A new poll has come out that begs the question: you realize you’re kinda racist, right? On Wednesday, Newsweek reported on a YouGov polling of Americans with questions ranging across the board about our government and society.
YouGov asked a number of questions on what it called "racial resentment," one of which centered on whether the respondent agreed with the statement: "It’s really a matter of some people not trying hard enough; if blacks would only try harder they could be just as well off as whites."
Overall, 35 percent of respondents agreed (16 percent "strongly," 19 percent "somewhat") with that statement. Twenty-eight percent neither agreed nor disagreed.
Forty percent of white respondents agreed (19 percent strongly, 21 percent somewhat) that black people just needed to try harder to be equal, while just 18 percent (5 percent strongly, 13 percent somewhat) of black respondents said the same, according to the YouGov poll.
As a colleague explains, the term “racial resentment” is a polite social science term for “racism.”
But these white folks have a point. When you consider that Obama had to overcome a separated household, work his way to the top of every class he was in, be an organizer in Chicago, run for government, get lucky that his insanely amazing oratory skills brought him forward at the convention in 2004, and overcome everything to win the popular vote in 2008; and then Donald Trump just had to fail up from being a multi millionaire’s quadruple-bankrupted son to lose the popular vote and become president. It’s all basically the same.
The good news is that while we are not anywhere near where we would like to be as a truly civil society that believes in a person’s character over the color of their skin, we are considerably closer now than we were even 60 years ago.
Continuing to represent one of the largest shifts of public opinion in Gallup history, 87% of Americans now favor marriage between blacks and whites, up from 4% in 1958.
The positive numbers concerning interracial relationships notably increase the younger the person being asked is. The sadder but unsurprising news is that while most Americans are moving towards the light, there is a partisan segment of our country that has been falling further and further away from the sun as time progresses.
The current balance of opinion has changed little over the past few years but marks a shift from 2014 and earlier when the public was more evenly divided on this question. In March 2014, 49% thought the country had made the changes needed to give blacks equal rights with whites, while 46% said there was more to do. A wide majority of Democrats and Democratic leaners (81%) now say the country needs to continue making changes to give blacks equal rights with whites. The share holding this view is up 18 points since 2014, when a smaller majority (63%) of Democrats said this.
Among Republicans and Republican leaners, most (59%) say the country has already made the needed changes to give blacks equal rights with whites; 36% say that more needs to be done. While it continues to be the minority view, the share of Republicans saying the country needs to continue making changes to give blacks equal rights with whites has increased since 2014.
The “blue wave” is not simply a matter of Democrats over Republicans at this point. It’s a matter of time and bigotry and the need to discard the aging bigoted skin of our country.