Obama And Race: Most Whites Open To Black President, But Hate Groups Growing

The Washington Post reports "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.

But the good news may stop there. "As Sen. Barack Obama opens his campaign as the first African American on a major party presidential ticket, nearly half of all Americans say race relations in the country are in bad shape and three in 10 acknowledge feelings of racial prejudice," according to the same poll.

Overall, 51 percent call the current state of race relations "excellent" or "good," about the same as said so five years ago. That is a relative thaw from more negative ratings in the 1990s, but the gap between whites and blacks on the issue is now the widest it has been in polls dating to early 1992.

More than six in 10 African Americans now rate race relations as "not so good" or "poor," while 53 percent of whites hold more positive views. Opinions are also divided along racial lines, though less so, on whether blacks face discrimination. There is more similarity on feelings of personal racial prejudice: Thirty percent of whites and 34 percent of blacks admit such sentiments.

Moreover, the Post reports in a separate story that Obama's historic primary victory "has also sparked an increase in racist and white supremacist activity, mainly on the Internet, according to leaders of hate groups and the organizations that track them."

Neo-Nazi, skinhead and segregationist groups have reported gains in numbers of visitors to their Web sites and in membership since the senator from Illinois secured the Democratic nomination June 3. His success has aroused a community of racists, experts said, concerned by the possibility of the country's first black president.

"I haven't seen this much anger in a long, long time," said Billy Roper, a 36-year-old who runs a group called White Revolution in Russellville, Ark. "Nothing has awakened normally complacent white Americans more than the prospect of America having an overtly nonwhite president."

Watch the American News Project's recent piece exploring the phenomenon of "white nationalism":

Comments

[sa]

i wish i were computer savvy enough to offer a "link",
but i am not. so all i have to offer is going to youtube
and check out : the stranglers - "there's always the sun."

this is obama's song. please check it out.

[gladys46]

Crap, I'm still pissed at Lisa Schiffren's (National Review) remarks (yesterday on L.Dobbs) that Obama's supporters are "cult followers" .... with this sort of doggie whistles our countrymen/women are encouraged to stay in a confused spot!!

Since when are american citizens actively participating in an all too important POTUS election referred to as "cultist" ... since when? What are Mc's supporters the "ordinary" electorate!

Stop this sh$t and perhaps this kind of (coded racism) divisiveness ends!

[timothe]

Why is all criticism of Obama racist? I contend that race was introduced into the primary by Democrats and perpetuated by Democrats. Republicans have not mentioned race at all.

[BlueStateMan]

You're kidding, yes?

[Justsaynodeal]

No one used race more than Obama's surrogates, including Michelle...............

[lazywhiteamerican]

I hear this lame assertion masquerading as a question all the time but the thing is I have never seen anybody on the Obama side anywhere imply that non race related criticism *was* racist. Not ever, not once.

[shelobo]

I do not understand why there is so much MEDIA coverage of ANY racial comments from the candidates,after all McCain made his own slurs and made them while in the publics eyes.McCains statement concerning Asians "I hated the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live." must have been a major issue for Cindy while she was in Vietnam ? I wonder who does she blame for Johns racial slur of Asians?A persons skin color has nothing to do with how they do their job.The MEDIA has caused the racial unrest and helped fuel the I/N racist groups into action.After we voted in the primaries here ,we were gave a paper to fill out,on that paper was a box for us to check our RACE, we left it blank,because it should not even be a factor of how one votes .That box should be removed ,as it does nothing but cause even MORE questions and more racial unrest.

[gladys46]

What does it reveal when the "white" part of Obama is not even given him!!?? MSM decided that he may not speak of his own grandmother's earlier thoughts! He CANNOT say that his very own experience of his very own grandmother was that she too was hesitant and suspect of some black people!

Airing the looping spins of "he threw his white grandmother under the bus" talk, MSM attempted to "remove" from Obama his white heritage so that he (in their estimations) was "merely" black! This is what took me to my ultimate sense of pissivity!!

Obama's blackness is just as beautiful as his whiteness ... he is both, damn it BOTH!! AND, it's all good!

[Justsaynodeal]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Personally I think that is a little overboard.....

[AllaboutME]

I do not believe that.

[GravitonX]

90%?! Riiiiight...
Why not just say 99.999%? It would be just as credible.

[legoh]

"... nearly nine in 10 whites said they would be comfortable with a black president."

This is sooo very disturbing. The fact that this survey had to be done is disturbing.

In the year 2008 - whites are NOT COMFORTABLE with the idea of a black president. Why? Because of the color of his skin!!!!!!!

Racism has not gone away - it's just slightly covered under a thin blanket called political correctness.

