I don't understand this column. Meaningless distinctions.
A lot of comments seem to downplay the problems of race in our society. A range of views, NYT?
3
Bravo, finally here's an opinion column about race in America that seems reasonable, objective, and closer to reality. And in this paper, too, which is often a perpetrator of some of the white liberal proclivities highlighted in the column. Though I'm not as optimistic, as it appears to a reasonable person that the ideologues are intransigent, and the blind-spots intractable.
4
Is it possible that fewer whites than blacks wanted Governor Northam to stay in office because more of those whites were Republicans who didn't vote for him? After all, the other scandal involving the lieutenant governor raised the possibility of a Republican taking over the governorship without being elected to the job. Who needs voter suppression with that kind of a windfall.
1
A study of the disparate treatment of black and white juveniles in criminal court showed that for the same drug crimes black kids were 45 times more likely to be sent detention than white kids setting the stage for a lifetime of difficulty achieving success. That is only one of many, many signs in the criminal justice system and elsewhere that life for blacks and whites is much different. Republicans don't care; as a whole they lack empathy and mocked President Obama when he said Supreme Court justices should have empathy. It is notable that blacks do not see it as big a problem as white liberals but I suspect that, as the movie Green Book showed, anger about racial discrimination is another aspect of white privilege.
6
Just look at how many people either somehow missed the point of this article, or skipped reading it altogether and went straight to the comment section to barf up their personal world views, bogus stats, and hot-takes. Zero discipline in thought, complete lack of self-awareness.
8
The author seems to be an academic from across the pond. Does he have the advantage of de Tocquevillian perspective or lack authenticity?
It's not complicated.
Obsession with identity politics is essentially an artifact of collegiate indoctrination. More whites attend college, are exposed to, and actually fall for absurd assertions about race.
Consider: this paper and most of the (overwhelmingly white) left excoriate voter ID laws as "vote suppression". But three fourths of blacks support those laws.
Racism is so rare that the left has to invent it; the demand for bigotry vastly exceeds the supply. But it is an incontestable article of faith for the left that racism is common. One can no more persuade one of the identity obsessed that no evidence exists for this proposition than one can persuade a believing Christian that God does not exist. In each case, the belief is vital to their worldview. (At least, in the latter case, there is substantial circumstantial evidence for the proposition!)
The identity-obsessive dominate college campuses, where they pollute impressionable young minds with utter nonsense. These delusional leftists are mostly white.
8
Our models seem hypocritical:
Professor George Yancy expounds a confessional model: if you are white, you are a racist, period. Proclaim your Sin and own your shame. It’s a sort of AA meeting style where you must accept you are small and weak and powerless in the face of your sinful compulsion.
The problem? The LGBT community can tell you all about how ineffective this “love the sinner, hate the sin” mentality is at converting the “sinful.”
You have the Kirsten Gillibrand model, where any offense is all offenses. The burning in effigy of Al Franken for inappropriate space or juvenile humor on a helicopter throws the book at him without any distinction between his inappropriate actions and the president’s admitting to downright violent assaults grabbing women by their private areas.
The problem? Society would do well to distinguish intention, severity, and actual harm.
You have the Ta-Nehisi Coates model, where you lob moral grenades at society decrying it’s utter depravity and privilege while enjoying a level of fame, access, privilege, and access to wealth few of any race will ever achieve.
The problem? He lives in Paris and has foundations giving him a quarter of a million dollars for simply being a genius while every word he writes is microscopically analyzed in all of the first presses of the world. Please, save us the indignant moralizing from your privileged perch.
Hypocrisy? Yes: when did the liberal left become so conservative and orthodox?
10
Does the Times ever stop beating the racial and gender victim drum ?
Is there anything anywhere that happens in which women and minorities are not victimized by evil white folks ?
It’s this endless stream of white hatred that causes otherwise rational folks to seek their news from Fox.
6
As Benjamin Franklin said, "We must...all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."
Kaufman's article points us in a direction which, eventually, will allow us to regain our affirmative sense of being American. It is precisely that collective affirmation that makes so many people want to immigrate here. As well, a return to a sense of common purpose and destiny is what it will actually take to make meaningful progress for the advancement of all of us.
Our problem is that many, if not most, Americans no longer think of themselves primarily as Americans. We are all hyphenated Americans of one sort or another. Unfortunately, across the political spectrum we now tend to take as our primary identity the adjective before the hyphen, whether it is Black, "pro-life", LGBTQ, 2nd Amendment, Hispanic, woman, or whatever.
During the Viet Nam War, when our country was substantially more divided than it is now, we all considered ourselves American, and when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the moon, every hyphenated American was proud to be American.
Yesterday Nicholas Kristof wrote a lovely piece about the chess accomplishments of Tani, an 8-year old Nigerian immigrant living in a homeless shelter. Keep in mind in the middle of all the national bitterness, trash talking from top to bottom, and bad-mouthing of America by Americans the final sentence of that piece, spoken by Tani's father from their homeless shelter: “The U.S. is a dream country....”
2
The country is divided over race, whether you want to admit it or not. Consider:
- Disparities in sentencing of blacks and whites for same
crimes
- Trump's racist statements, especially about Central
American immigrants
- Disparities in inner city housing
- Envy and resentment by whites toward minorities who
have achieved more. Thus popularity of MAGA when
whites had more advantages materially and career.
The list could go on, but you should get the picture.
5
Maybe this is why I feel greater solidarity with people of color working class, than I do with white liberals. Blue collar includes many shades of skin.
5
It is naive to believe white liberals and minorities hear these questions in same way. 'The value of diversity' question is tricky. Whites hear 'more women in tech,' while blacks hear 'gentrification.' 'Articulate black' is an established pejorative to white liberal ears, but many uneducated minorities hear a compliment. This a just a badly worded poll. There is far more political overlap between white liberals and minorities than this survey suggests.
1
The biggest problem I have with concepts like "white privilege" is they are tantamount to religious concepts like "original sin".
They are Maoist/Stalinist in nature and suggest a certain ethnic group is born sinful. It's deemed that white privilege (original sin) is something that's impossible to escape.
It's something you must confess before your peers in order to cleanse yourself of sin, and only those who enter the confessional will be admitted to the higher order of "enlightened progressives".
Ultimately, the scale of repentance demanded is impossible -- it's designed to be impossible for political reasons -- and the person must live their life feeling perpetually ashamed of themselves. While this may be electorally advantageous, it also breeds resentment and toxicity.
Aside from the illogical nature of such concepts, the mainstreaming of such terms is a dangerous political game to play, not only because of America's charged racial history but because such concepts are totalitarian in nature.
115
@John Except you're morally culpable for original sin, and people who think you're morally culpable for white privilege misunderstand the construct (often deliberately).
8
@John
The Democrats think it helps them win votes, so they will keep pursuing it.
11
Only one anecdote, but a couple of years ago I stumbled across a small rally of mostly Trumpers, protested by a large contingent of antifa and others chanting anti-racist slogans couched in more than a few profanities at the Trumpers and at the police. I mingled briefly among both groups and noticed two striking differences: the Trumpers were more civil, and they included more people of color.
For the record, I loathe Mr. Trump and all that he stands for.
14
“Race” is nothing more than an excuse for bad conduct...
2
Sorry, but I read the article and still don't understand the distinction between division by race and division by racial ideology. When illegal drug use was seen as predominantly a black, poor, inner city pathology, politicians responded with a huge prison expansion and mandatory sentencing to fill them. Now that illegal drug use is seen as a rural, white, poor pathology, we need to do something to help these poor victims and there is bipartisan agreement on the need to decrease the prison population. Is this driven by views on race or race itself? Does it matter? I don't see any grounds for optimism in this and many other similar examples of clearly racist public policies.
6
"Yet Trump voters rate minorities relatively warmly. Racial ideology rather than race accounts for their differences with white Democrats: White Republicans reject affirmative action, the notion of white privilege and the idea that racial discrimination continues to hold minorities back."
There's a pretty familiar pattern where white people "rate minorities relatively warmly" while at the same time rejecting affirmative action, and denying the reality of white privilege or racial discrimination. They used to say they all got along fine, if it wasn't for those outside agitators. They probably still say that.
The article ignores real demographic differences in the lives of blacks and whites, and uses a carefully crafted survey to make its case that the real difference is between liberals and others. Not very impressive.
3
Seeing the world as white/not white is a hugely problematic perspective. Even anthropologically there are three major racial classifications (Negroid, Caucasoid and Mongoloid). When people lump folks into two – white/not white. They are saying only one is deserving of individualized social recognition. The other two – they’re just “minorities” despite each outnumbering the third in the global population. When your perspective is grounded in the paradigm of the binary, you should validate your conclusions by testing them against the reality of 3 major groups rather than two.
1
@Lin
Your assessment re: the anthropological major racial classifications is seriously dated. That simplistic division of the human race, initially proposed more than four hundred years ago, has been largely abandoned by modern anthropologists, the overwhelming majority of whom now tell us that there is really only one race, that of modern humans, Homo Sapiens. DNA evidence reveals that there is more, genetic variation within the so-called "races" than between them. We are all more genetically alike than different. Anthropologists now speak in terms of ethnicities, of which there are many more than three, having discarded the artificial sociocultural and political division of humans by "race" as pseudoscience. Historically however, white in the U.S. has always been more about what isn't than what is. Historically one could not be white unless one could prove that one had no Black African, Asian or other (than European, preferably northern European) ancestry. At various points in our history, Jews, southern Europeans and even Irish were not considered white, that classification meant to refer to Anglo-Saxon Protestants only.
2
Can Mr Kauffman explain on a philosophical point of view what race is if not the consideration of race ?
That is where you can see the flaws of anglo saxon philosophy.
Ignorant in phenomenology.
Pseudo scientific behaviorism to create a difference in process between the subject and the object in order to annihilate the notion of desire .
if the object does not exist then the desire for the object does not exist either . Et le tour est joue.
1
When the police start shooting white liberals at a rate of one a day I may be more receptive to the idea that our divisions are not racial but ideological.
6
Now let me get this straight.
Facts demonstrate that white people have greater and better healthcare, better schools and more expenditure per capita for those schools, greater access to home mortgages, higher pay for equal work, better police protection and safer neighborhoods--all of the above and more.
So, are those inequities racism or racial ideology? Or, hey, classism?
But regardless of racial and ideological alignment, American political and social liberals still circle the wagons around privilege with rhetoric and inaction.
The hope of healing someday seems far more in the future than "one day."
3
I think for the most part, these white liberals are mostly engaging narcissistic moral posturing. The phrase 'virtue signal' I think is appropriate. Too many liberals are just playing a game, making sure everyone around them understand what virtuous, right thinking people they are, and seeking rounds of applause and pats on the back.
And everything is maximal with pointed fingers and raised voices and accusations. I've never seen a group of people spoiling more for a fight in the streets they will surely lose, and lose badly.
89
The Left brands Trump's determination to curtail illegal immigration as "racist". Well, I work in a city where 16% of the population( mostly minorities) live below the poverty level. I'm sure that the last thing they want to do is to compete on wages with illegal immigrants for the few job opportunities available to them. Meanwhile, we now have the lowest unemployment rate among minorities in our recorded history. So while the Left calls Trump a racist, who is actually helping US citizen minorities? The Left and their open borders or Trump who is trying to make them more wage competitive?
8
@pete: The old routine of trying to create a conflict between two oppressed groups, while the rich (including Trump) sit back and enjoy it.
2
Years ago Myrdal, a Swedish sociologist, wrote a classic study termed The American Dilemma.
The dilemma as he studied it was the gap between what Americans profess, i.e. the American Creed, in comparison to what Americans do, i.e. American
Deeds. Myrdal's study is a rich examination of the institutions that Americans have created to sustain the gap between creed and deed. While governmental discrimination has all but been eliminated mostly through court decisions, although it persists in some areas, private discrimination has resisted cultural and political change. In fact the conservatives, having lost the argument over officially sanctioned discrimination, are determined to change the Federal courts to bring private discrimination under a legal umbrella. The gap between creed and deed still remains our most difficult issue. Kaufmann's study does little to address these issues.
5
Nothing is as pathetic as a privileged elite trying to atone for its privilege by convincing others that they are helpless victims. The conclusions of this article are unequivocal: while African-Americans and other minorities acknowledge racism, they don’t want to be be seen only as its target. They don’t want to be robbed of their agency. They don’t want their personal responsibility to be denied. White liberals who are obsessed with racism insult those they pretend to defend. When you see people as passive playthings of “micro-aggressions” or “instutionalized racism”, you take away their humanity. Justice warriors are not interested in fighting discrimination. They are only interested in virtue-signaling.
92
This directly reflects decades of work as a civil rights attorney representing working class and working poor black, Hispanic, and Asian clients. It also directly reflects how college educated left-wing whites, also dealt with extensively, think and behave.
The clients I represent have serious and actionable claims, meaning someone violated their civil rights in a way which any reasonable person who is not a bigot and racist can understand. Further, such violations are in no sense dubious, or cooked up by white left-wing students using highly questionable reasoning, baroque and tortured analysis, and in searching under rocks for offense.
It's a primary reasons my clients don't simply disagree with the "microaggression" movement, they truly despise it. They consider it ridiculous and offensive. They can certainly tell the difference between discrimination, racism, and bigotry, and a culture of victimization which is what they consider college campus liberals to be cultivating. For them, it degrades and diminishes the real discrimination they face, while lumping it together with grievances of white liberals they find laughable.
In reality, there's often little in common between working class blacks, Hispanics, and Asians, and left-wing whites, in views on race, politics, and religion. They’re consistently far more conservative, and unlike left-wing whites, they certainly recognize discrimination where it actually exits, but refuse to view themselves as perpetual victims.
18
@Robert B Yes!
1
The reason liberal minorities seem less strident about calling out racism than liberal whites is because minorities have learnt to keep their heads down, their mouths shut, and fight on without as much as possible without thinking of exterior agents.
They know to keep quiet and carry on - and this attitude reflects itself in their answer to polls.
It isn't as if white liberals are outpacing the racial minorities themselves in fighting racism.
It's that racial minorities - without the protections of white citizenship - always assailed by self-doubt - are reluctant to be strident about their lived experiences.
5
@KS It’s a mistake to believe that white liberals are looking for much other than power. Their stated policies are not going to create equality.
2
Since the concept of race derives from an ideology developed to justify and nurture slavery, attempting a distinction between race and the ideology of race is a misguided effort.
@Randy Livingston I don’t agree. In our current political landscape only racial ideology has any power to shape our political future. Political ideology is identity politics and it serves to divide Americans to overturn our government institutions. There is no value to racial ideology, especially at a time with so much political tension.
Your presumption of “the concept race deriving from ideology” is inherently wrong so everything that followed is wrong. The concept of race is based upon a very base human notion of skin color, perceived differences in genetics, and root place where a persons ancestors came from. Nothing to do with ideology.
3
@Randy Livingston I think Racism was around LONG before slavery though they are both unfortunate long-standing behaviors in human societies so maybe you are right.
A facile argument indeed. I find no comfort in Mr. Kaufmann's claim that "And taken as a whole, it reveals something about the United States in the Trump era: The country is not divided by racial conflict, but by conflict over racial ideology." A tautology, and nothing else.
What Mr. Kaufmann fails to do is to distinguish between racial conflict and racial ideology, although he claims it exists. And further, he claims the latter is benign. This couldn't be further from the truth.
A review of any chapter of ethnic cleansing throughout history will show that it took place against a backdrop of racial or ethnic ideology of the majority.
And "racial ideology" does not explain the exponential rise in hate crimes against ethnic and religious minorities in this country since Trump took office.
Genocides or ethnic cleansing do not take place in a vacuum. The majority population doesn't simply decide one day that it wants to commit acts of violence against a minority. Months and years precede these acts, with various hateful racist ideologies gaining strength. The fire feeds on itself.
The fact is, racial ideology is always the backdrop of racial violence. And what we're seeing with Trump and voters provides little comfort. The racist chants of the young white men in Charlottesville tell me much more about the state of this country than Mr. Kaufmann's essay does. So let me add my name to the countless others who have said "this will not end well".
6
@Orion Clemens
There has been no "exponential" rise in hate crimes. The firgure I saw was a 17% increase from 2016 to 2017, and that number includes things like phoned in threats that turned out to be hoaxes. It's well known that actual violent crimes of all varieties are way down. America is safer than it's ever been, for people of every background.
14
@Orion Clemens Hate crimes remain an extremely small percentage of overall crime. The racism seen in Charlottesville was a concerted effort to get as many white nationalists from across the country as possible and there was only a small number. White nationalists are desperate because they have no power or clout.
8
Well I tend to be encouraged too. Particularly interesting & surprising is that a majority of Hispanic voters, per The Value of Diversity chart, indicate that diversity either makes no difference, or it is "worse". Some might read this as Hispanic newcomers begin to assimilate then their separate identity begins to flow into the majority culture. Nevertheless, it's certainly an interesting and noteworthy statistic.
3
The author makes some pretty big leaps based on a few statistics while seemingly ignoring some alternate explanations. For example, at the top of the article, the author mentions that 48% of whites feel Governor Northam (of blackface infamy) should stay in officer versus 60% of black voters. The author does not seem to consider the possibility that black voters in a Southern state with a Jim Crow past may see keeping a relatively liberal governor as essential to their well being, while whites do not have similar concerns. If so, that's not just "different views on race," but differences races in America have different experiences and concerns. This article really doesn't even seem to consider these possibilities, which suggest some real "racial differences" between the author's experiences versus those of other folks in America.
6
@citybumpkin
Exactly.
