# The racist Tea Party is in love with Herman Cain **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 26, 2011, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-racist-tea-party-is-in-love-with-herman-cain/600876 "2011-10-26T16:57:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-racist-tea-party-is-in-love-with-herman-cain/600876/222 "2011-10-28T19:06:27Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > The plausibility of which statement, precisely? This one? > [@](#): > > The Tea Party tends to lean very small-government, libertarian-esque. That is, given almost any problem, the average Tea Partier is much more likely to eschew government as a solution. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-racist-tea-party-is-in-love-with-herman-cain/600876/223 "2011-10-28T19:12:40Z")
> [@saoirse](#): > > This one? Any problem that doesn’t involve sexuality, drugs, international borders. That is, the three main problems they believe in larger government for are sexuality, drugs, international borders, and non-Christian faiths. I’ll come in again… ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-racist-tea-party-is-in-love-with-herman-cain/600876/224 "2011-10-28T19:35:41Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > [From Merriam-Webster:](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/illegal?show=1&t=1319826318) Well, that should put an end to one whine. But, somehow, I’m not optimistic. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-racist-tea-party-is-in-love-with-herman-cain/600876/225 "2011-10-28T19:46:44Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > But I hear he makes a damn good pizza for $9.99. You “hear”? Not had any, then, I take it? \*Soylent Green \*is just a story, but I know what it would taste like. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-racist-tea-party-is-in-love-with-herman-cain/600876/226 "2011-10-28T20:07:53Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > [From Merriam-Webster:](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/illegal?show=1&t=1319826318) Don’t you think you’re acting like a pedanticer? ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-racist-tea-party-is-in-love-with-herman-cain/600876/227 "2011-10-28T20:09:40Z")
[I don’t think this cite has been discussed](http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2010/04/new-data-on-tea-party-sympathizers.html): > [@](#): > > attitudes. Results released Friday of a new multi-state poll of white voters conducted by the University of Washington’s Christopher Parker paint a more complicated picture. The survey asked white respondents about their attitudes toward the tea party movement–and their attitudes toward non-whites, immigrants and homosexuals. > > … > > The charts contained herein show the disparity between whites who strongly approve and disapprove of the tea party movement. In a few cases – attitudes toward Latinos, for instance – the differences were small. But only in a few cases: tea party sympathizers believe blacks are less intelligent, hardworking and trustworthy. If you look at the results, for example, 55% of white Americans who strongly disapprove of the Tea Party agree that black people are “hardworking.” Only 35% of white Americans who strongly disapprove of the Tea Party agree. [This article](http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2010/04/pollster-responds-to-your-questions.html) explains how the questions were derived, and their relationship to other polling instruments. I take this article as fairly substantive evidence that Tea Partiers are disproportionately racist. I’d still let my daughter date one, though. In order to disprove this theory, I’d look for similar data showing that the number of Tea Partiers who think positively of black people is similar to the number of Americans in general who think positively of black people. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-racist-tea-party-is-in-love-with-herman-cain/600876/228 "2011-10-28T20:20:53Z")
I rise to quibble, sir. A puny matter, but that’s the trouble with quibbles… The word “hardworking”. To me, and therefore to most Americans, since aging hippies are such a dominant demographic, the term “hardworking” is a positive, the kind of word a politician uses when flattering the people who hopes to rob. I daresay most conservatives have an even stronger inherent bias for that word, and probably would not characterize most people, of any stripe, as being “hardworking”. To oversimplify, people who think well of black people are inclined to view them as “hardworking”. People who are not inclined to think well of people _in general_ might easily be confused with people who don’t think well of black people _specifically_. When actually, they just don’t much like people. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-racist-tea-party-is-in-love-with-herman-cain/600876/229 "2011-10-28T20:32:26Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > I rise to quibble, sir.. Did you stay seated until you’d read both links? Because the second one explains the methodology and mentions that these questions are part of a well-respected polling instrument designed to measure attitudes toward race. If you have problems with that instrument, lay 'em out, but I think you’ll need to do a bit more reading first. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-racist-tea-party-is-in-love-with-herman-cain/600876/230 "2011-10-28T21:37:18Z")
