The race card still plays in KY
Northern Kentuckians can take some faint pride in apparently not having as many racist tendencies as some of their brethren elsewhere in Kentucky.
That's something I took away from a Courier-Journal story today on how racial prejudice appears to have played a part in voter preference for Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama in the Kentucky Democratic primary Tuesday.
Many voters deserve credit, in a weird way, for at least being honest enough to tell pollsters that Obama's race was a factor in their vote for Clinton. About one in five white voters told pollsters that, so you can be sure the real number is even higher. (Here's a link to an interesting Newsweek column on how our emotions & biases influence our voting.)
The C-J included a county-by-county chart that showed percentage of minority population in each Kentucky county and percentage of vote Obama received. Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties appeared to give Obama his greatest support (more than 30 percent of the Democratic primary vote) among counties with 6 percent or less minority population. You could theorize that more voters here seemed to look beyond skin color in making their choice.
A boisterous debate on the KY primary results also has broken out on our CincyMoms.com Web site. Click here to check it out.
posted by Dennis Hetzel at 1:19 PM
4 Comments:
at 7:48 PM, May 22, 2008 
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at 6:52 AM, May 23, 2008 
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at 8:10 AM, May 23, 2008 
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at 2:38 PM, May 23, 2008 
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Post a Comment*Daily Kos recently published some maps that displayed the counties where Hillary won 50 percent, 60 percent, and 70 percent of the vote. One look at those maps is all anyone should need to convince them that racism still exists in America.
I don't know about "credit" for honesty. I think it's stubborn pride, probably, or more frightening, deeply ingrained belief.
One thing you might want to mention is some other key statistics about Kentucky, including poverty statistics, educational statistics etc. I'm not trying to disrespect anyone, but I do think it can be telling about how people form their ideas and about how they perceive the cause of their own problems. Other news outlets have accompanied the results of this primary with those types of profiles. Some people in Ky. still think he's a Muslim, so there's willful ignorance or lack of access to information.
And there was that Confederacy thing......which we allow the shameful symbols of. I've often said that, in other countries when there have been civil conflicts, the losers are often executed, or subordinated in some way. Here, we moved on, patting each other on the back, and saying it was a war of brother against brother and giving our suburban streets names like Gettysburg Drive.
More shame on Hillary for exploiting this and exacerbating the remaining racial rifts in American society. BTW, a female president would be nice, but why can't her female supporters see that maybe it's just not this particular woman? They're behaving like smitten teenaged girls (pre-voting age). First isn't necessarily the best. Better than McCain, but not Obama.
Oh well.
I must say that I am disgusted to see another attack on white people as this piece clearly is. I find it amazing that ther is not a single mention of the black racism that is going on in this election cycle. Obama is running with well over 90% of all blacks supporting him. Is this because he is such a swell guy or it is merely because he is the black candidate? I have yet to see a single black delegate super or otherwise state their support for anybody other than Obama, but do we ever hear anything about this black racism? No! We don't. So to state the media's position on this election in simplest terms: If you are black and voting for Obama that's ok, but if you are white and voting for anybody other than Obama you are a racist. This double standard is getting quite old.
It might just be that people don't like the fact that: he has no real experience to speak of that qualifies him for the presidency, he holds racist views of his own as evidenced by his choice of churches and support of particular pastors and other persons who have taken very public racial positions, he is a closet communist who has admitted his love of Marxism, he is an idiot who talks about the 57 American states he has campaigned in (can anyone here remember how Dan Quayle was crucified for misspelling potato?), his wife is an even bigger Marxist and America hater than he is, he hangs out with and supports anti-American terrorists both foreign and domestic, and last but not least he is also a closet Muslim?
Maybe all the black people who voted for Obama just got it right, since he happens to be the best candidate. You could allow for that possibility and a change sure would be welcome.
I don't think that analyzing sheer numbers constitutes an attack on white people. That's how they voted, and in exit polls, that's what they said about how they voted. They're uncomfortable with his race.
Apparently you would also fault him for the company that he's kept (other black people of varying political opinion) even while admitting that there are some white people who wouldn't want to associate with him and other black people. Wow, now that's a bind. I guess he should have stayed home alone. I'm white and I talk to anyone I feel like talking to. I don't assume that I am tainted by that. I think you're showing your fear of a "black agenda" and yet, no one can tell us what that is these days.
If you haven't been afraid of the last 8 years (and actually if you really want to start digging, the last 25-30) then you're waking up a bit late. America is, as they say, "screwed" right now and it's all attributable to a bunch of white faces of both parties, (oh, and Alan Greenspan, I forgot.....).
There, does that cover everything?
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