If the Republican commentary I have been reading on the internet today — and hearing on certain TV news channels — is to be believed, a black man voting for a black candidate is a racist and is merely displaying racial loyalty. The question I would ask of the people proclaiming this to be true is this: would it also not be equally true that a white man voting for a white candidate is also a racist and displaying racial loyalty? Or do only white people have the ability to choose candidates to vote for based on things like issues and thought out reasoning?
Colin Powell announced his endorsement for President last night, and, as can be expected, Republicans everywhere are now showing their true colors.
Orb,
I guess to determine if the voter is racist one would need to know the reason why a certain voter is voting a certain way. Not sure if displaying a racial loyalty is racist if you actually agree with the politician’s positions. But if the only reason someone is voting for a certain politician is because you both share the same race, and then that voter may harbor racist tendencies.
This was one of the findings by the authors of Freakonomics. You can probably find it at freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com
It is cherry-picked however. Another trend they note is that whenever voters have to choose between a black and a white candidate more people will tell reporters that they intend to vote for the black candidate than actually will do so. So, there’s racial trends on both sides there, what a suprise.
Sorry, I seem to have dropped the first line of what I meant to post. Long journey before sunrise. They appear to be referencing a study on voting trends. [rest of my comment here pretty much]