In casual conversation with my mother’s caretakers on the eve of the birthday celebrations for Martin Luther King, I heard firsthand the “schizophrenic” split between black women regarding the 2008 presidential primaries.
Mary and LaToya are in their 30s, health care workers in Arlington, mothers, and middle-class wives living in the Maryland suburbs. There their similarities end.
Mary, an activities coordinator, favors Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois for the Democratic presidential nomination. LaToya, a physical therapist assistant, favors Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.
As Mr. Obama holds out Oprah Winfrey and Mrs. Clinton has “girl talk” with Tyra Banks, we are told by the political pundits that black women are being charmed and wooed by the Democratic front-runners as they head to South Carolina for the first Southern primary this weekend. After all, as 30 percent of that states’ registered Democrats, the Sistagirls comprise a considerable voting bloc.
Hold on to your Sunday bonnets, the Washington region’s electorate finally will get its chance to make presidential preferences known as Maryland, Virginia and D.C. voters head to the polls Feb.12.
Mary is excited about the possibility of electing the first black person for president. But she also said, “I think Obama has good ideas.” LaToya, on the other hand, is fearful for Mr. Obama’s safety, and she doesn’t want to be responsible for “something bad happening to him” should he be elected.
LaToya also supports Mrs. Clinton because of Mr. Clinton. She sees the former first couple as a “two-fer,” like so many others who desire to see Bill Clinton back in the White House. “With Hillary, we get Bill because we know he will be standing behind her,” LaToya said.
The force brought to bear by the Clinton duo, however, is exactly what annoys Denise L. Reed. She sought to become a member of the D.C. Democratic State Committee’s delegation pledged to Mr. Obama at the national convention in August.
Initially, Ms. Reed supported Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy, but after Mr. Obama’s Iowa victory, she switched. “I didn’t like the banter lately with the Clinton people taking shots at Obama; with [former BET president] Bob Johnson’s antics and Bill Clinton’s ’fairy tale’ comments. And, I thought that crying [by Mrs. Clinton] was faking,” Ms. Reed said.
Official results of the 2008 D.C. Pre-Primary Delegate Selection Caucus held Saturday at McKinley Technical High School will be made official today, Ms. Reed said, but she hopes to have secured enough votes to be an alternate.
“Obama and his family are the closest to regular folks, and not far away from having to make the decisions we have to make now about health care and our finances,” Ms. Reed said. “He understands what people are going through. And, I also think that Barack and Michelle Obama make a pretty formidable couple, too.” Ms. Reed is not the first Sistagirl I’ve heard hoping to see Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, the stylish Harvard-educated lawyer and community activist, as the nation’s first lady.
Speaking of first mates, Mary and LaToya noted that they “like” former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards because he seems to “be for poor people.” However, they offered a surprising reason (to me) for not throwing their support behind the candidate who consistently reminds us of the critical need to change the economic disparities in this country. Mary and LaToya cited his wife Elizabeth’s cancer treatment and what they suspect will be a distraction for Mr. Edwards should he need to devote more time to her care if her health worsens.
Neither of the Maryland women cared to discuss the Republican candidates’ field, I suspect, because they hadn’t paid much attention.
Nonetheless, the comments of these black women reflect a national debate and what Barbara Reynolds, a syndicated columnist published in the Washington Informer, refers to as her “bipolar or schizophrenia” in being “delightfully undecided” about her choice for a presidential candidate.
“Being an African-American woman brings its own set of suspicions and mistrust to how race and gender will play out in the political race,” Ms. Reynolds wrote in a column headed “Clinton v. Obama, Where My Loyalty Lies.” “Usually Black victories reward men, and triumphs for women serve Whites and whatever is left filters down to African-American women.”
For a younger viewpoint in the Washington Informer, Brooke Garner laments the lack of a viable black female candidate and asks, “What’s a Black Woman to Do?” “I could vote for Sen. Barack Obama, a black man who looks like me and whose election would symbolize taking back power that was stripped from Black people so many years ago,” Ms. Garner wrote. “On the other hand, I could vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton, a woman who looks like me and whose election could symbolize taking back power that was stripped from women so many years ago.”
Ah, the dilemma when one’s politics have been rooted primarily in race and sex. With the 2008 presidential field the opportunity for real “change” is in direct correlation with our ability to expand our past political views beyond surface personality and physical traits.
Do your homework. Check the rhetoric and the record. Ask about the candidate’s advisers and donors. If history serves as a reminder, we have plenty of examples, particularly in the District, to demonstrate that just because a candidate is one of us, doesn’t necessarily mean that candidate is for us, whoever “us” may be.
Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of the slain civil rights champion, offers the best caution when he advises voters — of every race and sex — not to become “so fixated on the candidates that they forget about issues that would still cause [my father] pain.”
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