New Washington Post Poll on Racism and Ageism
New Washington Post Poll on Racism and Ageism - by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at The Care2 Election Blog)
A Washington Post/ABC News poll, shows that nearly half of all Americans believe race relations in this country is in bad shape. And, it seems that when asked, three in ten people acknowledged feelings of racial prejudice. I’m not shocked, but I am a little surprised by this, I really thought we (as a country) were getting past this. I guess it was just wishful thinking on my part.
Before I go on with my “non-expert” analyst of this poll. Let me make one thing perfectly clear…In general, I hold these polls in a very low regard. In fact, I would love to know if there has been a recent study on how often these polls are actually accurate. I imagine that number would be quite low. With that said, I think even more troubling than the three in ten number in this poll, is the fact that, these are people who were “willing” to admit their prejudice when asked. It has always seemed to me, that most prejudice people insist they are not prejudice. So that would mean, the only way to quantify this poll, would be to know what percentage of prejudice people, admit that they are prejudiced when asked.
Here is what other bloggers are saying…
From Faye at Anderson@Large…
Jackson says racial paranoia is real. It is fueled by politically correct racial interaction, residential segregation and segregated social networks. “We are not privy to what’s going on in other communities.” He added:
Barack Obama has to walk an interesting tightrope between the candidate who doesn’t want to talk about race and the candidate who’s going to get the country to talk about race. His candidacy demonstrates that schizophrenia – putting out fires on one end and lighting them on the other end.
That racial schizophrenia is reflected in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll that found that nearly half of all white Americans say race relations are bad. Among African Americans, 60 percent say things are “not so good” or “poor.” Three in 10 of white and black Americans admit feelings of racial prejudice.
ABC News’ politically correct analysis of the polling data underscores Jackson’s point that there is “no way to structure our conversation about race.” The hoped-for dialogue about race has given way to an “index of racial sensitivity,” which effectively classifies voters based on whether they have any black friends.
From Cup O’Joel…
I wasn’t going to mention today’s WaPo poll on racism in America — apparently a third of Americans admit to having feeling of racial prejudice — except that I think Kathryn Jean Lopez stretched a little too far in finding the bright side:
And while three in 10 acknowledge feelings of racial prejudice,” seven in 10 did not. In other words, the overwhelming majority.
Well, sure, it’s not like the unreasoning prejudices of one-third of all Americans could sway a presidential election — could it? And it’s not as though that number might actually be low because many Americans wouldn’t want to break a taboo and admit racism, even to a pollster.
A couple of thoughts: (read full post here)
This is from In The Kut…
According to the Washington Post, a narrow majority (51 percent) of all those surveyed said race relations were “good” or “excellent,” though an even greater percent (more than six in 10) of African Americans polled had a much sour opinion. Just about three in 10 Americans whites and blacks admitted to harboring “personal racial prejudice.”
But of course with this being election season the real purpose of the poll was not to ask such trite questions about race relations. With a slow news cycle they need to introduce something to feed our idle chatter and so here it is:
At the same time, there is an overwhelming public openness to the idea of electing an African American to the presidency. In a Post-ABC News poll last month, nearly nine in 10 whites said they would be comfortable with a black president. While fewer whites, about two-thirds, said they would be “entirely comfortable” with it, that was more than double the percentage of all adults who said they would be so at ease with someone entering office for the first time at age 72, which McCain (R-Ariz.) would do should he prevail in November.
Does this mean that a country that has historically demonstrated a strong preference for electing old white guys as president is somehow inclined to vote for the black guy because he is younger? Are we now led to believe that ageism trumps racism? No quite.
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