Easy, there, big horse. No one is attacking your cite or your premise. You tell me that the underlying facts support your contention despite my quibble, I am content that it is so. Because you say so. That is not a trust I toss about lightly. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-racist-tea-party-is-in-love-with-herman-cain/600876/231 "2011-10-28T21:40:09Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > Don’t you think you’re acting like a pedanticer? No, because that’s not a word. Nor was I a [pendant;](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pedant?show=0&t=1319837858) I was rebutting **kaylasdad99** ’s confident put-down of \*\* Qin Shi Huangdi\*\*. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-racist-tea-party-is-in-love-with-herman-cain/600876/232 "2011-10-28T21:43:14Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > No, because that’s not a word. Nor was I a [pendant;](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pedant?show=0&t=1319837858) I was rebutting **kaylasdad99** ’s confident put-down of \*\* Qin Shi Huangdi\*\*. That it isn’t a word is the point of my comment. I suppose since some hoople decided to use \*illegals \*as a dehumanizing noun in the late '30s gives it a pedigree. It’s still a shitty world, and it’s meant to dehumanize its target. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-racist-tea-party-is-in-love-with-herman-cain/600876/233 "2011-10-28T21:53:03Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > I take this article as fairly substantive evidence that Tea Partiers are disproportionately racist. I don’t think the statements are racist. But before anything else, thank you very much for actually identifying a source with questions and a rigorous analytical methodology. I believe the issue is much clearer now, and I understand exactly why someone would say the Tea Party is fairly tagged with racism. It’s a very defensible view, and I withdraw as defeated any suggestions to the contrary. So here’s where I don’t agree: > [@](#): > > Support for the tea party also promotes racism. In this example, I draw on Kinder and Sanders’ (1996) work on racial resentment. I use the following four items to represent racial resentment: “Irish, Italians, and many other minorities overcame prejudice and worked their way up. Blacks should do the same without any special favors”; “Generations of slavery and discrimination have created conditions that make it difficult for blacks to work their way out of the lower class”; “Over the past few years blacks have gotten less than they deserve”; and “It’s really a matter of not trying hard enough; if blacks would only try harder, they could be just as well off as whites.” (alpha = .75) I use this instead of the stereotype items because it better captures the contours of more modern racism, one in which whites perceive blacks in violation of traditional American values. Simply put: I don’t agree that any of those statements are racist. “Irish, Italians, and many other minorities overcame prejudice and worked their way up. Blacks should do the same without any special favors”; “Generations of slavery and discrimination have created conditions that make it difficult for blacks to work their way out of the lower class”; “Over the past few years blacks have gotten less than they deserve”; and “It’s really a matter of not trying hard enough; if blacks would only try harder, they could be just as well off as whites;” are not, in my opinion, racist statements. But I do accept that there are many ways of interpreting such statements, and that racists would likely agree with those statements in much greater percentage than the more egalitarian run of mankind. So showing the Tea Party’s disproportionate acceptance/rejection of those sentiments is both fair evidence, and stronger evidence than support for Cain. So – point made. I’m out, with a loss. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-racist-tea-party-is-in-love-with-herman-cain/600876/234 "2011-10-28T21:55:33Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > That it isn’t a word is the point of my comment. > > I suppose since some hoople decided to use \*illegals \*as a dehumanizing noun in the late '30s gives it a pedigree. > > It’s still a shitty world, and it’s meant to dehumanize its target. Well, I guess if **kaylasdad99** had said, “You’re only in high school, so you probably don’t know that’s a shitty word when used as a noun, and it’s meant to dehumanize people,” I probably wouldn’t have quibbled. Since the actual statement was that it’s not a noun, though, I felt a correction was in order. You know: for the fighting, and the ignorance, and all. