There have been some recent claims here at DKos that the voices of white, male, middle-class, healthy, Christian, heterosexuals are being stifled at the expense of black, Latino, Native American, female, LGBT, disabled voices. For me, this begged a simple question.
What percentage of Americans are white, male, middle-class, healthy, Christian, heterosexuals?
Seriously, if we want to know if these folks' voices are being stifled, we need to know how many we should be seeing here on DKos.
So, relying mostly on Wikipedia, this is what I have figured out.
% of Non-Hispanic white people in America:62.6%
% of males in America: 49% (49% of 62.6%=30.7%)
% LGBT people in America: 3.8% (96.2% of 30.7%=29.5%)
There is some debate over this number.
% of middle class people in America: 45% (45% of 29.5%=13.3%)
Middle class is a very slippery term in the US, with numbers ranging from 25% to 65% of Americans considering themselves middle-class. I split the difference at 45%
% of Americans with a disability: 19% (81% of 13.3%=10.8%)
% of Americans who say they are Christian: 73% (73% of 10.8%=7.9%)
So, if all things were equal, we would expect that roughly
7.9% of the voices in the media (including Daily Kos) should be white, male, middle-class, healthy, Christian, heterosexuals.
How do you think Daily Kos stacks up?
Well, Quantcast doesn’t give us all the same info, but we get some
% of male at DKos: 64%
% White, non-latino at DKos: 84%
Or, to say it another way…53.8% of Daily Kos users are white males, while only 30.7% of the America is. Daily Kos users are also richer than national averages, though the data don't line up neatly with the numbers used in section 1, so I cannot provide a solid number for that.
In short, if you think that white, male, middle class, heterosexual, healthy voices are getting stifled here at Daily Kos, your are wrong. They aren't. In fact, white, male, middle class, heterosexual, healthy voices dominate here above the voices of all others.
5:11 PM PT: OK folks. Never saw this one going to the rec list, but thanks. Sadly, I can't stay, as I have a drawing class to go to. I'll check back in before I go to bed.