Similarly, a ready explanation exists for why white progressives have recently come to distrust whites.
Could it be that white progressives felt positively about whites when whites demonstrated they could elect a Barack Obama, but negatively about whites when whites elected a Donald Trump?
Most articles I read on racism, including this one (and the comments to it) focus on racism as a strictly US phenomenon. It is not. I have been fortunate to have lived all over the world. I found that racism exists everywhere you find humans since the beginning of mankind. It may be more useful to describe this as tribalism which is also all over the world and it doesn't have the same toxic reaction as racism.
16
@George
The New York Times is an American newspaper it's only natural they focus on racism in America. The fact there is racism in other parts of the world does not excuse racism in the United States.
1
I have a new - and my first - grandchild coming in August. What a world he / she will be born into. Multiculturalism is growing - but so is racism. Something has to give. There is nothing I see from The Republican Party that addresses racism. They talk a good game - but when the head of their party speaks...he sounds racist.
3
"Liberals have moved left on consideration of race " . What does this mean ?
This is a mix of subjective behaviorist psychological conceptions that pretends for itself to be an analysis.
The protestant anglican philosophy is the origin of racism in the USA and in England still today also.
History..
1
Trump is a racist and so are his policies, words and administration deeds. So what kind of people voted for him? Racists. Who cares what they tell people in a poll; they already proved they are fine with it by supporting him.
9
It's amusing to read the white liberal panic evident in many of these comments. They can't let racism be diminished, of course, because it is so central to their very reason for being, and an integral part of their sacred ideological text. White liberals don't want to feel optimistic about race relations. That would ruin their most beloved narrative.
19
Woke or not woke, that is the question… I interpret Kaufmann’s article to say, 'What this all shows is that America isn’t divided by skin tone [racially divided], it’s divided by misunderstandings about both the economics and politics of systemic racism [racial ideology].' On both ideological extremes, dark-skinned and light-skinned Americans may hold similar views of our history, values and policies.
So, an easier way to view the same thing is -- America is divided into those who are ‘woke’ and those who are still willfully in denial. This accounts for internalized oppression, ignorance of American history, hidden agendas and a multitude of other reasons for these observations. Some dark-skinned people have always had ‘white’ views that are self-defeating (house Negros like Stephen and Uncle Tom); many light-skinned Americans have always been on the frontlines of the battle for equity (freedom fighters like Goodman and Schwerner). Because black and white is a social construct, dark-skinned Americans may have survey results like ‘whites’ and light-skinned Americans may survey as ‘black’.
Racism is when a person's race (most visibly, their skin characteristics/color) is being considered, for any reason.
If you consider (look at) your own or someone's skin characteristics, then you are doing something racial/racist.
For example, when "white trump voters with no degree" beieve that it is Ok to have "Racial Self-Interest"... (which they believe is "Not Racist")... they in fact are incorrect. They are being patently racial (racist).
White trump voters need to learn to not "judge a book by its covers". If someone favors a white person (i.e., has "self-interest for whites")... that is racist!
@IN And if someone insults another person, call them "deplorable" etc becaue their skin is white-ish that's racist, too, correct?
7
@me
The skin color isn't deplorable, it's the ideology. Compromise and compassion are dirty words to modern conservatives, and the last thing they aspire to. That's what makes them deplorable.
2
No that's fake news:The dictionary definition of racism is "prejudice, discrimination or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior." Of course, the PC Left has conflated that to include any distinction noted among races. For example, if I were to say that Afro-Americans are better athletes and Asians are smarter than Whites, I'd be branded a racist. 'Same if I were to say that Afro-Amercians' economic progress has been hampered by the less advantageous situations into which they are born. The cry of racism is the dog whistle of the left.
2
"Racism" ... is just one facet of inter-group differentiation which applies to every single individual in this country and on the planet. White "progressivists" feel guilty and ashamed of this natural biological-social response (well described in Jon Haidt's books) hence activism.
Real change will come not from classifying people on skin pigmentation but rather their individuality and contribution to the society.
3
This article doesn't seem to be bothered with much critical thinking. For the TL;DR crowd, the "cause for optimism" essentially boils down to this: "People don't really hate each other based on race."
I get that there are people who remember a time when this wasn't true, or else know people for whom this isn't true, and so maybe it seems noteworthy. But it's not. We're past feelings. You'd be hard pressed to find a black person who really cares that some random bigot somewhere hates him on account of his race (in fact, I think you'd be hard pressed to find "activist liberal" who really cares about that).
The facts are, black people in America (along with but more starkly than with other people of color) live in a statistical reality that is persistently disparate from that of white folk. As anybody who's read American history to any depth will tell you, this is a fabricated distortion of expected meritocratic normalcy, and that fabrication was a lengthy, violent, and often quite openly racist project.
That approximately half the country opposes its undoing says a lot more about the prospects for racial unity than people's "overall feelings toward those of another race".
2
Might anyone who believes in the concept of race, i.e. a reality based in biology be considered a racist? Those that recognize that is is a product if our social discourse, our cultural conversations, are far more mutable in feelings about "that thing some call race" and its impact on social justice distributions among those "some call races."
1
There are many facets to this subject. The media is definitely complicit in fueling racism. I read newspapers and watch TV news a lot, and it's very obvious. Racism exists in ALL races. The media could be a force for good by educating the public, and by calling out racism that exists in the black and brown communities. But they focus on white nationalists. Until ALL racism is condemned, it will continue. This means there should be a drum beat about Farrakhan, and Muslim hate groups, etc.
15
@J. G. Smith,
And here's a today's example:
There's now a column in the NYT "The Anatomy of White Terror".
Can you imagine an article here with a title "The Anatomy of Black Violence" or "The Anatomy of Muslim Terror"?
1
Wow, anything to avoid talking about actual racism!
Whites have higher median wages, more family assets, live in better neighborhoods, have been the beneficiaries of generations of government-sponsored pro-white affirmative action (in housing, lending guarantees, insurance, etc.), get access to better schools, have better health outcomes, and get better treatment from the justice system... But white liberals and college activists are the problem because they stir everyone up?
We can pretend that racial problems are all just a matter of perception and that all perceptions are valid. We can lament the division of the country into supposedly morally equivalent tribes. But the bottom line is that some people want to use government policy do something about the obvious, measurable, often government-sanctioned de jure ways that America has held some races down. Others adamantly don't.
There isn't a centrist, "moderate" position between racism and anti-racism. Anyone who suggests otherwise is just looking for a way to absolve the country of its moral obligation to confront its past and try to make amends.
2
@Jeremy
I fully understand that the history might be different, but should we draw the same conclusions when comparing any other sub-groups of American demographics that have noticeable disparities in "wages, assets, (and) housing"?
It would seem that statement asserting similar conclusions of bias based on different outcomes for different sub-groups could be deemed offensive. One example might be comparing Americans of Scotch-Irish or Bosnian heritage to Americans with Jewish or Asian heritage.
Correlation should not be assumed to assert causation.
3
@Peter M Yes, the history is different and that's the entire point. This isn't some abstract question or empty theorizing. The history of government support for white supremacy has been documented in a variety of books that are still in print. It's all pretty explicit. There is no correlation. It's all causation.
Comments like this underscore the need for an official national reckoning... We need a truth and reconciliation commission to establish an official record of facts.
Americans have no excuse for their historical ignorance. No one should be idly speculating about the causes of persistent racial disparities. It's way past time we took a hard look the truth and figured out what to do about it.
@Jeremy
Not all of the concepts discussed in this article relate to events far enough back to be considered history. History does play a role, but it discussions of race also includes new Americans who naturalized this year-- for which prejudice or discrimination would be the negative transmission mechanism.
Many of the concepts discussed here are about current day prejudice or discrimination (when comparing individuals from similar incomes and secondary schools), such as:
"The share of white liberals who say racial prejudice is the main reason blacks cannot get ahead has jumped substantially since 2014."
At the risk of appearing cynical, the author's premise makes me wonder why it seems that a significant number of whites, some liberal and others not so much, appear to see any gains made by minorities as coming at their expense. If a minority lands a coveted job or college placement, these whites seem to assume that some more deserving white person, many times someone close to them, must have been passed over. It seems that there is not the real support for true diversity when it means that some sacrifice by the privileged class may be necessary. A case in point is a situation that arose in the last few years in that bastion of liberal urban enlightenment, Dumbo, an up and coming gentrifying neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY. When the New York City Board of Education proposed shifting some white students from their increasingly overcrowded but well-performing and coveted elementary school to a nearby largely minority lower performing school that had been losing population and thus had room for additional students, the public outcry by the more privileged and politically vocal parents was striking. Small wonder that some supposedly liberal but affluent parents are willing to pay exorbitant amounts to enable their offspring to leapfrog over more deserving applicants, both minority and majority, to gain entry to their preferred colleges. It seems that racial liberalism extends only as far as one's financial situation is able to accommodate it.
2
You are playing word games and they are not helpful. The two presidents who did more for civil rights and human rights than all the other presidents combined, Abraham Lincoln and Lyndon Johnson, would be unlikely to support your games today. Lincoln's support of the 13th amendment made no such distinction, nor did Johnson's support of the civil rights, voting rights and fair housing acts. You are giving succor to Trump and his supporters whether you admit it or not.
1
Kaufman's article is important because it points us in a direction which, eventually, will allow us to regain our affirmative sense of being American. It is that collective affirmation which is the reason so many people want to immigrate here, and a return to the sense of common purpose and destiny is precisely what it will take to make meaningful progress for the advancement of all of us.
Our problem is that many, if not most, Americans no longer think of themselves primarily as Americans. We are all hyphenated Americans of one sort or another. Unfortunately, across the political spectrum we now tend to take as our primary identity the adjective before the hyphen, whether it is Black, "pro-life", LGBTQ, 2nd Amendment, Hispanic, woman, or whatever.
During the Viet Nam War, when our country was substantially more divided than it is now, we all considered ourselves American, and when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the moon, every hyphenated American was proud to be American.
Yesterday Nicholas Kristof wrote a lovely piece about the chess accomplishments of Tani, an 8-year old Nigerian immigrant living in a homeless shelter. Keep in mind in the middle of all the national bitterness, trash talking from top to bottom, and bad-mouthing of America by Americans the final sentence of that piece, spoken by Tani's father from their homeless shelter: “The U.S. is a dream country....”
Per Ben Franklin, "We must,...all hang together or... we shall all hang separately."
8
“Views on race” - a very polite euphemism for liberal white (mostly very rich) race neurosis. Even in the comments you see all the people from California focusing on the inherent flaw of underreporting among the Trump voters. How about the more important takeaway of the non-white respondents, who have a more measured and nuanced view all around? If black people are significantly more interested in a Governor’s recent accomplishments than his distant past misdeeds, can’t white liberals call their virtue-signaling competition off?
There are significant issues with racism in this country but, paradoxically, there is a point where a relentless focus on it just makes it worse. How about, for once in this country’s lifespan, we focus on class instead, which just so happens to underpin an awful lot of racial issues while being infinitely less divisive.
20
This article is an example of political science obscuring the issue rather than clarifying it, which was the original intent. The crucial difference the author sees is purely academic on the ground.
Our country has a huge race problem and we all know it. I'll quickly point without detail at what other commenters have mentioned in this discussion: our racist past, current institutionalized racism, white entitlement, economic discriminations, openly racist behavior.
2
Does an African-American feel comfortable and secure in truthfully answering racially oriented questions originating from white pollsters? If there is some doubt, the results will be biased.
1
Interesting.
A bit bemused by the categories
"White liberal" vs
"White conservative/moderate" --
as if liberals can't be "moderate".
I suppose it's drawn that way to make the essential point stand out.
1
We are indeed separate by race and not just racial ideology. Racial oppression is real. For example Blacks were forced to live in segregated neighborhoods where their homes were redlined. As a result, they were barred from getting the economic benefit of home ownership. Those neighborhoods had poor schools, high policing, high unemployment. Add to this the discrimination in the employment and justice systems and the result it today's reality. White families have 10 times the net worth of black families. The majority of people in prison for drugs are black or Hispanic while whites use at the same or higher level. etc. No the race separation is real.
64
@OS
The point of this article is not that there is no racism, it's that we do not have a strong divide in what we believe about race. That's important. In fact, on many issues in this study, we could be said to be upside down, with white liberal people being more concerned about race than minorities.
23
@OS The article is not debunking the presence of a racial wealth gap. It is debunking the idea of a political divide based on race. Instead, it argues that the real political divide stems from our feelings on race, rather than race itself. The data would seem to show that white liberals feel more strongly about racial and identity issues than minority voters. You could take issue with the analysis, but nowhere is there an attempt to suggest there are not economic divides based on race.
21
I grew up on the near east side of Detroit. In June 1967 we had two major supermarkets (Kroger and A&P) in the neighborhood. In July they were both looted and neither returned. Only a second tier supermarket opened. Cries of "Redlining!" were heard.
We lived there through the late 1980s as we saw it transformed from a modest lower middle class neighborhood into what was essentially a war zone by virtue of the actions of many of its residents. One evening our phone lines were cut. I chased the would be perps away with a firearm. That area had always been considered homed and it broke our parents' hearts that they had to move.
My siblings and I purchased a home for them in a nice safe suburb. The neighborhood was primarily African-American when we moved.
Inherited privileged real estate wealth? I still own the land on which our house stood. It is assessed at a value of $102 dollars.
Our family members have moved from the bottom 20% to the top 10% in terms of earnings.
How was this done? I paid for my undergrad with the GI Bill that I earned after serving a tour with the Army in Vietnam.
There are a lot of folks who have similar experiences but you wont't read about them much on the OP-ED pages of the NYT.
An open dialog about race is needed however many liberals and progressives who scream "White flight!" won't like hearing about some of the experiences working class folks had.
And there's no dog whistle to it.
Now get back to hammering on flyover country.
30
How can we conclude that Americans are divided by their views on race and not race itself, when views on race are rooted in perceptions of race itself? Can we say we are divided in our views about rain but not rain itself? Or, we are divided by our views on horseback riding but not on riding a horse itself? The one is inextricably linked to the other. Only by positing some kind of false consciousness or a divorce between how one thinks about a fact and the fact itself. One can't have thoughts about the fact itself without it being a thought about the fact. One cannot opine about race without having a thought about race. The mind can't divorce itself from what it thinks when it perceives something. A perception of a feeling is a thought about the feeling. Inextricably linked. Perhaps I can have thoughts without a feeling, but I certainly can't have a feeling without a thought. Knowing the feeling is the thought. Perhaps someone with a more detailed theory of mind can elucidate what to me looks like an unsolvable logical conundrum.
@CCForbes
Of course we can!
Rain - people in a wet area, and people in a desert area would be an example of people with different experiences of rain - but if both see it as a good thing, then our perception of rain is the same. If one group sees it as a wonderful thing, and the other welcomes global warming to dry up, then they have different perceptions of rain.
3
Putting one's hope in political elites to solve issues of racial strife, when they become the political elite through stoking racial differences and reinforcing tribalism, seems a fool's hope.
1
My approach is to live and let live. Here in Las Vegas we got "locals" (non tourists) that are pretty much from all over. No really cares about anybody as we are so busy doing things. This city has a huge number of gay and lesbian and everything in between and trust me nobody cares about it. Why can't people live together in harmony?
1
My European immigrant grandmother used to say of non white people that “we share the same sickness—lack of money!”
2
Jenine Pirro seems to have been suspended from Fox News for her attacks on Rep. Ilhan Omar, calling her wearing of the hijab "against the American Constitution."
Trump sent out tweet after tweet defending Pirro. His tweets defending her bigoted (and inaccurate) remarks far exceeded his tweets on the heinous attacks on the mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Is it any wonder his "base" takes his stance as a gigantic dog whistle legitimizing race and bigotry?
2
Difficult to read and even harder to understand. Any observer would agree that discrimination against minorities in the US has decreased for the last couple of centuries. It is also easy to confirm that views on race span all the way from white (or other) supremacy to full equality. If you accept this two realities I would simply conclude that it is good that there is less discrimination nowadays, however, we should very concerned of the fact that minorities which favor discrimination can find open doors to impose their prejudice!
2
Mr. Kaufman makes the usual semantic error, in my opinion, when he uses the term "race" to aggregate people by ethnic background and markings. This concept of race is based on a false conception of biology proposed in the nineteenth century and has the unfortunate and natural consequence of conflation with the biologic conception of race.
Our thoughts are formed in language and when the language misinforms, the outcome is misunderstanding. There is one biologic race, the human race. There is no such thing as a white race, latino race, black race, asian race. It is unfortunate that ethnic groups get labeled in such a mis-informative way.
It is desirable that we view each other as the same in the biologic sphere, but marked in a spectrum: different superficial characteristics, but most fundamentally the same. We all are members of the human race, period.
5
I continue to be baffled as to why the term “race” is still used by, of all people’s, academics and journalists!
3
"Race pertains to communities defined by ancestry and physical appearance. Racial ideology turns instead on race as a political idea. Questions like “Should Northam resign?” or “Is the wall racist?” divide voters today by ideology far more than race. “White” is a description of a person’s race, whereas feelings about whether whites are privileged or whether diversity makes the country stronger are part of a person’s racial ideology."
Totally convoluted premise!
Identifying as white or black is just that !
Ideology may or may not be based on race.
This messed up tautology or whatever it is -maybe just poor writing - Does not contribute intelligently to the debate.
Who is racist and why?
Here in the Peoples Republic of San Francisco :-)
Every Friday a group of us get together for lunch at a place and are served by ex drug addicts, alcoholics, and gang bangers are trying turn their lives around.
