Who Should Be First?: Feminists Speak Out on the 2008 Presidential Campaign

29. Does Race Trump Gender? Black Women Negotiating their Spaces of Intersection in the 2008 Presidential Campaign

29 Does Race Trump Gender? Black Women Negotiating their Spaces of Intersection in the 2008 Presidential Campaign Cynthia Neal Spence I thought that perhaps Barack Obama should wait his turn. —Spelman Student, Race, Gender and Politics Focus Group Member, December 7, 2008 Hillary Clinton had paid her dues, I was willing to support her. —Spelman Student, Race, Gender and Politics Focus Group Member, January 27, 2009 Barack Obama, an African American man is now the forty-fourth President of the United States of America and he was elected because I voted for him. —Spelman Student, Race, Gender and Politics Focus Group Member, December, 13, 20081 Many would agree the 2008 presidential election process was one of the most exciting presidential contests in the past thirty or more years. Regardless of political affiliation, the image presented by the Republican nominee and the two lead contenders for the Democratic nomination served to stimulate many within the American electorate who had never before taken a serious interest 183 184 / Who Should Be First? in politics or political campaigns. The 2008 presidential campaign season took on particular significance in the context of a historically Black women’s college —Spelman College. Spelman attempts to create an environment where women of African descent are placed at the center and not the margins of discourse and analysis of political thought and activism. Enabling students to not only understand, but also to embrace the reality that the “personal is political” is certainly one desired outcome of those who teach, advise, and mentor Spelman women. The 2008 presidential election created a special moment for Spelman women to actualize what it means to occupy multiple intersecting identities that not only impact their experiences, beliefs, and values, but also determine how others value their positions as political and social agents. Race, Gender, and Political Identity Formation Within the Space of a Historically Black Women’s College It is being asserted here that race, gender, and political identity formation are very fluid processes that are contextual, situational, and dynamic. Social and historical biographies provide an important lens for understanding individual and institutional philosophies, beliefs, and practices. Linda Alcoff’s (1988) analysis of race and gender formation in the United States provides a useful framework for discussing how race, gender, and political identities of Spelman women may have influenced their perspectives on the 2008 Democratic presidential campaign. Alcoff specifically argues that one must gain a better understanding of the concept of positionality when discussing how gender and race identities are constructed. Citing work of Larentis (1986), Alcoff (1997, 349) states that “the identity of a woman is the product of her own interpretation and reconstruction of her history, as mediated through the cultural discursive context to which she has access.” Brush (2001) discusses the work of several scholars (de Lauretis 1986; Omi and Winant 1994) who point to the need to understand social contexts and how race and gender consciousness are always relative to one’s experience within a concrete cultural and historical context. This chapter argues that the special sociohistorical and cultural context of Spelman College must be examined in order to better understand student views about the 2008 Democratic presidential campaign. Spelman College is a private, historically Black women’s college in Atlanta. Two New England missionaries founded Spelman in 1881, an institution whose sole purpose would be to educate newly freed Black women and children. It is distinguished by a proud history of being the only historically Black institution founded for women. Although Bennett College also is a historically Black college for women, it began as a co-ed institution. Does Race Trump Gender? / 185 For the past twenty-eight years, Spelman College has been the home of the Women’s Research and Resource Center headed by renowned women’s studies scholar and activist, Beverly Guy-Sheftall. It is the only historically Black college with a Comparative Women’s Studies major. This point also is important to the contextual analysis here. Historically, we have been committed to producing women leaders in both the public and private sectors. Emphasis on civic engagement has always been encouraged. Although not always condoned by the administration, Spelman College does have a history of student activism . The roles of Spelman women in the Civil Rights Movement have been chronicled.2 Spelman women were very much involved in the student lunch counter sit-ins and other organized boycotts during the...