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Sep
20
More evidence that yes, Virginia, there is still racism in the world. I haven’t read it thoroughly but the impact of prejudice is playing out most seriously among people who vote for or consider themselves Democrats:
The pollsters set out to determine why Obama is locked in a close race with McCain even as the political landscape seems to favor Democrats. President Bush’s unpopularity, the Iraq war and a national sense of economic hard times cut against GOP candidates, as does that fact that Democratic voters outnumber Republicans.
The findings suggest that Obama’s problem is close to home — among his fellow Democrats, particularly non-Hispanic white voters. Just seven in 10 people who call themselves Democrats support Obama, compared to the 85 percent of self-identified Republicans who back McCain.
The survey also focused on the racial attitudes of independent voters because they are likely to decide the election.
Lots of Republicans harbor prejudices, too, but the survey found they weren’t voting against Obama because of his race. Most Republicans wouldn’t vote for any Democrat for president — white, black or brown.
Not all whites are prejudiced. Indeed, more whites say good things about blacks than say bad things, the poll shows. And many whites who see blacks in a negative light are still willing or even eager to vote for Obama.
Please note that the article says, “the survey found they [Republicans] weren’t voting against Obama because of his race. Most Republicans wouldn’t vote for any Democrat for president — white, black or brown.”
I remember that only 2% of all Republican convention delegates were African-American, a little over 13% were minority. I don’t know what the breakdown is, nationwide, as to the number of minority candidates who are with the GOP or elected officials who are minorities and with the GOP. I feel safe in saying that they number far fewer than Dems so the option just doesn’t present itself that much. I would imagine that, just as we often hear people say that women have to try twice as harder to get ahead in certain professions, I would guess that minorities in the GOP have to overcome the prejudice as well – but I could be wrong, seeing as how I spend little time in the midst of GOP inner workings.
Regardless, it’s disheartening to see what I’ve observed in writing from a survey, no matter how you debunk it. And the concern that McCain ads are playing up on this survey’s kind of conclusions only makes it worse and reinforces the maintenance of this low-level but pervasive form of racism. (Just as it’s done with sexism too.)
Added note: Clearly – and I’ve got first-hand stories now to support this – Democrats are facing some kind of cognitive dissonance in not being able to support Obama in so much as he is black. And yet, there are plenty of Democrats, like myself, who didn’t vote for Obama in the primary because we preferred Clinton or someone else, and now are voting for Obama/Biden and don’t and didn’t have an issue with race.
But for those that do have an issue with race, they are having to choose between an unfounded bias based on color and their Democratic principles. I know this is going on and I’ve asked other people, how do you get that to change, and I think people like Tim Wise do a good job showing how heinous and retro and unacceptable white privilege prevailing over common sense is – no matter what your political affiliation. I’ve even heard people acknowledge that fact (that they are biased and they know it’s wrong) – and still, they say, they can’t vote for Obama.
To me, this is the watershed moment to examine what the hell is wrong- how do we fix these flaws and why do we allow people to take advantage of them while they still exist?
By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:55 am September 20th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Campaigning, Democrats, Elections, John McCain, Politics, Poll, Race, Republicans, Sexism, Voting, WH2008
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5 Responses to “The ink is black, the paper is white, together we learn to read and vote?”
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Exactly, Jill. The cognitive dissonance is an excellent point. I just mused to my mom that this is a moment that comes rarely, and we as Democrats have to either step up and own the principles we’ve been espousing or we’ll continue down this really dangerous road that is becoming more and more evident as we near November. I have hope that the people, like you, who are willing to explore the dissonance and battle through it will ultimately outnumber those who won’t cast a vote b/c of race. But you are right. It’s up to us to spread the word and take advantage of this opportunity.
Guess it would really be a trick to choose anyone but Obama and not be racists.
It’s all about money and greed, read between the lines, jealousy and resentment.
Do you really think blaming it on someone else is effective, if I sense ignorance I now back off it. It does not matter in the moment in time decisions are made, that effect the person who makes them if there are not a million degrees of separation.
Wall Street is not just wealthy it is in many respect detached from reality.
Who holds the PMI for the debt, did we in our divine wisdom allow them to take on that responsibility and also our pension funds?
I got sick when they deregulated finance, allowed banks to offer insurance and insurance companies to offer credit.
What is a risk premium? Its dyslexic is what it is, less likely to survive so lets make it even more difficult? That’s where they are detached from reality, just as the credit card companies keep sending you blank checks without having any real knowledge of your income. Then if you default they push you off the cliff, 10% grows to as high as 25% interest for what so they can state a bigger loss and then come after you for it.
I like the custom cards with pretty pictures on them, and the points oh those are great spend more spend more. It so easy to incur a huge dept with credit cards, do we still pay for them after we loose the home?
The banks have to shrink down and stop driving us all into bankruptcy, let them shrink let them take pay cuts…or hand them more money?
