A new survey by the University of Washington Institute for the Study of Ethnicity, Race & Sexuality offers fresh insight into the racial attitudes of Tea Party sympathizers. "The data suggests that people who are Tea Party supporters have a higher probability"--25 percent, to be exact--"of being racially resentful than those who are not Tea Party supporters," says Christopher Parker, who directed the study. "The Tea Party is not just about politics and size of government. The data suggests it may also be about race."
Did the respondents claim to hate the fact that a "black man is in the White House" as Jeneane Garofalo surmises? Nothing as blatant as that. They simply answered the following questions in ways that the creator of the poll and Newsweek deem to be racist:
The institute's "2010 Multi-State Survey on Race and Politics" covers seven states. Survey participants were asked what they think of the tea-party movement; those who "strongly approve" were cast as "true believers"; those who "strongly disapprove," as "true skeptics"; and those whose opinions were weak or neutral as "middle of the road." To gauge their racial attitudes, they were asked whether they agree or disagree with the following statements:
• "Irish, Italians, Jewish, and many other minorities overcame prejudice and worked their way up. Blacks should do the same without special favors."
• "Generations of slavery and discrimination have created conditions that make it difficult for blacks to work their way out of the lower class."
• "Over the past few years blacks have gotten less than they deserve."
• "It's really a matter of some people not trying hard enough; if blacks would only try harder they could be just as well off as whites."
"True believers" were most likely to agree with the first and last of these assertions and to disagree with the middle two. The opposite was true of "true skeptics," with "middle of the road" indeed producing consistently middling results.
What a shocker, Tea Party supporters tend to hold more conservative than liberal positions on affirmitave action.These questions have the feel of that old Jeff Foxworthy routine "You might be a redneck". Except now its you're probably a racist if you believe in individual responsiblity and limited government.
It's a shame this poll was conducted before all the hoopla over the immigration law that Arizona recently passed. This question could have exposed the racism pervading the tea partiers even further:
"Do you believe the 5 men who shot a sheriff's deputy in AZ should be given amnesty and a path to citizenship?"
If you answer yes you're enlightend; answer no and you're flat out racist. The motives of the left aren't very subtle and unfortunately they don't need to be. They need to keep the meme of racism going as long as they can to convince just enough moderates of the adage "where there's smoke, there's fire" to avoid getting thumped at the polls in November.
If you haven't heard about the attack on the deputy:
Five men suspected of smuggling drugs across the border ambushed a Pinal County sheriff's deputy Friday in a remote area south of Phoenix, underscoring the border-related violence that has catapulted Arizona and its new immigration law onto the national stage.
The rugged desert area where the shooting took place, near the junction of Interstate 8 and Arizona 84 in south-central Arizona, is considered a high-traffic drug- and human-smuggling corridor.
A massive hunt of 100 square miles that included helicopters with night-vision equipment and more than 200 officers, including SWAT teams, from 13 agencies was still pursuing the shooters late Friday.
More than one helicopter came under fire during the evening as officers rescued Deputy Louie Puroll, who had been shot with an AK-47-type weapon around 4 p.m., according to the Sheriff's office
Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2010/05/01/20100501arizona-deputy-shot-by-drug-smugglers.html#ixzz0mga2nw2I
No comments:
Post a Comment