Cause And Effect
From an otherwise forgettable article on Obama's chances, we get this odd argument:
Political scientists have found little evidence for the Bradley effect over the past 15 years. America is becoming less racist and therefore less self-conscious about appearing to be racist.
Isn't that backwards? I'd think the less racism there is, the more self-conscious one would be about appearing racist.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:26 AM
4 Comments:
Perhaps the more overt racism there is(read, negative and unattractive/ugly, Klan rallies, etc ...), there would be more self-consciousness involved as people do not want to be associated with the public disapproval of it.
Have no idea how such an attitude could be proven, since the premise is people will lie on questionnaires and polls.
[I am assuming "self-consciousness" refers to those who may or may not have "racist" inclinations but certainly don't want to appear to have them. ]
I think the "less" means fewer such voters.
I've found that folks are far more willing to express racist views when they believe they have a sympathetic audience. I would think a corollary is that the fear of appearing racist would go up when you've got a lower chance of finding such an audience.
E.g. QueensGal came home earlier this week with an amusing story of going into a pizza place in semi-rural Long Island and waiting her turn to be served. She waited five minutes while the customer in front of her was on a tirade about Obama, muslims, arabs, etc. The man eventually picked up a hint from the uncomfortable look on the face of the guy behind the counter, and turned to see her (brown) face. She was just annoyed about having to wait to order her food, but I guess he read more into it. He mumbled something lame about "so, looks like Obama's gonna win, huh?" and skulked away with his pizza.
I was in the post office and some woman was wearing a McCain button. Already odd, but in the post offfice, heart of Obama country? The postal clerk actually started talking about how great Obama is. I'm not sure if it was any of his business, but certainly around here no one has any fear of loud public support for him.
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