The Politics of Identity Politics
Last weekend's Washington Post/ABC poll of white and Black voters racial attitudes revealed, well, not much at all.
The headline was "3 in 10 Americans Admit To Racial Bias". According to this poll, when asked the useless question of whether one experiences "feelings of personal racial prejudice", Blacks (34% of respondents) rate worse than whites (30%). (I say Black respondents are more truthful. Meanwhile, yellow and brown apparently are still not worth polling at all.)
But the piece really focused on some obscure "racial sensitivity index" whose methodology apparently couldn't be fully disclosed for fear someone might actually call b.s. on it. According to this fantastical statistical invention, whites who have a Black friend on speed-dial, just bought a brownstone in Harlem, and have downloaded a Weezy mixtape in the last 3 years are about 20% more likely to vote for Barack Obama than their Lil Abner cousins.
(In the fog of a rowdy Saturday night wedding reception, I watched Sunday morning pundits making big hay of this "fact." Not to stereotype unfairly, but White Northeastern pundits shouldn't be so self-congratulatory. If I was a Southern white, well, I guess I wouldn't hate 'em any less than I do now. You see? I don't stereotype unfairly.)
So after creating a thoroughly bunk way of measuring how racist white American voters actually are -- the numbers go: 21% "congratulations you're not racist", 50% "you're pretty much not racist or probably you are a little," and 29% "you're embarrassing to us so please stay home unless John King needs to interview you"-- much of the poll's conclusions are completely useless.
Or just plain tiresome. Of the racially insensitive 29%, the Post intones, "Obama has some convincing to do..." Yes, colored folk--when your boss calls you a terrorist-fist-bumping radical Muslim baby daddy, you must excuse him and tell him nicely no, he's wrong, would he like to have a conversation about it. (Please excuse us if we spit instead.)
What was news to me was that the gaps in perceptions of race relations are as bad as they were on the eve of the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
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.
Right.
After Katrina, No Child Left Behind, Incarceration Nation, and two oil wars, it's apparently more difficult than ever to find any consensus that race relations aren't so great and racial discrimination still exists.
That's not just depressing, it's "two Americas" depressing to both of my consciousnesses.
But wait, it gets worse.
To wit:
Many think Obama has the potential to transform current racial politics. Nearly six in 10 believe his candidacy will shake up the racial status quo, for better or worse....
African Americans are much more optimistic than whites on this score: Sixty percent said Obama's candidacy will do more to help race relations, compared with 38 percent of whites.
Is it possible that Blacks -- and the great, underpolled mass of Latinos and Asian Americans (who will likely vote Obama in much greater majorities than whites) -- place too much faith that Obama can reverse the national course on institutional racism?
And why are whites -- who say they are overwhelmingly ready to elect a "Black president" (one almost hears the caveat "if he's qualified" being attached like a reflex) -- less likely to believe that race relations will get better if Obama wins? Do they know what's in the Kool-Aid? Or are they are sober about what may happen if Obama actually challenges white privilege?
It's impossible not to appreciate the kind of Jackie Robinson-like line Barack Obama must walk right now in this campaign. All of this comes in the face of the growing list of white pundits who would presume to lecture Obama on just how to win white voters, from the soccer moms to the lunchpail dads. Yes, forget all you've heard about angry feminists and people of color and feminists of color, because here are the real identity politics at work.
For as unilluminating as this poll is, it poses a key question for Obama's supporters and anyone concerned with racial justice, not just "feelings of racial prejudice": how do you find and engage those who don't want to know what change really looks like?
Originally posted at Vibe.com
Follow Jeff Chang on Twitter: www.twitter.com/zentronix
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
Hey, get over it! Not all White people are racist, I don't see Obama as being any color, I see someone trying to change the hopeless face of American politics. And No matter what the Republicrats, throw i will vote for him. Can't we just take him at face value? I won't say McSame is old, but, he was around 3 wars ago. Politics is a dirty underhanded, game to protect the jobs of overpaid,c
Three points: African Americans deserve social justice -- not for themselves, but because their contribution to the country is diminished when we diminish them. Discriminating against people for purely the color of their skin is like an attack on what America should be.
Secondly, Barack Obama is African American the way that Teresa Kerry was African American, except second generation: the son of a scholarship student from Kenya to Harvard. He gets the slavery legacy only from the prejudices of particular communities (which, oddly enough, he never knew in his childhood.
