MATTERS OF RACE AND GENDER

Race and gender matter. We all know they do. We may act like they don't. We may say they don't. But deep down inside, we all know that they do.

Last night gave us a perfect example of this reality. The mainstream media has, possibly above all except for the educational establishment, talked down the significance of race and gender. Yet as I watched the Super Tuesday commentary I couldn't help but to notice something as strange as it was predictable: the journalists were fixated on the racial and gender dynamics of the election. They had pie charts, graphs, and a never ending stream of statistics, all having to do with race and gender. They broke down the Hispanic vote, the Black vote, the White vote, and then broke these down into the categories of male and female.

I wish I could say that I was shocked by this, but I'm not. It's easy to say that race and gender don't matter when there are a bunch of rich white men in fancy suits pacing the platform. It is something altogether different when we have a black man and a white woman running neck-and-neck for the Democratic nomination, both having the potential to be the next president of the United States. Now race and gender matter, and they matter a lot! In fact, it seems as if racial and gender identities are the only things on everyone's mind.

Prior to this election, such focus on race and gender would have been seen as racialist or sexist. Now it is a matter or national interest and intrigue. Talking about these two factors is not only permissible, it is something that may cut hard into your ratings if you choose to ignore it.

The big question shouldn't be why race and gender have taken a central role in election coverage and commentary. The answer to that question is rather obvious. The real question is why such conversations were ever taboo in the first place. And what will happen post-election? What if Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton lose? Will we return to silence? Or will this newfound fascination reinvigorate lively debates over racial and gender inequality that have, for at least some time, been confined to academic symposiums and sit-ins? Time will tell. It always does.