Election Commentary

So I read an article in the New York Times about the primaries that asked the question what was going to happen to the black female vote? As Allison more bluntly put it all black women must be asking themselves "Do I vote with for my skin or for my vagina?" Clearly, a tough decision! But it makes me think about the poor white Democratic male voters who just don't have anyone like them to vote for in the election, unless they pick the falling behind John Edwards. While I do think that it is great to see candidates who aren't the typical white male, we must ask ourselves if this really is as much progress as one would think? They still are all representative of the upperclass and besides that the media's focused attention on what will happen to the "black vote" or the "women vote" and now the conflict over how black women will vote just goes to show that we still cannot get beyond appearances in society. Why does personality or identity matter so much for presidential elections? True it is important to have dynamic leaders with personality, but don't we also need to think about what their visions or goals are instead of just their racial or gender identity. True race and gender do matter in society, but when will we as a society begin to see that identities are complex and composed of so much more than race or gender. We need to look at class, sexual identity, age, and so many other nuanced elements that intersect to make issues so much deeper than just black and white or male and female.