Race and gender in campaign discussed
by Deborah Frisch
News | 2/12/08
Posted online at 4:00 AM EST on 2/12/08
A group of Brandeis' political experts shared their insights on the Democratic race for the presidential nomination at a roundtable discussion in Pearlman Lounge last Thursday, all agreeing that race and gender play a big role in the process.
"It is impossible to remove race and gender from this race and discussion and it would be a disservice to what these candidates bring," Prof. Jill Greenlee (POL) said.
With Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in a deadlock for the Democratic nomination, gender and race have caused this election to become "a provocative time for a lot of people around issues of voting," said James Mandrell (ROCL), chairman of the women's and gender studies program.
The event, co-sponsored by the departments of African and Afro-American Studies, American Studies, Politics, and Women and Gender Studies, featured Greenlee, Prof. Daniel Kryder (POL) and Prof. Mingus Mapps (AAAS/POL). All stressed the idea that identity has become caught up in politics.
In his presentation, Mapps asked whether Democrats have entered into an era of gender and color-blind politics, but came to a tentative conclusion that the Democratic Party is not in such a phase.
"We, over time, have seen a general liberalization; Americans have expressed a willingness to vote for a black or woman candidate," Mapps said. Still, he said that what a voter tells to a survey researcher may be different from how that person votes.
Mapps showed graphs with election data revealing that over time, trends indicate women having more influence on elections by turning out to vote more often than men. "Having a viable woman on the democratic ticket may be attracting more women to the polls," he said.
"There is a distinctive gender breakdown in [the] Obama-Clinton vote," Mapps said. The Democratic Party is predominantly white, with the next largest group African Americans and then Hispanics, he said.
With the data he presented, Mapps showed that Obama consistently beats Clinton with the African American vote, a surprising outcome, Mapps said, considering the Clinton family's popular reputation among black voters in the past. Clinton has won the women's vote so far, while Obama has won the black vote, revealing an interesting intersection of race and gender in the election, Mapps said.
"It is impossible to remove race and gender from this race and discussion and it would be a disservice to what these candidates bring," Prof. Jill Greenlee (POL) said.
With Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in a deadlock for the Democratic nomination, gender and race have caused this election to become "a provocative time for a lot of people around issues of voting," said James Mandrell (ROCL), chairman of the women's and gender studies program.
The event, co-sponsored by the departments of African and Afro-American Studies, American Studies, Politics, and Women and Gender Studies, featured Greenlee, Prof. Daniel Kryder (POL) and Prof. Mingus Mapps (AAAS/POL). All stressed the idea that identity has become caught up in politics.
In his presentation, Mapps asked whether Democrats have entered into an era of gender and color-blind politics, but came to a tentative conclusion that the Democratic Party is not in such a phase.
"We, over time, have seen a general liberalization; Americans have expressed a willingness to vote for a black or woman candidate," Mapps said. Still, he said that what a voter tells to a survey researcher may be different from how that person votes.
Mapps showed graphs with election data revealing that over time, trends indicate women having more influence on elections by turning out to vote more often than men. "Having a viable woman on the democratic ticket may be attracting more women to the polls," he said.
"There is a distinctive gender breakdown in [the] Obama-Clinton vote," Mapps said. The Democratic Party is predominantly white, with the next largest group African Americans and then Hispanics, he said.
With the data he presented, Mapps showed that Obama consistently beats Clinton with the African American vote, a surprising outcome, Mapps said, considering the Clinton family's popular reputation among black voters in the past. Clinton has won the women's vote so far, while Obama has won the black vote, revealing an interesting intersection of race and gender in the election, Mapps said.
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