[tmckly]

I'm fine with a black president, color doesn't matter but Obama is way too far left and is not looking out the majority of Americans. I wish his supporters would stop trying to guilt people into voting for a good politician but the wrong one for the job of commander in chief

[pleeezzze]

That is the exact problem .
His followers cannot accept that if you are not For him, then you are automatically a racist .

[gladys46]

Dr. King once said that most Americans were unconscious racists and, his view of America wasn't always told with a hopeful edge! There is one thing we all ought to know by Obama's very laudable campaign for POTUS and that is exactly what he (Obama) said: "the ceiling is off and the possibility is real. We see the possibility of living the creed."

Now, that's worth repeating!

[fev08]

pleeezzze I understand why you feel that way but we are not followers we are supporters just like you and we all dont feel that way. I know several people who did not support barack and I can respect that. But I can understand why you think that

[ZimboChick]

oh please

[americanwomaninpa]

you are exactly right.

[GrainOSand]

This supporter, (I do not follow any man or woman, I can support sound ideas espoused by men or women) can accept your choice. Now either you were here to voice that flawed logic which was just disproved, or you are the very thing you disavow, which would make you quite scary indeed! This supporter, not follower, applauds you and anyone else living your life and voting your conscience, do it all night and all day. Pleeeeeeeeze do not paint with a broad brush, especially when you attempt to be so righteous and yet upon closer examination, it smells like calculation.

Vote how you want live how you do, each one remains a choice that is up to you.
No one I have seen or heard is denying you that right.
So up in smoke went that comment when it was examined under the light.


Not the Exact problem....more like the Distract problem....

[Sundialsvc4]

Shrug...

That's what you get from public opinion polls. They're not gospel, you know.

I'm afraid that, at least so far, none of my responses to pollsters have ever made it onto the charts, but I remain hopeful. "I prefer french-fries," I say. "In fact, I worship them. I sacrifice little bunny-rabbits to them every Tuesday on the full moon..." Maybe if enough of us answered opinion-poll nonsense with equivalent nonsense, we'd actually see discussions about the grave threat that might be posed by "the potato spoiler."

[Rendon76]

1 racist in every 10 people in America, that's not good. A better average would be 1 in 1000, to be reasonable.

[AnotherTry]

Don't let Obama make this race about race. He will lose. He must focus on that change and hope message. Or has he already abandoned the hope to go after the middle-right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOgJY271zbc

[returnofthejedi]

How can he avoid talking about race in America? It seems to me that it is the G.O.P. trying to divide the electorate along racial lines, by using code words, and in a lot of cases flat out lies.
To the credit of a lot of white people in this country they seem not to be buying it this time, but we will see come November.

[Flick08]

This article doesn't quote Obama, why do you think he's going to make it about race? He hasn't so far.

We (the voters) are the ones most in need of a warning not to link Obama to a racial agenda. If an article is about race not about Obama talking about race don't try to link the two.

[vocalist]

Appears to be going that way, particularly amoung youth.
But let`s not forget, just last year in TN, they killed the candidacy of a very good candidate who happens to be black, for the Senate race, Harold Ford Jr., by recycling a racially charged ad., Yes, it took that little inuendo to elect Bob Corker, known for his real estate development. No one has heard from the Senetor ever since, perhaps busy with real estate buisness.

[Ceasar]

If this country elects McSame based on fear of a half black man, then we deserve a horrible four more years. The Ford Jr. story is a sad one. Let's hope Tennessee isn't like the rest of the country.

[Justsaynodeal]

actually if you watch C-span2 he is on the senate floor once in awhile

[returnofthejedi]

I have a question, after witnessing the leadership of people like Martin Luther King, Shirley Chisolm, Thurgood Marshall, Harriet Tubman and many more, how can some in America still be questioning the ability of a black man to be an effective leader?
I have another question for blacks, after witnessing the same things about yourselves, how can you still be waiting on white people to tell you if your ready to be effective leaders or not:? We have overcome physical chattel slavery with the help of alot of benevolent white people, but the mental slavery is going to be more up to us to overcome. Part of that mental slavery(among other things) is always depending on someone else to give you the definition of what you should look, dress, and talk, like. If we are still in that stage there is no way im satisfied with that phoney condition of freedom.

[Ceasar]

Agreed.

[ZimboChick]

me too - i agree

[JennyJay]

Better a brilliant black person than an idiot white person. . . . . any freaking day of the week.

[vocalist]

...and corrupt.. who thinks ignorance is a bliss....

[MeganBoris]

Megan Boris-

At this point in our country's lifespan I would hope that the national public would not be concerned with the race of our president, but rather his abilities as a leader. I think Obama is a stimulus for governmental change, which is something needed right now.