Categories: Speak Your Mind
March 25, 2008
This week's installment of Speak Your Mind is actually a Get My Vote submission from novelist ZZ Packer. She says the party that best tends to children in need is the party that will earn her vote.
What is Get My Vote? Get a refresher here.
Do you agree with Packer? What would it take to get your vote? Sound off!
I'm with her: As a Black woman, I've become very jaded by the auto-parsing of my vote (I'm Black so I'll robotically vote for Obama, but I'm also female, so Clinton considers my vote her right). I'm looking for more than identity politics.
Last week, amidst the furor of what I'm calling PreacherGate, a report came out from the CDC that stated that while 20% of white and Latino teenage girls have an STD, almost half (48%) of Black girls may be so infected.
Forty-eight percent.
They went on to posit that, because of low rates of preventive care and general suspicion about the medical establishment, these girls will grow up to continue the trend of greater mortality from cervical cancer (which, we now know, can arise from untreated genital warts and HPV).
Truly, racism makes the sexism we face as Black women that much more stinging while the racism that we are subjected to--also as Black women--seems so much more intractible, as both sides sidle up to ask "Sister, are you with us?"
They both need to get back on message--quick!--or they'll find that the American attention span is much shorter than they suspect.
NPR thanks our sponsors
News & Views is the companion blog of NPR's news magazine show, News & Notes. It extends News & Notes' ongoing conversation about the diversity of the African-American experience. For more information, read our Frequently Asked Questions guide and our Discussion Rules.
This blog is no longer active. You can find a list of current NPR blogs at npr.org/blogs.
News & Notes aired its final broadcast on March 20, 2009 — the result of budget cuts by National Public Radio.
Comments
Discussions for this story are now closed. Please see the Community FAQ for more information.