Race, gender still matter

Although subtle, Clinton, Obama fight stereotypes, U-M panel says

Tuesday, March 11, 2008
BY DAVE GERSHMAN
The Ann Arbor News

If Sen. Barack Obama becomes the first black man elected president of the United States, it won't be a sign that Americans have moved beyond race, a University of Michigan professor said Monday during a campus discussion of race and gender in presidential politics.
Vince Hutchings, an associate professor of political science at U-M, said Obama's success is helped by his unwillingness to talk about race, which Hutchings called "this thing that divides us the most.'' Black Americans still lag behind whites in indexes of income, wealth and education, indications that racial equality has not been achieved, he said.
By downplaying race, Obama, a Democrat, has fashioned a unique appeal as a candidate, generating support with white voters. Meanwhile, he is able to still generate significant support among black Americans by implying the importance of race without necessarily verbalizing it, said Hutchings.
"His comments with respect to, 'There is no black America, or white America, just the United States of America,' that's a very appealing message - to white Americans, because they're already predisposed to believe it,'' said Hutchings.
Hutchings' comments were part of a panel discussion sponsored by U-M's Institute for Research on Women and Gender and by the Center for Political Studies. The discussion, held at Lane Hall, focused on how Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton are navigating the issues of race and gender, and the stereotypes held by voters, even if those stereotypes are subtle.
For pollsters, it's tough to tease out information voters may not want to share about themselves, panelists said. And voters don't always tell the truth in exit polls, and their answers can be tailored to what they believe the pollster wants them to say.
"It's not whether or not people care about race,'' said Nicholas Valentino, a professor from the University of Texas at Austin, "but whether we can ever ask them and get them to tell us whether race is really important, whether they even know. And if they do know, what are they going to tell us, and the same, though slightly less, for gender.''
Clinton is in a particular bind when it comes to battling stereotypes while still trying to mount a presidential campaign, Valentino said.
"Clinton is stuck between multiple negative gender stereotypes,'' he said. "If she's too tough, then she's not feminine. If she's not tough enough, then she's not competent, so she really has to walk a tightrope.'' [To read the entire article, go to: http://www.mlive.com/news/annarbornews/index.ssf?/base/news-26/1205246437149060.xml&coll=2 ]