Manhattan went 85% for Barack. Brooklyn nearly 80%.
California, we need to have a talk.
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6 years ago
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
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17 comments:
It is very disturbing that 95% of blacks (almost 100% in some states, such as Florida 98% and Georgia 97%) voted for Obama. How is this not racist? Imagine if a white voter were wearing a t-shirt bragging about voting for a candidate because they were white. How about no double standards?
Previously, 100% of blacks voted for a white candidate for president in a general election. 100% of whites also voted for a white candidate for president in a general election. And I, along with 100% of other Asians, also previously voted for a white candidate for president in a general election.
1- Obama is a symbol to millions of black voters of the good in a demographic that is largely stereotyped as ignorant, lazy, deviant, and dangerous. It's therefore important to point out that he's a black man. We still see race when we look at people. Why not highlight the hope that exists?
2- People vote for candidates that they can relate to.
My students have been ON FIRE all day today because this is so important to them. The idea that a black man can get elected is much more significant to black Americans than most white Americans realize, in my opinion. What they have grown up under is a de facto prohibition on any one who is not a white Christian male leading this country.
My previous comment was to make a point.
If you want to look at it more practically, 95% isn't really that much of a stretch since Blacks skew very Democratic anyway. Clinton got about 85% of the black vote in 92 and 96, and Gore and Kerry both got around 90%. I imagine if Hillary was the Democratic nominee, she too would've garnered close to 95% of the black vote.
McCain ran an incredibly nasty, race-baiting campaign. That almost all black voters were compelled to vote against him doesn't surprise me in the least.
Right on! To Andy, Letrice, and Matt. You all hit the nail squarely on the head.
So it is ok for someone to vote for a candidate because they are of the same race, unless of course you are white, then you would be a racist. Hm.
As for the not voting for a Christian comment, Obama has gone to great lengths to make sure everyone knows he is a devoted Christian. He said "I've been to the same church _ the same Christian church _ for almost 20 years,".
Andy, in your second comment you make a good point about the numbers but I am talking about an individual person saying they voted for Obama because they wanted a black president. A white man saying he voted because he wanted a white president would of course be properly labeled as racist. Double standards like this are unacceptable.
I voted for Obama because he's half white.
Carolyn, you need to start posting about something besides politics so people will be nice to each other again.
I know! Maybe tomorrow.
Meantime, check out another white guy who "voted" for a white guy.
http://michaelianblack.typepad.com/
blog/2008/11/i-voted-for-mccain.html
Also, people should not vote for someone based on their race or gender, for good or ill. But, after they've voted on someone based on qualifications and promise, then we can talk about how fantastic and historic it is to have a black American in the White House.
I'm not so sure that the determining factor was Americans voting for Obama because he's black, but regardless, I do think there's an big difference between voting as a member of a majority in order to maintain dominance and voting as a historically repressed minority to bring up your group.
Also, does it make any more sense if I tell you the guy in the photo was celebrating last night in what has been in the past one of the most violent, racially torn, and neglected neighborhoods in Brooklyn? Think, "Do the Right Thing."
I think he represents hope that things are changing. Uh oh, there are those words again
Sorry about California... but that's what gay people get for trying to get "equal" rights.
yeah, maybe we can take a break from politics...or discuss things we all agree on...such as... the war on drugs? gay rights? babies? I know we can all agree on babies.
Yeah, notice how I'm incapable of even mentioning the crushing defeat of civil rights at the hands of the religious right in California. I think I'm in denial.
Also, I am not particularly fond of babies.
As an avowed baby hater, I feel strongly that I would be unable to put those feelings aside in order to vote for a candidate because s/he was a baby. (I mean, in the literal sense.)
Also, I am not saying "Christian" in isolation from the other factors (white Christian male is the indivisible combination that our leaders came in until now...). When Kennedy ran, it gave great hope to Catholics, and his election is held up in my (very staunchly conservative Republican) household as a great moment for Irish Americans. It IS historic, because a black man has NOT been elected to this office in the past. People DID want to participate in history. Is celebrating the appointment of Thurgood Marshall racist?
I agree that the race factor comes into play, but the great thing about having a first black president is that the race issue for candidates will likely diminish relative to what it was in this election. I don't think that there is anything wrong with someone supporting Obama because he is black, if that is not the ONLY reason they are supporting him.
What is especially fascinating to me is that his father was an African, a group pretty roundly scorned in most black neighborhoods in NYC, including Harlem. It's one of the biggest insults one African American kid can pay to another... (another is "Haitian") And now these same kids are redefining in their own heads what it means to be black Americans.
It's powerful stuff.
To add my two cents:
I think the race factor comes into play less because of why someone votes for Candidate A and more because of why they DON'T vote for Candidate B [initials used here entirely coincidental]. During the course of the election, we heard more than one person saying, "I won't vote for Obama because he's black," but how often did we hear people saying, "I won't vote for McCain because he's white"?
Not that everyone (or even most people) who voted for McCain were voting against Obama's race; I know plenty from back home in TN who voted Republican because they couldn't stand Obama's political ideology.
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