Monday, January 30, 2006

We already knew this...

Racists vote Republican:

[S]ubstantial majorities of Americans, liberals and conservatives, found it more difficult to associate black faces with positive concepts than white faces -- evidence of implicit bias. But districts that registered higher levels of bias systematically produced more votes for Bush.

"Obviously, such research does not speak at all to the question of the prejudice level of the president," said [researcher] Banaji, "but it does show that George W. Bush is appealing as a leader to those Americans who harbor greater anti-black prejudice"....

As reported in the Washington Post (registration required), a psychologist at Emory has done a fascinating study on the subject of prejudice and political self-identification. There's food for thought on both sides. For a summary that doesn't require WaPo registration, go here.

1 comment:

janinsanfran said...

When it comes to racism, personal "anti-black prejudice" is not the issue. U.S. racial stratification is a system designed to privilege some literally on the backs of others. Of course the Reps play on this.

For that matter, so do we Dems, because racial disadvantage is central to our culture. We just approve of ourselves when we recognize and try to remedy it.

The system of Black/White polarity is getting creaky as the U.S. becomes more diverse, but the paradign is awfully strong.

Thanks for pointing out this article. I might have missed it.