Thursday, March 08, 2007

Black + woman = ignored voter...

The other day a bitch caught the ass end of a news blip announcing that Senator Clinton will be launching a campaign to court women voters. A commentator on CNN then began chatting about Senator Clinton’s renewed focus on women and added that the Senator will need women voters more than ever now that Senator Obama has gained serious ground with black voters.

Blink.

Pundits do realize that women can be both a woman and black at the same time don’t they?

Lawd, have give me strength!

A bitch has some questions.

Is Senator Clinton losing (wink) ground with black voters or black male voters?

Has anyone looked into what percent of the black vote is made up of women and how that breaks out regionally?

And please…pretty please with Smarties on top…don’t limit your sampling or polling to the ‘hood. Not that there is anything wrong with the ‘hood (wink) but just as black voters can also be women voters…cough…black people can live outside of the traditional ‘hood.

Gasp!

A bitch is merely suggesting that pundits and candidates might want to get to know their data lest they miss out on an opportunity…or loose ground with black women voters who are waiting for someone to speak to us rather than {insert media go-to black male with no grasp of the unique concerns of women of color yet a long list of tried and true sound bite statements from back in the day when the pulpit was to the black man what Rome was to Caesar}.

Which leads me to yet another question.

How about so-called black organizations that may be dropping in membership but for some reason still get candidates booked for tired ass luncheons…when you speak at the luncheon are you speaking to black voters or a room full of black people?

I’m just asking and there is a difference.

This bitch has been involved in voter registration for years and I can’t remember the last time a candidate reached out to black women voters. Oh, they’ve reached out to black men…to black church folk…to black community leaders. But they missed my never miss an election even when I’m tired as hell and really want to black woman voter ass by a mile.

Which circles me back to the reason this shit annoys the hell out of me.

Pundits falling victim to the ‘women are white and blacks are male’ tried and so not true bullshit are an annoyance.

Candidates and campaigns buying into that shit are a damned shame and unworthy of the vote they fail to court whilst courting votes. Between the black and white of demographic strategy are shades of gray…trust a bitch, 'cause I'm one of them…that represent voters waiting to be courted for who we are rather than who we have been traditionally seen as.

And if you want to know what black women voters are looking for in a President try asking black women who vote.

Then shut the fuck up and listen.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

But All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some Of Us Are Brave

--Ayodele

Anonymous said...

Right on! (From a nonblack, nonwoman celebrating International Women's Day...)

Shark-Fu said...

Tell it Sister Ayodele!

Tell it!

Maven said...

TESTIFY!

Anonymous said...

Aw shucks. *scuffs toe in dirt*

-Ayodele

Anonymous said...

There is a difference!
And so many shades of gray as well.

Candidates that view black folk as a monolith do so at their own peril.

Anonymous said...

PLEASE learn how to spell/use the word "lose". "Loose" is an adjective, as in "my braids are loose", or "loose morals". "Lose" is a verb, as in "lose the race", and "I lost my wallet", etc.
I am going to lose my mind....

Thanks, and power to you!

landismom said...

Can I get an amen?

AMEN!

telly serone said...

Me being a black male (part of the group that ALWAYZ getz focused on @ election tyme), i'll tell u 1st hand: the black women are the majority of the blackz who vote. point-blank.

Shark-Fu said...

Oh my!

Blessed be the anonymous editors who police the holy internets and save bloggers like me from the perils of spell check.

Tudles...uh, I mean toodles!

SwingTowns said...

My question is...why black voters? Why white voters? Why red, yellow, brown, mocha, latte, peach or any other color voter for that matter?

Why isn't it just "female voters" or "male voters" or how about just voters in general? I am so sick on everything being divided. Liberals and conservatives, gay or straight, white or black, male or female, catholic or jewish.

It's never ending.

When is the separation going to end?

CP

Unknown said...

