# Poll: A Social Experiment? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 1, 2008, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-a-social-experiment/447620 "2008-05-01T15:56:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-a-social-experiment/447620/141 "2008-05-05T11:34:00Z")
1. Tiger Woods 2. Tom Hanks 3. Jennifer Lopez 4. Margaret Cho ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-a-social-experiment/447620/142 "2008-05-05T13:57:08Z")
[QUOTE=The Controvert] My hypothesis was that black women are under-represented, and the numbers seem to bear that out. Have you looked at the numbers? [/QUOTE] Have you? Name a celebrity, any celebrity, is a pretty lousy way to correlate male versus female ratios among a certain race. Especially when said race contains the biggest movie star in the world (Will Smith) and the frontrunner for the US Presidency (Barack Obama). And both of whom are male. The most popular female black celebrity (Oprah) finished with half as many votes as the most popular black male. But considering the field she ran against, that’s probably a pretty good showing. Your hypothesis is broken when you failed to consider that among black male and female celebrities, there a quite a few more MAJOR black male celebrities than MAJOR female ones. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-a-social-experiment/447620/143 "2008-05-05T15:38:07Z")
1. Eddie Murphy 2. Britney Spears 3. Shakira 4. Mako ---
**Author:** ![phil417](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/6bbea6/32.png) [@phil417](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phil417)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-a-social-experiment/447620/144 "2008-05-05T21:43:29Z")
I’m probably wrong, but I came up with one answer for all four questions: Tiger Woods. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-a-social-experiment/447620/145 "2008-05-05T21:57:43Z")
[QUOTE=Abby\_Emma\_Sasha] I’m trying to think how we can test **Contrapuntal** ’s theory without naming every god damned female black celebrity we know, but I cain’t. So, should we? Halle Berry Oprah Winfrey Alfre Woodard CCH Pounder Gabrielle Union Beyonce Knowles Star Jones Rosario Dawson Robin Roberts Regina King Tichina Arnold Marianne Jean-Baptiste Khandi Alexander Marsha Thompson that’s off the top pf my head. Add more, please. [/QUOTE] Okay, here are the first additional ten I thought of: Harriet Tubman Althea Gibson Zina Garrison Tamika Catchings Lisa Leslie Winnie Mandela Marion Jones Shirley Chisholm Barbara Jordan Billie Holiday ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-a-social-experiment/447620/146 "2008-05-05T23:38:34Z")
Of the 24 black female celebrities listed by Abby and Sternvogel I’ve only even heard of 9. And 3 of those I couldn’t tell you what they were famous for. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-a-social-experiment/447620/147 "2008-05-05T23:57:33Z")
I’m going to go ahead and answer without reading the rest of the thread. It’s 4 pages so the time for answering the poll may be over… 1. Samuel L. Jackson 2. Johnny Carson 3. Horatio Sanz (I think) 4. Lucy Liu ---
**Author:** ![MadTheSwine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MadTheSwine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadTheSwine)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2008, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-a-social-experiment/447620/148 "2008-05-06T00:15:30Z")
[QUOTE=Justin\_Bailey] Especially when said race contains the biggest movie star in the world (Will Smith) . [/QUOTE] He is? ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2008, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-a-social-experiment/447620/149 "2008-05-06T02:09:25Z")
[QUOTE=MadTheSwine] He is? [/QUOTE] Would you like to suggest an alternative? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2008, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-a-social-experiment/447620/150 "2008-05-06T02:13:46Z")
1. Eddie Murphy. 2. Brent Butt. 3. Desi Arnez. 4. John Cho. ---
**Author:** ![MadTheSwine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MadTheSwine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadTheSwine)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2008, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-a-social-experiment/447620/151 "2008-05-06T02:26:18Z")
[QUOTE=Justin\_Bailey] Would you like to suggest an alternative? [/QUOTE] Sure I would, but it’s a matter of opinion isn’t it? I thought maybe you had some box office figures or something.(which I am rather sure he isn’t the biggest draw worldwide when it comes to leading men) Hell,John Travolta is a bigger star than Will Smith,IMO. Will Smith wouldn’t crack my top twenty( I was gonna say ten,but that seemed unlikely also.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-a-social-experiment/447620.md?page=7)