I think you’re right about the number of racist black people being about the same.
Here’s another thing to consider regarding racist behavior. One of the explanations that has never quite seemed correct to me for why Hillary lost is blaming her loss on racist white people. If the racist white people voting block were that powerful Obama would have never won, unless the theory is a greater number of racist black people voted for Obama that then refused to vote for Clinton. I just can’t imagine that there was some large group of racist white people who were happy to vote for a black man but not a white woman.
I targeted even more narrowly than that. I targeted white american people.
It’s definitely closer to the first one but I deliberately let people pick whatever definition of racism pops in their own head. It’s a subjective thing.
Because I wanted it to be? If you start your own poll that is not restricted to them, i’ll happily vote in it.
I’ve already said that to someone else…nobody ever takes me up on my offer though.
As far as whether the poll is impossible, it’s already accomplished its goal. I have numbers. Most people perceive at least half of white americans to be racist so far.
31 votes for 40% or more are racist.
20 votes for 25% or less
Huh? If I thought the figure was 49.9%, I’d vote 40%, if I thought it was 50.1% I’d vote 60%. That seems sensible to me. By that logic, the poll indicates to me that only 18/51 respondents think at least half of all white Americans are racist.
The math is a little off there, but no matter. The main point is you’re right, it’s not at all ‘impossible’ to ask a question so vague as to be meaningless. But what asking it ‘accomplishes’ is nothing, basically.
“Racist” is FAR too vague a term to boil down to numbers like this. I could justify anything from 5% (the approximate “floor”, perhaps, of no-shame neo-Nazis and their equivalents) to 100% (unsavory characteristics of human nature most of us try to keep under wraps and/or genuinely re-channel, most of the time).
Yeah, that was the basis for my choice in this thread. Racist enough that they’re voting patterns are problematic for American democracy is a good enough measure for this poll.
What proportion of Americans are glabzous? Don’t ask me to define glabzous; this is about peoples’ perception of glabzousness, so I’m letting each user define it.
Seriously, you’re the one who’s asking the question. What are you asking about?
How can you know? Most of the white folks I meet, I never see them interacting with black people at all, and so I have no idea whether they’re racist or not (though I suppose that the fact that I don’t see them interacting with black people is itself a sign of at least institutional racism somewhere). Just because you don’t see something doesn’t mean it’s not there; it could just mean that it’s where you don’t see it.
Now, the situation would be different if you or I were black (I’m guessing you’re not black, correct?). If I were black, then every time I interacted with a white person, I’d see how they interact with at least one black person. Black people might well perceive more racism than white people, just because it’s happening right in front of their faces.
I’d put both of these much closer together near the 30% mark. Closer to 90% would be “afraid to walk down the street in a predominately black neighborhood”.
Personally, I agree with Ulfreida. Essentially everyone is racist to some extent. Very few are straight up Nazis or Klansmen, though it is frightening how many have come out of the woodwork these last few years (since Ferguson? Or did it start with Obama?).
Somewhere in the middle is that insidious “I love my black friends but I hate niggers” uniquely American flavor of racism that we all thought was going away since the Civil Rights movement but was just hidden on back porches and trailer courts all this time.
Glabzouness is not a known word though, so it’s an unfair comparison but I’ll play along:
I’m asking americans what percentage of white america they’d put in the “racist” bucket. Racist meaning someone they wouldn’t freely associate with if they can help it solely because of their views on color
Feel free to edit the OP to include that definition. I would do it myself but it’s too late.
I’m Mexican-American, and I would guess that black people are more likely to face discrimination than Mexican-Americans. None the less, I don’t usually perceive racism from the vast majority of people I interact with on a daily basis.
The point I was trying to make is if racism is so common that it nears being present in 100% of the population, the “I love my black friends but I hate niggers” type racism wouldn’t exist. The reason the racist people that express their views in that manner do so is because they know their views are not universally shared by other white people. If all the other white people were racist as well, they could just come out and say “yes, I’m racist, but so is everyone else so why is it such a big deal?”
OK, that’s something we can work with, then… but the way you’ve phrased it, it still includes “No way am I going to hang out with that nigger-lover Bob; he thinks that all people are equal, and what kind of crazy person thinks that?”.
I assume that that’s not what you meant, and that what you meant was “enough more racist than me that I don’t want to associate with them because of that”. But that still runs into the problem that, by that standard, the most racist Americans would say that there is very little racism: “Sure, a lot of people believe that blacks are inherently inferior and it’s right for white men to hold power over them, because that’s just obvious. Any right-thinking person would think that”.
Certainly, “enough more racist than me that I wouldn’t want to associate with them” is at least “more racist than me”. And if we’re being honest, then on average, people should say that exactly half of all Americans are more racist than them.
I’d say about 25%. This is the hardcore Republican base, those who think Donald is incapable of error. Most will deny racism, citing “some of my best friends…” or “I served in Nam with…” but that white nationalism espoused by the right is their red meat.
I took it to mean was that the person in question would not be hanging out with a person of color, because of the person in questions views of color, not your desire to associate with the person in question due to their views.
ETA: I see that he clarified and agreed to your meaning, but I am still thinking that it is a bit ambiguous.