At the table is a Greek, a Jew, a Chinaman, a Russian, and a Mexican. Three first generation and one second generation and one third generation. The Mexican-Irish has the longest roots in California going back almost 100 years.
We talk about everything. The main theme that comes out of our economic-political arguments is this:
America is moving away from the "melting pot" to a balkanized country. This is not good.
The folks at this table think that Multi-Ethnic is good. The folks at this table think Multi-Cultural is bad.
We all agree that most of our fellow American's on the left and the right don't get that. Until they do, we will continue to split apart.
7
Thank you for giving me better words to guide my thinking. But how much falls under the culture category? Is a hijab a sign of culture? It would seem so.
PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts that almost 40% of US jobs could be taken by robots by 2030. As more people are replaced by machines, work hours must be reduced to maintain full employment. This reduction in work hours will eventually have to result in guaranteed incomes for Americans to remove them from the workforce. The living standards of our progeny will be diminished by the progeny of any future immigrants.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/technology/automation-davos-world-economic-forum.html
There are millions of Americans who lack a high school diploma and compete with immigrants for low-level jobs. Employers prefer to hire immigrants because it makes them more money. A few dollars a day less for each worker means thousands of dollars a year in extra income for the owners; a good incentive to skirt the law.
Businesses do not hire immigrants because citizens are not available; businesses hire immigrants because there are few American citizens who are willing to work under the slave-labor conditions which provide the greatest rewards for the owners.
We should try to help as many of our fellow human beings as we can. We should send foreign aid to help them fight crime, poverty and drought in their home countries. We cannot solve the world's problems by admitting everyone to the U.S.
8
@Allen
And concern for our jobs and our people isn't racist - unless you have a problem with brown immigrants but not white ones. As this survey shows, minorities know what happens when there are a bunch of immigrants - the people on the bottom lose out.
1
This article is poorly written so its thesis is obscure except apparently to say whites aren't prejudiced. I don't agree in my black experience. And nothing in the article is clear enough to prove anything one way or the other.
2
It's patronizing for White liberals to assume they know what's best for minorities. Why should White people claim certain outlooks or behaviors are racist if minorities don't think they are? White people should maybe take a step back and let minorities take the lead in dealing with racism in society. It's not for Whites to decide what or who is racist.
6
White people need to take a step back and listen to people of color. There isn’t enough asking or listening going on.
3
This is merely more white lying and a distinction without a difference. Black people have been catching hell in American for 400 years (Malcolm says) and still do today. Racist institutions continue to maintain two Americas, with the black one maintained in a state of low or no wealth and millions of black people in prison on flimsy charges. This is a racist smokescreen; another white man telling how race is not a problem in America. Of course race in America is not a problem, for him. He's white!
2
Liberal whites — not minorities — are setting the tone on these issues.
To paraphrase Liberal whites and NYT - "The Cleveland Indian Mascot is Racist! Don't even use the word Indian! Caricatured and cartooned Patriots, Vikings and Leprechauns are all o.k. - but no Indians".
To paraphrase American Indians (by polling numbers) "Eh, we don't really care and kind of like the Mascot".
10
Nonsense and baloney. The USA is racially divided. Period.
1
As an example of white racial ideology shaping our racial division talk, read David Leonhardt’s ideological and factually baseless column today(Mar. 18): “It isn’t complicated: Trump encourages Violence” of white supremacists. There’s absolutely no evidence for that view, and he has no polls showing that most African Americans believe it.
3
The political polarization in the United States, in terms of racial ideology, reflects the current battle being waged for the soul of the white tribe in America. White patriarchy and privilege have been outed. Progressives have begun internalizing white culpability as their birthright and are manifesting this guilt by in outrage over racists while trying to wash clean the stain of white privilege. ("Out, damned spot! Out, I say"). Trumpists have begun internalizing the fact that demographics will eventually end white majority political power and use outrage and fear to prevent this. The extreme polarization is mostly between whites screaming at each other as they come to grips with the political re-ordering of the white supremacist system the nation's democracy was based in. If all these neurotic whites work this out, perhaps the country may get beyond identity politics and focus on the the economic inequality, fear and despair that all these racial ideologies prey upon in their quests for political hegemony.
I maybe one of the few who has read Kaufman's Whiteshift but no thoughts from wsmrer today it appears.
More liberal whites think whites are inherently racist than blacks think whites are inherently racist. Of course, fewer white conservatives think whites are inherently racist than blacks do. One could conclude that white conservatives just disguise their inherent racism. I disagree.
We have seen, really since the start of the Obama administration, an upsurge of reported racist incidents, ranging from the trivial, Megyn Kelly talking about blackface, to horrific, the murder of black churchgoers in South Carolina. Once a month, it seems. White progressives are convinced that whites are clearly racist, conscious or unconscious. They want to cleanse themselves and so believe the narrative. Black leadership (NAACP) is not ready to give up on racial politics and victimology, and so doesn't brush off Kelly's remarks as unimportant. We seem to be in a maelstrom of racial conflict, but so much of this is generated and reinforced by the media - telling us day by day how racist we are. I believe ordinary interactions between blacks and whites are enormously varied, some friendly and some hostile - like normal human behavior, but are not nearly as racially charged as projected. My best evidence is that after the Governor Northam blackface incident, all the major Democratic candidates called for his resignation, yet 56% of black Virginians thought he should stay.
6
It's a little late but it's progress. Just because you like your form of racism and you can tell yourself it's for the right reasons, it's still racism. Most of the time you hurt the people your supposedly helping and it's not your place to "help".
It's still useful politically though, so I know we'll here about privlage and equality of outcomes at least until 2021 or until mass violence is incited.
You can't rely on poll responses to get people's true feelings. White racists are conditioned by this time to deny actual racist belief and to claim that their attitude is based on some sort of egalitarian ideology. Kaufman is a sucker to believe such poll results. White supremacy is a long-standing tradition in the South, in particular. Sixty years ago the idea of real equality for non-whites was not even paid lip service outside of a federal courtroom. This racist attitude was partly based on the fear of what blacks might do to whites if they ever got real control. The success, not just of Trump but of the previous racist campaign against Obama, shows how the more traditional attitudes can be brought back to the surface.
3
One of the most evil men in American history, George Wallace, died surrounded by Black people. They saw to his every need. Of course he paid them, but there appeared to be affection between them.
I have no doubt that George Wallace went to his grave as much of a racist as he was in his heydey. He probably thought that the Black men and women were 'very fine people' but he didn't regret what he had done in the name of White supremacy.
The 'some of my best friends are...' is a great cover for racists and bigots of all kinds but if it doesn't translate into policy and REAL change, what good is it?
There is reason to believe that neither the polling by The Washington Post nor the personal “survey” by Professor Eric Kauffmann in London provide a fully accurate picture of racial attitudes in America.
Upper class or upper middle-class white liberals in America interact with white conservatives of the corresponding economic classes far more often that do black Americans. The white liberals are very aware of the private racial prejudices of affluent white conservatives.
That means that white liberals may be more aware of the hypocritic dichotomy between what white conservatives say publicly and what they say privately on the subject of race. White liberals are also familiar with the subtle ways by which white conservatives, who are their economic peers, join in actions detrimental to people of color.
None of this inside information, of course, tells black Americans anything which they do not already know or assume.
One could understand if black Americans were more publicly tolerant of white bigotry against them than are white liberals, who speak out freely about such racial injustice without fear of retribution. That does not, however, reflect the reality of how modern black men and women behave or what they believe.
Answering pollsters’ questions cautiously does not prove otherwise.
Any suggestion by Eric Kauffmann of an acceptance by people of color of being relegated to second-class citizenship insults them and cheapens the entire civil rights movement.
2
The reason so many Whites want Northam to resign is that he is a democrat, and if he and the Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General all resign, Virginia will have a Republican governor. I don't think they particularly care what he did.
2
All those scientific charts, all that analysis, all that writing.
Not one Democratic nominee for president has won the white vote since LBJ's signing of The Civil Rights Act. Uh - Duh?
3
As a European I am amazed that race is still considered in the U.S. and especially in a liberal newspaper like the NYT as a natural fact. How can you even distinguish "race" from the ideology around it? Race is ideological at its very core. Not sure how we could overcame racism if even a liberal newspaper leaves the concept of race untouched.
5
"I asked Americans whether President Trump’s wall is racist. White Democrats overwhelmingly said it was, virtually no Republicans did — and minorities placed in the middle."
How can a wall on a national border be considered racist? It is an inanimate object. There are many reasons to be against the wall including it's waste of money and it does not address the problem of illegal immigration.
There may be some people who are for the wall because they are racist but their are certainly far, far more people in this country who believe that you must be racist if you are for the wall.
2
Call me dumb but this piece confused me. It felt too academic and intellectual and not reflective of people’s lived experience of race and racism. Also part of my inabilty to grasp this piece may be that I am not American. I have not lived in your society with your history of slavery and your long road towards civil rights. I have wondered if America would benefit from going through a truth and reconciliation process like South Africa did? Just curious if the society is ready, willing or able to come to terms with its past and its impacts on the present in order to have a better, more equal, future for all of its citizens.
1
Racist is a word that supports the idea of racism ... if there is more than one human race ... then what is the definition race ... is it the color of one's skin, the size of one's nose, the slant of oner's eyes, or some other physical characteristic ... or a combination factors ...
2
Maybe progressive whites now see minorities more positively than whites generally for a good reason:
White people elected a white nationalist wannabe authoritarian.
2
We are too obsessed with Trump. There are leaders of other western nations, who are relatively “hitler-ish” as compared to trump or his policies. Trump just exposed the underbelly of this country which includes a fake and desperate media.
1
Race and identity have been weaponized by powerful white liberals as a means of securing power. It’s not leading to better race relations. It’s not leading to better conditions for the minorities these white liberals claim to represent. It’s not changing hearts and minds on the right. It is shaping leftist politics, destroying careers and empowering some white liberals over other white liberals. And, it could prevent Democrats from retaking the White House.
3
"white liberals are warmer toward minorities than their own racial group."
Absolutely, I've seen that this is a sadly widespread phenomenon. The self-loathing white liberal attacks white society (and often attacks the notion of a white identity itself by placing "white" in quotation marks - though they'd never do this to any other group) as a means of virtue-signaling.
5
“Liberal whites — not minorities — are setting the tone on these issues.”
Numbers do not equal “setting the tone”. Yes, white liberals have become more aware of race issues in the last few years because of things like, oh let’s see, multiple videos showing black people being shot by cops (validating years of what was said but not proven), nazis marching in our cities with supportive comments from our so-called president, and studies showing that resumes with black-sounding names get fewer interviews. All these things led more white liberals to (finally) listen to the concerns of black thinkers like Ta-Nehisi Coates. Coates and other black writers are the leaders here. Some whites are just listening. Not setting the tone.
Plus, I echo the concerns of other commenters here that this writer makes a lot of leaps in interpreting the data. For example, perhaps black voters are less likely to say Northram should resign because they understand the alternative could be worse or because it’s less shocking when you are already aware of the how widespread racist behavior is, while white liberals are still often shocked.
I’m hopeful, but not for any of the reasons stated here. I think it is a giant leap forward that so many whites are finally listening so some of the rest of us feel a tiny bit heard.
2
@Alice. Yes, and thank you. I’m surprised this wasn’t selected as a NYT Pick.
2
@Alice Or maybe it's just yet another example of white appropriation.
This piece supports the view that white liberals are less racist than people or colour.
And that's because racism actually isn't something that is taught. It's something that has to be unlearned.
Yeah and 100% of human persons who believe that "x=x" believe that "x=x" - regardless of whether they are "white", vote Democrat, typically eat a cooked breakfast or root for the Cowboys. Fascinating.
“The country is not divided by racial conflict, but by conflict over racial ideology”. Are you saying Blacks and Whites have opposing world views, but otherwise tend to agree?
Shifting gears: IMO, there are two primary reasons Trump won the electoral college in 2016. First, Trump made many promises WRT immigration, taxes, trade, infrastructure, healthcare and appointing conservative judges. Although there was almost no description and certainly no plan for achieving change, Trump said he’d engage and change things… and the electorate voted accordingly.
Second, Clinton went down the path of identity politics, heralding she would be first female president, and right long time injustices. Clinton had plans to address taxes, trade, infrastructure, and healthcare… but the message seemed to focus more on groups of Americans more than America as a whole. Clinton’s message was not uplifting. As a result, many voters felt left out… and Clinton lost.
The state of racism may be better than in the 1950’s but in both North and South, discrimination continues. To all Americans I say we cannot afford this internal division and strife. It’s in everyone’s best interest to engage all Americans so our country can continue to be competitive and provide leadership in a shrinking and more competitive planet.
I hope the Democrats and Democratic 2020 candidates get on track, treading lightly on ideology while proposing policy that will make all Americans valued citizens.
In my experience, with my extended family, the individuals with little contact with minorities, foreigners, immigrants, are ones that have "racial bias". Based, I would say on their lack of knowledge of "others" and a cultivated, undifferentiated sense of fear.
The relatives that do live in daily contact with a mix of racial and diverse cultural backgrounds, seem to have no issues with welcoming people that "aren't like them". One reason I love living in the San Francisco Bay is the feeling of being somewhat "unique" as a classic caucasian of northern European heritage.
2
The statistics in this article have a problem.
It's fine they're based on ideology. But they don't tell you what percent of the population people are. One called "Seeing More Racism" looks like it does. Look closely. The percentages add up to 135.
Also, these statistics fudge the details. White Democrats are 18% more likely than minority Democrats to "want increased immigration." But the issue is really about limiting immigration. Perhaps the difference isn't so great on that.
Only 9% of white Republicans want increased immigration. But what percent want to restrict it? And how much of the country do they make up? 15% or 30%?
Numerous comments suggest people are angry with progressive Democrats for ... excess concern about race? That's not going to bring the country down. Worry about the fact that a far bigger slice of conservatives thinks racism is a myth. That's dangerous.
1
Y’all need to read the Fields sisters’ “Racecraft.” A fantastic explication deconstructing race (which is a fiction) as an ideology that perpetuates racism (which IS real).
Only once we abolish the concept of “race” will we move forward.
2
There are advantages to living in a small(2700) town-county seat-in the middle of rural Illinois. Everyone knows everyone else. There are wealthy people and there are poor people but they often live side by side as all neighborhoods have mixed housing. There are some Black people and the mayor is a Hispanic who moved here from California. There is only one high school where all economic classes and races must attend. So diversity is not an issue as it comes naturally and not by some liberal mandate.
1
@Aaron Adams So you seem to support diversity, as long it isn't mandated by some "liberal." Do you oppose segregation mandated by some "conservative" with equal vigor. I live in one of the most segregated metropolitan areas in the country created by a rigorous legal, and extra-legal system of segregation that started at least 100 years ago when blacks began to move here for jobs in the automobile industry. Thus began "black only"and "white only" neighborhoods enforced by the Detroit Police Department, deed restrictions, red-lining, and literal walls to separate black streets from white streets. Trying to pretend that didn't happen is impossible. We in Detroit deal with it every, single day.
3
I admit that the distinction between "racist" and "racially self-interested" is too subtle for me. I can't think of a single policy position that I would characterize as "racially self-interested, but not racist."
I think that poll merely shows that most people don't want to describe themselves as racist.
2
@Robert Stadler
One easy way to see such a distinction in to consider these labels for African Americans, instead of for white Americans.
Is it hard to see some African Americans as "racially self interested", even if many would say that it is not possible for them to be "racist"?
3
The tribe of American political conservatives is the Republican Party. Since 1968, if not earlier, it has consistently played upon this country's racial divisions by stirring up white fears of and animus toward black Americans for one reason: the GOP sees it as the key to achieving and maintaining political power in the South and states with substantial majorities of white voters. Democrats naturally provide a political alternative to black Americans, albeit one that has frequently been anemic and disappointing in terms of advancing or protecting the interests of black Americans. In short, white Dems need and love the votes of black Americans just as much as white Republicans don't need and love to suppress those votes.
The hope that American political elites can or will one day heal the country’s divisions is pure poppycock. As much as I'd love for that to occur, it would require those elites to forego the ideological and racial basis of their own source of political power. People just don't go against their own self-interest, or if they do it's so rare as to be an anomaly. And this is especially true with "political elites", who do not generally achieve that status by ignoring or denying his or his party's self-interest.
The only genuine hope for ending the racial divisions in the USA is through education. But not the lies we were taught by schools and too many parents. But the true, unvarnished and often unpleasant history of the USA and slavery and its aftermath.
There were enough Black Trump voters to make the responses valid for that category? That's the most shocking part of this piece.
1
Not sure this article's conclusion is really supported by its data. Wanting to keep out brown people to maintain a white majority isn't just a matter of "racial ideology." If that is just "racial ideology" you could also say Jim Crow was not a matter of racism but just racial ideology. Or that red-lining to keep neighborhoods white was just "racial ideology."
Also, there's a 11% gap among white Trump voters in terms of favoring their own racial group. About 15% of white Trump voters are therefore openly admitting on surveys that they don't like black people.
I get that the author wants to be optimistic...but I don't think this data is nearly as optimistic as he's portraying it.
The article could be improved by including sex in the data. Feminism, with its permissive extremes and trend toward misandry, has divided the country and politics far more than race.
2
Very insightful, thank you. You have clarified, with data, trends that we have been seeing in the country, but not really understanding. The term "racism" is so easily and clumsily used now, fostering confusion, and some anger and resentment at those feeling they are unfairly be called racists. It is a broad and complicated subject, not easily solved or improved, but this type of research helps.
1
The last poll points to the crux of the ethical question: what is the line that separates bigotry self-interest?
