Remember that poll the New York Times commissioned about the Tea Party?
Do the policies of the Obama administration favor whites over blacks, favor blacks over whites, or do they treat both groups the same?
Favors whites over blacks: Tea Party, 1%, All Respondents, 2%
Favors blacks over whites: Tea Party, 25%, All Respondents, 11%
Treat both the same: Tea Party, 65%, All Respondents, 83%
Don't know or answer: Tea Party, 9%, All Respondents, 5%
It's notable that the overwhelming majority of both Tea Partiers and general public agrees that the president's policies are fair to both sides. It's also notable that a number of teabaggers, double the general public, believe that Obama favors blacks over whites.
I must admit, I found all this quite surprising. Anecdotal caveats noted, I'm just not seeing how this squares with what I see. I mean, there were a couple of executive orders helping out historically black colleges but other than that, I couldn't find a single administration policy that explicitly favored blacks.
It could be that I'm being irrational expecting everyone to be rational. It very well may be that all the social spending the government is undertaking is favoring blacks since blacks happen to have higher rates of unemployment, lack of health insurance, and are frequently victims of financial scams. Of course, in the aggregate, there are MORE whites than blacks who are unemployed, lack health insurance, and are victims of financial scams.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that there are just about 11 million unemployed white people. There are 2.8 million unemployed black people. I don't know what percentage of unemployment persons get benefits, but I believe it is safe to say these benefits are not allocated by race. Therefore, most federal unemployment payments go to white people. If you believe all citizens are equal, how is that favoring white over black?
The Census Bureau estimates that there are 21 million white people without health insurance. There are 7.4 million blacks similarly situated. Therefore, the vast majority of beneficiaries of the Obama healthcare act will be white people. If you're sitting in the government seat, it is hard to conclude that federal spending is going overwhelmingly to blacks.
It may feel good for the extreme right wing tea partiers to justify their racism by saying the president favors his own race over others. But the facts stand in sharp contrast.
I suppose this puts the Shirley Sherrod incident into perspective. There is a group of people, mainly older, conservative, white males, who believe that blacks get too many advantages. The false story about Ms. Sherrod feeds that narrative. If only it were true.
There hasn't been much action on urban poverty. There hasn't been much action on second-chance legislation. There hasn't even been an increase in the minimum wage or the earned income tax credit. But, again, the facts don't matter because this is a zero sum game. If white people are losing, black people must be gaining.
I don't know if the facts are persuasive to them or not. They probably aren't. All I know is that if the Obama Administration favors black folks, this would come as very surprising news to black folks.