Monday, September 15, 2008

The Race in the Race for the Presidency


My friend Leslie told me this story about her last visit to the hairdresser: a white woman in her late seventies stated without apology or hesitation that she would never vote for a black man. Period. End of story.

With Obama and McCain in a dead heat, see CNN polling from today, and now even New York women favoring the Republican ticket because of Palin, I have only one explanation: racism.

According to the New York Times, in 2004, nine million more women voted than men. 67.3 million women voted. This election like the last will turn on the women's vote. So the choice of Sarah Palin as Republican VP candidate appears to have reignited the anger and disappointment that many women feel about Hillary's defeat. And to have claimed a new definition of strong woman. At least that is the way this is being portrayed in the media.

But it is predominantly white women voters who are allegedly charmed by Palin.

The question I'm asking is this: has McCain shrewdly given these white women voters an out, a way to avoid feeling racist, by offering them a choice of voting for a woman as VP?

How else can we explain the excitement over an inexperienced, infanticide-attempting, fundamentalist, no-nothing other than she isn't an intellectual black man?

I believe Sarah Palin's candidacy is a cover for America's unexamined and shameful racism. What about you?

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