The New York Times is currently running a series on how race is affecting the 2008 Presidential election. Yesterday, their reporters headed South and interviewed a few locals....many of whom they found at the local Wal-Mart.
Take a look: do you think this article accurate represents the electorate in this region? How voters in the rural South?
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4 comments:
I think that the comments made in the article are mostly (if not entirely) racist. I do not believe that everyone in the rural South is racist like that, however, i do think that it is much more prevalent there than most other places, such as the North. I feel that the high amount of racism, and the combination of blatant racism and subtler, passive racism does represent the rural South to a degree.
Yeah, I agree with Alex here. These people do not accurately represent Southern voters, though I know that there are racist people out there. Even today, as is obvious in the article, people are not going to vote for Barack Obama simply because he is black. Overall, however, I don't like how this article portrays the South as a whole.
I agree with Alex also, I agree that the comments made about Obama and his credibility are mostly racist. However, I have been to places all over the South, urban and rural, and I am shocked at some, and there are alot, of the culture in these places. Meaning that it is alright and normal for racism and the open expression of racism to be in these communities. In the article that I and many Southerners have first-handedly experienced is that Southerners tend to use the bible to back up their beliefs and opinions, and to a certain extent, even impress their beliegs upon others.
And I have heard racist remarks about the 2008 Presidential Campaign from my own hometown, and school even. I have heard that people will not vote for Obama because he is black, and that people will vote for McCain because he isn't. So I do believe that there are people and communities out there, not as rare as many think, that use racism to influence their lives. I just wish the article would have had more pro-Obama southerners to equally distribute the sides, because the South still looks and has the reputaion of having racism.
The comments made by most of these southern Wal-Mart patrons are completely narrow-minded. When did human beings lose the ability to reason? Instead of being pro-republican or pro-democrat, pro-white or pro-black, how about being pro-individual. Racism is just another way of saying that someone is making uneducated judgments based on non-relevant details. In this case, look at a candidate which represents your interests more, not one which represents your race more. The south has always been a region of increased racism, but this kind of mentality reaches throughout the U.S. I've heard from many people in the north that they'd rather vote McCain simply because they are afraid of the change that might come from Obama being elected. I, personally, support Obama far more than McCain...all I have to say is Debates. Although I cannot vote, I've looked into both candidates agendas and economic plans. I base my opinions off of facts and character, not color. Isn't that how a democracy is supposed to work?
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