In today’s Washington Post, Peter Beinart says race still matters.
If there’s concrete evidence that race is “weighing Obama down,” Beinart doesn’t cite it. People’s perceptions about the beliefs of others is not exactly a scientific or reliable measure of how much racism exists in the United States. In this case, they seem to suggest people assume racism is far more prevalent today than it actually is. Perhaps Beinart could claim that people who say others are racist are revealing their own prejudice, but he doesn’t say that and I wouldn’t be persuaded if he had. In my experience, those who believe that racism continues to flourish in America are bitter northeastern liberals who self-righteously cling to the idea they are more enlightened than people in other parts of the country. As an aside, I believe Beinart meant to cite Gallup (not CBS/New York Times). It’s worth noting that Gallup’s poll is of randomly selected adults, not registered or likely voters. So it does not reveal to what extent racism might influence the upcoming election. And only 5% said they wouldn’t vote for a black presidential candidate. Compare that to the 42% who said they wouldn’t vote for a candidate that was 72 years old. Although many compare Obama’s struggle in overcoming racism to John F. Kennedy overcoming anti-Catholic views, the polls suggest race plays far less of a role than religion does. “In May 1960, 21 percent still said they wouldn’t vote for a Catholic; 71 percent said they would.” And even today, people are less likely to vote for an atheist than any other category Gallup polled.
