AP poll: Majority harbor prejudice against blacks

Ann Coulter was on the Bill Maher show recently and said “real racism,” for the most part, no longer exists in the United States.

AP poll: Majority harbor prejudice against blacks

Racial attitudes have not improved in the four years since the United States elected its first black president, an Associated Press poll finds, as a slight majority of Americans now express prejudice toward blacks whether they recognize those feelings or not. Racial prejudice has increased slightly since 2008 whether those feelings were measured using questions that explicitly asked respondents about racist attitudes, or through an experimental test that measured implicit views toward race without asking questions about that topic directly.

In all, 51 percent of Americans now express explicit anti-black attitudes, compared with 48 percent in a similar 2008 survey. When measured by an implicit racial attitudes test, the number of Americans with anti-black sentiments jumped to 56 percent, up from 49 percent during the last presidential election. In both tests, the share of Americans expressing pro-black attitudes fell.

Click to expand...

Poll results

Academic analysis


So far comments I've read are saying this is nothing more than blatant propaganda on the part of the Obama campaign, an attempt to 'shame' ignorant white folks into voting for that black guy -- I so luvs me the True Believers :roll:

So what's your point?

Odd little poll.

I'd be inclined to hang up the phone or just laugh once they went off the Presidential questions and were like:
"RAC7. How much do you like or dislike each of the following groups?"

"Whites?"

"Blacks?"

Because respectively, 1) Barack Obama is a horrible president, 2) some white people rule, some white people suck, and 3)some black people rule, some black people suck. The melanin in your skin does not determine whether you rule or you suck; your words and deeds do. Obama happens to inhale profusely.

To be fair though, as I was reading through it I was going to see if they were actually just going to judge your answers based on your opinion of the President. Then they were like, "so, how racist are you?" and people answered anyway.

Seems like half of the respondents had the right answer - "neither like nor dislike."



Edit: ah, the phone call was just the initial thing, this was an online survey.

Fletch said:

So what's your point?

Click to expand...

Scanning the poll it does not look likes Whites or Hispanics faired much better in the likability department, so I am guessing they oversampled See Through People.

JayDubya said:

Odd little poll.

I'd be inclined to hang up the phone once they went off the Presidential questions and were like "RAC7. How much do you like or dislike each of the following groups
RAC7. How much do you like or dislike each of the following groups "Whites?"

"Blacks?"

Barack Obama is a horrible president. Some white people rule, some white people suck. Some black people rule, some black people suck. The melanin in your skin does not determine whether you rule or you suck.

Click to expand...

I can actually agree with much of this post -- with the exception of the "Barack Obama is a horrible president." part.

Far too many people judge others by the colour of their skin. I think we are fortunate in our family because we have one person with increased melanin as one might say, and others who can barely go outside in the day time because they are so pale. Stupid family joke about one of those palies, "You can't even say the word, SUN, near her or she will get burnt." Yet, our family get togethers and arguments have never been over anybody's past and only over what they do today.

Perhaps it is due to the fact that I grew up in a country that was majority African descent that today, the one mid-level exec I work with, who is dark-skinned, feels comfortable in talking with me about the blatant, and also subtle, racism he faces everyday. As with most African Americans he just deals with it but it is frustrating at times.

Somerville said:

I can actually agree with much of this post -- with the exception of the "Barack Obama is a horrible president." part.

Click to expand...

Well yeah, but you're a socialist and I'm a libertarian. That goes without saying. We can try to be polite to each other, and we should, but if one of us likes a politician, the other is going to probably really hate their guts.

At the end of the day, I'd say human beings do have a tendency to hate the different and the unknown. If it wasn't skin color, it'd be something else, and you see attitudes like this all over the world. People will find a superficial trait to be bigoted about. People will meet one person from a group and have a negative experience, and then irrationally project that negativity to all others within that group.



Bizarrely, I think it's possible for both the study to be right and for Coulter to be right, given the caveat "for the most part."

How can this be correct

Bizarrely, I think it's possible for both the study to be right and for Coulter to be right, given the caveat "for the most part."

Click to expand...

when both explicit and implicit racism were found to be greater than 50 percent amongst respondents?

I wonder if Obama's supporters have had any impact



when 95% of one race votes for more taxes and more government, does that increase negative views towards that race?

I wish there was a stronger push to differentiate implicit and explicit racism. I believe the vast majority of Americans are egalitarian. But even people who are egalitarian harbor some degree of unconscious racial prejudice - including you somerville.

A study discredits it's finding when they use incorrect statistics, stereotyping, and false assumptions in the QUESTIONS.