By the way, the best way forward is for media to stop using the word “race.” It doesn’t mean anything and reinforces sloppy categories. There is skin color, country of origin and physical features. All separate, but overlapping categories.
1
I strongly doubt that voters have enough, if any, empirical information to have an informed opinion, such as should immigration be increased. Good analytical studies in use by the Democratic Party should be of concern. As David frumm says, if the Dems do not embrace an analysis, the facist will own the narrative...as they do now. The Dems are already painted into a corner as being characterized in favor of open borders. If this continues they will certainly fail to win the presidential election.
1
Lots of academic fog here. The fact that highly educated white liberals see racial parity issues in a totally different perspective than poorly educated white conservatives. Trump's base feel they are being discriminated against and are themselves as losers in a more equitable society. White Evangelical Christians claim the same discrimination (let alone race but can non-Evangelicals and non-Christians be favored by God?). When you feel most people of your race, background or nationality dont agree with your viewpoint you feel that you are marginalized. The GOP has used this division for the last 30+ years to stay in power. America's electoral systems permit rule by a minority, not majority rule,
1
Confirms what I have suspected for decades - our "progressives" use race as a political weapon to divide us.
2
It’s absurd to say Americans aren’t divided by “racial conflict” when every day brings another report of homegrown terror plots involving white nationalists, federal laws that disenfranchise communities of color, police violence against minorities, random hate crimes, economic disparities, etc. Is Kaufmann oblivious to all of this, or does he simply considering anything short of civil war to be “not divided”?
"Minorities again rank in between on many of these measures. When it comes to “microaggression” statements such as “America is a colorblind society” or “You are so articulate,” few blacks and Hispanics find these offensive while more liberal whites do."
I think this is very important. I've noticed a certain paternalism among liberals when it comes to declaring things offensive for other people, as if they aren't smart enough to detect the true racism. A competition to be more 'woke' than thou, a semi-religious, "we are all sinners!!!!" setting the bar so high that no one can reach it.
I'm a Democrat, but I think this is an area where we are losing our way. When white people (or ANY people) try to insist something is offensive - such as the microagression comments - instead of the people supposedly being offended or oppressed - that's not right. I always think of that high school girl who wore a Chinese traditional dress to prom, and got all kinds of flack online for cultural appropriation - and was defended by a ton of people from China, who thought it looked beautiful and that it was nice to see people appreciating their culture and it's beauty.
This type of overanalysis of every word feeds racism, it doesn't reduce it.
8
Suggest that this is a good day to take a plate full of warm cookies to a neighbor whom you haven't met, yet.
1
In the past few days, Millennial men have shot and killed innocent human beings at prayer in mosques in NZ and on trams in the Netherlands. There is no reason for optimism in America which our nationalistic president has divided between racists and non-racists. His base is racist and responds to his wolf-whistle Tweets. Mr. Kaufmann, professor of politics at University of London, is concerned with the future of white majorities. There won't be white majorities in America after the geneologically colourful melting pot of our democracy becomes a sine qua non.
Here’s a crazy idea. Stop bombarding us with all the measurables about how people perceive differences (or other garbage stats). The media does far more harm than good by constantly race-baiting viewers and readers. It does two things : one introduces biases to people that may have none , two sows the seeds by associated “facts” based on essentially racist nomenclature. At least races can agree the media is the enemy.
2
I believe what the author said here is true. AND we are racially divided, AND white supremacists are becoming emboldened. It's a "yes, and.." thing. In other words: yes, white liberals are probably forming their own cultural viewpoint around racial minorities in their own echo chamber of guilt, and feeding off each other to be more "woke" than the next guy. And I'd guess that many of those white liberal viewpoints do not actually parallel the views of many people of color. But that doesn't mean that racism doesn't exist.
1
For anyone who disagrees with “the notion” that “racial discrimination continues to hold minorities back”, I request that you read Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow. The data, the history and the facts presented therein should be of interest to all of us.
1
Maybe one of these days we will be able to read an article explaining once and for all that "hispanic" is not a race! Until then all these arguments do not make any sense to me.
3
On the most basic level, one of the most difficult elements in beginning any conversation on race is that most people can't agree on a definition for racism, racial bias or racial discrimination-- and prefer to assume that whoever they are communicating with them should share whatever definition of those terms that they prefer (even though many people balk if you ask them to define of those terms).
Thank you for this most excellent analysis.
I had a visitor from Australia not long ago who expected whites and non-whites to be fighting in the streets like Sharks and Jets, given the hyper-focus on racism in the US press and media. He was shocked to see people of all colors, nationalities, etc. rubbing shoulders together in public and getting along just fine.
I explained that there is far less personal animus towards a different racial/ethnic groups in America. The fight is over the politics surrounding the issue, our utterly dysfunctional "conversation about race."
I explained that much of it is due to white liberals falling all over themselves to prove they are the Good Guys by demonizing every other white person who doesn't salute the latest progressive orthodoxy sent up the flag pole. I explained that our cretinous president tapped anger at this, not at "other people" per se, and ran with it.
114
@Livonian - I am one of those post-grade, liberal white people. I agree with you 100%.
12
@John Bloe
Make that another, too. STEM post-grad here, though not really white. Voted Clinton, though not enthusiastically. Liv up top here has got it 100%
Progressiveness is like a religion for some people, and there is a constant struggle to outdo one another in their professions of piety. It is so deeply enmeshed in their identities and online communities, they're like anti-vaxxers each trying to prove they're more anti-vax than the one who just spoke.
21
@Livonian
Absolutely right. The 'more woke than thee' and other virtue signalling, paternalistic ideas of setting everything up to cast every white person as racist - it's a part of creating a divide, it's not making things better.
24
I see several comments saying, essentially, "class/economic issue, not race". The reason that economic inequality IS an issue at all is because race-based systems were created, purposefully, to ensure people of color lived in permanent poverty. We enslaved people of color to build the wealth of whites, then passed laws so they couldn't catch up--so that only white families had the opportunity to build and pass on wealth.
I feel like not enough white people understand this, even today in 2019. I wish our schools focused more on the roots of inequality and oppression. Is it any wonder so many in our society lack empathy?
2
Progressives would have us believe that solving racial disparities will naturally occur with adoption of European style “socialism”. This however has not proven accurate. European nations also struggle with racial equality, policing, etc.
3
I don't think it is as simply explained as this essay reads. And a statistical sample does not tell the whole story. Statistics and demographics can be skewed. Are those involved being honest, saying what may sound politically correct but not being entirely truthful? Are enough individuals partaking, and how many from what regions and communities? Whether it is race or ethnicity, prejudice and discrimination has been with us as long as there has been recorded history. The basis is fear and mistrust of the "other." It leads to ostracizing, unfair treatment re all aspects of life, and even violence, as we witness almost daily. Am I optimistic? People will not change what is in their DNA. But I do remain hopeful. And it goes back to education, education, education. That and the crucial importance of just and ethical leadership in our nation. We do not have that now, far from it. Racial intolerance in one form or another is daily exacerbated by a very flawed Trumpian administration. That can change.
2
In Minnesota, views are not about race, as much as they are about the descent of the younger generation over the last 50 years, that has seen mostly females without the father in the home. The makeup of the board of our county, Cottonwood, voted for more generous welfare benefits There would be females moving into the county with 4, 5, or 6 children, who all needed many services from juvenile stays, mental health stays, boys ranches, etc. that the school district they were living in, was required to pay for, and which whatever school district these children were in was require to pay for the costs, which could reach $200.000. These were all white females. So, it was pretty obvious that these females were milking the system. So, the idea of a flawed system that encourages this behavior, which it actually did, as if you got pregnant at 16, you could set up your own household, with government support, rather than remain in your home, and have your family assume financial responsibility, should be up for serious discussion. If single females couldn't receive financial support until after the age of 25, it would put a dent in the billions of dollars that the state of Minnesota has to spend. My husband observed this in action, as a teacher. In the Hispanic culture, females, used to quit school when they got pregnant, because of both religious, and family pressure to do so. Later on, they began to set up single households just like their white females counterparts.
4
Major Democratic candidates including Harris, Booker, and Elizabeth Warren are now on record as favoring reparations. It seems to me that no Democrat can repudiate this and still gain the nomination.
This will be the issue the 2020 Presidential campaign will be fought over. Instead of telling us what we already know, that well-off, college educated white liberals and progressives are driving the whole race divide, out of their induced guilt, tell us how voters in the former United States are going to divide on this issue of reparations. That should be an easy survey to make. This academic study looks like obfuscation.
2
So apparently "Americans Are Divided By Their Views on Race, Not Race Itself." That's one way to put it, I suppose. The author starts by establishing a concept of racial ideology and makes a number of logical jumps, with data to support each argument. However, I would argue that this article and all of the data it contains can be attributed to another issue: Americans don't have an agreed upon meaning of the word "racism."
When asking Americans "is the wall racist" there needs to be a clear definition of what "racist" means. I recently finished listening to the audiobook of the book "White Fragility: Why it's so hard for white people to talk about racism" by Robin DiAngelo. DiAngelo points out that racism is usually considered an intentional ill will toward a person of another race, or an act of such ill will. She brings to light one of the problems we (Americans) have when talking about racism - that seeing racism as a dichotomy (is he or isn't he) instead of a spectrum makes talking about racism nearly impossible. As she writes and as others have pointed out, we live in a society where begin called racist is more offensive than racism itself.
So, "Americans Are Divided By Their Views on Race, Not Race Itself." I agree - Americans are divided on their definitions of race and racism, and therefore the data from these surveys cannot be interpreted, and no conclusions can be drawn. We need to first have a discussion on institutional racism and bias.
3
It might be that race is not the critical factor in the formation of racial ideology. I'd love to see all the data analyzed by education level only as well. In the last two charts, at least, attitudes correspond pretty closely to education.
3
America's problem is that many, if not most, Americans no longer think of themselves primarily as Americans. We are all hyphenated Americans of one sort or another. Unfortunately, across the political spectrum we now tend to take as our primary identity the adjective before the hyphen, whether it is Black, "pro-life", LGBTQ, 2nd Amendment, Hispanic, woman, or whatever.
During the Viet Nam War, when our country was substantially more divided than it is now, we all considered ourselves American, and when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the moon, every hyphenated American was proud to be American.
Kaufman's article is important because it points us in a direction which, eventually, will allow us to regain the sense of being American. It is that collective affirmation which is the reason so many people want to immigrate here. As well, a return to the sense of common purpose and destiny is precisely what it will take to make meaningful progress for the advancement of all us hyphens.
Yesterday Nicholas Kristof wrote a lovely piece about the chess accomplishments of Tani, an 8-year old Nigerian immigrant living in a homeless shelter. I believe a comment I made to that is appropriate here: One thing to keep in mind in the middle of all the national bitterness, trash talking from top to bottom, and bad-mouthing of America...by Americans is the final sentence of the piece, a strong statement spoken by Tani's dad from a homeless shelter: “The U.S. is a dream country....”
5
You can say the same thing about the Civil War: it was white men's war about the idea of slavery, not a fight between slaves and slave holders. This idea that ideological disagreement is somehow easier to solve just baffles me. If anything, ideology is a much more intractable problem. Just look at what religions have done in human history.
Now, let's go back to that pesky Civil War again. Should Lincoln and abolitionists have sat together with slave owners and compromised on their view that slavery was a sin, just for the sake of unity? Where would we be now if they have?
You can compromise how to go about solving the problem, like Lincoln did at the beginning. But you don't compromise your view of the problem without convincing reason. And the bits like comparing African American predicament to Italian experience or separating racism from racial self-interest (which, btw, is like calling slavery a racial self-interest) just proves the lack of racial understanding of "the other side" and possibly the author himself.
3
@TK Sung
Whole regiments of mostly runaway slaves and free people of color fought for the Union.
2
We will never know what people truly think about Ralph Northam because Virginia governors can serve only one term. I am skeptical of the poll results reporting that the majority of blacks want him to remain in office. The sample sizes are far too small and the polls were all conducted by phone leaving the questioner with no means of verifying a respondent’s race when race is a critical factor of the poll.
The opinions of 706 people, and a separate poll of 63 “black” people are simply not representative of the nearly 9 million residents of Virginia, approx 2 million of whom are black.
After the polling for the 2016 election proved to be false and the skeptical (to me) poll results in Virginia, I no longer believe any poll. People’s actions show what they actually believe.
1
The first graph and take-away under the heading "Seeing More Racism" is nonsensical--
because this question is deeply flawed:"Percentage who disagreed with this statement: 'Irish, Italians, Jewish and many other minorities overcame their prejudice and worked their way up. Blacks should do the same without special favors.'
I'm a liberal white guy, and I don't understand what the author of this entire sentence -- the question and the opinion-based phrases that I'm being asked to evaluate -- is asking me. And I bet I'm not the only person, among respondents in the study and readers of this article, who is hopelessly confused.
What if I AGREE that Irish, Italians, Jewish and many other minorities overcame their prejudice and worked their way up -- because they were not historically burdened by certain types of institutional racism and implicit biases that, on average, and over LOTS of time, affect brown and black folk more perniciously, on average and in comparison to certain other disenfranchised (mostly white) sub-groups?
And what if I agree that blacks should do the same, BUT that they need, in certain contexts, as proscribed by existing laws in particular contexts, like college admissions (i.e., race may be considered in concert with a host of other non-race factors) special consideration? So do I agree or disagree with the compound opinion statements? This question mixes up complex issues, and thus it is impossible to draw any conclusions as to how a person answers.
2
@Mark F That question is from the Symbolic Racism Scale 2000, which is an extremely peculiar instrument for many reasons, but it HAS been validated. It predicts behaviors that should be predicted by subtly racist behaviors.
Of course, this in no way suggests that isolating a single item from that scale is meaningful, valid, or appropriate. In fact, it's a very strange thing to do, to the point that I suspect that scores on the rest of the scale do not support the author's main opinion.
It seems very odd to me that an essay using data and making inferences about the ideology of masses of people concludes in this way:
"This raises the hope that American political elites can one day heal the country’s divisions."
Calling on 'political elites' to heal the ideological divisions among the masses? Good luck with that.
3
I think that racial ideology and racial attitudes are orthogonal: One can be a Progressive and still harbor damaging racial stereotypes.
I know from experience. I've seen my own racial prejudices, despite my Liberal bona fides.
But setting aside the problems of studies like these, I think the data suggest a disconnect between our myriad racial ideologies and the singular (and, I hope, shared) goal of creating a just and fair society. This is good. Too often I find myself in complete agreement with the goals of Liberalism, but absolutely opposed to the methods of achieving them. And it's gotten to the point where the mere questioning of the method is equated with opposing the goal. Nothing constructive comes from such ideological rigidity.
Our racial history is fraught, its legacies, profound. Liberalism can claim only limited success in dealing with these matters. A little humility and a lot of intellectual honesty would go a long way to reaching commonly shared goals.
8
Average independent Americans are not at all divided by their views on race or on race itself. Just travel around the country and watch Americans of all races work shoulder to shoulder in harmony in all walks of life. Yes many Americans are divided after the outcome of the 2016 presidential elections but that only results in heated debates but no violence or hatred. It is the social media and the press that are instigating the disruption of the harmony and peace that exists in the country.
The proof is in the pudding. There is overall less violence in the world in the past 2 years than the preceding 100 years when world war I ended and was declared as the war to end all wars. There is now optimism that there America's longest war will end and thousands of US troops deployed in dozens of countries will safely return homes to their families. We are in the best of times and whether views on race divide us or not is trivial compared to everyone being able to realize their dreams of peace and prosperity for all.
7
What I find interesting is those graphs. Look at the second and third graph that breaks attitudes down by Presidency. Those graphs point to a huge impact of Obama's 8 years in office. During those years the number of white people who are reporting an awareness, an "I get it", attitude toward race increases quite a bit. Also, blacks increasingly seem to be saying that their experiences of race are validated. Those trends indicate that the more we can integrate our communities and select leaders of color, the more we might ease racial discord, tension, and misunderstandings.
8
I believe the main factor that determines people's attitudes towards immigrants is Assimilation. Immigrants who are educated and secular tend to be more progressive and assimilate into the main culture. Those less educated and religious tend to form pockets of their home cultures inside the dominant culture. These pockets when they become large and take over or threaten to take over the community start to create anxiety among the main culture. The community reacts by methods which are then considered racist. People from third world countries have a "foreign" culture and their birth rates are also higher. They need to change their ways, learn the language and assimilate into the dominant culture, in a word, adapt. With this assimilation will come an appreciation from the dominant culture for the unique cultural ethos that immigrants bring that make the society stronger and more creative. With resentment, on the other hand, all the good the foreign culture brings will be rejected.
Muslims are unique in that they are largely religious and obviously so with their religious clothing and conspicuous mosques. Their birth rates are higher and they speak a foreign language. They need to be more conscious of assimilating lest their presence makes the dominant culture insecure.
10
Yes, there is a social contract that relies on immigrants to integrate themselves. The line between valuing their heritage and embracing their new home requires skill, but it starts with accepting the norms of dress and physical appearance. Appearance has underlying meaning.
5
@SP This was a lot to unpack. From the bottom up - you can't stereotype all Muslims this way. It's completely flawed logic. Islam is an extremely diverse religion with people from any number of ethnic cultures. There are probably as many people (if not more) who don't cover their hair and grow long beards as there are who do. Every Muslim is not deeply religious. I know tons of Muslims who never go to mosque (sounds a lot like many modern Christians and church, right?) Put differently, yes, you can tell the religion of some people by looking, but there are tons of people you cannot tell are Muslim just by appearances. Same goes for Jewish people - yes, it's easy to identify the ultra-orthodox folks by how they dress, but that isn't all Jewish people.
