Hillary Clinton Kwanza Logo: #NewHillaryLogo Mocks Candidate’s Latest As Racial Pandering
Hillary Clinton might need to fire her Twitter team. Christmas, or Kwanza, week saw two separate social media backlashes due to incidents that critics are calling “racial pandering.”
On the plus side, #NotMyAbuela and #NewHillaryLogo are set to be notable trending hashtags on Twitter. On the downside, it wasn’t because those people were eagerly jumping aboard the Clinton campaign; it was because they were annoyed by what they saw as cheap ploys at racial inclusion by jumping in on traditions like Kwanza.
The more recent offense, #NewHillaryLogo, took off Saturday when Hillary posted a re-imagining of her own campaign logo that was altered to resemble a kinara, the holder where the seven candles of Kwanza are placed during the week-long celebration. The African-American holiday was first started in 1965 by prominent black activist Maulana Karenga, and has since spread to other countries with African diaspora populations. Today, only a small fraction of the country’s black population celebrate the holiday: about 2 million of 41.7 million African-Americans take part in the celebration, according to an article in The Post.
Whatever the Clinton campaign’s intentions, many users were unamused by what they saw as a blatant attempt to drum up support among black Americans as Bernie Sanders aligns himself with the Black Lives Matter movement. The offending logo has since been removed, though it’s not clear if that was planned from the beginning or not.
Wishing everyone the best this Kwanzaa. To all celebrating—Bill and I send you our warmest wishes. -H
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) December 27, 2015
What does remain, other than Hillary’s Kwanza greeting, are a slew of people tearing down the move with a #NewHillaryLogo hashtag that features outwardly crass attempts at racial pandering created to parody the original.
This entire post omg it’s great Black Twitter claps back at Hillary Clinton with #NewHillaryLogo https://t.co/gNc4eTLDJf via @Blavity
— Emma (@bergeronprocess) December 28, 2015
#newhillarylogo taking over for the ’16 & the 2020s ya heard pic.twitter.com/Zc5irb4Y1u — Watermelondrea (@marie_360) December 28, 2015
Join us in a lil game called #NewHillaryLogo and predict what sister Hillary’s next logo will be. pic.twitter.com/KC1dopLREv
— Avery. (@Philosavery) December 27, 2015
The hashtag referenced several facets of African-American culture, many of them dealing with stereotypes about food preferences and hip-hop. Others went for irreverence and mocked the Crips vs. Bloods gang rivalry by featuring handkerchiefs converted into the Hillary logo, joking that no matter what side you were on, you can stand with Clinton.
No matter what set you rep, you can count on Hilary to rep your country #NewHillaryLogo pic.twitter.com/6Gcf4NzBPf — Frozone (@Wamzy_) December 27, 2015
Because YOU started from the bottom but now I’M here! #NewHillaryLogo pic.twitter.com/QzdSWtQif5
— Dewayne Perkins (@DewaynePerkins) December 27, 2015
“Hey moe, Wale is voting for me, you should too!”- @HillaryClinton #NewHillaryLogo pic.twitter.com/TzGpaUKIVT — Kujichagulia (@ParkerAtiba) December 27, 2015
@HillaryClinton I’ve got you for woman’s history month and black history month #NewHillarylogo pic.twitter.com/vJMqe4JeeT
— palante (@TiffanyVW_) December 27, 2015
Apart from getting ripped apart for her Kwanza logo, Hillary Clinton has actually enjoyed a high level of support among the African-American community during her campaign. In South Carolina, which will be the site of the fourth Democratic primary, she is currently maintaining a 71 percent lead, with Bernie Sanders making up only 15 percent of the vote. That difference becomes even sharper when focusing on black voters: 80 percent of them have pledged their support for Hillary, reported CNN.
[Image via Twitter and Eric Thayes/Getty Images]
