Comments on: The death of the Bradley Effect http://www.cydeweys.com/blog/2008/11/06/the-death-of-the-bradley-effect/ Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:39:44 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Ed http://www.cydeweys.com/blog/2008/11/06/the-death-of-the-bradley-effect/comment-page-1/#comment-59829 Ed Thu, 13 Nov 2008 22:54:33 +0000 http://www.cydeweys.com/blog/?p=1088#comment-59829 Let's see, Obama is the son of a black man and a white woman. So he is in fact 50% Black / 50% White. Why on earth are people saying he is the first black president? Surely his 50% "whiteness" will feel racially offended by that comment, no?... This whole race thing is very hard to understand looking from the outside into the U.S. Why would race be an issue? He won the election because he opposed the previous president's (what was his name?) policies, came up with inspirational speeches and a fresh attitude. Let’s see, Obama is the son of a black man and a white woman. So he is in fact 50% Black / 50% White.
Why on earth are people saying he is the first black president? Surely his 50% “whiteness” will feel racially offended by that comment, no?…
This whole race thing is very hard to understand looking from the outside into the U.S. Why would race be an issue?
He won the election because he opposed the previous president’s (what was his name?) policies, came up with inspirational speeches and a fresh attitude.

]]> By: Steve McGlamery http://www.cydeweys.com/blog/2008/11/06/the-death-of-the-bradley-effect/comment-page-1/#comment-59813 Steve McGlamery Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:56:04 +0000 http://www.cydeweys.com/blog/?p=1088#comment-59813 Hey, Ben, your Dad's first cousin Steve here. I, too, am grateful the "Effect" I won't name 'cause you never want to hear about it again was nowhere to be seen Nov. 5. I even read conjecture of a "Reverse-[name of that would-be CA gov in '82] Effect, in that a few working class whites who'd been screwed under Bush didn't want to admit to a pollster that they were gonna vote for a black, but in the privacy of the voting booth, self-interest trumped any race-based biases. Re: Jeff's 5% of people saying they wouldn't vote for a black; surveys are notoriously bad at measuring real racial discrimination--race is so visceral that attitudes don't allign with actions. Participant observation (kinda hard when it comes to voting) is much more reliable in dealing with race. So I'd guess the % that are less likely to vote for a candidate because of blackness is still higher than we'd like to think. But, like you said, many of those were lost causes, anyway. Oh, and Ben, I have an ulterior motive in looking up your blog--trying to cop inauguration tickets any way I can. If you could email me (at smmcglamery@hotmail.com) your mom or dad's email address, that'd be great! Hey, Ben, your Dad’s first cousin Steve here. I, too, am grateful the “Effect” I won’t name ’cause you never want to hear about it again was nowhere to be seen Nov. 5. I even read conjecture of a “Reverse-[name of that would-be CA gov in '82] Effect, in that a few working class whites who’d been screwed under Bush didn’t want to admit to a pollster that they were gonna vote for a black, but in the privacy of the voting booth, self-interest trumped any race-based biases.

Re: Jeff’s 5% of people saying they wouldn’t vote for a black; surveys are notoriously bad at measuring real racial discrimination–race is so visceral that attitudes don’t allign with actions. Participant observation (kinda hard when it comes to voting) is much more reliable in dealing with race. So I’d guess the % that are less likely to vote for a candidate because of blackness is still higher than we’d like to think. But, like you said, many of those were lost causes, anyway.

Oh, and Ben, I have an ulterior motive in looking up your blog–trying to cop inauguration tickets any way I can. If you could email me (at smmcglamery@hotmail.com) your mom or dad’s email address, that’d be great!

]]> By: Jeff V http://www.cydeweys.com/blog/2008/11/06/the-death-of-the-bradley-effect/comment-page-1/#comment-59360 Jeff V Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:57:21 +0000 http://www.cydeweys.com/blog/?p=1088#comment-59360 I can't find it on the Washington Post's website but some time in October I was reading the Sunday post and they had an interesting article about the death of the Bradley effect. The gist of it is that the % of people who answered no to the question "Would you vote for a black candidate if he was qualified and shared your views?" has gone down from about 30% (in the '50s) to about 5% of people now. It's amazing to me that 5% of our population still is racist enough to answer that question "no" but the truth is (and I'm painting with a broad brush here) that most people that racist would not be voting democrat anyway. I can’t find it on the Washington Post’s website but some time in October I was reading the Sunday post and they had an interesting article about the death of the Bradley effect.

The gist of it is that the % of people who answered no to the question “Would you vote for a black candidate if he was qualified and shared your views?” has gone down from about 30% (in the ’50s) to about 5% of people now.

It’s amazing to me that 5% of our population still is racist enough to answer that question “no” but the truth is (and I’m painting with a broad brush here) that most people that racist would not be voting democrat anyway.

]]> By: Cyde Weys http://www.cydeweys.com/blog/2008/11/06/the-death-of-the-bradley-effect/comment-page-1/#comment-59333 Cyde Weys Fri, 07 Nov 2008 04:38:13 +0000 http://www.cydeweys.com/blog/?p=1088#comment-59333 Hrmm, well, that wasn't quite what I was getting at. Hrmm, well, that wasn’t quite what I was getting at.

]]> By: Knacker http://www.cydeweys.com/blog/2008/11/06/the-death-of-the-bradley-effect/comment-page-1/#comment-59328 Knacker Fri, 07 Nov 2008 03:56:49 +0000 http://www.cydeweys.com/blog/?p=1088#comment-59328 White people are so awesome! White people are so awesome!

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