Twenty years after the start of the O.J. Simpson murder case, attitudes towards Simpson and towards race relations in the country have dramatically changed, according to a new national poll. CONT. CNN Read more »
Racists are likelier to oppose health reform when they think about Barack Obama
On Wednesday, Sen. Jay Rockefeller argued that some of the opposition to Obamacare is motivated by race. Rockefeller wasn’t particularly artful in his comments and it’s easy to see why Sen. Ron Johnson was offended. But Rockefeller is right. Michael Tesler, a political scientist at Brown University, studied this question […] Read more »
The Great White Hope
Three unlikely sources are providing qualified encouragement to Republicans who are either openly or covertly committed to a campaign strategy that focuses on white turnout, as opposed to seeking votes from Hispanics and African Americans. … These studies present a challenge to those who have declared that the Republican Party […] Read more »
Are Republicans Really Doomed Demographically?
Much of the debate about elections today revolves around the “Emerging Democratic Majority” thesis, taken from the 2002 book of the same name. The thesis is pretty straightforward: Because of demographic changes, the GOP is on a path toward irrelevance unless it can remake itself and appeal to the rising […] Read more »
The Racial Tensions Lurking Under the Surface of American Society
… Well before the election of the first black president in 2008, the condemnation of direct and open expressions of racism had become a social norm. While the fading acceptability of openly racist attitudes is to be celebrated, it clearly does not mean that race no longer matters or that […] Read more »
Wide Support for Sterling’s Punishment, Though There Are Racial Divides
As the fallout continues from the disclosure of racist remarks made by Donald Sperling, the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, a national New York Times/CBS News poll showed that while there is wide support for the actions taken by the N.B.A., there are deep racial divisions among basketball fans. […] Read more »