Here:

"Irish, Italians, Jewish, and other minorities overcame prejudice and worked their way up. Blacks should do the same without special favors."

Click to expand...

Well - did they really? What did they overcome and how did they do it? I think this is a suggestion of a falsehood - In some places they're still very much stereotyped and treated unequally, like in the US.

And if someone opposes affirmative action, let's say, is that really a racist or prejudiced view in general - or perhaps do the reasons for opposing it matter more. Which a questionnaire of any length cannot delve into? In order to be 'ok with blacks' and not prejudiced do you HAVE to support such things? I don't - and I'm not racist or prejudiced. I have specific reasons and most people understand why I hold my views when I explain them. . . but I also don't believe that the Irish, Italians or Jewish overcame their unfair treatment - or, in areas where they are more widely accepted - I don't believe they did it 'without help' of some nature (and help doesn't have to mean specific things like affirmative action - etc . . . help could mean any type of support or aid in any sense)

And - let's pretend - someone feels they really DID overcome without help. Is that really a bad thing to believe that things can be overcome - and people SHOULD overcome them? Why is that necessarily bad?

"Generations of slavery have created conditions that make it difficult for Blacks to work their way out of the lower class."

Click to expand...

Well no - I don't think SLAVERY has a lasting effect because we have been slavery-void since the mid 1800's. I think racism and prejudices play a part . . . this is a misguided question without a 'correct' answer. I would 'strongly disagree' for this reasoning I have stated - slavery was caused by racism . . . racism is the issue in their struggle. Not slavery itself.

And then this one:

"Soem people say that Black leaders have been trying to push too fast. Others feel that they haven't pushed fast enough. What do you think?"

Click to expand...

What - on earth - is wrong about having a view on this that's 'too fast' or 'not fast enough' - how is that suppose to mean you 'oppose blacks' or 'are prejudice'

Because for someone liek me - there's no way to answer a quick response to that. I need the essay portion, if you please.

Like a lot of other 'questionnaires' - I toss the findings of this one out due to the pre-conceived 'notion' of what apparently is 'prejudice' or 'racist' - which is an unfortunate necessity because everything else is reasonable, their method for tracking data, etc - all on spot. But as you learn in school - if a few things are off the entire thing really should be redone.

They need to rewrite their questions, honestly - and reconsider their wording and avoid, themselves, suggesting stereotypes and prejudices.

the_recruit said:

I wish there was a stronger push to differentiate implicit and explicit racism. I believe the vast majority of Americans are egalitarian. But even people who are egalitarian harbor some degree of unconscious racial prejudice - including you somerville.

Click to expand...

So we can't win, huh? Even if we don't think we're prejudiced, we're prejudiced. *Shakes Head* Other people get to decide the workings of our mind. Really.

MaggieD said:

So we can't win, huh? Even if we don't think we're prejudiced, we're prejudiced. *Shakes Head* Other people get to decide the workings of our mind. Really.

Click to expand...

Yes. Because we, as humans, exhibit subconscious preferences whether we are aware of it or not. I'm not saying "other people" get to decide the inner workings of your mind. I'm saying YOU - your conscious self - do not get to control the subconscious workings of your mind. Your mind does that all on its own and you have no direct control over it.

But maybe you don't harbor any implicit racism at all Maggie. Feel free to take the implicit association test yourself and find out.

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/selectatest.html

I actually live in a area of Kentucky that has a large art community so it's mostly pro obama. Where I live most of the white people are trashy and the blacks are all pretty decent folks. On my street there are roughly half black and white with really just me and one other white family that are actually hard working decent people.

Most of the black folk in the Maysville area migrated here from places such as Detroit and Cincinnati to ironically get away from trashy black and people, and because of the industrial boon in the area a couple decades back.

Outside the actual town though it goes mostly pro Romney and when I tell coworkers I live downtown they say to watch out for the brothers lol. Unlike a big city downtown however Maysville is mostly historically preservered and tightly controlled by the art community. I can understand why people are more racially tense now though.

the_recruit said:

Yes. Because we, as humans, exhibit subconscious preferences whether we are aware of it or not. I'm not saying "other people" get to decide the inner workings of your mind. I'm saying YOU - your conscious self - do not get to control the subconscious workings of your mind. Your mind does that all on its own and you have no direct control over it.

But maybe you don't harbor any implicit racism at all Maggie. Feel free to take the implicit association test yourself and find out.

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/selectatest.html

Click to expand...