Thirdly, Senator Obama is well regarded among those who know him and especially in his own generation. The issue of his experience compared to Senator McCain who doesn't seem to have learned much from his also involves the "passing of the torch:" always controversial but the most hopeful if only it should be done well.
the power that be don't want us to come togather as long as they put this nonsence out there to keep people apart they can us against each other so they can keep stealing from us will we looking at each other and hating each other how can poor whites browns yellow and blacks be a threat to each other when none us have power who has all the power who got us in these wars who rises gas oil food and everthing else not the poor so how in the hell we are blaming each other for something that rich and powerful has been doing to us all the time playing us for fools and laughing all the way to the bank and we smile and take it wake up people the poor of all races and front the real enemy the rich and powerful
Might as well ask the respondents if they think a Klingon should be trusted as security officer on a starship, eh?
Those who speak of the MSM blundering along spouting their own pre-determined prejudices in this so-called race obsession of theirs are on the mark, no matter which angle one my be inclined to inhabit. Chang's obvious frustration understood, I've seen ingrained liberal racism within the public school system here in Ca. perpetrated by those who are so-o "for the children", those liberals who know for sure that they are NOT racists no matter how much they subject everyone to their numerous speech-controls, designed to prove just how "pristine" they are.
I understand very well Chang's "distrust" shall I call his sarcastic attempts. I see these phony liberals all the time posturing their "purity""o themselves, while blaming others. A most blatant example being in college when one of these so-called liberals, leading a crowd, launched an attack upon some white athletes in the crowd inciting Blacks in the crowd to attack them. Thusly incited, the Blacks attacked, and were thrown back in a hail of flying chairs/infuriated would-be victims. Other people's injuries disregarded, the white liberal weaseled away and the admin just "kept things quiet". This model is followed (more smoothly) everywhere I look, and of course the weasels slink away, self-righteously blaming others.
Chang's distrust of MSM in it's racial pronouncements is rooted in reality. He will discover their are many others from other races who agree and would love to deal more positively with the situation than does MSM.
I'm a working class Canadian woman, and it seems odd that the perceptions of racism and active prejudice in American society are so different in black and white populations. It's almost as if people of european background like me inside the US see it very differently from the way people in the rest of the world see it. Canada is by no means free of racism, but the shock of the public when Rev. Wright's speeches were publicised! An angry black man in America? Criticising foreign policy? This minister is by no means the kookiest you have put on the airwaves that I have seen.
I'm sure that nice lady who said everything used to be friendly and nice in Jena before people from out of town showed up was sincere, but the black people she used to see around did not have the same easy town and high school experience. I'm not naive enough to think that just talking and listening to each others' experiences, but MyNameIsJames, we have common issues of justice to work on too, and there are powers that are afraid that people of different colours might work together.
Peace
Those who speak of the MSM blundering along spouting their own pre-determined prejudices in this so-called race obsession of theirs are on the mark, no matter which angle one my be inclined to inhabit. Chang's obvious racism understood, I've seen ingrained liberal racism within the public school system here in Ca. perpetrated by those who are so-o "for the children", those liberals who know for sure that they are NOT racists no matter how much they subject everyone to their numerous speech-controls, designed to "prove" just how pristine they are.
I understand very well Chang's "distrust" shall I call his sarcastic attempts. I see these phony liberals all the time posturing "to themselves" of their purity. A most blatant example being in college when one of these weasels, in a lead-the-crowd setting, launched an attack upon some white athletes in the crowd and incited Blacks in the crowd to attack them. Thusly riled, the Blacks attacked, being thrown back in a hail of flying chairs and infuriated would-be victims. Injuries disregarded, the weaselly white liberal weaseled away and the admin just "kept things quiet". This is the model followed (more smoothly) everywhere I look, and of course the weasels slink away, self-righteously blaming others.
Chang's distrust of MSM in it's racial pronouncements is rooted in reality. He will discover their are many others from all the other races who agree and would love to deal directly and positively with the situation.
Hey, the poll was conducted by WaPo/ABC! Need I say more?
If you think this one on racism is bad, you should take a gander at the recent Pew Report on Religion http://pew
A bullet item at the bottom says:
[bq]
Men are significantly more likely than women to claim no religious affiliation. Nearly one-in-five men say they have no formal religious affiliation, compared with roughly 13% of women.
[eq]
Yet the methodology in the report says:
[bq]
In each contacted household, interviewers asked to speak with the youngest adult male currently
at home. If no male was available, interviewers asked to speak with the youngest adult female at
home.
[eq]
lollll....
Further, this is a poll about religion, so ask yourself: If you are NOT religious, would you be likely to say "No, I don't wanna take a poll on religion."
Then consider the response rate quoted by the report's full PDF http://www
"Thus the response rate for this survey was 24 percent.".
