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Election time always makes me feel like it’s Christmas: I can hardly wait to find out who’s going to take over the White House on Election Day. There’s so much preparation that must be done ahead of time: you have to research the candidate platforms, banter with your friend about their candidate of choice while you watch debates, and get real excited (or horrified) at media coverage or candidate responses. And this year, the fact that there’s a diversity of candidates from different genders, races, and socioeconomic backgrounds vying for the Democratic presidential nomination is the most exciting part of this year’s primary. This is the first time we’re seeing a White woman and a Black man compete as front-runner candidates in a major party primary.
In previous elections the media talks about how demographics by gender, race, and age will vote for the amazing selection of (White heterosexual male) candidates, but never how the gender or race of the candidate impacts how these demographics will vote. Now that the media is talking about these issues it’s slowly becoming the most disappointing part of the election. It’s not the fact that we’re having this discussion about race and gender in our society that frustrates me, but how this discussion is played out. For those who aren’t sure what I’m referring to yet, it’s a new buzz topic in the blogosphere known as the “Oppression Olympics”: which is the more subjugated identity, race or gender?