As to the "foreign" culture - what is American culture to you? Assimilation is far more complicated than you make it out to be; I would venture to say that particularly in poorer communities, people will do what is safe for them. Immigrating from one's homeland is no easy task.
Lastly, without any sort of data to back me up, I would think more people learn English to live here than not. Any being multilingual is not a bad thing.
2
@Effen I think you are making my point, actually. You mention the many that do not wear traditional garb and do assimilate. I am not referring to those. Yes, there are many. It is the ones that don't that create problems. They must make an effort that is all I am saying, and that starts with dress and language.
"Liberal whites — not minorities — are setting the tone on these issues."
This resonated deeply with me. I am more liberal than most and a woman of color. Yet in the microcosm of diversity programs in my workplace, I regularly am seeing the agenda being set by well-meaning liberal white men and women who fancy themselves woke with almost no input from the diverse employees they are seeking to help. One example - we are given extra programming and training meetings, which, I think are intended to level the playing field, provide additional mentoring etc. However, these are done during work hours meaning that minority associates have to explain to supervisors why they aren't available and possibly stay late to finish work for their day job. Opting out is viewed as unappreciative. Some of us just want to come in and do our jobs.
On some level, even though people have the best intentions, the feeling and optics are still of white people telling minorities how to act and feel.
25
@Effen This has been my experience too, albeit as a white man.
In college we carried on lively discussions of what's best for people of color, until someone of color actually appeared in the room.
My best friend in medical school, a black man, was constantly offered special mentorship, usually by white professors, despite coming to med school with a PhD and having had a very successful academic career beforehand.
My friend was not always as patient on these matters as you seem to be.
2
This is an interesting article, but I think the author misses the point on many of the findings. Take immigration for example, He finds that white voters are more welcoming than minority and black voters. Could it be because the latter groups are more like to compete for jobs with immigrants than are white voters? The economic part of the equation seems to me to be completely left out of the analysis. Unless one believes that black and minority voters are dismissive of economic effects, this article seems mostly wrong to me.
10
Remember, polls are notoriously inaccurate. I would not take this data as necessarily accurate. On an intuitive level, it appears suspect and does not represent my experiences living in diverse communities. I would welcome additional studies that could validate these findings. In today's environment, most people are aware that appearing racist can put one in a negative light, so they may want to present oneself as more enlightened, even if they remain anonymous. I think evidence of people's actions, not stated opinions would be more valid.
2
THE STATISTICAL MODELS In the studies presented are insufficient to study the problem of race versus racism. Specifically, only one question is addressed in each analysis. The issue must be addressed by analyzing multiple values, to see how the dynamics shift. The statistical model is called MANCOVA or Multiple Analysis of Covariance. Otherwise the results are distorted and difficult to understand. Why is it, for example, that African Americans are less in favor of immigrants than Caucasians? As a psychologist, I view the question as having to do with the attitudes that relate to the feelings about one's own race or ethnic group, as compared with feelings about another race or ethnic group. If you put all the questions together, then you would get a graph that is more accurately reflective of the shifting dynamics. The problem overall cannot be understood using only a series of Yes or No questions.
2
I think Americans are just tired of talking about race, period. If we could retire words like "intersectionality" for awhile, I think it would greatly benefit our politically divided country. That does not mean stop having these discussions; merely not be the focal point or "theoretical framework" through which we view everything.
11
What were the questions that led you to the conclusion that Trump voters "rate minorities relatively warmly"?
What does rating people warmly mean?
What makes you think people tell the truth on these surveys? What makes you think they are honest with themselves, let alone with researchers?
How can "Racial Self-Interest" not be Racist?
6
I think that a lot of what offends republicans is the overblown white liberal outrage by proxy over racial slights that have no substantive basis in fact. Their reaction to this baseless quibbling over exaggerated racial themes is fodder for the alt-right spin doctors that use this wasteful debate to validate a mythology of "reverse discrimination".
As far as general economic trends, lower middle class whites are just as disadvantaged as blacks of the same economic class. They suffer from the same feelings of alienation and a pervasive sense of being left out of the party.
18
Although the polling is true, the weakness of this analysis is that more fundamental than "ideology" are underlying economic and (related) political drivers: the Trump phenomenon expresses the decline of the US in relation to China.
The irony, of course, is that the rise of China was the result of the export of Japanese, Taiwanese, American, South Korean, and European capital to an economy (the Chinese economy) that had settled scores in 1989 at Tiananmen Square with dissident viewpoints and was fertile ground for investment.
Within 20 years this was having a major impact on domestic manufacturing (outsourced to China, Mexico, and elsewhere) and generating (along with automation) economic stagnation among large sections of the American working class. With that came other problems, including the opioid crisis. That and the impotence of the Dems got Trump elected.
Trump's nationalism is a direct response to the rise of China. If there were no changes to the economy institutionalized racism would undoubtedly fade. It's a repugnant legacy.
But that's an unwarranted assumption. The promise of economic stability is a chimera without foundation.
Most people in Weimar Germany were not anti-semites. The culture of the era was decidedly "liberal" with the world's largest CP (outside of the USSR) and SP. What explains Hitler?
The economic collapse (and the Comintern's disastrous policies) that put Germany, above all, onto a predatory war footing.
Trump portends a repeat.
2
Historically immigration referred to legal immigration. The changing and somewhat conflicting use of "immigration" by Mainstream Media for illegal and legal immigration makes it impossible to determine the views of people responding to the question.
'Lo The Poor Idiom' in Bernstein's "The Careful Writer "bears on this.
14
What White Liberal Progressives do not get, or dont want to get is that Black/Hispanic/Immigrants are socially much more conservative than they are on issues such as Family, Religion and Sexuality.
18
I’m sure that all the people trapped in Chicago’s south or west sides because of poor schools and few employment opportunities will be happy to know that America isn’t racially divided – that their lives are impoverished and their futures diminished merely because of “racial ideology.” What a relief.
140
@Michael
And why is there few employment opportunities on Chicago's south or west sides?
In the US recently there have been more job openings than unemployed.
Nationally, in January, 2019, Black unemployment was at 6.6% but the Black unemployment rate among 20 to 24-year olds in Chicago's south side is over 50%.
This suggests that rather than unusual racial discrimination, it is lack of relevant skills, unsafe neighborhoods and a lack of mobility that explains Chicago's very high Black unemployment rate.
19
@Michael
One of main reasons the people are trapped in Chicago’s west sides with poor schools, etc., is ideological. The Great Society legislation of liberals built and reinforced these traps. Daniel Patrick Moynihan tried to point this out. Black Americans there didn’t get acculturated to liberal democracy with its faith in the individual, upward mobility, education. They got attached to a culture of dependency and racial identity politics. They are still on the outside of our melting pot an idea that liberal ideologues will condemn.
10
@Leonard Miller
You do know that everything you describe is because of Chicago's history of racism. Your comment shows an ignorance of history.
14
Great article! Finally explains who sows the racial division.
7
I really don’t need a scholarly survey to tell me that 95% of trump voters deny that maintaining their white majority is racist. Did you somehow expect them to acknowledge it?
9
@Hub Harrington Are people not supposed to prefer and feel more comfortable in the culture they grew up in, and lived in all their lives? Are Norwegians racist if they want Norway to remain Norwegian? What about Chinese, Japanese, Indian? Does preferring their own cultures and traditions make them racist? Why are other countries allowed to have their cultural preferences, but white Americans are bashed incessantly for their preferences? Why the double standard?
1
Nonsense.
There is only one race. Human.
There is only one national origin. Earth.
Americans are united in their ignorance and stupidity regarding race.
The one and only DNA biological genetic evolutionary fit human race species began in Africa 300, 000+ years ago.
What we Americans call race aka color is an evolutionary fit pigmented response to varying levels of solar radiation at different altitudes and latitudes primarily related to producing Vitamin D and protecting genes from damaging mutations in ecologically isolated human populations over time and space.
What we Americans call race is a malign socioeconomic political educational demographic historical white supremacist nationalist right-wing myth meant to legally and morally justify humanity denying black African American enslavement and equality defying separate and unequal black African American Jim Crow.
As the oldest humans there is far more genetic diversity in one African city, town. village or ethnic group than the rest of humanity combined. Indeed, the humans who left Africa are on average 3-5% extinct Denovisan and Neanderthal. And they carry the genetic bottleneck markers of an inbred tiny population that nearly became extinct before leaving Africa.
See " The Race Myth: Why We Pretend That Race Exists in America" Joseph L. Graves ; " Watson Defined"
4
It’s sad and frustrating. When will the media stop perpetuating an inaccurate concept by just using the word race?
There is this irony—-a lot of people won’t use skin color as a description for fear that doing so is “racist.” It’s just skin color for gods sake!
1
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the same NYT option pages it reads "Trump Encourages Violence." Am I supposed to be optimistic that the thrust of white animus -- actual violence -- is merely ideologically racist, instead to something more pernicious like "polarized racial conflict?" Nevermind, I forgot that I am just a trend, a statistical aberration really: the white, liberal, male Democat who doesn't necessarily self-sort himself into his actual racial group, but instead prefers the alternate reality of "Race Ideology." Silly me, I forgot how reliable statical analysis of American racism has been over the last century. After all, race is based on real physical differences between very different groups of humans, not the merely the heady hallucinations of ideology, or even history. Wait...that doesn't sound right, does it? Does this statistical analysis assume that "race" is real, apart from ideology? Does it assume somehow that "race ideology" is less real? Maybe the author needs to factor in his own ideology-based assumptions when he designs his "questionnaire." I mean its key to distinguish between the dreamy, aloof world of social science research and what's actually happening "ideologically" when a white supremacist drives his truck into a crowd of mostly, white liberals...right?
Just because someone believes that being "racially self-interested" isn't racist, doesn't make it so. If you don't want immigration because you want to retain your race's majority, how can that not be racist? Isn't preferring your race over another, by definition, racist? If not, what is racism? Are you racist only if you believe you are?
Correct me if I'm wrong (and I'd like to be), but it seems like the author is subscribing to the theory of "if only liberals would stop saying things are racist, race would not be a problem". It seems to me that existence of racism is independent of whether or not we believe it exists, and the only way we can do something about it is if we recognize that it exists. The first step to changing behavior is to accept that you have a problem.
9
Are these tables correctly printed? That last one in particular was confusing.
1
@Stephanie
To understand Kaufman you have to accept his definitions and they are multiple and complex so not unusual to wounder what he is saying. May or may not be worth the effort -- see his Whiteshift: Populism, Immigration, and the Future of White Majorities .
Perhaps, the difference is that the "urban / suburban elites" actually know successful minorities / immigrants. They judge them as people they know rather than as stereotypes.
The rural white voters are less likely to actually know successful minorities / immigrants and so view them through the lens of stereotypes.
e.g. the immigrant and minority racial stereotype espoused by President Trump is of rapists, drug dealers and murderers. The statistics say they are not. Personal knowledge of successful immigrants and minorities can over ride the stereotypes.
2
I am always irritated when I fill out a medical form and am asked to provide my race."Race" is an absurd term developed by mankind in a more primitive time. Get a DNA analysis of your ancestry----if you , like me, have a mix of ancestors from all over the globe then just what is your race? I alway write in that I am human. I understand that my ancestry might place me at higher risk of certain medical conditions, but just what percent of my ancestors must be indo european, for example, for me to say I am caucasian?
Racial ideology, on the other hand, is a very real and present danger that should be abolished from the civilized world asap.
4
There needs to be a greater clarity on what the issues are. It would be nice if racism would disappear but it is remarkably unlike. Just as anti-Semitism, and anti-Catholicism are still with us. What the Civil Rights movement aimed to do was get rid of segregation and racism leading to discrimination. Legal segregation is now illegal. Discrimination is also illegal though harder to police. There have been laws and court decisions designed to make things more level. Perhaps that also needs to be acknowledged instead of only finger pointing.
1
Living among Americans, you come to see how they code their language about race. Most middle class whites will not openly admit to being racist. You just don't do that (unless you are among white nationalists).
In the bubble of existence for white non-urban conservatives, they'll sit around criticizing the 'liberal' media, patting themselves on the shoulders with, "I'm not racist." But, then quickly follow up with, "I just wouldn't hire one because they're all lazy," or "I wouldn't want one to live next door to me." And when you have their mouthpiece, Fox News, telling them this, well, of course they come to believe this about themselves.
This belief about themselves is just another way to not have to deal with the issue. In the political religion of white conservatives, it is amazing how far they will go to absolve themselves for any responsibility for the problems of other people.
Besides, I'm not sure what the benefit is of the distinction between racist and 'racial ideologically.' Neither will change the dynamics and institutional structures that keep people of color in second class status.
3
@RMS
Your post is an absolutely perfect example of what the article is getting at. Thanks for the illustration: it's about white liberals calling everyone they possibly can find a "racist," to set themselves apart and above on the issue.
2
Race itself is an ideology, as it has no basis in biology. I would suggest the premise presented here is a faulty one, making a classic mistake of assuming "ideology" only describes people that stray from the "norm". Race it self is an ideology, a way of explaining the world. Its one that's foundational to the US, and still is deeply embedded in how society is organized.
The left compensates for the general lack amongst white folks of addressing critical questions that have, are, and will be posed regarding how race operates in our society. That compensation will always be read as over compensation, and maybe it is on occasion.
But as a leftist myself, some one closer to Marx then Clinton, I think if we want a picture of how race operates in society, we should look towards how it is materially organized in the US. That is, who is sitting in a jail cell? Who is picking the crops? Working in the meat processing industry?
I can at times have some amount of sympathy for the left's critics on how race is addressed by liberals. Its full of hypocrisy, virtue signaling, moralism, and other traits that are even less appealing.
The left might want to take intersectionality a bit more seriously, and plot class as a coordinate on its social map. The universality of class conditions offers the basis of a generalized question of how society operates. But Clinton and co. Are not all that interested in that project, preferring to silo demographics into manageable constituencies.
6
@Ian W. Exactly. The concept of "race" is an ideology rooted in white supremacy. Separating the concept from it's distribution system--racism--is an attempt to separate rain drops from the river.
The only kernel in this article that makes sense is the notion that racial groups, however you divvy them up, are not monolithic. And that belongs in the Water Is Wet category.
The white progressive racial ideology has more to do with power than equality. Making the argument one of social justice shrouds the fact that the move leftward in policy is primarily driven by elite white people.
4
"Likewise, when asked whether it is racist or “racially self-interested, which is not racist” for whites to want less immigration to help maintain their group’s share of the population, over 90 percent of white Democrats with graduate degrees replied “racist” and close to half of minorities, compared with just an extremely small group of white Trump voters without degrees."
This is a serious issue. In the Christchurch killer's manifesto he frequently argues that being racially self-interested is not racist. His anger focused on the rapid change of racial demographics in nations that had been highly homogeneous in terms of race.
Racial self-interest results in racist actions. Racial self-interest resulted in the genocidal wars against Native Peoples in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Jim Crow laws, the Chinese Exclusion Act and other stains on our history.
5
A huge improvement over "but would you want your sister, to marry one?". And America has much to celebrate with the incomparable progress made over only 2-3 generations in racial attitudes and policies. Better still, today's young adults offer real hope.
On the other hand, the country's bigotry is still deeply entrenched and more difficult to get at. We are more like Brazil where a multi-colored population gets along easily with one another and media and policy are nuanced, but the underlying political, social and economic realities are demonstrably racially biased.
Still, the US is worse. Brazil has a functioning medicare for all system and a widespread and accessible system of hospitals and clinics. It has a "Bolsa Familia" program providing a real social safety net and mitigating the terrible income mal-distribution.
In the US we're still stuck in mythical (white) meritocracy and fiscal realities that camouflage a deep racism that denies healthcare and social safety net support to those 'others' who haven't earned it; that brands xenophobic and racist immigration policy as a matter of criminality.
The future cannot come too soon --the replacement of elder white dominated politics with its endemic racism by youth led openness to true multi-culturalism.
Moving from racism to racial policy is something we can be happy about. But it doesn't make our task any easier. We have much to do...
4
@Chris P This bolsters my opinion that racial ideology is really more about implementing progressive left policy than about racism or even racial issues.
@Chris P the U.S. is worse than Brazil. Got it. Well, we will soon have favelas here so we’ll catch up.
1
Eric Kaufman is a little difficult to follow for his technique is to create definitions and use them to evaluate polling samples he or others create. I you find this article informative then you would enjoy his'Whiteshift' just released 600 plus page publication. He is a leading scholar in the field of racial relations as he defines them and believes he sees into the future -- an interesting perspective.
1
What this racially insensitive author misses with his counting of noses is that doing so masks different base lines for answering. For oppressed minorities, bigotry is effectively a constant, so the focus shifts to getting the best deal in that context, choosing among bigots. That doesn’t make race less an issue, but shows that minorities do not have a single issue perspective. That is, minorities are no different than anyone else in having opinions on national and local issues that aren’t specifically or solely about race or ethnicity, e.g., immigration.
4
Your optimism is misplaced.
We had 300 years of slavery in this country. But that was 150 years ago, so what are liberals and people of color complaining about?
Well, ok, then we had over 100 years of Jim Crow laws, lynching, disenfranchisement, unjust imprisonment, chain gangs, redlining, segregation of schools and neighborhoods, and employment discrimination. But that was 40 or 50 years, so what's the problem now?
I guess that 100 years coincided with the time when most white families were building wealth, especially in the 20 or 25 years after WWII. And the 40 years of the Reagan Age have not been a great time for middle class and working class folks to build wealth, even if policies and practices were less overtly racist.
