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silvershadow

(10,336 posts)
Fri Apr 22, 2016, 08:59 AM Apr 2016

On Hillary Clinton's Pandering

Has hot sauce ever mattered this much in an election? Earlier this week, during the run-up to the New York Democratic primary, the condiment became part of a minor controversy involving Hillary Clinton. In an interview with the hip-hop morning show “The Breakfast Club” on urban radio station Power 105.1, an interviewer asked Clinton about items she always carried with her. Clinton’s answer was immediate. “Hot sauce,” she said.

On a radio station targeted towards black people with music that most would consider connected to black culture, Clinton’s comments looked for all the world like a textbook attempt at pandering from a campaign that has long been accused by young black people of doing just that. The interviewers themselves responded immediately, questioning Clinton about pandering in a joking way. The response on social media was critical of Clinton, and echoed sentiments that have often been expressed on Twitter and Facebook before for previous campaign faux pas. But this particular incident provides a good case study on just what pandering is and the difficulties of making genuine intercultural and intergenerational political connections that seem to plague Clinton the most with young black voters.


“I got hot sauce in my bag” has become a common refrain after Beyoncé’s hit single “Formation” gained popularity as a pro-black anthem, espousing a worldview that proudly embraces certain stereotypes and characteristics that were once deemed “too black” for polite society or undesirable. Hot sauce has long been associated with a certain ugly caricature of black culture—a caricature that frankly doesn’t make much sense. Quasi-objectively, hot sauce is just really damn good.

But it does make sense, then, that many young black people might be upset by a white politician claiming to love hot sauce in an interview that was clearly targeted towards them and their vote. The situation might not be any different if a politician were to awkwardly proclaim a love of fried chicken or watermelon in a speech at Howard University, or if a former governor of Massachusetts were to ask “Who let the dogs out?” while posing with a group of black people for a photo.

more: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/04/hillary-clinton-pandering-radio/479004/

5 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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On Hillary Clinton's Pandering (Original Post) silvershadow Apr 2016 OP
Spoke too soon. 11 topics. grossproffit Apr 2016 #1
hahaha obamanut2012 Apr 2016 #2
Shouldn't the animal mascot for Hillary be a Pander bear? pdsimdars Apr 2016 #3
Hillary's lack of sincerity & her pandering... Herman4747 Apr 2016 #4
She doesn't carry her own handbag PDittie Apr 2016 #5

PDittie

(8,322 posts)
5. She doesn't carry her own handbag
Fri Apr 22, 2016, 10:25 AM
Apr 2016

And if somebody else puts hot sauce in there, I hope they forgot to tighten the cap.

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