According to a recent poll by the Associated Press, racial attitudes have not improved since President Obama took office 4 years ago. In fact, 56% of Americans say they now express explicit anti-black sentiments, which is up from 49% during the last presidential election in 2008.
Birthers, including a recent stunt by Donald Trump, continue to question the president’s citizenship with calls for him to prove (again) he’s an authentic American. Some white Americans have publicly admitted that they’re voting for Mitt Romney solely as a vote AGAINST Barack Obama. Others have made the news by chanting “We Want Our Country Back,” but back from what? Back from whom? African-American leaders say it’s clear that many in white America mean they want their country back from the control of a black man.
TODAY’S QUESTION: Is this election about politics, or about race?
Take Our Poll
I think the election is about both…politics and race.
Will "Racists" defeat the President? I pray they won't.
Nov. 6th will tell the story.
Anybody who thinks racism is dead is fooling themselves. A lot of people don't want Obama re elected only because he's black. Being the first black president is still alot for some to accept. Just look at the pic in this post about putting White back into the White House. It's sad but a lot of people think this way.
Wow, just because people are voting for Romney to vote against Obama does not mean that it's because he's black. I could care less if he's red orange blue or green, the color of his skin does NOT matter to me. If I vote the other way it's because I don't like his policies or what he's done during his time in office, or because I just like what the other candidate says he's going to do better, but not because of race. Just because 'some white Americans' said it, doesn't mean they're the majority, it just mean's they're stupid. And if racism has gone up in America, it doesn't mean it's because of Obama, it could be because of any number of things (and by the way, I don't remember getting polled either time about my racial views, so obviously not everyone got polled and it's not a true representation of all American's and their views). I also remember during the last election that it was pretty racial because I know of hundreds of people that said they voted for Obama last time just because they were black, and he was black… if that's not racism against the white candidate last time, I don't know what is.
If people are chanting 'we want our country back' it's pretty rich to assume they want it back from black people unless those people who were chanting specifically said that. It's possible that they want the old policies back, or want things back to the way they were before Obama got into office, or things back to before the economic depression, but not necessarily back from black people.
During every single presidential election there's mud slinging going both ways and people are against whoever ran the last time if they're re-running, so I don't think it's fair to turn this election around and say it's different just because he was black. Black or white there would be people saying he did a bad job just like in every election where a president runs for a second term, just like when Bush ran for a second term, so please don't try to make this racial when I don't believe it is. If there's some Americans out there saying they want him out because he's black, then it's their stupidity but it shouldn't be put onto the rest of the nation. I'm tired of minorities trying to make me feel bad telling me I'm racist and so is the whole country just because of a few ignorant people who really are racist. Some of my best friends have been black, hispanic, and Native American. My daughter's best friend is mulatto, and my best friend's husband is black. My bloodlines have hispanic and native american and so do my husband's and daughters. Like every American I'm Heinz 57… a little bit of everything from everywhere, and I am certainly not racist, despite that people keep trying to tell me that just because I have pale skin, that I am.
Welcome to the blog jtomlinson but I gotta respectfully disagree with you. Ever since Obama ran the first time many whites have made it about race. They refuse to believe he's a American citizen, they keep calling him a Muslim, they drew him as a witch doctor when Obama care was supposed to be a bad word, they want "their" country back, they made a negative cartoon about him and Michelle fist bumping, they drew a cartoon of Michelle as a ape, I could go on. Nobody asked Romney for his birth certificate but they keep making that a issue for Obama. I'm not saying every white person is like this because they're not but there's a large group who are. I forget what channel it was but I was watching tv last week and a guy said he was voting for Romney only because he didn't want Obama back in. So when the interviewer asked him if that was about race, the guy smiled and just didn't say anything else. So race is a big part of this election.
I'm not sure I agree with Mr. BD- racism is one of those things that's so subjective, no one can really say with any objectivity what's up. One person might grow up never witnessing anything close to racism, and for them, it's just something you learn about in history books or in movies. For others, it's a daily gauntlet that becomes part of your world view. How many people fall into one camp and how many into another, who really knows. It's easy to label something racist when it's merely ignorance, or bury something as a joke when there's a genuine racist motive behind it.
For some people, Obama taps into deeply-imbedded racist fears they themselves aren't aware of. But that's an easy excuse to use if someone doesn't want Obama. Most people I know voted for "Anyone but Bush" in 2000 and 2004; are they anti-white? There's plenty to hate about Obama- his complete lack of respect for the Environment, his war-waging, etc. "Anyone but Obama" is a pretty stupid position, but not sure you can say it's racist. I would guess that a lot of the people who would voice that opinion would vote for Colin Powell if he ran, despite being black.
The fact is, more than his skin color, Obama's personality represents a certain "educated-elitist" point of view that lots of Americans will never relate to, regardless of that person's ethnicity. The same eloquent speeches that stir so many to support him also turn others off- look at G.W. as a counter-example. The same moronic speeches and complete cluelessness that made so many of us laugh at the guy made a whole other section of the country feel like he was "down to earth" and someone they could relate to. Our cultural divide is a much bigger factor than racism.
And seeing a racist guy speak on the news, please- the news puts that on because it pushes buttons and gets people talking. That guy is not representative of a majority. He's representative of something, but who knows how large that group really is- even if you spent all year touring the country trying to find out, there's so many factors in why you end up speaking to whomever you do, that your results would still be inconclusive. Which is not to say that racism doesn't exist- but HOW big a part of this election it is, who knows. To me, it's there, but there's much bigger fish to fry.