But there have continued to be racist policing, prosecution, and incarceration practices that have put very high proportions of black men in jail, and given them criminal records that will keep them in a permanent underclass.
But it's totally cool for conservatives to say "I don't see race" and call it a day.
Denial of continuing racism and claims of racial enlightenment are a sign of America's ongoing failure to deal with its racist past and racism's legacy. Conservative claims that they are just not racist are a cause for despair, not optimism.
211
@NFC
Excellent comment.
I see very few people who recognize that the Civil War did not end in 1865, and with all of the intervening years of division and discrimination leading up the current Culture War being waged by Slave State Conservatives, the fight goes on.
14
@NFC Thank you! Institutional racism is real and it's so pervasive that sadly, many see it as normal. I'm not that ancient and I know people whose grandparents and/or great-grandparents were slaves - so generationally, slavery wasn't that long ago. We have learned that generational trauma gets into our DNA, so 2 or 3 or 4 generations removed from slavery isn't that far along, especially considering the oppression that followed slavery.
Look at the history of FHA loans, a New Deal product. Government policy excluded black neighborhoods and black people from FHA loans. This was government policy until 1968, then the banks continued it. This meant that blacks couldn't buy homes and didn't have the options to move to more prosperous neighborhoods with better schools. This impacts everything that is determined by zip code. Schools are funded by property taxes - immediately impoverishing the neighborhoods that were "redlined." Education is the only solid driver of class mobility and these neighborhoods are hampered from the get-go. Disaster relief is proportionate to wealth. It goes on and on.
An FBI report raised the issue of white supremacists infiltrating law enforcement. It was suppressed, no action was taken, and now we have these people carrying badges and guns on our streets. What could possibly go wrong?
History! Things I never learned in school: massacres in OK and NC, lynchings advertised in newspapers, slave trade as "immigration" OMG. What we whites don't know.
16
@NFC If you don't want to do the time, don't do the crime. Applies to everyone. Have a bit of a heart for crime victims. Murder victims are permanently underground, which is worse than being permanently stigmatized. And Jim Crow ended 60 years ago, btw.
6
Two points:
1) The distinction the author is making between ideological and civil conflict is a distinction without a difference -- they can't be separated -- as most recently shown in New Zealand and long evident in the U.S.
2) If one reads to the end, the author hopes that " American elites may one day heal the country's divisions." Really? Do you mean the economic and politically intertwined elites whose interests have long been served by our racial ideological divisions?
2
Racism begins and ends when we assign attributes, usually negative to an entire group of people based on; culture, colour, nationality, sexual orientation/identification, educated level, socioeconomic level etc. I read or hear the words "they" and "them" in the context of negative behaviours to whole groups of individuals. Violence, ignorance, intelligence, beauty is not exclusive in anyone one group. With the influence of politics some are are lead to believe that all liberals and consrvatives think and and behave the same way, as if there isn't more complexity to the human condition. We are all the same and yet different which is to be celebrated. It is only when we recognize the manipulation of that those that seek to divide that this element of hate will be defeated. Yes sometimes we are not sensitive enough, kind enough, aware enough and make mistakes towards cultures and religions with which we are less familiar and there lies the opportunity for growth.
2
There’s a disconnect between ideas and people all the way down to the hate groups. I had a high school student who wore something with a confederate flag on it pretty much every day, bragged about being in the KKK, and wrote an anti- miscegenation essay once and turned it in. I’m probably going to get skewered for saying this, but in person he was polite and respectful and I just couldn’t understand why he accepted his family’s radical, hateful views. He was also on the football team, big kid so he was a lineman. I asked him once about his buddies on the line, and named a couple of his African-American teammates I had seen him smiling and talking with in the hallways. He said “No, not them, they’re ok.
4
In my experience, the liberals most likely to crow about racism rarely live in diverse communities themselves. I have one friend in particular who offers a non-stop drumbeat of "Dear White People" preaching, encouraging us to be more "woke."But where did she choose to buy real estate and raise her kid? Oregon.
Me on the other hand...I bought my first home in a community that was racially & economically diverse and spent 15 years there. That's why, although I am mostly liberal, I do NOT look at blacks as incapable, broken human beings who simply can't succeed because racism nips at them from every angle. I see fellow Americans who do indeed face obstacles but who also possess enormous strength and talent.
Honestly the pandering and preaching is getting really old. As is this constant discussion about skin color.
22
@shstl
Yep- the white guilt runs deep in really lefty areas like Oregon and here in Asheville NC. After moving here from NYC I was perturbed by people like who you described. Preachy - but never even rubbing shoulders with minorities or immigrants.
Only here could there be a "Jamaican Restaurant" run and staffed solely by white people with dreadlocks and frequented almost solely by white people - serving this food under the guise of "cultural enlightening", while having terrible Jamaican food (my Jamaican friends agree) with no one here that would even call it out. They even name dishes "Rasta Pasta" while serving meat in them! And serve alcohol. That bugs me. Rastafarians are vegetarian and don't drink. It's a slight on the culture while pretending to promote it.
But unlike NYC they wouldn't really know that here - because there aren't many Islanders.
4
So it seems like the media finds itself discovering the real attitudes of our population long after the facts on the ground. We aren’t as racist as the media reports after all, but we finding on our own a path towards unity. I think both parties are guilty of promoting racist attitudes by pointing their fingers at the other guy because it activates their voting base through fear. Shame on them. But we are ultimately smarter, hence the polls just explained in the oped. Hurray for us.
The next aha/eureka moment will be that we don’t so much have an immigration ideology or white supremacy/anti-Semitic/Islamophobia problem but instead broad disagreement on pace/ease/need for assimilation and broad acceptance of the cultural values that have propelled our nation forward in the world.
10
I am still baffled that in all of the noise that accompanies the problems with our polarization, we do not look to our own past and the Civil War between the Slave States of the Confederacy, and the Yankee states of the Union, from 1861 to 1865.
For the Yankees, and the people in the free states, the war ended in 1865.
Not so for the white conservatives in the Slave States of the South; for them pride and prejudice required that the war go on, disenfranchising freed slaves, using Jim Crow Laws and Poll taxes to prevent them from voting, lynchings and codified segregation.
When LBJ led the fight against the Slave State Conservatives in his own party to pass Voting Rights and Civil Rights legislation, those slave state conservatives found a new home among the Republicans, starting the Culture War.
They fester like a boil in the followers of Fox news, seething with hate and prejudice against the Democrats, Obama, and anyone of color.
I have no solution, but let's first recognize the problem.
6
Response bias is a huge problem in surveys like this due to under-reporting. No one will call themselves a racist, even a clear racist like Donald Trump. Moreover, this contradicts solid recent research showing substantial unconscious racism. A better survey methodology would be to ask respondents to judge statements or actions by others. For example, quotes by Donald Trump could be questioned as racist or non-racist with some identifying it a a quote by Trump and others as by an anonymous person. The response difference would indicate the amount of under-reporting of racial bias. If the validity of the data is in question, then the validity of the conclusions are as well.
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I am disagreeing with you and this article in general...I am also exhausted with the "bash white" mentality of people sitting in their homes casting judgment on people they do not know. It has always been true that readers of The New York Times (while having a drink and looking very intelligent) have striven to let readers know how very informed they are about literally everything on the planet.
It would be nice if someone put a few of those grandiose thoughts on the subject of patriotism - ie love for a country that, while having faults, is beautiful and still tolerates persons droning on and on like you.
BTW - Donald Trump is no more a racist than Barack Obama is - they are men who are proud of who they are as it should be.l@Paul Wortman
2
@Paul Wortman
You don't see the paternalism in saying the minorities who responded in this survey must be responding wrongly? Maybe it's time to realize that not all of the issues in this survey - attitudes about immigration, nitpicks on language claimed to be microagressions - are indicators of racism.
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@SusanStoHelit As one who taught research methods, I was commenting on the validity of the methods used.
2
I am a minority. It also depends on how you ask a question. It is possible for people to think similarly on race, yet not not want Northam to resign. Not all black face is offensive. If you dressed up as a star you admire, that is not offensive. People standing around with nooses and white robes is. Have some common sense.
People are tired of wasting time on small potatoes when there are much bigger issues being ignored completely. Democrats need to stay focused, republicans are at the bottom of these past photos. Look forward and try to do the right thing going forward. Keep doing good things. Ignore the mob screams. They are not always sincere.
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@Dr. Girl
"Not all black face is offensive." You are absolutely correct. There is always intention and context to consider.
But the average liberal white person will lose his mind over any black face - loudly, publicly, conspicuously - and lose all sense of proportion or nuance, because such performance is "proof" of being utterly devoid of any speck of racism or prejudice.
That is what these polls are pointing to, and the silliness and shallowness with which we grapple with race as a society.
1
Race has always been a social and ideological construct. All this shows is that many whites in the US are blissfully unaware of the social impact of racism in this country and happily parrot the ideology of 'color blindness".
2
While this article may want us to feel good about the state of race in our country, it fails to mention the impact of Trump on race. His words on race and immigration are the ones which bring out the racists and nationalist who normally hide in the woods. This impact is felt globally as was seen this last week in NZ, where the shooter mentioned Trump as an beacon to his racist ideology. That 60 million people in the US actually voted for this racist person, is the more scary part of what is happening in our country.
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Just wondering if you know if perhaps the shooter in the Netherlands might be a cousin of Donald Trump's (insert sarcasm).@Theni
1
The columnist is wrong about his opinion, "Americans are divided by their views on race, not race itself".
Like almost everyone else, he is confusing the implicit conflict between races, as racism or opposition to other races.
Instead I see the emergence of social media as giving rise to the coming of age of racism as an assertion of one's race; not as an exploitation or blind opposition of another's race.
Some of the nature of the conflict may seem similar, but the fundamental roots of the same are different.
3
Perhaps on the national scene racial ideology matters more than racial divisions, but one only has to look at the geography of cities like New York and Chicago to see that Americans are in fact divided by race. I'm surprised the author did not add this caveat.
The article suffers from fundamental flaw that only 1 side of the racial ideology divide is racially heterogeneous. Black Republicans are what less than 5 percent of all Republicans / Conservative anti-racial ideologues? Trump won all white voter categories- women, rich, college.
The real take away is the expansion of the coalition of strong pro-racial minority ideology beyond just the black community itself. And in many ways millennial liberal whites are now more militant in their anti-racism versus a group of more beleaguered cynical 'conservative' older blacks who over the years have lost hope in the possibility of fundamental racial progress.
We don't have a common identity in this country anymore. To be a proud American sounds racist to liberals on the far left. I am tired of "we are all immigrants." Let's be Americans, no matter your race or when you arrived here. We need to be cohesive. Without a common identity all we are going to do is spiral in a sea of blame and resentment of the other. I thought this article was really interesting and explains a lot.
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@PKB I like the response Kamala Harris gave to questions of what she called herself, “African American,” “Indian American,” etc. “I call myself a proud American,” she replied.
I’m not sure these surveys prove anything beyond that you have found several examples of the coded language that many white Americans feel compelled to respond to in a certain way.
3
I have read very little about the relationship between wage stagnation in the last 30 years and the increase in immigration. I think there is a perception among white working class people that immigrants, particularly Mexicans, have contributed to lowered wages here but I rarely see this idea fully analyzed. I'm not sure it is always racism that drives the anti immigrant attitudes, but economic insecurity. In my small business here in WV I see service workers making hourly wages I made thirty years ago while working part time in college. There is fury and despair out here, and for good reason, but I don't think it's wholly because of racism. These same low wages are driving the inequality that is so destructive to our overall economy. Someone has made out like a bandit these thirty years. But who?
19
@susan, Harvard Economist George Borjas has published book about this, "We Wanted Workers." Democrats like African-American Congresswoman Barbara Jordan and labor leader Cesar Chavez understood this relationship. But after Ms. Jordan died in 1996 and Bill Clinton betrayed her and her commission on immigration reform, Dems have been virtually indistinguishable from Paul Ryan style GOP. Both carrying water for Koch Brothers and Chamber of Commerce on immigration.
1
Very interesting article and data to support author’s hypothesis. But then came the final sentence: political elites will someday solve the issues raised? Really? Go back to the drawing board Mr. Kaufman and read civil rights history on your way.
6
Wow...You’re really throwing a wrench in the whole machinery!
I am an immigrant from India, and I think the survey results are an important lesson on race relations. Anecdotally, I know many Indian Americans who agree with conservatives and Trump on the issues of race and immigration. Even left leaning, I am one, of them don't like identity politics and political correctness. If progressives take over the 2020 election campaign for a Democrat nominee, many Asian and Hispanics may not vote at all. Democrats will ignore this factor at their own peril.
26
Not sure how you define "political correctness". To me, as to many, it is defined as politeness, which is sadly lacking in discourse today.
2
@Mebschn
It's not "politeness" or correctness either, it is watering down the the first amendment.
Race relations in the U.S. are complicated. To try to pin racial divisions to one cause like ideology is a bit naive I believe. Yes there are certainly many conservative, maybe even Trump supporters, who feel that too much emphasis is placed on race. Who also have differing opinions from liberal on how progress on race relations should occur. I find that white liberals tend to be more sympathetic to the plight of minorities, especially African Americans. With good reason. They also tend to support collective actions to help level the playing field. Whereas, conservatives tend to be more likely to feel that you are lucky to be in America. That whatever happened in the past is past. That it is up to the individual to get ahead in society no matter what the odds. They never promised you a rose garden. Then there are the folks who hold grudges, have resentment, are hostile to other races and just don't like or want to have anything to do with them. There are just enough of these people to make things difficult.
3
Having recently moved to a dominant Hispanic community, as Anglo, one begins to take a slightly different perspective on race when you are the minority. The concept of diversity that implies integration may be at fault. Birds of a feather, flock together. Everyone gets along fine here and respect each other, but largely prefer to be in their own ethnic community due in part to common heritage, common language, and common cultural experience. Neighborhoods are generally grouped by similar backgrounds. One commentator suggested Blacks moving to black neighborhoods represented a failure. Forcing integration for the sake of integration may be the failure. We may be divided by different stories, but not by race itself and not by our views on race. We may be divided by natural divisions, but brought together by simple common respect for the other. I wonder if the issue may be as much about provincialism rather than race.
14
The elephant in the room is simply culture, behavior and values. Whether or not one believes in the culture of poverty, which is racially neutral, there are behavior patterns which are simply dysfunctional in modern society. Those behaviors and the value systems they embody will hold people of any race down. Families who do not prioritize education, who do not stress two parent families, who do not understand planning for the future and are willing to deny instant gratification for it are not going to be successful regardless of their race.
As to the fact that most of America is still residentially segregated it could just be because people of every race choose to live with people who are like them--who have the same culture and values--, where they feel comfortable. People should be free to live where they want to, and many will live where they are most comfortable regardless of their race. That does not mean that they are denied the freedom to live where they want to--if they can afford it.
27
@vineyridge "Families who do not prioritize education, who do not stress two parent families, who do not understand planning for the future and are willing to deny instant gratification for it are not going to be successful regardless of their race." These read more like the priorities of a homogeneous, one dimensional, cultural perspective...
1
@frank
Those behaviors were identified by Oscar Lewis as part of "the culture of poverty" that led to the generational perpetuation of poverty.
4
You are ignoring the consequences of bank redlining which, while not official policy, was vigorously implemented. Blacks who could afford to live in mostly white communities found themselves unwelcome. Ask Bill Russell.
1
As the planet dies everyone will get a chance to suffer. Race and many other topics we obsess about, or at least the press obsesses about when they want to ignore more important things, will become irrelevant. Peoples views on many things will become a moot as they struggle to survive.
2
@Chris As climate catastrophe increases race issues, immigration issues, and the nationalistic sense of keeping out invaders (refugees who are likely from other races and cultures) will not become irrelevant. Climate related refugee problems will drastically escalate as populations are forced to flee their historical territories as those areas become uninhabitable, and those living in areas more slowly succumbing to climate change will be ever more radically vigilante to keep the others out as they struggle to survive. Yes, all will get their chance to suffer -- but since the suffering won’t take place at an even rate across the globe the ecological have nots seeking survival will become the invaders that the ecological haves will feel the need to oppress in order to gulp that last mouthful of food, water or clean air.
2
Interesting piece. If I can contribute anything, it might be a closer focus on some of the terms we throw around.
First, properly understood, liberalism is a centrist set of views, not simply a synonym for left. If you go back a few centuries to its roots, it stood for liberating the individual person (not only some groups) from the illegitimate grasp of forces (like racism or an economic depression) well beyond the individual's control. Beyond that, JS Mill, a father of classical liberalism, wrote that a liberal mind is an open mind, which describes neither the hard left nor the hard right.
As for privilege, this seems to mean the lack of a problem that some other people have. While a well educated person should strive to be aware that others have problems he does not, virtually all of us are privileged in a number of ways, and it is not, standing alone, a fault. Those of us not in wheelchairs, blind, or deaf, for example, are privileged, yet are not at fault for those mere facts.
As for progressive, this is meaningless unless we're clear what we mean by progress. In terms of race, as a center left liberal, I define progress as all of us striving to do what the civil rights laws expressly command, i.e., not treat people differently based on race, ethnicity, etc. For the hard left, it seems to mean ensuring that we discriminate against the correct races and ethnicities.
As for diversity, finally, we all bring diversity in several ways.
11
I wonder if the constant chatter about race/racism keeps related negative attitudes alive or create negative attitudes?
Casual observations suggest that America is divided by race (but not necessarily because of race for every division), and there is nothing wrong with that. The divisions will become less stark as time goes on.
