Americans are divided on whether society overlooks racial discrimination or sees it where it doesn’t exist

atomicfox@lemm.ee to politics @lemmy.world – 78 points –
Americans are divided on whether society overlooks racial discrimination or sees it where it doesn’t exist
pewresearch.org

Views on this have changed in recent years, according to Pew Research Center surveys. In 2019, 57% said people overlooking racial discrimination was the bigger problem, while 42% pointed to people seeing it where it really didn’t exist. That gap has narrowed from 15 to 8 percentage points.

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These studies really need to stop asking racists if they think they're racist.

It’s such a broad term that encompasses a lot of behaviors. From micro aggressions we don’t even realize we’ve done to outright xenophobia. Maybe this metric has some value over time.

It's an interesting metric. It tells you more about the person asked than the question asked.

Do you think you're racist? I probably am, a little bit. But I end up overthinking it, like "shit, I hope that didn't seem racist."

Why? It seems useful to track

Reminds me of the constant need to check in with rural voters at a diner

If these people had anything good to say they wouldn't be in a rural diner

Those folks get to vote, too, though. So their views are relevant, no matter what you think of them.

And because of the electoral college, odds are decent that their votes count more than yours do. So actually, their views are more relevant than liberal views. Because "democracy".

We shouldn't ignore rural voters entirely (which I don't think anyone is saying). I agree that they are overrepresented and that's a major problem.

We also have places like DC and PR that basically don't get any representation. And big states often don't get nearly as much representation per population as small ones. The US is extremely undemocratic with how they chose to implement things.

Right!! So we keep putting them on TV to see what they think.

Yet they're only a fraction of the population. I'm not sure I've ever seen a segment where they interviewed urban voters. Lots of Joe the Plumber, not a lot of Jane the marketing manager

In fairness, interviewing Joe the Plumber makes for much more interesting TV. Who wants to listen to Jane the Marketing Manager? Even her ex-husband noped out of that once he realized his mistake...,

Literally my point.

Rural voter issue "Listen to the plight of the common clay of this fine land!"

Urban voter issue "nobody wants to hear it"

You know what the rural folks in my family did when they realized there were no opportunities? They moved to a fucking city

I won't argue that, but I will simply point out that the goal of the news media is to get eyeballs, not to inform. They will go with whatever story gets eyeballs that they can then sell insurance and beer to.

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