Danielle Holley-Walker is a professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law and is actively supporting the campaign of Sen. Barack Obama . Danielle Holley-Walker : Media 's features on African-American women voters are missing the point . ( CNN ) -- You ca n't turn on a 24-hour news channel or your nightly news this week without seeing a feature on African-American women voters . It makes sense , being that the South Carolina Democratic primary is only one day away and African-American women will make up approximately one-third of the voters . The angle in these news features is virtually identical . The commentators wonder and marvel at the extraordinarily difficult choice for African-American women in this primary -- will we vote for the woman candidate or the African-American candidate ? Reporters have been busying themselves traveling to crowded beauty shops all over the state to answer this question . The funniest , or perhaps most disturbing , thing about these stories is how far they are from my reality . I am an African-American woman living in South Carolina . I have African-American women family members and friends who live in this state . I actually visit beauty shops to get my hair done . Never once have I heard a single woman I know frame the choice about whom to vote for as a question of gender or racial politics . So what are African-American women talking about when the cameras are n't watching or , more importantly , what are we telling the media that is not being fairly reported ? African-American women are talking about the issues ! We talk about the vision that each candidate has for leading this country . We enthusiastically discuss the possibility that real , positive change will come from this election . We even parse the policy distinctions in the candidates ' positions on education , creating jobs and ending the war in Iraq . Sometimes , the issues we talk about do deal with aspects of gender and racial identity . We debated Sen. Hillary Clinton 's statement implying that Martin Luther King 's civil rights movement did not fulfill its promise until Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act . We argue and marvel at the significant generational divide in the African-American community that is being exposed by this election process . If you listen closely to the women in the news features at the beauty shops , they are commenting on these issues , even when the voice-over in the same feature is telling you that the women are discussing whether it 's more important to have the first woman or the first black president . Why is the media determined to make us choose ? Why do they insist that we declare our loyalty to either women or to African-Americans ? This is a truly false dichotomy in that we are the living , breathing embodiment of both identities . Asking us to prefer our gender over our race ( or vice versa ) is the equivalent of asking us to prefer one vital organ over another . That is not to say that identity politics are completely irrelevant in this election . African-American women are expressing their pride in both candidates and in the progress this country has made that allows a white woman and an African-American man to be strong contenders for the presidency . My mother is uplifted by the idea that Obama 's candidacy means that her two grandsons will grow up being able to realistically dream about being president . On Saturday , we will carry this pride into the voting booth with us , but when we cast our votes , we will be thinking about the serious issues facing this country . That 's the truth , and do n't let the media tell you otherwise . E-mail to a friend .
Holley - Smith : Race - or - gender choice is determined by media , not reality . She writes that African - American women are talking about the media . African - American women express their interest in both issues , she adds .