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-racist-tea-party-is-in-love-with-herman-cain/600876/235 "2011-10-28T23:26:15Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > No, because that’s not a word. Nor was I a [pendant;](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pedant?show=0&t=1319837858) What are you, then? Don’t leave us hanging! As for your response to me, while I see what you’re saying with those statements not being explicitly racist, I do agree (if I understood what you said–otherwise I disagree) in my belief that racism would lead to a higher percentage of agreement with those statements. Furthermore, the stereotype items themselves seem to show a pretty significant trend of racism among the tea-party crowd. The statistician himself says to take the results cautiously, and I’m willing to do so; I don’t have any strong belief that Tea-Partiers as a whole are a bunch of racists. I do, however, think that that poll provides some preliminary evidence of disproportionate racism among them, and I don’t see, for reasons that others have already mentioned, that liking Cain indicates a lack of racism. On the contrary, I’m quite willing to believe that at least some liberals voted for Obama in the primary out of a desire to show themselves anti-racist, and I see no reasons why at least some conservatives wouldn’t feel the same motivation. Whatever else Buchanan may be wrong about, he’s (she’s?) at least correct that racists aren’t well-regarded by anyone except complete fringers in our society; conservatives don’t want to consider themselves racist any more than liberals. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-racist-tea-party-is-in-love-with-herman-cain/600876/236 "2011-10-28T23:27:17Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Easy, there, big horse. No one is attacking your cite or your premise. You tell me that the underlying facts support your contention despite my quibble, I am content that it is so. Because you say so. That is not a trust I toss about lightly. Thanks, but honestly, I’d rather have the cite stand or fall on its own, not because of any trust issue or lack thereof. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-racist-tea-party-is-in-love-with-herman-cain/600876/237 "2011-10-28T23:41:34Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > The statistician himself says to take the results cautiously, and I’m willing to do so; I don’t have any strong belief that Tea-Partiers as a whole are a bunch of racists. I do, however, think that that poll provides some preliminary evidence of disproportionate racism among them, and I don’t see, for reasons that others have already mentioned, that liking Cain indicates a lack of racism. Agreed, except that I regard the support for Cain as evidence, albeit weak, in the other direction. But it’s more than countered by the study and the analysis you mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Naxos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/50afbb/32.png) [@Naxos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Naxos)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-racist-tea-party-is-in-love-with-herman-cain/600876/238 "2011-10-29T02:12:11Z")
> [@](#): > > The racist Tea Party is in love with Herman Cain That’s all conservatism is all about. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-racist-tea-party-is-in-love-with-herman-cain/600876/239 "2011-10-29T02:14:34Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > From [Slate.](http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2011/10/25/gop_2012_cbs_news_nyt_poll_shows_herman_cain_up_by_four_points_o.html) > > Given the high frequency of accusations of racism against the Tea Party’s membership from this board and elsewhere, how do those people who claimed the Tea Party’s animus was due to the fact that there was a black man in the White House reconcile that belief with the support for Cain cited above? They can’t. They know the racism claims are bullshit and yet they throw them around because they have nothing better. And they don’t care. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-racist-tea-party-is-in-love-with-herman-cain/600876/240 "2011-10-29T02:15:53Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > [From Merriam-Webster:](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/illegal?show=1&t=1319826318) > > > [@](#): > > > > illegal: noun > > > > Definition of ILLEGAL > > > > : an illegal immigrant > > > > First known use of ILLEGAL > > > > 1939 It’s my sense that the usage developed as a handy way of permitting people to regard other people as _things_. I’m disallowing it. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-racist-tea-party-is-in-love-with-herman-cain/600876/241 "2011-10-29T02:20:55Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > [I don’t think this cite has been discussed](http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2010/04/new-data-on-tea-party-sympathizers.html): > > If you look at the results, for example, 55% of white Americans who strongly **disapprove** of the Tea Party agree that black people are “hardworking.” Only 35% of white Americans who strongly **disapprove** of the Tea Party agree. > > [bolding tags mine - **kd99** Geez man, recheck your prefixes and submit again, willya? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-racist-tea-party-is-in-love-with-herman-cain/600876.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-racist-tea-party-is-in-love-with-herman-cain/600876.md?page=13)