How do I know America is divided by race? Look at weddings, funerals, a walking group, event venues and married/dating couples.
Those attending an opera for example, will be overwhelmingly white, a division by race, but not because of race.
The picture unwittingly exposes that so many of these discussions seems to be between groups of men, vs.groups of humans.
4
This data is very interesting, but it misses an important context. The civil rights era is over and there are no real national racial issues on the political agenda.
The school desegregation and bussing era are long gone. Most Americans of all races accept the principles of our civil rights laws concerning non-discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations etc.
And this is a good thing. Even acceptance of interracial dating and marriage has passed the median point of public acceptance. A marked departure from earlier periods.
But we are still not a very integrated society. Unless of course you include gentrification as a form of spacial integration.
The low acceptance numbers among Blacks on immigration related issues mostly stem from fear of job loss and loss of what little political clout Blacks have. Not a rational fear, but few fears are.
The real test for liberal whites is whether they can support changes in structural racism. One example is school funding. Another is serious criminal justice reform, or new taxes for a serious urban renewal effort.
Being friendly at work is a good thing, as is cross racial socializing. The real test for change is when resources have to be reallocated and institutions changed.
More progressive elements in the white community support this. Whether liberals do remains to be seen.
11
"Race pertains to communities defined by ancestry and physical appearance. Racial ideology turns instead on race as a political idea."
This is a distinction without a difference. People of wildly different ancestry are called black, so race is really defined by physical appearance, which is a political or social idea.
5
@John Williams
Yes, exactly! As a European I am amazed that race is still considered in the U.S. and especially in a liberal newspaper like the NYT as a natural fact. How can you even distinguish "race" from the ideology around it? Race is ideological and political at its very core. Not sure how we could overcome racism, if even a liberal newspaper leaves the concept of race untouched.
Here we go again. More details, diagrams and pundits trying to explain their way out of the racism dilemma which has plagued this country since it was founded, when the real problem here is about DENIAL.
Most Americans have no real clue about their own history, let alone just how brutal and far-reaching the institution of slavery really was.
We're talking about nothing less than the oppression of a people for the sake of profit, which led to feelings of empowerment and supremacy of another group of people to not only keep them in bondage, but deprive them of the basic rights as human beings.
This country has never come to terms with that and to a great extent refuses to.
That's why no one can tell me that Americans are more divided by their views on race, than by race itself.
And anyone who tries to hasn't walked around in a skin color darker than his own.
20
@N. Smith
.."This country has never come to terms with that and to a great extent refuses to."...
A very common comment. What isn't common is a delineation of the actions you think would show America has 'come to terms' with the past.
And your answer is.......
3
@N. Smith You might consider what it's like walking around as a millennial or younger, with skin color lighter than your own, constantly being demonized for things you did didn't do.
1
@micheal Brousseau
First of all. You know nothing about my age or my skin color.
My point is simply that it's very easy for one to come to certain conclusions about race in America without actually living the other half of it.
As for the "demonization" you speak of -- it happens to work both ways.
2
I vote democrat. Some observation since I moved from Europe decades ago: A European coming to the States is automatically stereotyped as part of the "white privilege" class. An African, no matter how economically privileged in his/her own country is identified with the plight of the black Americans. My extended family includes all shades on the human spectrum. I came to this country without prejudices but via the press and the righteous thinkers I find myself being pushed back again and again into the much maligned "white privilege" group. The media criticize Sweden for its white homogeneity but non-white countries are not criticized for their ethnic homogeneity. In spite of myself I notice that I am becoming weary of this constant polarization, of westerners being made the scapegoat for all ills, and to my dismay I am developing an acute sense of what I look like. Secretly I dream of where I could escape to live among people who are more like me. I would not say this to anyone of course.
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@June
When you say "more like me" do you specifically mean of your race? Or do you mean more who have your similar beliefs system? Because that's an important distinction.
4
@June
There's nothing wrong with being white, but white skin and European features do bestow privilege on their bearer. There's just no getting around that. It's the same as being male gives you some privileges over being female. I happen to be white and male. I don't go around feeling bad about being white or being a man. But I do recognize that life has been easier for me in ways both big and small. I want things to be different for my grandkids, some of whom are girls and members of minority racial groups.
I grew up seriously working class. I worked from the time I was 14 years old. I'm not sure what resenting wealthy African immigrants today would get me. That seems totally besides the point. I think most people are aware that there are wealthy blacks and poor whites. That doesn't negate the history of racism in this country.
4
@June Thank you for your sharing your honest thoughts. I think we need more of this when we discuss race. But before you allow yourself to give into feelings of weariness, please remember that a white person, no matter their country of origin, has the privilege of being able to make it to the store and back without being stopped/frisked/harassed/cuffed/slammed down/arrested and possibly killed by police or the neighborhood George Zimmerman. This example is as you may know, the tip of the iceberg. It's not being white that deserves malignment, it's how one relates to white privilege. All of us (not just whites) can make the effort to continue to evolve our understanding of and handling of white privilege - not just when it's a matter of life and death.
The major flaw in this article is that, especially for white people, you take white respondents at their word. Yes, it is good that many white people know the correct answers to questions on race in a survey. Unfortunately, living those answers isn’t the same as checking a box. Surveys back in the 60s would have northern whites saying all the correct things about segregation in the south and how schools & neighborhoods should be integrated. However, when African-Americans began to migrate north and move into middle class white suburbs, or working class white cities, in almost every single case, white flight ensued.
The point is, if any of this data were true, we’d be able to see it in action somewhere, anywhere! What we see instead is in liberal New York City, a school system that is the most segregated in the nation. What we also see are famous liberals like Samantha Bee, and other white liberal parents, vociferously fighting against efforts to integrate the upper west side school their children attend.
Let me know when white people start living out the answers they check on a survey.
44
@Kai Not that I disagree with your overall point (in the slightest), but please note that Samantha Bee did not fight integration of her children's school. This was a rumor spread by right wing sites. Bee's husband, Jason Jones, was involved in efforts to prevent the school being moved. But there were multitudinous reasons why this was so, including commute times. Perhaps there were parents involved in the opposition who did so because of racist reasons, but there's no evidence that Bee or her husband were among them.
14
@Kai That's an excellent point, and one that I wondered about as I Was reading the article. Any survey that relies on a person to be honest, is inherently flawed to one degree or another, because human beings don't tell the truth very often, when that truth carries some sort of negative consequence (in this case, being seen as racist).
I suspect that a study of gender ideology would find the same result - a strong relationship between ideology and level of education.
People on the left have embraced this relationship as evidence that their views are more informed; people on the right embrace it as evidence that higher education has been replaced by indoctrination.
As a white male who is currently completing a postgraduate degree, I have to admit that the latter position has equal or greater validity. The state of higher education in the US is not good. Unqualified faculty and ideological uniformity, in the service of a system that shackles students to debt for worthless credentials, and self-perpetuates by sending unqualified, lazy and uncritical graduates into the workforce.
Does the Left ever consider that having more participants in this system on our side of the political divide might not confer ideological supremacy?
18
@Patrick Gender ideology is an interesting phrase to choose, as it is most definitely not a neutral term. It is, however, a catchall term used by those on the right to further anti-LGBT and anti-feminist propaganda.
Diversity is not good and it's not bad. A place with four seasons isn't better than a place with only one season. A place with only one season isn't better than a place with four seasons. It's just an invented ideological rally cry for those who desperately needs these inventions.
13
@areader I have to disagree. Diversity is good. Just like light is good. Exposure to a diverse world -- even if your individual relationships tends to not be very diverse -- provides you with the ability to empathize with others. Even if people in diverse cosmopolitan areas tend to “flock” with people who look like themselves -- they ride the bus, eat in restaurants, go to gatherings, and work in buildings surrounded by people from different flocks. And, in so doing, they develop the skill to see the humanity in all those different flocks and recognize that we can all work and live together in the big sense. That is a good thing in its own right.
1
@areader there are two kinds of people - those who think there are two kinds of people and those that don't.
@Mes,
I agree with you. Diversity is good as any exposure to different worlds. But it doesn't have to be necessary and be forced onto anybody, any society, culture, work team. I just cannot imagine you saying that some Norwegian village is worse that Queens - it would be an insult to those Norwegians. Whatever happens naturally is normal, "diversity is needed" position is a political stunt.
Dear Professor:
It must have slipped your mind to include this small detail:
"...a half century after the Fair Housing Act became a civil-rights landmark, multiple studies show housing in America is nearly as segregated as it was when LBJ enacted a law designed to eliminate it. Study after study shows African-Americans still lag far behind whites in home ownership, a key asset in building middle-class wealth. " U.S. News and World Report.
And this from Social Work Today referring to a housing study
"According to the study, of the 9,940 moves that black families made between 1977 and 2005, 43.7% (4,340) were to predominately black neighborhoods, 5% (494) were to predominately white neighborhoods, 17.7% (1,763) were to multiethnic neighborhoods (whose populations were at least 10% black, at least 10% Hispanic or Asian, and at least 40% white), and 33.6% (3,343) were to other types of neighborhoods detailed in the analysis."
5
@Ricardo Chavira Is it possible that black people prefer living in mostly black neighborhoods, or like staying near friends an relatives? After all this is generally true for most ethnic groups.
The question is not if diversity makes this country stronger. You must ask does diversity as a cause or a result make us stronger. If diversity is the cause, and we are implementing quota systems, and affirmative action, and other policies that judge people based on race, then no, NO, diversity is NOT a cause of strength. On the other hand if it is to be celebrated as the result of free and fair trade of goods, labor and services, then yes, it is a sign of our strength. But no, diversity in and of itself has never lead to the strength of a nation, unless it is achieved as the result of ignoring diversity. It seems one party has doubled down on rejecting the MLK sentiment that it is not a strength to judge based on color of skin and instead they want to go full steam ahead with their racial judgements for the greater good. Lol.
18
@PJ ABC,
Diversity is not a strength, it's just one of the possible normal circumstances. It's equally OK to have or not to have diversity in a country, in a family, in weather conditions of a geographical place, in a sport team. We're are just falling for the endlessly repeated propaganda.
3
Racism is an enormous problem in our country. But does the rising liberal-progressive movement represent the solution?
These are the Green Book liberals. The proclaimed racial tolerance comes primarily from wealthy liberal whites who live in primarily pure white communities. Many of their views are somewhat patronizing, with a dose of virtue signaling thrown in.
Take a look at how many of these folks send their kids to truly racially AND economically diverse schools, and you will see something different. Mostly, you will find the token wealthy minority students. The ultimate issue is economic, not racial. They don't care what color someone's skin is, so long as they're rich.
241
@woodyrd
Can I tell you how hard it is to find a racially and socioeconomically diverse school for your children? I desperately tried to find a school that would emulate my experience as a child, where my classmates were of all races, ethnicities and a range of social classes. It was a nearly impossible. Public schools were worse than private, so the kids are in a fairly diverse Catholic school in terms of race and ethnicity and even religion. But all the kids are middle and upper-middle-class. No one else can afford the tuition. It's a shame really, because I happen to think that it's good to know people from all different walks of life. I suppose I'm in a minority though, because a quick look at what's going on in schools in America tells you most people want to stick with their own.
17
@woodyrd You are partially correct, but living in one of those wealthy lily white communities my son went to very diverse schools and has friends are a collection of diversity. As his parents we became friends with many of the parents of these kids and their experiences clearly indicate racism is alive and well in our liberal community. Our local police force is currently dealing with a clearly apparent instance of racial profiling and many citizens are angry that we are not living up to our professed values.
5
@woodyrd Where do you live in Colorado? My sons attended very racially and socio-economically diverse schools. The proliferation of charter schools in Denver has made those schools less diverse than they were 15-20 years ago, but it is not hard to find them if you live in a diverse city.
5
Enough already. Now we are splitting hairs about racial attitudes. We are who we are and sometimes looking at who we are is painful. Trumps one vote for himself didn't win him the White House. Trump is only a symptom of the disease that plagues us. The cure for the disease that plagues us will only come about with demographics changing. There is little hope for changing the hearts and minds of folks who don't want change.
60
@Steven McCain
What do you mean by this? “The cure for the disease that plagues us will only come about with demographics changing.”
Is your solution “less white people”? Where are they going to go? If diversity truly is a strength, shouldn’t we be encouraging mass emigration throughout the world, or are we just hogging that “strength” throughout the west?
Also, how vehemently racist is your solution? What would you think of someone who said that Venezuela’s problems will only come about with demographics changing? Also, what do you call a white person that isn’t énamored with his children being phased out?
3
This is a distinction without a real difference but I appreciate the optimism.
2
So, according to the research cited in the article, 8% of the population identifies as “progressive activists”. I’m curious as to what percentage of media (social or traditional) commentators and opinion writers identifies as “progressive activists”?? In particular, as a NYT reader for over 55 years, I wonder what the percentage is in the NYT’s “Opinion” department. While I fully support the publishing of strong opinion, I believe that the opinion columns should reflect a fairly broad range of reasonable views. Too much emphasis on one or the other point of view turns a media outlet into a political mouthpiece that supports a particular agenda. Over the past 2-3 decades, The Times has fallen into that trap, particularly in the areas of gender and race. This eventually reinforces the message of its political opponents, and erodes the credibility it attained over a century of serious journalism.
39
Excellent article; average Americans of all races seem to get along pretty well on a day-to-day basis, but if you only read the media you'd think we live in a racist, violent, homophobic, anti-trans, crazed society that resembles some type of Gulag. Perhaps the real problem in America is the Intelligentsia and its ideology which colors reality, as they seek "confirming evidence" about how horrible the USA is. Could we do better? Yes. Is it as bad as CNN and NYTimes make it out to be? Not at all.
46
A decent start to a long conversation which really has more to do with the declining middle class, the increase in an educated colorful America, and the search for scapegoats that help explain away self perceived failures and inadequacy. It’s frustration. anger, jealousy that creates racism. America is the shiny Economy on the Hill. Not the world’s leader in equality. Read history people.
66
@Bradley Stein
"It’s frustration. anger, jealousy that creates racism". I would absolutely agree. Often it is said that all racism is intrinsic to a person and comes from their philosophy. But in reality, often we adopt attitudes and emotions that emanate from our experiences. So that the wealth disparity has increased, so has the anger among (Mostly) "white" Americans who have seen their relative situation decline for themselves and their communities. With the increase in anger, people often seek out other people who feel the same emotions and find brethren predominantly among people who have adopted negative and racist altitudes. And anger can be like a drug which provides a "high" and becomes addictive. Practicing Buddhist and Christians understand that -which accounts for their emphasis on the "middle way", forgiveness and compassion. Note that "white liberals" can suffer from the same disease of self righteousness and anger (See ANTIFA)- and even if their immediate effect often is milder, they end up validating the worst emotions of those who are susceptible to racism.
Bravo! Some original, fact-based opinion, with an optimistic outlook. Now if only white liberals would read it and re-evaluate their views a bit.
28
Thank you for this piece. It is a rare burst of responsible journalism from this paper. It is the liberal elites who are pounding us with this message of widespread racism. Very few Americans are racist and even fewer would act to discriminate against another based on race. This is a false story that has been stealing the national spotlight for far too long. Get up, work hard and live with honesty and integrity, people will respect you and you will succeed. Blame others, ask for favors and preach "injustice" and you will face much deeper challenges in life - regardless of race.
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@John Wilson
" Very few Americans are racist?" Are we living in different countries?
I hear racist comments regularly. If you mean very few Americans are alt-right, white supremacist, KKK loving racists, then I would agree. But plenty of Americans, I would dare say the majority, harbor racist views. The degree varies, but in my experience it has been very easy to overhear comments about lazy black people, black people who want everything handed to them, minorities taking advantage of the welfare system, people having babies with different fathers that they can't afford to raise etc. My country has a long way to go.
This is an interesting article that brings up points I’ve suspected for a while. The intersectionalist progressives who virtue signal and call out every human with some perceived moral frailty would like you to believe that they hold the majority view.
This study shows just how wrong they are.
25
A lot of this comes down to semantics, and how you get your point across. "White privilege" is probably not the best term to use, because what you're really describing is treatment everyone should consider normal. Jaywalking or a broken tail light shouldn't turn into an excuse to search you for drugs regardless of your race. But I suppose it's more concise than any term I can think of that would more accurately describe a denial of basic courtesies and rights to minorities that should be taken for granted.
As for diversity, liberals are probably guilty of trying to oversell the benefits, when in most situations it really doesn't matter that much. I work for an airline. We find it quite useful to have a diverse staff interacting with our customers who can speak various languages, and have a native level understanding of the different nations and cultures represented by our customers. Baggage handlers and mechanics? While I can't see any harm in diversity among these groups, suggesting there is any special benefit seems a bit of a stretch.
16
@crankyoldman I like the way you put it. As you imply the meaning of privilege for many is the "silver spoon" metaphor, not very helpful.
2
We're all more complicated than the media or politicians, who like to simplify us into useful categories. But Republicans and Democrats are alike in having oversimplified views of each other.
Overt racism is rare among Republicans. Their most common racial opinion is not about any race, but about the fact that "liberals" are obsessed with race. They may acknowledge the reality of institutional racism, but argue that insisting on it perpetuates rather than addresses the problem. The danger in the Right's position is that they mistake actual racism for principled challenges to "political correctness" (as they do with Trump). Worse, the most simplistic forms of this view (against, as with Trump) exploit & incite actual racism.
The Left is also driven to untenable positions by distorted views of the opposition. We seem blind to injustice if it isn't presumed to be racially motivated. When Republicans suppress votes to rig elections, they are challenged only on their method's racial implications. Poverty is condemned only because of its racial distribution.
