Is Racism Really Costing Obama?

The Associated Press reported a poll conducted by Stanford University, to find out why Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama has not yet been able to seal the presidential nod in an election cycle that experts on both sides of the political spectrum admit should be an overwhelmingly strong election season for the Democrats. The polls conclusion, shockingly, stated that a large number of white Americans harbor negative feelings towards Blacks. Here's the Breakdown:

• The Poll states that a Staggering 1/3 of White Democrats harbor negative views of Blacks
• The Poll states that 40% of ALL White Americans have "some" negative feelings towards Blacks.
• The Poll states that just 7 out 10 people who call themselves Democrats plan to support Obama, compared to the 85% of people who call themselves Republicans that plan to support McCain
• The Poll states that their are more whites who have positive things to say about Blacks then negative
• The Poll states that the 3 out of 10 Democrats that do not support Obama, do plan to support McCain
• The Poll claims that Obama would have at least a 6% point increase if not for white racism
• The Poll states that Given a choice of several positive and negative adjectives that might describe blacks, 20% of all whites said the word "violent" strongly applied. Among other words, 22% agreed with "boastful," 29% "complaining," 13% "lazy" and 11% "irresponsible." When asked about positive adjectives, whites were more likely to stay on the fence than give a strongly positive assessment.
• The Poll states that Among white Democrats, one-third cited a negative adjective and, of those, 58% said they planned to back Obama.
• The Poll states that more than a quarter of white Democrats agree that "if blacks would only try harder, they could be just as well off as whites." (Those who agreed with that statement were much less likely to back Obama.)
• The poll states that about 20% of independent voters called blacks "intelligent" or "smart," more than one third latched on the adjective "complaining" and 24% said blacks were "violent."
• The survey of 2,227 adults was conducted Aug. 27 to Sept. 5. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.

The poll states and claims a lot of interesting and thought provoking information. Are one-third of all white Democrats really "racist?" Racism is widely viewed as ignorant minded prejudice in today's world. However, what truly constitutes racism?If Race really is an issue in this election, who is making it one? If their is racism on one side, is it likely that their is racism on the other? This poll provokes many of these questions, and others.

One interesting thing, I believe, would be if Stanford used the same polling techniques on Blacks over the same issues. What would be the outcome of that poll? It's no secret that Blacks are overwhelmingly and unanimously voting for Barack Obama. It would be interesting to see how many Black's are not voting for McCain because he is white and are voting for Obama because he is black. My only quarry with the poll is would that be deemed racist too? One definition of equality is being judged by the same standards. It's very conceivable that a white man would be labeled "racist" if when asked, who he was voting for and why said, "McCain because he's white." My question is would the same scrutiny be as conceivable if a Black man was asked the same question and answered, "Obama because he is black?" Would the same standards hold?

Another valid question is assuming the polls information is truly statistically accurate why do roughly 20 something percent of whites (Republicans/Democrats/Independents all) associate the word "violent" with black people? Furthermore, does that necessarily constitute racism? Any answer to those questions is only pure assumption without a plethora of truly unbiased research and study but perhaps 20% of whites connect blacks to rap music? Rap music which is widely known to glorify gang violence and crime life is predominantly recorded by blacks. Maybe whites make a connection? Or perhaps whites notice that violent crime rates when compared to blacks are widely disproportionate with blacks commiting a higher number of violent crimes? Now the reasons for differing crime rates is quite a touchy subject and widely debated. However, despite the reason the statistic is still accurate. So is it racist for a white person to connect the two? The poll states it is.

In my opinion it does not constitute racism to connect those terms. The poll even says there is a noteworthy amount of people who connect the terms and are still planning on backing Barack Obama. I believe to cry "racism!" is dangerous indeed. It reminds me a lot of the 'Willy Horton" ad in the late 80's. If Obama loses there is no doubt that many on the losing side will cry out foul because of racism. Now I'm not saying that racism doesn't exist, however, I am saying that i don't believe one third of white democrats are truly racist. I think the numbers have been stated in a way that doesn't accurately represent the demeanor of those white democrats. Furthermore, I am every bit the believer that racism exists on the same level among blacks as it does whites. However, I do not believe the average educated, job keeping, hard working American white or black harbors racism. On that note in no way do I believe if Obama loses it will be because of racist white Americans- I think that's simply a ploy.