October 2, 2007
The State newspaper reported recent poll results (Women Key in ‘08 by Aaron Gould Sheinin) showing that more than a third of black women were still uncertain about how they’d vote in South Carolina’s presidential primary.
Among the people interviewed in the article were Bamberg student Nancy Rivers and Rep. Gilda Cobb Hunter, whose impressions seemed to mirror poll results.
The State writes:
Rivers said she rejects the stereotype she should support Obama because she is black or Clinton because she’s a woman. “There has to be more to it than that,” she said. State Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, said the stereotype Rivers mentions is pervasive in many black communities, and helps explain the large percentage of undecided black females.
“There are a lot of black women who are torn between Obama and Clinton,” said Cobb-Hunter, who has not endorsed any candidate.
There is an automatic assumption, she said, that black women will support Clinton because of their shared gender or Obama because of their shared race.
“In the circles I have moved around in, it really is a difficult choice and women really seem to be asking themselves - does race trump gender or does gender trump race?” Cobb-Hunter said.
