Are poor or undereducated whites more likely to be racist?

[Bill McBlueState]

That seems to be the assumption underlying all the posts about why Obama isn't doing well in West Virginia. I haven't seen any evidence, apart from anecdotes, that West Virginians are actually more racist than people from other states. Just that the level of education is low and the poverty is high. Apparently many people consider those to be proxies for racism.

I ask because some of the most racist people I know have college degrees and make a lot of money. The idea that racism is more of a problem for the lower class is new to me.

[Aloha Spirit]

1. You mean, where's the poll that asks West Virginians if they consider themselves racist?...

West Virginia is relatively isolated from mainstream media, many people never interact with black people, anti-black racism is overt and publicly accepted. Like racism everywhere, it's not that people who say racist things are bad people, most of them just don't know better. Partly from lack of education, resources, exposure, lots of reasons.

[tblue]

10. I have a friend from Arkansas who went back home for a wedding, and she said the 'N" word was just a

normal, and frequent, part of conversation, even when children were present. Now, W Va. is not Arkansas, but I think they may have that in common.

[L0oniX]

16. Ah ...that figures ...Clinton country.

[Bill McBlueState]

26. of course a poll wouldn't work

But someone has to have studied the relationships among income, education, and attitudes about race. I doubt they're as clear-cut as people like to assume.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. It also depends upon your personal culture, how your world is organized.

Inherently there are overt and discreet racial divides in any given culture. Discrimination is either benign where you compare and contrast and learn or it is harmful where people are controlled and perhaps even murdered.

If you are constantly exposed to racism in your family, your circle of acquaintances and friends, at your workplace, in your church, in your school, at social events, at the supermarket, how your town is divided into sections where certain groups are supposed to live separate and apart from each other, and that's the way it has been since the day you were born and that's how it's SUPPOSED TO BE, it's difficult NOT to be racist unless you decide it's wrong and you can no longer live that way.

[onehandle]

3. Deep South Southerner checking in.

It's true.

[TexasObserver]

4. It's because old white people tend to be less educated and have lower income.

It's not the education or income numbers. It's the age/race combo. Old white people hate Obama because he's black. It's not any more complicated than that.

[tblue]

5. Not sure I wanna go there. I'm neither undereducated nor white.

But I do believe historically, it's true. People tend to unite based on race more than on class, and poor whites were purposely distracted from understanding who benefits from their poverty. The thinking, sometimes, goes something like this: "I may be poor, but at least I ain't no damn negro."

[islandmkl]

6. not to be too simplistic, you might find that in the last 140+ years, post-Civil War...

the poor, white, and for the most part under-educated white was offered the one social set that was 'below' him/her...the blacks

the 'divide and conquer' practices of the monied, land-owning, politically powerful spawned such organizations as the KKK...

throughout the country, maybe more so in the South, but by no means ONLY in the South, this divide will continue because it is the SYSTEM to KEEP ALL 'UNDERCLASS' PEOPLE DOWN...

what better than to have a poor white man blame his troubles on a poor black man...

to say we have come a long way is to not realize the extent of the journey...

[enid602]

35. fear

I think many times, those who are not secure in our system are fearful of those they feel are on a lower rung, who they fear might try to take their spot. Hence, racism lower-income whites in the South, and a feeling of animosity in many states toward Hispanics.

[uponit7771]

7. Nope, Usually more uneducated the state or country the more exclusionary they are. WV is 2nd lowest

...rate of HS graduation in country.

[southern_belle]

8. That is too broad a statement/question

I think. It depends on the individual person's circumstances, including where they live. :shrug:

[EFerrari]

9. It would make sense if there's a correlation between a lack of ed

and not trusting people who are different than you are.

[Tesha]

11. Yes. (NT)

[woolldog]

12. In my experience, yes.

Education is correlated with openness to other cultures, ethnicities etc...

[Texas Hill Country]

13. k&r - this is a horrendous meme and needs to stop.

[Kittycat]

14. I won't go that far, however...

I do think it makes them more suseptible to pandering and half or non-truths, which Clinton is doing these days (ie. Gas Tax Pander, Obama isn't doing anything for the middle class, elitist charges, etc.)

[SoCalDem]

15. Possibly.. here's why

Poor people tend to not travel much. Many poor people live their entire lives in one small community. If that community is relatively isolated, ideas of the group never get challenged or changed over time.. New people do not move in, and long-timers do not move out.

When my grandparents were young, MOST people were poor (the depression, y'know)..but they did not FEEL poor or all that personally deprived, because all they had to measure their lives with were their immediate neighbors.. They only had radio, and the movies. Everyone KNEW the movies were "not real", and the radio allowed their own imaginations to describe the surroundings & lives of the radio stars..

TV changed poverty.. People SAW how they WANTED to live, and they had products of every possible kind, thrust at them hour after hour..things they could never afford for their kids..

Once people knew what they were "missing", the next step for many, was to rationalize WHY they could not have those things.. If they were working hard (as most were/are) it's not a far step to then blame their unfortunate lives on "someone else"..

Politicians ALWAYS blame things on "others".. At times it was the Irish, the Germans, the Chinese, but in small backwards communities, there may not have been many of "those people", or if there were, they (the ones who looked like the others) they were probably poor too...but the African Americans who were being helped after the Civil Rights era, became the obvious target for blame..and if those isolated communites had a southern twinge to them, there was probably civil war resentments playing into things as well..

[atufal1c]

33. I think you're on to something here.

People (all people) want to feel better than other people and to understand why they're not doing as well as they might.

