Journal #2

"...some people charge into the voting booth guided by the primitive, inevitable force of melanin."

This quote comes from an assigned Poynter Online article we had to read for class. It was written by Keith Woods and the article is centered around the Black/Latino vote around the 2004 Bush/Kerry election. Besides it being just a really funny, clever quote, it definitely resonates with my voting pattern in the 2008 Obama/McCain election. It's this sort of notion that we tend to vote and get behind people or movements we identity with because it makes us comfortable.

During the ethnic politics class session, we had a discussion about "how to report it better". Professor Reisner brought it up, repeatedly, during this class session, and I get that it's sort of the central theme of the class itself, but I'm still a bit confused as to what that means. When a white candidate appears at an all-Black church, reporters consider it an attempt to gain the "Black vote". Then the question is begged: "How do we report this better?" Y'know, what can we, as journalists, write to make it sound better? Because, obviously, it sounds a bit skewed and kinda racist when someone writes that McCain was trying to gain the black vote. McCain is just an example, but I'm almost positive that a stop in a candidate's campaign trail is certainly an Episcopalian church located "in da hood".

Let's see. How can we report this better? Well I guess we can start off by stating that there really is no Black vote, right? Like Woods writes in his article, the term "black vote" is a term derived from a foundation of stereotypes and groupings. It's a general assumption that all Black people are the same and all their problems are centered around their low-income and violent surroundings. So maybe with this in mind, we can write this as objective/fair as possible. Talk to people in the neighborhood and talk to the churchgoers, because I'm almost positive that not all of them hold the same views.

It's been said that the black community tend to lean towards the Left side of the political spectrum, which isn't entirely true. We can also make the argument that a lot of the people in that community are highly religious and look at politics in a more conservative light. But ultimately, especially in the 2008 election, the assumption was that the black community will vote for Obama because, well, he's black. Even some of my black classmates were honest about it and admitted that assumption. And I gotta be pretty honest-- I admit it, too.

Over the years I've become more and more liberal. My parents raised me Republican... but it was only a support system rooted in ignorance and just following what my parents said. But as I became more collegiate and educated, I started to sympathize and lean on the Left. Reminds me of the saying "if you're young and not a liberal, you don't have a heart. if you're old and not a conservative you don't have a brain." Eh I don't completely agree with that, but I just thought it was funny. Anyway, as I became more liberal and I supported more social reform movements, I wanted change.

Obama was change personified. He was a black candidate and he was a liberal. He was all for social reform and what-not. But my main drive for supporting him was he was black. Voting for a black candidate was such a milestone for our country. It was a monumental step for civil rights and I wanted to have a hand in that. Maybe it was dumb of me to do that? But after having that class discussion, it seems that my vote is characteristic for a large voting trend. Less than a handful of people said they had voted for Obama because of his policies and promises. I didn't even take the time to look at his policies. He was a Democrat and he was black. Good enough for me. At least, that's what I thought at the time.

So dumb of me. I walked out of the class feeling like a terrible American. Haha. It just made me think that maybe Obama is a president because of his skin color, and it might not be too far from the truth.

So, "Writing it better" means painting the entire picture. Inputting enough complexity to the issue of votes so that it's not just a black vote or latino vote, but just a vote. Behind each vote, there's a motive. The NPR radio program from All Things Considered played in class analyzed the in-depth thought process of how people vote and why they vote for particular people Besides it being a really great, well-done radio show, it shed light on why people voted for McCain or Obama. It was a perfect example of a better-written story about "the vote".