The White Chick versus the Black Dude

By Jill Chapin

January 25, 2008

This is an exciting moment in history whereby one of two glass ceilings are positioned to come crashing down, shattering our nation’s history of shameful gender and race inequality.

America - a country that once did not even recognize a black person as a complete individual, and for more than half of its existence did not allow women the right to vote.

Never before, however, has it been more critical to be wary of selecting a president using race or gender as your main barometer.

When Clinton teared up shortly before the New Hampshire primary, women apparently changed their votes in large enough numbers to overturn Senator Obama’s considerable lead over his female challenger. Is this what we’ve been fighting for? A woman who cries because she fears she’s going to lose, and we feel sorry for her?

Hillary turns on the crocodile tears for the cameras
before the New Hampshire primary.

A recent poll revealed that most women see Senator Clinton as experienced, yet a majority of them also see Senator Obama as honest. Since women nevertheless are - so far - aligning themselves with Clinton, it appears that they are partial towards a seasoned prevaricator. Just because it’s a woman’s prerogative to say one thing and mean another?

In her victory speech, she thanked New Hampshire for helping her to find her voice. But as comedian Bill Maher pointed out, how come this woman who brags about her thirty-five years’ worth of experience hadn’t found her voice until that very day? Whose voice was she using until that moment?

Further, is anyone wondering how Senator Clinton’s campaign would dare question Obama’s suitability for president because he used drugs as a youth? Her own glass house should have silenced her from reminding us about a former president who didn’t inhale.

In the South Carolina debate Hillary declared that she is better positioned to take on a GOP nominee, because "I’ve been there. I’ve done that. They’ve been after me for sixteen years, and much to their dismay, I am still here." By her very words, she is expecting a fight from Day One. But the presidency is not a basketball game where you win or lose; in Washington, the result is stalemate. Remember the Clinton White House, with her chronic complaints about those right wing conspirators always out to get them? I don’t see a President Obama walking into the Oval Office suspicious of a subversive attack squad at his heels.

These are perilous times, made horrifically worse by the policies of the last eight years. None of us will select a candidate who aligns with everything we value, but two things should be tops on everyone’s list. One is the ability to bring to the world stage a level of diplomatic skills that speaks to the global community in ways that can begin to defuse the hateful rhetoric spewing forth towards us. The other is a willingness to listen and to reach out across the aisle to bring consensus, and who doesn’t equate cooperation with weakness.

It’s not about just voting for the first woman or the first black; it’s about voting for the one who will best serve the interests of both genders and all races.

That’s why this white chick is voting for the black dude. If anyone is still yearning for the nostalgia of the Clinton administration, we should remember Dorothy telling Toto that they weren’t in Kansas anymore.

Senator Barack Obama (D-Illinois)

We’re not in the nineties anymore either.

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