One-third of white Democrats are racist?

It is his defenders who take an effectively racist stance by claiming that Obama can only be judged by the color of his skin, not the content of his character, as it were.

Two thoughts about this story headlined “Poll: Many white Democrats hold racist views”. First, once again we wonder whether the methodology of the poll created the result being lamented. Second, if the results are at all accurate, it tells us something about the tenor of the race.

First, I wonder if a poll that asks someone to pick among several positive and negative adjectives to describe black people and then declares someone who picks a negative one racist is a little questionable. Yes, it is probably indicative of some faulty thinking to label an entire race as “violent” or “complaining”, but what exactly were the respondents asked? How was the question phrased? Was it presented in such a way as to cause a significant portion of answerers to believe they had to choose a word or phrase regardless of whether they actually believed it or not? Likewise, would the same person be labeled a racist if they described white people as “elitist” or “snobby” or “oppressive”? Of course not, since by liberal academic definition you can’t be racist against white people.

On the second point, let’s say that the study does in some accurately reflect the views of the respondents, that their choosing of a stereotypical adjective makes them racist.

The poll found that more than a third of all white Democrats and independent voters, who Obama can’t win the White House without, agreed with at least one negative adjective about blacks.

[…]

Among white Democrats, one-third cited a negative adjective and, of those, 58 percent said they planned to back Obama.

This then explains some of the basis behind the constant drumbeat by Democrats that someone chooses not to vote for Obama must be making his choice based on racial bigotry. They might be projecting their own racist tendencies.

In fact, this is a racist viewpoint: That one could not possibly consider Obama’s policy positions on their own terms and reject them, regardless of the color of his skin. It is his defenders who take an effectively racist stance by claiming that Obama can only be judged by the color of his skin, not the content of his character, as it were.

Finally, did you notice the one group whose supposedly racist views were not mentioned? Whose results were omitted from the AP story?

Republicans.

We’re left to wonder whether Republicans were more “racist” than Democrats or independents.

Update: Here’s a longer version of the same story. Still no mention of those “racist Republicans”.

Also, the mainstream media is apparently not above creating racists from thin air and smearing innocent voters. (Although it’s also not inconceivable that she would deny making such a statement either.)