By many measures, the two major political parties are moving in opposite directions when it comes to racism and sexism. As researchers have repeatedly documented, anti-black prejudice, anti-immigrant attitudes and sexism divided Democratic and Republican voters in 2016 more sharply than ever before — with people with stronger racist and sexist views gravitating toward Donald Trump. Meanwhile, over the past five to 10 years, white Democrats have undergone a “Great Awokening”: In a racially progressive turn, they are more likely than ever, polls find, to view discrimination as an impediment to African American progress and to say immigrants strengthen the country.
Despite these trends, some members of the Democratic Party still have conservative attitudes about race and gender, and these beliefs have opened up major divisions in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary race, as suggests my analysis of survey data, focusing on four consistently high-polling candidates: former vice president Joe Biden and Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.). CONT.
Alexander Agadjanian (MIT), Washington Post