Why Hillary Clinton’s Online Persona Doesn’t Connect With Minorities

On October 13, Saturday Night Live kicked off its show with a parody of the most recent Democratic debate. It was back when the stage had more candidates; Vice President Joe Biden had yet to decide whether he’d run for president and Bernie Sanders was having a moment. After the Vermont senator (played by Larry David) rattled off a few nonsensical promises, a worried Hillary Clinton (depicted by Kate McKinnon) interrupted:

“I’m not losing, am I?” she asked the audience with a furrowed brow. “I mean in 2008 of course I lost, I was running against a cool black guy. But this year I thought I got to be the cool black guy!”

Though the mere suggestion that a 68-year-old woman who regularly wears pantsuits and watches The Good Wife could somehow be this election’s “cool black guy” earned laughs from the crowd, it also hinted at what has lately been an identity struggle for Clinton’s campaign. The former secretary of state has built an undeniably savvy social media team that has mastered the art of shade, successfully co-opted the feminist declaration “yas queen,” and scheduled well-timed selfies with Kim Kardashian. But at the same time, her campaign has made tellingly awkward attempts at reaching and relating to young minority voters.

In early December, for instance, Clinton updated her social media accounts’ profile photos with a redesigned version of her campaign’s ubiquitous H logo, featuring an illustration of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks. Though meant to commemorate the anniversary of Park’s civil disobedience, it drew criticism because Parks appeared to be sitting at the back of the bus. Then there was the infamous listicle, “7 Things Hillary Clinton Has in Common With Your Abuela,” (Spanish for grandmother) that appeared on Clinton’s website shortly after the her daughter, Chelsea, tweeted she was pregnant with a second child. It caused intense backlash in the Latino community on Twitter, where the hashtag #NotMyAbuela began trending worldwide, and people shared stories of their immigrant grandmothers’ hardships (far from the life experience of Clinton). Just two days later, her Twitter avatar was changed to yet another paint-by-numbers H logo, this time as a Kwanzaa candleholder. Black Twitter promptly clapped back with a #NewHillaryLogo campaign, that included memes depicting other blatantly pandering redesigns of the image. Her Twitter avatar was quickly replaced.

This unfortunate series of events have led some observers to call out Clinton for her endless thirst for attention or to charge that Clinton is sidestepping actual issues with cheap attempts at relating to minorities. But the Clinton team’s real problem in online outreach is one of tone. Slate’s Amanda Hess rightly characterizes the candidate’s online presence as less a reflection of Clinton than a series of accounts “written in the voice of a Hillary Clinton enthusiast eager to build an online fandom in her idol’s image.” This approach successfully walks the line between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation, at least with respect to certain Internet-savvy and feminist subcultures. And even when the campaign got too enthusiastic with emoji, it was far from offensive.

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https://www.yahoo.com/politics/why-hillary-clintons-online-persona-doesnt-145508124.html