Elizabeth Hines on Black Women's Votes & Visibility

I haven't commented on the presidential race because there are a number of people who are writing/blogging on it in a capable and incisive fashion and I'd rather direct attention to their work. Speaking of which I just read Elizabeth G. Hines' take on the role of black women voters in this race, and their particular impact in South Carolina. I didn't want to forget her perspective, or where I found it, so I'm providing a short excerpt and a link to the full article below:


What Black Women's Votes Mean for the Presidential Race
By Elizabeth G. Hines, Women's Media Center

I've been giving thanks quite a lot this election season: thanks that the field of candidates looks different from ever before; that we who are not white men can believe that our nation has a place for us in its leadership, too. And I've been giving thanks that the advent of this diverse slate of candidates has created just a little space in which we Americans can begin to address, on a national level, the issues of race and gender that have plagued us since our very beginnings as a country. We may not yet be good at talking about those issues, but at least now we're trying.

Today, however, I am here to admit that my greatest measure of thankfulness has recently settled on nothing so predictable, for a black woman, as seeing Clinton and Obama's faces plastered across every newspaper and television screen from here to Tallahassee. No, today I want to give thanks for the state of South Carolina.

Read the full article at Alternet.org


By the way the photo at right isn't an endorsement, but one of the results of a keyword search using the terms "black" "women" "vote." Including it here seemed appropriate given the results of the South Carolina Democratic Primary.