Trumping Race or Gender: my long winded endoresement of Obama

Are you more connected to your gender or to your race? Choose wisely.

New York Times Video: Undecided in New York
(please watch this then read the post)

I'm a minority and I'm a woman. And since the Democratic race is between a black man and a white woman, it raises a few questions and a few revelations for me. The first being that not all voters are the same (duh). Some really study a candidate's platform while others simply see the Terminator supporting John McCain and vote for him. It's sad but true. Some people think, "I'm a guy so I'm going to vote for a guy." Some voters might think "I'm a woman and so I'm going to vote for a woman." Some may think, "I'm black so I'm going to vote for the black candidate."

The problem or situation is that when we as voters want to vote for the candidate we can personally relate to there are a few overlaps. When John Edwards left the race I began to think how will I be voting in this election? Will I be voting as a woman or as a minority? Like the New York Times video above says: does race trump gender?

I thought so.

I assumed that since I am Indian that other Indians will be voting for Barack Obama as well. It's silly now that I sit back and think about it but I assume that since we all have that common minority connection that clearly we'd vote for the ethnic minority candidate. But while scrolling through Facebook I noticed that an Indian friend of mine was cheering for Hillary Clinton in her status. 'How odd' I thought.

(Evan Vucci/Associated Press)

My mother and I began to talk about why another minority might vote for Clinton rather than for Obama. "Well keep in mind," she said, "some Indian families have that overwhelming pressure to have sons. So growing up as a woman in a household that worships having sons might make some Indian women want to vote as a woman rather than as a minority."
Good point mama.

I was lucky enough to be raised in a house where gender wasn't an issue (mostly because my father was well outnumbered and had surrendered long ago to the fact that he didn't really wear the pants in the family). My mother showed me the video above and I think it's a fantastic way to capture what young, minority women are going through during this primary race. It's not easy and what it really boils down to are two things--the masks we wear and this idea of suffrage.

Call it bitter but the way I look at which 'label' I fit under better is the 'label' that's hurt me the most. Have i been discriminated more because I am a woman or because I am non-white...I think those of us who are in this limbo category think like this because we bond more closely to the issues that separate us from others.

Looking back I have experienced both racial discrimination and gender discrimination (it's NOT a perfect world). But what stings most and what I've experience more is racial discrimination. You want the brutal recap?

• When I was in third grade a group of kids threw stones and sticks at me and called me a nigger.
• In first grade I was told that I was 'too dark' to be friends with a classmate.
• My sophomore year of high school during a heated debate a classmate shouted that Hinduism is 'bunk and crap' and pointed her pasty finger straight at me.
• At a department store in Wisconsin a woman ignored me while I was trying to ask her a question. Then she turns to her co-worker and asked, "what does that dark girl want?"
• A few months ago, I went to a Halloween party at a rural Oregon college and was asked if I was a 'sand nigger.'

I'm not wearing these as badges of pride and I'm not voting out of anger. But I would absolutely without-a-doubt want a president who could step into my shoes and see the major issues I think America faces through my eyes. I can't (and believe me I've tried) ask any of my white friends to do this. I'm not trying to sound snobby when I say it's something they will never fully understand. I've heard their arguments before and they just don't stand up. What I see in Barack Obama is a candidate with a strong sense of what America is made of--the good and the bad. He's a candidate that is taking a deeper look into what America's problems are and what can we fundamentally do to change them. Does it help that he is black? Absolutely. But it's certainly not the only reason why I am voting for Barack Obama.

It's silly how it took me this long to realize this but this election, reflects a greater choice I am making about who I am. I'm a woman and I am also a racial minority. And at the end of the day women minority voters have to ask themselves 'which is more important to you?'