What's the whole "Sister Souljah" moment about?

[fujiyama]

As I understand Sister Souljah is some sort of rap singer and Clinton criticized her lyrics or something like that to appeal to moderate voters...

Is that it? I was too young in '92 to know anything about politics...

[Bunny]

1. Yep.

That's about right.

[Dookus]

2. Yes....

It was Clinton trying to look tough on traditional values. It's come to mean any candidate who attacks somebody from his own traditional base in order to show his/her independence.

If, for instance, Bush came out against the homophobic anti-civil union crowd, they'd call it HIS sister Souljah moment.

[Syrinx]

3. As I recall, it wasn't just her lyrics

She had said "We should have a day for killing white people."

[Lefty48197]

4. That was a very clever political ploy by BC

The Right wingers were just about to try and label Clinton as someone who owed something to the African American voters. The Righties were about to start playing the race card by claiming that Bill Clinton was going to take everybody's paycheck and give it to those Black welfare mothers that Ronald Reagan warned us about. The Reps were also about to play the Willie Horton game and start claiming that BC was going to let all of those black people out of jail so they could rob us. Just when the Right Wing propogand team was set to go to work, BC pulled the rug out from under them by singling out an African American individual whom he could criticize. Apparently, her lyrics left her open to criticism, and BC chose her. The criticism was meant to send a message to the NASCAR dad types that BC wasn't afraid to criticize an African American, when appropriate. It was a subtle signal to the white male voters. It worked.