ABSTRACT
The 2008 presidential election was unique for the ways it forced voters, media commentators, and political candidates to talk, albeit often awkwardly and euphemistically, about issues of racism and sexism. Most of this discussion was white-framed, especially that conducted and channeled by the white-controlled mass media. As a result, much commentary and debate focused on racial and gender issues in rather narrow and constricted ways. The mostly white media commentators and pundits paid relatively little attention to any racial issues except those involving white and black Americans, and even then often because they were pressured to do so. In this increasingly multiracial society such a narrow focus by the media commentators and political candidates is unacceptable.