Are we that foolish it appears so, the last degree of separation how far do we have until the government can not meet its obligations? The interest on the dept and it is growing so fast, putting capital back in but also taking it back out. You have military, social services and dept repayment, actually no repayment just interest. You could say we are or have a big sub-prime debt and interest only pymts. As the dept grows, then what if you do not cut one of the others or raise taxes, it compounds. At some magical or catastrophic point in time the interest exceeds everything….that being you have not enough to cover the interest let alone pay for social services or military defense.
I think its funny and sad, but the “house wife from Alaska” recently used cyclical and fungible in the context of economics and a talking head from CNN said that you needed a UN interpreter to understand her. That’s because these media mouth pieces are ignorant and have no ability to comprehend beyond sound bites. The same talking head asked Goolsbee to outline Obama’s economic plan, insinuating he had none, then as he did she stopped him and said, I am sorry we are out of time, Goolsbee chimed in with you asked me to outline it and it does exist it does takes time to explain. Flipping priceless…read between the lines.
Both parties are attempting to figure out how to tell you that you are screwed but they are not…they are rich and you are not.
We could have a national bank, and we all could fiancé or own depts. and pay off the big one…but what would that be “communism” not really because as long as you do not ban private banking there is no god damn reason that you can not undercut the bastard.
I say if you qualify and our secure then you should get financing and at great rate and the rest of you idiots can rent from us!
Let wall street fall apart if the pension fall then take them into the SS trust.
I bet that some of this money is flowing into foreign banks, bet that many of these Wall street asses are pricing property in Costa Rica. They are telling you not to touch the 401K while they figure out how to pump up the market so they can pull out. They are already catching them doing short term trades and pulling out funds.
Your employer will have to raise prices to afford you and your excessive spending. Less people will be able to afford the product or serves so they will shrink lay off people and rehire cheaper people…to keep the values high!
You should try more for less, but be aware people will get angry and screw with you they want you to assimilate to the same bad behavior.
I think the only people that will survive in the end may be the Amish? The real FUBU, stop patronizing the African Americans. Corporate America screwed everyone…they own Washington at every level and you local politician are retarded, clueless.
Oengus this is absurd and you know it, “Guess it would really be a trick to choose anyone but Obama and not be racists.”
Did you also think, “Guess it would really be a trick to choose anyone but Hillary and not be sexist”?
That’s not what this is about and people who understand the systemic discrimination at the hand of “isms” that goes on knows that. It isn’t about one nice deed or one vote cast one way or another. I didn’t like Clinton from the beginning and yet I got tagged early on by others, because I was a woman, as being an assumed vote for her – that was absurd. And no matter how much I wrote and no matter how many straw votes I cast and no matter how obvious it was that I have little in common with Clinton, still, the sexist attitude that I must be a supporter of hers continued – that is, until PUMA-types came in after the primary and harassed me with adamant beliefs that I’m a GOP male hypnotist. Go figure.
There are plenty of reasons to not vote for Obama if you are right of center, or perhaps even left of center – I found reasons not to vote for him in the primary, so I know, and they had nothing to do with race.
But there are voters who will a) find reasons that are absurd like he’s a Muslim and the anti-Christ and wants 5 year olds to have inappropriate sex education and claim they aren’t racist and won’t vote for him and they aren’t racists in fact; b) find reasons that are absurd like he’s a Muslim and the anti-Christ and wants 5 year olds to have inappropriate sex education and claim they aren’t racist and won’t vote for him but they really are racists in fact; or c) won’t vote for him because he’s black and that’s just that.
These (c) people exist – they know they exist and we know they exist. Why people on any point of the spectrum continue to assert that there’s no racism I honestly cannot understand. That does nothing to eradicate racism, nothing.
A point of information … According to the AP article:
The poll [...] suggests that the percentage of voters who may turn away from Obama because of his race could easily be larger than the final difference between the candidates in 2004 — about two and one-half percentage points. [...] Lots of Republicans harbor prejudices, too, but the survey found they weren’t voting against Obama because of his race. Most Republicans wouldn’t vote for any Democrat for president — white, black or brown.
I looked at the actual poll questions and results and they do not directly support the above statements. Rather, conclusions were drawn from a mathematical model derived from the poll results. As the researchers note, “While the model was exhaustive, it is hard to know if it included every variable that could have an impact in this election.” To me that means, “Take the reported conclusions with a wee grain of salt.”
Anon – thanks – yes I’ve read many of the critiques and the misuses of the poll already. People are going to refuse to recognize the problem of racism and parade around saying they aren’t the ones but do NOTHING about the ones who are. What the hell good is that?
I’ll be writing more about this later, but for excellent takes:
Kristof yesterday on “otherizing”
Dowd gives Aaron Sorkin a shot at scripting an encounter between Jed Bartlett and Barack Obama
Today, Brent Staples in the NYT about the absolutely known meaning of uppity etc.