Posted on 11/03/2012 9:09:10 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The fury sizzles from the screen: images of President Barack Obama on a trip to Kenya, declaring he is proud to be “back home.” Another denigrating Obama’s publicly released birth certificate with the label, “Stamp Out Fraud.” And yet another that blares “Missing: REAL birth certificates and 2 U.S. citizen parents.”
Extremist conspiracy theories proliferated in 2008, when Obama became a contender for the title of first black president. But these racially-driven slurs are circulating today on the Internet, and reaching ever-wider audiences.
When Obama won in 2008, pundits proclaimed a new “post-racist” America.
But a study released last week shows that although racist views are quieter today, they’re still echoing in the minds of voters. On Tuesday, they could even determine the outcome of a too-close-to-call poll.
“Anti-black sentiment seems to have increased slightly in America over the course of Mr. Obama’s term and this sentiment may be shaping evaluations of (his) presidency as well as the likelihood that individuals will vote for him in 2012,” says The Associated Press study, carried out by researchers at Stanford University, University of Chicago and University of Michigan.
Some Americans are willing to admit their racist sentiments in online questionnaires, if not in public. Fifty-one per cent of those polled in 2012 expressed “explicit” anti-black attitudes, compared with 48 per cent in a similar study in 2008. On election day, that could clip 5 percentage points from Obama’s popular vote in a contest with white rival Mitt Romney.
However, Obama could also gain 3 percentage points from pro-black voters. That would add up to a smaller 2 percentage point net loss due to racism.
The studies, done over the Internet, were developed to measure sensitive racial attitudes between 2008 and 2012. Altogether, they surveyed 4,336 people, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
“The results are disturbing but not surprising,” says Josh Pasek of University of Michigan, one of the study’s authors. “Racial attitudes in America have been a major issue for a long time. To imagine they’d disappear with the election of a black president is probably naïve.”
He adds, “I don’t believe that either candidate wants racial tension as part of the discussion. But to imagine those views aren’t playing out under the surface is to forget a lot of American history.”
So deep are those sentiments — either overt or covert — that “racial resentment” is one of two most strongly held contemporary political attitudes, says David O. Sears in the New York Times. The UCLA psychology professor extensively analyzed attitudes to race in the 2008 election.
Party identification, the other attitude Sears cites, is becoming increasingly polarized by race. According to the Pew Research Center, 56 per cent of registered white male voters identify as Republicans and 36 per cent as Democrats in 2012, a 20-point spread.
Rising resentment against Muslims also hits Obama, whose bitterest foes refer to him as “Hussein,” and refuse to accept that he is not Muslim. A recent Pew poll found that only 49 per cent of voters — less than half — know Obama is Christian, and 17 per cent believe he’s a Muslim in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The poll also showed that the number of Republicans who believe Obama is Muslim has doubled to 30 per cent since 2008.
The overlap of religion and race may be a factor in Pew’s finding that some 62 per cent of voters are untroubled by Romney’s Mormon faith.
While hate groups have increased sharply in the U.S since 2008, their main focus is no longer anti-black, but anti-gay and anti-Muslim, a product, researchers say, of widespread propaganda by the religious right.
Anti-Muslim hate groups tripled from 10 to 30 in 2011, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremism in the U.S.
“It is a completely artificial thing,” the centre’s senior fellow Mark Potok told ABC News. “That anti-Muslim wave is the work of propagandists and nothing more.” He blames not only religious extremists, but political “opportunists” for the spike in attitude.
Rising anti-Muslim resentment, along with the persistent “birther” movement, does shine a light on the forces behind seemingly puzzling trends in the U.S.
Their subtext is that Obama is an outsider, a foreigner, essentially un-American and anti-American — as in the Republican contention that he “apologizes” to Islamic countries for the U.S.’s behaviour and, in Benghazi (where a deadly assault on the U.S. Consulate killed an ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans), turned traitor to besieged American personnel.
If Obama wins the election, Potok says, the rhetoric, and rage, among hate groups could grow worse. “These groups are getting angrier and angrier. They’re looking at four (more) years under a black guy who they hate.”
For Obama, however, the white male voters’ drift to the Republican right may yet be less threatening than it seems. While their numbers have grown, those of black and Hispanic voters have also risen. If they turn out to support Obama with the same zeal as 2008, their vote could be the tipping point in 2012.
“Whatever scenario comes to pass,” says a Brookings Institution analysis, “minorities are going to matter. The new demography of the electorate guarantees it. If the white Republican base turns out in full force, the votes of African Americans and growing Hispanic populations will be necessary for Democratic wins in a slew of interior states with largely white electorates.
“The 2012 election will most assuredly be a battle of turnout and its outcome will greatly depend on the enthusiasm of minority voting blocks.”
The O’bomber campaign is sending emails out like crazy.
The latest one, they want US to send them meaningful emails to forward. lol I did forward them something meaningful.
“...If you spot something that’s especially persuasive or inspiring, or if you want to share your own graphic, essay, or personal story, send it on to forwardthis@barackobama.com“
(from email)
Another day, another charge of racism by a leftst. How tedious. BTW, Olivia, you just did me a favor by setting all my clocks back an hour.
hmm jimmy carter was white and that did save him from losing because of a failed economy.
that did Not save him...
Yes, the same white people who voted for Bronco Bama in 2008 because he was black will now vote for Romney because Bronco Bama is black. Yeah, that sure makes a lot of sense. (smirk)
On the flip side, there are still a lot who have opened their eyes and will breathe in the fresh air of Freedom when they vote against Zero this time. Having opened their eyes, they have been paying some attention to the "liberal" vs. conservative way of doing things and will have some small influence over their friends and families over the next few years. Just as you can subvert someone from the inside, so can you free them from the bonds of slavery.
If that's not enough to acquit me on a charge of racism, there's something very wrong with the definition.
Obama had little if any early blackness. He was raised by radical left WHITE grandparents, with occasional visits from his promiscious WHITE mother, who obviously preferred muslim black men. He was not influenced by race but by radical social ideals, his darker skin became convenient when he entered US politics. So who is the real racist?
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