I listened to a speech from a former congressman where he preached how bad the Republicans are in communicating there message to their base and to the public, and how the public does not know anything about what the republicans got done in the 109th congress. And while he was going on about the issues that the Republicans got done, he was also talking about the "earmarks". He explained to the conservative crowd, that "earmarks are les than one tenth of a percent of the federal budget" witch is a stunning fact that makes me wonder why this is the concern of our time in the conservative community.

As he finished his speech, I walked up to him and told him "Mr. Congressman, I might be wrong but I recall reading an article in the Wall St. Journal, about an official in CO criticizing an earmark that Sen. Allard (R-CO) inserted in a spending bill, saying that it takes away the money the State gets from the federal government." So I asked the Hon. Congressman "Is it true that when a congressman or senator inserts an earmark in a spending bill, he does not raise spending? That he just takes away the liberty from one bureaucrat to decide how to spend the money and decides himself where the money should go?"

The answer was yes.

So if earmarks do not raise spending and it's not more then one tenth of one percent of the budget, why is there so much noise about it?

Because we do not communicate, and nobody amongst us is aware of the facts. We have to start communicating, and shouldn't be afraid that someone will slam us, because if you fight back, you have a chance of winning, and if you don’t fight you don’t even have a chance of winning.

Maven said...

I just wonder... like in that MLK Jr., speech about being judged on one's content... will we EVER be able to deal with each other as PEOPLE, and not make presumptions about what we may or may not do as a result of our gender or race? Am I alone here in thinking that character and intelligence are mutually exclusive from all of the worldly, physical garbage?

storm indigo said...

girl please let me know know when someone asks--not to mention listening, or even ackowledges black women as a unique and real demographic. I have been waiting for someone to figure out:
--that not all women are white, not all blacks are men, and the marginalized among us are getting fed the hell up!
--the image you get of black women from the media is not real.
--that my 'hood' is a suburb, I am well-read, articulate, opinionated, love public radio, and not all that unique among us. Clearly most of us live outside the box.

Anonymous said...

Aren't all voters virually ignored these days regardless of race, gender etc? After all, the majority of us voted for gore and bot bushy. We voted a majority of dems into the house and senate because we want change and that includes getting us out of Iraq.

Now the news has a clip of some congressman.....democrat by the way berating an anti war lobbyist and calling them stupid liberals and implying one must be smoking something weird.

Yeah, they stomp for your vote when running but once in they forget who they work for. Perhaps it's time all 'stupid liberals', progressives and those who think broke away from both parties and started their own. As I see it, two parties, different faces but same greedy bastards

Maven said...

I agree with Anonymous 10:34 a.m.... it's a "Devil May Care" attitude... or picking the lesser of two evils.

You wanna talk about a swing vote? Let's suppose some other T-E-R-R-O-R-I-S-T-based event occurs close to the primary elections... you wanna see how those stuck in the middle will vote? Damned if they won't vote for Rudy because of some misinformed bullshit opinion that he knows how to deal with terrorists... when the reality is, after the WTC was bombed in 1993, he insisted on having the Emergency Services based in WTC rather than off site in Brooklyn. And lookey! 911 happened! Lotta good Emergency Services did THERE! Guess where ES is based now? BROOKLYN!

It's mad-scary how "ahead" he appears, and we're not even in the actual stumping period...

Anonymous said...

It would be bad for me to get cranky about the kumbayas that essentially ignore black women's concerns, needs, and perspectives in favor of some sort of... Tone Def moment...?

--Ayodele

Anonymous said...

Is it just me? I am so offended by ANGRY BLACK BITCH! Why? How could you? I don't care if your white, black, purple, or even blue. Black bitch in any form is just offensive. whats is wrong with you? a BITCH is how you view yourself or to catch attention? Do you think any one would want to read anything with a title ANGRY BLACK BITCH? if I see it in a store I will burn it down, and this is coming from a BLACK WOMAN! nobodies BITCH!

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