Unlike the writer, I'm not encouraged. Race is a fiction, so even if we were literally divided by race, the division would be ideological. On every issue, our divisions are defined by mutually reinforcing distortions that incite our impotent anger and guarantee that politicians will fight each other rather our problems. I note that there are many powerful people who prefer it this way.
17
The biggest problem with perceptions of race in America is the perception of America itself.
There is no one America.
People raised on Park Avenue and people raised in a Georgia hamlet or a Seattle suburb have not nearly as much in common as americans as they seem to think.
This land is simply too vast to understand easily, and the way education is systemically underfunded and media engages in consistent dumbing down and slogan thinking leaves us all the more ignorant of one another's lives.
Likewise to be black in a midwestern factory town, Saint Thomas, a housing project in the Bronx or a MacMansion in suburban Atlanta, a ghanian taxi driver in Dallas, a Governor of a Northeastern state — there's very little in the way these different people see the status quo and view their collective history.
I grew up in a place where everyone made the same amount of money, there were no homeless or even poor people, no rich people not even a country club. Schools integrated completely. All races there shared a commonality missing in much of the country.
This in no way implies the place or people I came from were superior in anyway, but it was much more peaceful and I've never had a problem seeing others as more like me than not.
It shows that you're always wrong when you assume anything about a person based on their race. You have to talk to people. Most people project their perception of race thinking their experience is a common one. It isn't.
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@Arthur
I agree completely. Further along this line of thinking is the inanity of Bernie Sanders and his ilk comparing us to Denmark. We are not and never will be Denmark. The country is too large and too disparate. I happen to think that's our strength, and welcome the diversity. I would never want to live in a place that homogenous, no matter how great their health care.
It's the income inequality we have to tackle.
3
@myasara
You're comparing apples and oranges, for example — Paris and London are both more diverse than any other american city except for New York but in both of those proud national capitals, everyone has healthcare — you can have both. The scandinavian model in economics is about shared growth. I've been there several times. The social justice in Scandinavia is in no way linked to being blond and blue eyed,it's linked to progressive taxation which is based on math. Math is color blind.
7
This article proves what I have long believed, but what the media has denied - it's not conservatives who have gone to the extremes in the last 20 years, but rather liberals who have swung so far left as to be unrecognizable from their party's views even a decade ago.
31
@Lucy Taylor...I disagree. When I was growing up in rural Illinois Everett Dirksen was the Republican minority leader in the Senate. He played a major role in passing the Johnson civil rights legislation and in fact a higher percentage of Senate Republicans voted for the civil rights legislation than Democrats. The Republican Party today is far right of where it was then and in fact I left the Republican Party for exactly that reason. I doubt if any of the Republican leadership would support the very same legislation if it were brought forward today. Trump has exacerbated the problem. The chant of "Build the Wall" at his rallies has absolutely nothing to do with border security - it is pure xenophobic racism, and every decent Republican needs to stop pretending otherwise.
7
@Lucy Taylor
Wow, really, that's what you got from reading this article? I am not trying to be flippant, but you just illustrated classic confirmation bias. I agree that the left wing of liberalism is dominant right now, but I don't think there's anything in this article that suggests that the right hasn't gone more right. Please read it again.
The neat proposition that "America isn’t racially divided, it’s divided by racial ideology" might be "grounds for [some] optimism"... if it were true. But mostly it sounds like a textbook example of a false dichotomy.
1
I can see a need for government to insure all people are treated equally... that business and industry or education....etc..can not discriminate on race... but our government has over stepped the mark and is now telling us we must love them and respect them...etc... when they have not earned it... there is a difference.
3
@AMON RA Love, respect, etc. are feelings - neither the government nor anyone else can demand you feel a certain way about anyone or anything. What is demanded is equal treatment in the eyes of the law. Honestly, as long as you are able to keep your thoughts and feeling to yourself no one will judge you, no matter how outrageous those thoughts may be.
1
Excellent article. One thing that I have found troubling in recent years is how freely and recklessly the word “racist” is used. I wonder if refraining from attacking people so often with this simplistic term could help the climate in general.
34
A clearer racial distinction may had by referring to people of a distinct biologic makeup, which determines what they look like, and to people with a distinct cultural heritage, which is what they learned and thus determines how they behave. Racist individuals dislike others because of this biologic makeup. They may dislike how someone behaves, but this isn't racism--it is a simple expression of their own cultural heritage.
5
Data > anecdotes. It would be nice to see more of this in national reporting.
11
I've just read the Christchurch shooter's word doc. He won't be happy when he sees this data: the political trends shown here are a dagger to his heart, metaphorically.
Diversity 101 - it’s the individual not the group to identify and consider.
2
I think that the difference is both bigger and more fundamental than merely a difference in views on race vs. racial ideology. It is about an understanding of American history and the role that it has played and continues to play in race relations.
The major difference between American white "liberals" and white "conservatives" has been an increased willingness among the aforementioned liberals to see systemic racism for what it is. The systemic part is key. The American ethos of hardwork, bootstrapping and grit, sacred though it may be, is largely a myth. America was built (and continues to be built) on the backs of minorities, poor people and the disenfranchised. The decks were stacked in favor of the white male patriarchy from day one and there are many who benefit from it to this day.
This, understandably, makes white conservatives uncomfortable. In turn, it also makes them view "race" in a vacuum. The reason why they view minorities warmly is because it allows them to consider race without context. But when you start talking about things like "racist walls" etc, is that involves taking the history of our country into consideration. For many, this is too great a task to undertake.
42
@Cortnee
I completely agree with you, Cortnee. Racism is systemic. It is not just in our views: it is embedded in our institutions and our laws. The first two obvious examples are Voter ID laws and the War on Drugs. On the face of them, they are both race neutral legislative initiatives. In practice, they shamelessly discriminate against minorities. We will not be able to bridge our differences on race until we acknowledge the systemic nature of racism in our society.
9
People tend to be happy to disparage a group to which they have applied various generalizations based on who knows what. But when a person gets to know a single individual from that group, the story changes. The -isms have everything to do with the person spouting them--their fears, their anger, their insecurities, their story--and nothing to do with others.
4
Pitch perfect findings. But this is THE critical issue of our time.
White liberals have moved further left than the minorities they claim to want to help. This is an enormous problem.
Its a problem because these liberal whites are, broadly, far wealthier and more powerful than conservative whites on the whole.
Forget the billionaires: the upper management of private companies, media personalities and university professors are (broadly) both very liberal and very powerful.
How can we NOT resent them? How can I not feel that these people are cloaking themselves in the cause of minorities (the only thing the don't already have) and not resent that they deign to speak for me?
Its baloney.
The slow burn, all encompassing racial tension we feel is really a class struggle. Middle class and poor whites are right to resent the elites and those elites will never admit that they use minorities as a feel-good cover to boost their own status.
I wish I shared Mr. Kaufmann's optimism. But as the world gets more unequal (and the elites keep buying their kids a leg up into college) these tensions will only increase.
86
@Arturo While I agree with you that white liberals tend to be wealthier than white conservatives, I disagree that their wealth and status are what drive their beliefs. White liberals tend to be better educated than white conservatives. You specifically pointed to upper management, media personalities and university professors (though I also disagree that upper management tends to be liberal). These groups are also more educated. So, I think that their education, not their wealth, drives their beliefs. Educated, self-aware people do not need to boost their status; they want all people to have the same opportunities and then those people can make of the opportunities what they want.
As to resentment of wealth, I agree that it exists, but the question is whether it is correct. Many are wealthier because they educated themselves. We should never denigrate education. Is their discrimination in education that needs to be corrected? Of course, the liberal white answer is yes, and we can debate whether that is true and, if so, how to correct it.
9
@Arturo THIS! And this is why Clinton lost those 40,000 votes in crucial counties.
5
@nycpat Not true in Michigan. Trump carried Michigan because 50,000 democrats in Wayne County, (mostly black) didn't vote. Had nothing to do with Trump, class conflict, "elites (just a fancy name for people you don't like) or anything like that. Just african-american voters who decided HRC was not worth voting for. Best get the facts before you opine.
2
Race pertains to communities defined by ancestry and physical appearance. Racial ideology turns instead on race as a political idea."
While I get the argument, it is somewhat troubling that a scholar would not bother to notice that the first sentence is, in fact, a political idea. The way we imagine difference doesn't fall out of the sky. It reflects systems of power in particular socio-historical circumstances.
24
Right on. Thanks.
1
I get very frustrated with the liberal focus on race and gender. I understand that there is still discrimination, but can't we focus on getting health care for everyone and get people jobs that can pay the bills? Instead of getting upset every time someone says something that could be offensive, wouldn't it better to get upset because people die from not having adequate medical care, or that there is such a thing as food insecurity in this country?
318
@Typical Ohio Liberal
That is just it--too often, people die from not having adequate medical care and food shortage *because of* racial discrimination. Additionally, people also die *because of* racial discrimination and have since the founding of this country. As an ethnic minority woman of Native American and Hispanic descent, I get frustrated not with the focus on racial injustuce, but in the dismissal of it.
53
@Typical Ohio Liberal
It's divide and conquer. There are a lot of grifter family dynasties in the democratic party as well as the republican. They have more grace and style, but they're no more interested in helping others than the Trumps. race and gender are important to understand for personal growth but yes they are used politically as shiny objects to distract you by those interested in looting the public till.
30
@Typical Ohio Liberal
Some people are taken in by it, but it's the media and the politicians (on "both" sides) who are most fixated on attitudes & identity. Avoiding doing anything about economic injustice is the point.
16
Outsized expressions of concern and affection for non white groups, traditionally blacks in particular, among whites seeking sophisticated liberal cache is nothing new. It is rooted in antebellum times, when wealthy, elite white owners regarded their slaves warmly while disdaining poor whites, fostering enduring antipathy between the two. In its modern form, this otherwise worthy deportment provides liberal cover for class based retrograde attitudes around universal, actual left issues including workers rights, income inequality, corporate governance and sustainable living. It also provides ready means to curb any genuinely left social activism. Sanctimonious litmus tests are quickly ordained for any political candidate (Ralph Nader, Bernie Sanders) that dares any leftist agenda minus crippling attestations flattering one identity group or another.
32
@Edwin your analysis connecting this to the 19th century does not explain the trends in the data... why has there been such a recent change?
5
I think a big difference is who you think of as "working class." Picture a mechanic, or someone who drives a truck. In some parts of the country, that person is white. In others, he might be black or Latino. The same goes for women in "pink collar" jobs.
If you your experience of working class people is that they're all white, you end up using euphemisms like "hard-working" when you mean to say "white people." The idea of people of color being just as hard-working, in the same jobs, doesn't compute. Likewise, if you live in a place where only non-white people work with their hands, you might be inclined towards the opposite mistake.
I'm in favor of policies that help working class people of all races, but it's hard to get there in the American system today.
17
@Maria Where do you get this? The term working class doesn't appear in the article at all?
Excellent article, and thank you for it. I suspect this same phenomenon exists in other diverse societies. Disagreements on policy instruments does not imply hate or suspicion of another group.
8
Can we have this conversation with different language?
The last time I looked, we were all part of one race , the human race.
Unfortunately, we have a hard time living together because of ethnic, cultural, religious and political divisions within our race.
15
@M..."Can we have this conversation with different language?"....Not while we have a President in the White House who refers to Mexican immigrants as murders and rapists, and has a white supremacist following in social media.
With all due respect, the distinction between “racially divided” and “divided by racial ideology” is a concept that most voters could neither articulate nor explain. However you wish to characterize America’s divisions surrounding the concept of racial (or ethnic) identity, the discussion begins and ends with Trump. Trump did not invent racial animosity, BUT he has encouraged it and told everyone who would listen to him that hatred, discrimination, and even violence is OK in order to “protect” a white supremacist world view in which people who are not “white” should never be allowed to fully participate in the social, political, and economic life of this nation. There is no possibility of "healing" as long as Trump is alive and in the White House.
68
@Jason Shapiro that’s giving Trump too much credit.
If the conversation starts and ends with him, does the ideological divide described in this article suddenly vanish? Did no such divide exist until he threw his hat into the ring? Surely the answer to both of these is No.
Giving him the megaphone that comes with the Presidency has exacerbated things, no question. But the problems around... well, many things... that his tenure has exposed existed well before he arrived, and once we’ve rid ourselves of him, there’ll still be work to do to correct them.
FWIW, it’s hard to square a criticism of Trump’s endorsement of violence with your unnecessary reference to Trump’s being “alive” as a blocker to progress. That’s inflammatory... subtly so, but inflammatory all the same. We all need to be careful about our choice of words and how others could interpret them, especially in such tense times.
13
I support your theory and the actions which must be taken to try to make sense of where we are on the spectrum of equality. Trump has done more damage to the unification of our people and destroyed our positive relationships with our historical allies along racial lines than any other president. He must be removed and or voted out. Only then can the work begin to continue our national efforts to support the words about all of us being created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights. We must return to those efforts to make the changes to bring us together and heal the chasms of division he has made among us.
5
@Justin Did you not read my words, "Trump did not invent racial animosity?" So you initial comment is superfluous. Insofar as your assertion that my other comment was "inflammatory," my response is, no, it's realistic. Perhaps you are one of those people who do not take Trump "literally?" I do and when he says racially insensitive, divisive, and yes inflammatory things, I take him very seriously. As long as Trump has a platform, such as Fox News, he will never stop his vile rhetoric. You can excuse it, explain it, or ignore it but you will be unable to stop it.
I read the results of that poll totally differently: it was based on ideology, not race. Does anyone think that a possible replacement for Northam might just be a Republican who would be preferred by more white voters than black? That totally explains the poll results, not some philosophical gymnastics around race that give cause for optimism.
34
I beg to differ with Eric Kaufmann's premise. American's are divided by both race and racial ideology.
White liberals and white conservatives may have different ideologies when it comes to race. But racial divisions in America are reflected in where people live, who their friends are, where they chose to worship, who they chose to date and marry, and where they want to send their children to school.
Let's not forget one of the underlying motivations behind racism is economic, political, and social power. Many white people may have no direct racial animus toward non-white people but when it comes to power, particularly economic and political power, they view race as a zero-sum game where they perceive gains by people of color as loses for themselves.
153
@Carl In some cases gains by non-white people are losses for white people. People dismiss things based on the fact that it's not a "zero sum game," but I see it as sharing a pie. Ideally it would be shared a lot more equitably than it is close to being shared in the U.S. with workers, but given our current system, if you have a share going to low-middle income X and increase the share of the share for members of X belonging to certain groups, the others have less to share. Certainly the rich aren't giving up anything they have.
Expect the rich to share more (i.e. "give up some of the pie") and things may change.
2
So let’s work more on economic issues.
@ You are exactly correct. Yes the gains and losses idea has been a powerful political concept. For example people were against welfare when it was promoted as a program for black "welfare queens". Race has long been used as a tool to divide people. And sadly it works.
4
I'm not sure why hoping that "political elites can one day heal the country's divisions" is a reasonable or even a desirable expectation. In recent years, political elites of both parties have been signally ineffective in addressing most of our chronic challenges.
65
@tomc: Agreed. And one of the two political parties doesn't even HAVE a "political elite" anymore.
A Truth and Reconciliation Commission of all persons, not elites, is necessary.Elites have had control of the institutions and have hardly moved the ball down the field unless people took to the streets.
TRC seeks to engage the maximum number of all citizen toward social resolution.
2
Americans are aware of race while American media are obsessed with race and attempt to use it to explain any and all differences in American social and political structure. It is quite instructive to see the lengths that the US' stenographers to power will go to avoid talking about socioeconomic class differences in the USA that they like to perceive.
143
@Steve Bruns
It's my contention that economic injustice confuses and exacerbates social injustice. Reduce or remove the economic injustice and lay bare what's left.
12
@Steve Bruns
Thank you. Concise and to the point.
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@Slipping Glimpser Especially when ready scapegoats are provided, eh?
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Americans are divided by their BELIEFS on race, which is different from merely their views. Their views are a product of their beliefs, and beliefs cause most, if not all, the unnecessary suffering and deaths in the world. Beliefs are not confined merely to religion, but are also found in nationalism, race, sports teams, and everything else that divides us. Calling beliefs views lets the real culprit off the hook.
In the near future, we will program the human mind in the computer based on a "survival" algorithm, which will provide irrefutable proof as to how we trick the mind with our ridiculous beliefs about what is supposed to survive - producing minds programmed de facto for destruction. These minds see the survival of a particular belief as more important than the survival of us all. When we understand all this, we will begin the long trek back to reason and sanity.
See RevolutionOfReason.com
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I think that it is interesting that among the opponents of illegal immigration on our southern border are legal Hispanic immigrants. They made the effort to abide by the law and immigrate legally and see those who want to bypass the legal immigration process as usurpers. They may also see illegal immigrants as competition for their jobs.
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@J. Waddell Or the "legal" immigrants have their own issues vis a vis the poorer, more desperate brethren coming to our borders now. Isn't it possible that there exists an internal discriminatory attitude within the population from the same country? The other exists everywhere, even among your own.
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Legal immigrants are not afraid that illegal immigrants will take their jobs. Legal immigrants are people who generally are well-off in their own countries.It costs many thousands of dollars to get one's residency. People who can afford this rarely work picking crops.
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@Kathleen absolutely true. People forget that every country has its own set of economic and racial stratification. For example. the economic condition of indigenous Chileans vs educated city-bred Chileans is going to be incredibly different. The lives they may lead abroad, in the States or elsewhere, will vary tremendously despite them both being immigrants.
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