# Source of Racist Tweets about Obama **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 9, 2012, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/source-of-racist-tweets-about-obama/640504 "2012-11-09T19:04:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/source-of-racist-tweets-about-obama/640504/1 "2012-11-09T19:04:10Z")
> **[Where America's Racist Tweets Come From](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/11/where-americas-racist-tweets-come-from/265006/)** > > In the age of the quantified self, biases are just one more thing that can be measured and publicized -- and analyzed. Pretty surprising that Portland comes out as above-average racist. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/source-of-racist-tweets-about-obama/640504/2 "2012-11-09T19:14:50Z")
All’s I have to say after reading that is that I’m proud of my fellow Michiganders. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/source-of-racist-tweets-about-obama/640504/3 "2012-11-09T20:00:36Z")
Well [this woman](http://www.modbee.com/2012/11/08/2448491/obama-threat-gets-woman-fired.html#disqus_thread) sure is a winner. > [@](#): > > A Turlock woman who posted inflammatory comments on Facebook about President Barack Obama has been fired from her job and reported to the U.S. Secret Service. > Turlock resident Denise Helms, 22, posted shortly after the president’s re-election Tuesday on her Facebook page, “And another 4 years of the (n-----). Maybe he will get assassinated this term..!!” > > The post quickly made the rounds on social media, prompting Sacramento TV station Fox 40 to interview her about her comments Wednesday night. > > She told the Fox 40 reporter: “I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal. … The assassination part is kind of harsh. I’m not saying like I would go do that or anything like that, by any means, but if it was to happen, I don’t think I’d care one bit.” > > Helms has since deleted the post and posted again about the incident. It reads: “So apparently my post last night about Obama got onto Twitter and Fox 40 came and interviewed me cause apparently a lot of people in Sacramento think I’m crazy and racist. WOW is all I got to say!! I’m not racist and I’m not crazy. just simply stating my opinion.!!!” ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/source-of-racist-tweets-about-obama/640504/4 "2012-11-09T20:26:01Z")
Yeah and some of her best friends are black. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/source-of-racist-tweets-about-obama/640504/5 "2012-11-09T20:32:03Z")
And have been assassinated. ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/source-of-racist-tweets-about-obama/640504/6 "2012-11-09T20:32:55Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Yeah and some of her best friends are black. That’s not the word she would use. I’m surprised Tennessee is so low, but I think most of them are still figuring out this interweb thing. (ETA - TN is high on the scale, just lower than I expected). ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/source-of-racist-tweets-about-obama/640504/7 "2012-11-09T20:40:29Z")
NY is so low it isn’t even on that scale. Go NY! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/source-of-racist-tweets-about-obama/640504/8 "2012-11-09T20:43:48Z")
Something’s funny about that analysis. First, we have this: > [@](#): > > And Oregon and Minnesota, though they don’t score as high when it came to LQ, have a higher number of hate tweets than their overall Twitter usage would suggest. This isn’t consistent. The “LQ” value, as defined in the text, _is_ how many hate tweets a state has compared to the amount their overall Twitter usage would suggest. Then, when they show the table of LQ values for the various states, there are 28 states with LQ values above 1, many of them by a considerable margin, while there are only 4 with values below 1, the lowest of which is still over 0.5. But the weighted average of all of those ought to be exactly 1, and I can’t see how Maine, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Michigan can have weights so much higher than the rest of the states. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/source-of-racist-tweets-about-obama/640504/9 "2012-11-09T21:03:26Z")
“I’m not racist and I’m not crazy. just simply stating my opinion.!!” She seems a little unclear on what, exactly, constitutes “racist”. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/source-of-racist-tweets-about-obama/640504/10 "2012-11-09T22:47:47Z")
> [@pancakes3](#): > > [Where America's Racist Tweets Come From - The Atlantic](http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/11/where-americas-racist-tweets-come-from/265006/) > Pretty surprising that Portland comes out as above-average racist. Not to me. I grew up there. Roddy ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/source-of-racist-tweets-about-obama/640504/11 "2012-11-09T22:58:37Z")
I like the random racist tweet from across the Gulf of Mexico. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/source-of-racist-tweets-about-obama/640504/12 "2012-11-09T23:47:36Z")
I don’t get why racists ALWAYS say, “I’m not racist.” If you are fine with people knowing that you think the president is a nigger, why aren’t you fine with people thinking you are a ‘racist’?? ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/source-of-racist-tweets-about-obama/640504/13 "2012-11-11T07:02:39Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > I don’t get why racists ALWAYS say, “I’m not racist.” If you are fine with people knowing that you think the president is a nigger, why aren’t you fine with people thinking you are a ‘racist’?? Because if there’s only one thing they hate more than blacks, it’s racism. ---
**Author:** ![cghipp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cghipp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cghipp)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/source-of-racist-tweets-about-obama/640504/14 "2012-11-11T07:56:54Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > Because if there’s only one thing they hate more than blacks, it’s racism. This literally made me laugh out loud. As a citizen of South Carolina, I can attest to this. There is not one person in my hometown who would admit to being a racist. However, the number of cringe-worthy statements I hear on a daily basis doesn’t seem to be diminishing as the years go by. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Niply\_Elder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e8cbc/32.png) [@The\_Niply\_Elder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Niply_Elder)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/source-of-racist-tweets-about-obama/640504/15 "2012-11-11T10:11:30Z")
Theres not enough data to make any statistically significant conclusions. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/source-of-racist-tweets-about-obama/640504/16 "2012-11-11T22:06:08Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Not to me. I grew up there. > Roddy I grew up in Lake Oswego. It’s sad, isn’t it? I think part of the issue is simply how few black people are around, it’s pretty easy to think of them as ‘other.’ Thanks to my parents for teaching me to treat everybody with equal respect. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/source-of-racist-tweets-about-obama/640504/17 "2012-11-11T22:35:41Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > NY is so low it isn’t even on that scale. Go NY! Ditto! ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2012, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/source-of-racist-tweets-about-obama/640504/18 "2012-11-13T10:47:25Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > I grew up in Lake Oswego. It’s sad, isn’t it? I think part of the issue is simply how few black people are around, it’s pretty easy to think of them as ‘other.’ Thanks to my parents for teaching me to treat everybody with equal respect. Paradoxically, I think growing up without any black people around made it easier for me not to be racist. Even though I now know that a generation or two ahead of me is really racist, the fact that there are no black people around means I never heard about it as a kid, so I never internalized their racist message. The only message I got was from TV, where they told me racism was wrong. I’m also honestly surprised none of the racist tweets came from my area of the woods. My sister regularly encounter KKK wizards (or whatever they are called) at her job at the bank, we’re that close to the “KKK capital.” Maybe they’re just too old to tweet. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/source-of-racist-tweets-about-obama/640504/19 "2012-11-19T11:13:36Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Paradoxically, I think growing up without any black people around made it easier for me not to be racist. Even though I now know that a generation or two ahead of me is really racist, the fact that there are no black people around means I never heard about it as a kid, so I never internalized their racist message. The only message I got was from TV, where they told me racism was wrong. And this is one reason Montana and Wyoming are grey on the map: We have a few people, sure, but they’re mostly White and Native American. That’s the biggest racial divide. Black is a big city thing most people don’t really go for around here. Of course, in Wyoming there’s three races: White, Native American, and Hallucination Brought On By Extended Isolation.