Within minutes of posting a story on CNN's homepage called "Gender or race: Black women voters face tough choices in South Carolina," readers reacted quickly and angrily.
Many took umbrage at the story's suggestion that black women voters face "a unique, and most unexpected dilemma" about voting their race or their gender.
CNN received dozens of e-mails shortly after posting the story, which focuses largely on conversations about Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama that a CNN reporter observed at a hair salon in South Carolina whose customers are predominantly African-American.
The story states: "For these women, a unique, and most unexpected dilemma, presents itself: Should they vote their race, or should they vote their gender?"
An e-mailer named Tiffany responded sarcastically: "Duh, I'm a black woman and here I am at the voting booth. Duh, since I'm illiterate I'll pull down the lever for someone. Hm... Well, he black so I may vote for him... oh wait she a woman I may vote for her... What Ise gon' do? Oh lordy!"
Tiffany urged CNN to "pull this racist crap off" the Web site and to stop calling Hillary the "top female candidate."
"Stop calling Barack the "Black" candidate," she wrote.
I have to give a standing ovation to these CNN viewers. Bravo, for calling CNN on their racist, prejudice, pandering crap. Good for you.
The cable news outlets are trying to put each of these candidates in a box that they can quickly slap a label on. The black guy, the chick, and the token white dude.
I personally find it insulting that voters are being identified by their ethnicity, their gender, their income level, their education, or their location. It's as if the idea that some African American woman from South Carolina might want to vote for Kucinich had never occurred to these idiots.
Speaking simply for myself the gender and race issue had absolutely NOTHING to do with how I have come to make my decisions about this Presidential race. I am choosing to support Obama, and hopefully Edwards, based solely on their ideas and capabilities.
And by the way I choose which cable news network I watch in much the same way.
Lots of women wrote nasty letters to CNN- and not all were Black women....
ReplyDeleteenuf said.
( I don't like Wolf....and his hand was in that story...shame on CNN...they need a "Reality Check", the 1950's are indeed OVER)