Thanks for the link, Recruit. The test I saw re African-Americans started off by asking me which skin color I prefer. I'm sorry, but I don't consider that a question that shows or denies prejudice. I don't even KNOW what skin color I prefer, for heaven's sake. No offense, but the test I clicked on had no credibility, in my opinion. Show me pictures of African-Americans considered beautiful and white people considered beautiful and ask me which one I prefer. "What skin color do you prefer." Indeed.

MaggieD said:

Thanks for the link, Recruit. The test I saw re African-Americans started off by asking me which skin color I prefer. I'm sorry, but I don't consider that a question that shows or denies prejudice. I don't even KNOW what skin color I prefer, for heaven's sake. No offense, but the test I clicked on had no credibility, in my opinion. Show me pictures of African-Americans considered beautiful and white people considered beautiful and ask me which one I prefer. "What skin color do you prefer." Indeed.

Click to expand...

:doh Take the whole test, maggie. Those questions aren't even part of the test actually. It's just some background information they are collecting so they can attempt to make some inferences depending on how you score.

TurtleDude said:

I wonder if Obama's supporters have had any impact



when 95% of one race votes for more taxes and more government, does that increase negative views towards that race?

Click to expand...

Really? You're going to try and lay thousands of years of prejudice on a modern political party? Weak, dude, even for you.

MaggieD said:

So we can't win, huh? Even if we don't think we're prejudiced, we're prejudiced. *Shakes Head* Other people get to decide the workings of our mind. Really.

Click to expand...

No, they didn't decide the workings of our minds. They measured it. Prejudice is there, even if you're not conscious of it.

It's how you respond to that internal pressure that matters.

just another boo ****ing hoo "blame it all on racism" thread. all these limp wristed pansies wring their hands and soil themselves because white people don't like black people. we guess what geniuses....black people don't like white people either. this racism bull**** works both ways but blacks get a free pass because there are fewer of them.

OscarB63 said:

just another boo ****ing hoo "blame it all on racism" thread. all these limp wristed pansies wring their hands and soil themselves because white people don't like black people. we guess what geniuses....black people don't like white people either. this racism bull**** works both ways but blacks get a free pass because there are fewer of them.

Click to expand...

SOME

SOME

SOME

Ok - SOME

I don't know why it's so hard to just accept that racists - no matter what they are or who they don't like - do not constitute the majority of our population.

I can hear it now... If Obama loses it's because white people are racist. Of course that would mean that 4 years ago they weren't, and they all of the sudden became racist since then.

I expect nothing less such pathetic excuses from Democrats.

We can't actually say something about race without it becoming a race to the bottom, can we?

Somerville said:

Ann Coulter was on the Bill Maher show recently and said “real racism,” for the most part, no longer exists in the United States.



Poll results

Academic analysis


So far comments I've read are saying this is nothing more than blatant propaganda on the part of the Obama campaign, an attempt to 'shame' ignorant white folks into voting for that black guy -- I so luvs me the True Believers :roll:

Click to expand...

So, straightforward questions were not generating enough racism to satisfy the agenda of portraying anti-Obama whites as racist, so they cooked up a poll where it was almost impossible to come across anti-Obama without being classified as "racist but doesn't know it".

Ye gods how far some will go to play the race card... :roll:

I got news for ya: the negativity towards Obama has nothing to do with his race, except for a few fringers. It is because of failed policy.

Lol, yes, if we define racism as "Don't support affirmative action" and "don't believe in propagating institutionalized racism" then yes, majority of us are racist.

What a silly paper.

the_recruit said:

Yes. Because we, as humans, exhibit subconscious preferences whether we are aware of it or not. I'm not saying "other people" get to decide the inner workings of your mind. I'm saying YOU - your conscious self - do not get to control the subconscious workings of your mind. Your mind does that all on its own and you have no direct control over it.

But maybe you don't harbor any implicit racism at all Maggie. Feel free to take the implicit association test yourself and find out.

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/selectatest.html

Click to expand...

The test says I prefer black people to white people.

Since I don't support affirmative action nor do I want to propagate industrialized racism, I suppose at least one of the test's methodology is flawed.

(If I had to guess, I'd say both)

Republic Now! said:

The test says I prefer black people to white people.

Since I don't support affirmative action nor do I want to propagate industrialized racism, I suppose at least one of the test's methodology is flawed.

(If I had to guess, I'd say both)

Click to expand...

Why do you suspect the test I linked is flawed? Because you don't like the results?

To be honest, I really don't understand why the suggestion that people have subconscious racial preferences is so controversial or why it seems to offend some people. I mean, it's subconscious - you have no control over it so you shouldn't feel bad about it. It's not much different than, say, people who tend to be more sexually attracted to a particular race than another.