Now compare that to the approach the MSM media took - for instance, CBS' story http://www
"America remains a nation of believers.
How do you get THAT, with only a 24% response rate?
If people would stop telling pollsters their race then we wouldn't have this crap. I don't put my "race" on any form or tell it to a pollster and it is illegal to make me. The concept of race is made up by the society we live in and it is up to us to refuse to be defined by it.
I am not a statistic, I am not a category.
This is a fabulous and much-needed post that deserves wide distribution.
It's a much needed salve for every time I've wanted to throw something at the TV (usually my copy of Newsweek) as yet another pundit advises Obama on how to apologize to racists for having been born with a non-WASP name to a non-American father.
> According to this poll, when asked the useless question of whether one experiences
> "feelings of personal racial prejudice"
True enough, this is a useless question. We have neither the need nor the ability to change how our fellow citizens FEEL. So why devote attention to this survey.
> place too much faith that Obama can reverse the national course on institutional racism?
For the country as a whole, there's a consensus against institutional racial discrimination. Within the left-wing of the Democratic party, though, the consensus FAVORS institutional discrimination. When it was last on the ballot in California, over 70% of Berkeley voters were FOR institutional racial discrimination, and held passionate rallys urging the government to CONTINUE to categorize its citizens into "racial" groups and discriminate accordingly.
Stuart's "Random Thoughts" blog
Well, now, don't forget that 75% of statistics are made up on the spot!
Yea, might want to ask Michelle Obama about her statistics on race in her research at Princeton.
You know what?? You TRY and imagine yourself being a black female/male on a lily-white Ivy League campus! I TOTALLY understand where Michelle is coming from --- and my college campus was 75/25 white. I've got stories to tell all these "racism is a thing of the past" white folk!!
I don't believe polls - questions can be misunderstood. I was asked if I thought the country was going in the right direction and I said No because I am afraid Obama will be the next president.
Jeff - I think you are right. I'm teaching a class where we are "unpacking" these categories and exploring what they really are - "the white male vote" or the "woman" vote. Last I checked there was a little less solidarity in these "groups". Tim Wise cites Gallup Polls over the last 60-80 years that reflect the same thing - African Americans believe things are unequal and whites think African Americans have plenty of equality. Those polls don't reflect economic and/or social reality.
The one point I have heard pundits make, to their credit, is that these polls are in no way an accurate sample simply due to technology. Many people don't have landlines (many never did - also a skew in the numbers) rather they use cell phones, which aren't included.
Probably the largest flaw with polls is that the demographic largely consists of those who have time and money enough to spend on the phone with a pollster. Folks working two or more jobs can't take the time to express their opinion - part of the same old systemic problem where the poor are too busy working to get food on the table to participate.
For most Whites - racism shows up most strongly as FEAR. This fear usually translates into racial avoidance or denial. Very few people are willing to be aggressively racist - ala the KKK, with the glaring exception of White law enforcement officials. This is where the US has progressed the most. However, when it comes to being truly open to African Americans - this nation has a long way to go.
As for Barack Obama
He is a serious politician. He is also a political celebrity. Americans love their celebrities. So many people are pouring all sorts of hopes and dreams into his run for President.
When it comes to Barack Obama and race, I would like to issue a word of caution to White America. Electing Barack Obama will not absolve this nation of the work that still has to be done in the trenches on racial relations as well as economic, political, and social equity.
For those White Americans who believe that electing Barack Obama will mean that African Americans are finally going to shut up and stop disturbing their illusions of true fairness and equality - they have another thing coming. In fact, it would be better if those type of people voted for John McCain or Bob Barr.
If you believe that Barack Obama is truly the best person for the job, then by all means vote for him!
What a very wise comment. Thank you!
Yes, but it's not the Black vote that's promising a win for BO. It's the "tired of all the BS" vote. I wishall of you bloggers would quit attributing the actual reality of BO to the Black vote. The Black vote is mainly disenfranchised except for a few spotty areas around the country. And what???? A couple of extra hundred bought about by Berry Scheck's Innocence Program.
You all blamed Bill Clinton's presidency on Blacks while the few who did vote had only the choice of either Clinton or Bush again who struck down affirmative action so fast and hard that it could be used as a metaphor for 911!
And the Clintons did not try to strike it back up either. Another reason why I'm apalled that the Clintons think that Black people owe them while they've done nothing for anyone except "Big corps".
Don't blame Black people if or when BO wins. Blame yourself for wanting to hold on to the America that's disfunctional and does not work in it's same old never changing ways.
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
