Since the beginning of the race for the White House, there has been a question on everyone's mind, an elephant in the room so to speak; Could Barack Obama, a black man, win the White House? The White House, identified by its beautiful majestic white architecture is more white than just in its shade of paint, it has been dominated by white Europeans since before it was white washed form its traditional eggshell color. This burning question has fueled a large race debate that seems to have taken racial relations back a decade or two. And not back to the days of slavery, but more like to what was deemed as a new form of racism in the 1990's.
A recent poll done by Stanford University shows that the stereotype associated with blacks is still held by some whites. The poll studied a result from a group of people, then isolated the white opinion. After reading this poll I was left with a bad taste in my mouth. They only studied the white opinion separately from the group? This is like asking a loaded question, there is just no way you can answer yes or no to the typical "Do you still beat your wife?"
With that idiocy aside, the findings are interesting. It seems 1 in 5 whites can identify blacks with these stereotypes; lazy, violent, boastful, complaining, and irresponsible. This information of course sent a firestorm across the internet with blacks using the newest study as proof that Barack Obama cannot possibly win the White House because whites are too racist. According to some discussion on Fox News even his campaign says if he does not win it will be due to racism. But this is not a new theme. Just a month ago a writer at slate.com claimed Racism is the only reason Obama might lose.
What the Yahoo-Ap news article did not tell you was that a study using these same typecasts were used in a poll for a book published in the 1990's called The Scar of Race. The book was written by a political science professor a Stanford, Paul M. Sinderman, and Thomas Piazza a Research Specialist and Manager of Technical Services, Survey Research Center, University of California, Berkeley. An article written on FrontPageMagazine.com in 1998 relayed some interesting information found in the book.
In The Scar of Race, authors Paul M. Sniderman and Thomas Piazza note that blacks hold critical views about members of their own race. The authors asked both blacks and whites to respond to a series of statements: "Blacks are aggressive or violent"; "blacks are boastful"; "blacks are complaining"; "blacks are lazy"; and "blacks are irresponsible." Blacks answered "yes" more often than whites!
Interesting dontcha think?
Oh where do I begin? Well first of all, lets flip this. If John McCain loses will it be due to all the blacks who are only going to vote for Barack Obama because of the color of his skin, and the whites who are so self loathing that they are going to vote for Barack only because he is black? Is that racism anything people are worried about? Or do blacks get a free pass on this one?
This double standard is just about as divisive and infantile as anything I have ever been subject to in my entire life. In essence black America is throwing the entire country under the bus and make us look like racists in front of the entire world if Barack Obama doesn't win? This election is neck and neck, one of the closest races I have ever paid attention to that is for sure. How could anyone say that racism is going to be a deciding factor? Especially considering that the same poll they are turning to as yet another piece of evidence of their victimization also says :
Does the fact that if elected, Barack Obama would be the first black president of the United States make you more likely to vote for him, less likely to vote for him, or does it not affect your vote either way?
All Respondents
More likely to vote for him 9
Less likely to vote for him 9
Not affect your vote either way 82
Refused / Not Answered 0
Whites Only
More likely to vote for him 6
Less likely to vote for him 10
Not affect your vote either way 84
Refused / Not Answered 0
Yes whites are 2% higher than the entirety to say that their vote will not be influenced by Barack Obama being black. So basically that means, the majority of whites just don't care about race in this election. Just because a few stereotypes are representative of blacks in the minds of some means nothing, especially if you consider that blacks hold themselves in that esteem. So whether whites are being racist, or blacks are being racist, you know what? It doesn't matter because nobody can pin point what people are being racist about. Why would we accuse blacks of racism for wanting to vote for Barack Obama because he is black? Wouldn't we say they are voting for someone they know identifies with them. So are we going to disdain whites for voting for McCain, even if it is because he is white?
So lemme tell you what is, peoples is peoples.
That's it, peoples is peoples, and if you cannot grasp that little nugget of wisdom from the Muppets Take Manhattan it means simply this.
Peoples is peoples.
Think about it, you'll get it.
