Clinton or Obama?
Whois is
winning
the
battle
for black
women’s
votes
BY ERIC L. HINTON
Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama? She’s got
momentum; he’s got Oprah Winfrey and
Halle Berry.
For the first time, black women have
been presented with two viable presidential
candidates with whom they can identify in terms
of either race or gender. How this will shake up the
Democratic race is unclear, but both campaigns realize
black women represent a powerful voting constituency
that could go far in deciding the Democratic primary.
First step back a moment. To believe that black
women would vote for Clinton “only” because she’s
a woman or for Obama “only” because he’s black is
both demeaning and a disservice to black women who
are just as apt to align themselves with a candidate
because of the issues rather than race or gender.
But that’s what a recent New York Times article, “A
Clinton-Obama Quandary for Black Women,” insinu-
