{"id":50681,"date":"2012-09-01T11:23:06","date_gmt":"2012-09-01T16:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=50681"},"modified":"2012-08-28T13:25:17","modified_gmt":"2012-08-28T18:25:17","slug":"political-ideology-and-racism-are-all-the-racists-on-the-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2012\/09\/01\/political-ideology-and-racism-are-all-the-racists-on-the-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Are All the Racists on the Right?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Cross-posted at <a href=\"http:\/\/montclairsoci.blogspot.com\/2012\/08\/where-to-find-racists.html\" target=\"_blank\">Montclair SocioBlog<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>About two weeks ago, Chris Hayes said, \u201cIt is undeniably the case that racist Americans are almost entirely in one political coalition and not the other.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The case, it turns out, is very deniable.\u00a0 Alex Tabarrok at <a href=\"http:\/\/marginalrevolution.com\/marginalrevolution\/2012\/08\/racism-by-political-party.html\" target=\"_blank\">Marginal Revolution<\/a> denied it with data from the 2002 and 2008 General Social Survey (GSS).\u00a0 He looked at three questions&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Favor laws against interracial marriage<\/li>\n<li>Would vote for a Black for president<\/li>\n<li>Blacks should not be pushy<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8230;and concludes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It is undeniable that some Americans are racist but racists split about evenly across the parties.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Hayes then tweeted a retraction.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2012\/08\/13.jpeg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-50683\" title=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2012\/08\/13-500x220.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"198\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2012\/08\/13-500x220.jpeg 500w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2012\/08\/13.jpeg 562w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>End of story?<\/p>\n<p>To begin with, the sample sizes Tabarrok uses are small.\u00a0 In the 2002 GSS, only 87 respondents went on record against interracial marriage, and in 2008, only 80 said they wouldn\u2019t vote for a Black for president.\u00a0 (All the tables and graphs presented here and in Tabarrok\u2019s post are based on Whites only.)<\/p>\n<p>Only about 5% of the sample takes the racist response to these items.\u00a0 But I would run the table differently.\u00a0 Instead of asking what percent of each party is racist, I would ask where do those few racists go.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2012\/08\/21.jpeg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-1\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-50684\" title=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2012\/08\/21-500x295.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"236\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2012\/08\/21-500x295.jpeg 500w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2012\/08\/21.jpeg 747w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The differences are small, but the edge goes to the Republicans.<\/p>\n<p>Second, there is a difference between party identification and political ideology.\u00a0 If you ask not about party but about political views, the differences become sharper.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2012\/08\/37.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-2\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-50685\" title=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2012\/08\/37-500x295.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"236\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2012\/08\/37-500x295.jpg 500w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2012\/08\/37.jpg 747w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The GSS has other questions that might stand as a proxy for racism.\u00a0 For example:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>On the average (negroes\/blacks\/African-Americans) have worse jobs, income, and housing than white people. Do you think these differences are because most (negroes\/blacks\/African-Americans) just don&#8217;t have the motivation or willpower to pull themselves up out of poverty?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2012\/08\/44.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-3\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-50686\" title=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2012\/08\/44-500x336.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"269\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2012\/08\/44-500x336.jpg 500w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2012\/08\/44.jpg 729w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Again, the differences are small, with White Republicans slightly more likely (50% vs. 45%) to say Blacks\u2019 economic problems are caused by lack of motivation and will power.\u00a0 And again, the differences are larger when the independent variable is political ideology rather than party identification.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2012\/08\/52.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-4\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-50687\" title=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2012\/08\/52-500x335.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"268\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2012\/08\/52-500x335.jpg 500w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2012\/08\/52.jpg 732w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In that same GSS question about the cause of Black economic troubles, another choice is:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Do you think these differences are mainly due to discrimination?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The differences for both Party ID and Political views are clear.\u00a0 White Democrats and liberals are much more likely to see discrimination as a major cause.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2012\/08\/62.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-5\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-50688\" title=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2012\/08\/62-500x337.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"270\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2012\/08\/62-500x337.jpg 500w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2012\/08\/62.jpg 731w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2012\/08\/71.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-6\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-50682\" title=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2012\/08\/71-500x335.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"268\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2012\/08\/71-500x335.jpg 500w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2012\/08\/71.jpg 731w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>But is this racist?\u00a0 Not necessarily.\u00a0 It might well be part of a general view of the causes of human behavior, one that emphasizes personal factors (ability, motivation, etc.) and downplays structural forces the individual has little power over (discrimination).\u00a0\u00a0 Conservatives might use that same\u00a0 explanation for unemployment and low income among Whites as well.\u00a0 But I do not know of any GSS questions about the causes of White economic problems.\u00a0 (Perhaps these exist, but I am not a GSS expert.)<\/p>\n<p>We do know that racists (those who say they would not vote for a Black president) are more likely to take the conservative position on the \u201cWillpower\u201d explanation (76% vs. 50%) and on the Discrimination explanation (78% vs. 64%) compared with those who say yes, they would vote for a Black president.\u00a0 But that does not mean that the other conservatives who agree with them and who deny that racial discrimination affects the lives of Black people are also racists. People can come to the same position from different places.\u00a0 But people can also hide their racism behind seemingly non-racial issues.\u00a0 In the 1960s ,70s, and 80s, many observers thought that the Republicans were using first school busing and then crime as a proxy for race, as Republican strategist\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Lee_Atwater\">Lee Atwater\u00a0<\/a>famously explained.\u00a0 And some observers today (<a href=\"http:\/\/campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com\/2012\/08\/27\/making-the-election-about-race\/\">Tom Edsall<\/a>, for example) argue that the Republicans are using welfare in the same way this time around.<\/p>\n<p>Other bloggers have written about the questions Hayes raised &#8212; Tabarrok has links to three of these.\u00a0 The most interesting I\u2019ve come across is Will Wilkinson\u2019s (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.economist.com\/blogs\/democracyinamerica\/2012\/08\/politics-and-philosophy-racism\">here<\/a>).\u00a0 His original views apparently were individual-centered and much in line with Margaret Thatcher\u2019s dictum that \u201cthere is no such thing as society.\u201d\u00a0 But that was \u201cwhen I was a Rand-toting libertarian lad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He has now come to see that individuals, with their ideas and attitudes and \u201cnon-coercive\u201d behavior, can add up to something greater than the sum of its parts, i.e, society.\u00a0 But he got to this idea by walking down the left fork of the libertarian road \u2013 the road not to serfdom but to sociology.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Eventually I realised that actions that are individually non-coercive can add up to stable patterns of behaviour that are systematically or structurally coercive, depriving some individuals of their rightful liberty. In fact, rights-violating structures or patterns of behaviour are excellent examples of Hayekian spontaneous orders\u2014of phenomena that are the product of human action, but not of human design.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cross-posted at Montclair SocioBlog. About two weeks ago, Chris Hayes said, \u201cIt is undeniably the case that racist Americans are almost entirely in one political coalition and not the other.\u201d The case, it turns out, is very deniable.\u00a0 Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution denied it with data from the 2002 and 2008 General Social Survey [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":258,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[85,8121,283,285],"class_list":["post-50681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-politics","tag-election-2012","tag-prejudicediscrimination","tag-raceethnicity"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/258"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50681"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50692,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50681\/revisions\/50692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}