Poll: Barack Obama Could Lose Six Percentage Points on Election Day for Being Black
By Corky Siemaszko
Daily News Staff Writer
Six percentage points is the price Barack Obama could pay on election day for being black.
That disturbing calculation was found in a groundbreaking new Associated Press-Yahoo News poll conducted with Stanford University which probes the effect of the Democratic presidential candidate's race on his historic campaign for the White House.
"There's a penalty for prejudice, and it's not trivial," Stanford University political scientist Paul Sniderman told the AP.
In a close contest, racism "might be enough to tip the election," Sniderman said.
Still, the Illinois senator seems to be making some headway even with white Americans who don't have much good to say about African-Americans.
Among the white Democrats who think blacks are lazy, or violent, or boastful, two-thirds said they will vote for Obama over Sen. John McCain, a white Republican.
The poll of 2,227 adults was conducted Aug. 27-Sept. 5, and was designed to probe people's racial attitudes and how those attitudes affect voting.
It shows that when it comes to race, there has been some progress in America: Most white people have positive things to say about black people.
Still, pollsters found that a substantial portion of white Americans have very little contact with African-Americans - and many still harbor negative feelings toward them.
Whites also have a rosier view of race relations than blacks. When asked "how much discrimination against blacks" exists, 10% of whites said "a lot" while 57% of blacks said "a lot."
Asked how much of the nation's racial tension is created by blacks, more than a third of whites said "most" or "all."
Meanhile, nearly three-fouths of the blacks polled said while people have too much influence in U.S. politics.
Also, the perception that voters in their 20s and 30s might go for Obama because they're less racially biased than their parents might be wrong.
The survey found no meaningful differences in the way younger and older whites viewed black people. But older whites were more likely to say when they really think of blacks than the younger generations.
Not surprisingly, racial prejudice tends to be lowest among college-educated whites living outside the South, the pollsters found.
With wire services
Reader Comments
Racism is alive and well in America
It is just sad that the prevailing mentality in the USA today is the same mentality that kept slavery alive. That prevailing mentality is a conservative mentality. Conservatives believe that change of any kind is un-American. No matter how good the benefits may be, change is wrong. Conservatives believe that the way the country was set-up by the Founding Fathers is good enough; don�t change it. Never mind that the Founding Fathers wanted a dynamic government that could change with the course of time. I see on these posts pure hatred. You are the white majority who hate change period. A black man to be president how scandalous. I am white, female and 65 and I am glad to cast my vote for him. Your anger will eat you up eventually and make you sick.
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He will lose....
Hes associated with someone who hates the government, I believe he is trying to win this race for himself, his race, and I also think he belives the same views that his "Spiritual Advisor" believes in, he wants to win this race for the radicals, he wants power, and is playing on the peoples needs, promising nothing but Fantasy, and lies.
True Americans will not vote Obama....only the people living in a fantasy land, and have no clue about what is really going on, which is the corruption in the Senate. Its not Bush, but Democrats who do nothing, but point the finger, and never try to fix the problem but make it work. They are nothing but actors...funny how alot of actors in Hollywierd like Obama, because he is fake just like them.
Amen.
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