psychic. And of course, the microphone that CNN uses has an automatic lie detector and it cuts off whenever anyone tells a fib.
The majority? Who knows? It’s definitely a factor, a distressingly large factor.
CNN cut the clip because it prefers to sweep evidence of racism under the rug. The producers know that showing respectable white people expressing frank racism will distress their viewers, who will take it as an accusation against them. So CNN just pretends that it didn’t happen.
I think disappointment combined with the feeling of getting a raw deal are making people forget to censor themselves. So out comes ideas that they’ve always had but hadn’t felt provoked to say before. I think the fiercely loyal, older white woman demographic feels extra cheated, and so they are more liable to say things other people aren’t during this time. And as history has shown us, when two minorities are pitted against each other, they tend to focus on hating each other instead of uniting to wrestle power away from the status quo-favoring majority.
And of course, the microphone that CNN uses has an automatic lie detector and it cuts off whenever anyone tells a fib. 