I also believe that a lack of travel and/or education allows you to maintain your illusions about other people.

And look, deciding that higher education has a value requires a certain mindset. You have to believe, in some way, that knowledge, that information, matters. Higher education forces you to challenge and defend your own presumptions. It will probably expose you to people not like you. It will probably expose you to ideas that are different from what you grew up with.

When you come home, people are probably going to think it's changed you, even if you don't.

[Exilednight]

17. Racism is fear and ignorance, and they go hand in hand. If someone is .......

uneducated, they tend to be ignorant (or not knowing). People have a tendency to fear the unknown.

If they're uneducated about race, then they're ignorant about race, and tend to fear those that aren't of the same race.

[Bill McBlueState]

25. people can be "officially" well-educated and still be ignorant

Especially with the transformation of colleges into high-end vocational training programs in recent years, it's pretty easy to go to college for 4 years and never be asked to think very deeply about race.

An extended education isn't the cure-all we'd like it to be.

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. That has been true in my experience, yes

The lower the socio economic status, the more likely you see racism. But not just from white people, from all people. At least that is what I have seen.

[ismnotwasm]

19. Maybe more honest about it

Education can put a veneer of civilization on the most disgusting of minds.

[Bill McBlueState]

27. i think you're onto something there

"Educated" people know not to say certain words in public, but an education doesn't necessarily change the way a person thinks.

[emilyg]

20. Are uneducated, poor black people more likely to be racists?

[KittyWampus]

21. they're more likely to be manipulated through use of fear and appeals to their reptilian brain.

also, more likely to be stuck in the Tribalist mindset.

[napi21]

22. I think poor whites feel they always have to be fighting for THEIR jobs

and that some other "intruder" usually of a different race, are always trying to take that job away from them. I don't know much about WVa, and I don't THINK this is happening much anymore, but I recall back in the early 80's in Pgh. Pa. you couldn't get a job unless you were a minority. There was such a push for all, at least major companies, to balance out their workforce with a certain % minority. A stupid story but a true one: I was working for the Federal Reserve Bank, 11PM to 8AM shift. We did all the clerical work clear checks from all banks each day. Since the checks were delivered to us via courier, and some deliveries were dependent on FEX EX flights, there were a lot of hurry up and get done then sit and wait times. During the wait times, we were each to take turns sweeping the floor because rubber bands & paper clips would fall during the rush time. This one night, a nice latino fella was told it was his turn to sweep. He responded "I don't SWEEP anyone's floor...I QUIT!" that AM at the end of our shift I overheard the night shift manager talking to the day shif managers about what happened and heard them say "DAMN IT! HE was our only minority!" I was shocked to hear that. I was young and stupid at the time, and I thought they would have been more concerned with losing any employee.

Anyway, I think that's at least part of the reason poorer whites are resentful against any minorities. They view them as trying to take their jobs. I actually hear a lot of that attitude here in Ga. within the construction business. The damn owners are always eager to hire a latino because they'll work for less, so they fire the higher paid white guys. I've never had it happen to me, but I can see why that would cause resentment!

[graycem]

23. I think so..

because ignorance of something breeds fear. And that is what racism is. Fear of the unknown. And it is not just against black people. Ignorance causes fear of many things. I remember a few years ago, in a small rural town in Louisiana, this particular neighborhood were acting like complete asses, signing petitions, and fighting every step of the way because of a home in "their" neighborhood being made into a group home for the mentally handicapped. It wasn't because they had reason to be "afraid" of those kind in their neighborhood based on any proof or facts. There was nothing at play except being afraid of them because they were different. The program went ahead with the plan to house them in the area and eventually they learned to accept it, and the home is still there, and the noise died down when they saw they weren't really in any danger from the scary mentally handicapped people. Ignorance breeds fear, period.

[Two Americas]

24. no

Educated people and city people and northern people have learned more sophisticated and euphemistic ways to express racism. In some ways, racism among educated and successful people is more pernicious because it is masked so well.

When people are working together toward shared goals with objective performance standards, racism melts away - I have seen this in athletics, the military, music and farming. For racism to persist, people must be kept in segregated situations and rigged games.

It is amazing to me how people living in northern suburbs, and able to mouth very "enlightened" and acceptable "views" about race, lead completely segregated lives and rant about "gangs" and "drugs" and "crime" and "immigrants are OK so long as they are legal" and other code words, slogans and euphemisms for attitudes that are very racist.

It is easy enough to find some idiot in rural areas, and get some ridiculous quotes out of him and then use that to characterize everyone from that area. This allows sophisticated liberals to reassure themselves that since they are not at all like that, therefore they are not racists - which really means they think of themselves as being superior to others. That is a form of denial and projection, and that denial and projection do more to hold racism in place than any overtly racist rural person can.

[Bill McBlueState]

30. thanks

This is what I've been trying to say all day!

[Catherina]

28. Not more likely to be any more prejudiced than other people

just more likely to let their fears be manipulated and exploited in bloc.

Education low, poverty high, a political prize at stake and politicians trying to get votes. History has frightening examples of what happens when people's fears are stirred up even though the people being exploited aren't any more racist, antiSemitic, antiMuslim etc than other people.

A financially stable person doesn't resent others for keeping him oppressed and an educated prejudiced person can examine their unreasonable fears more honestly.

Low education has never been a recipe for enlightenment and fairness towards the stranger.

[lumberjack_jeff]

29. Of course they must. What other reason could anyone possibly have for voting against your guy? n/t

[Bill McBlueState]

31. Unless I'm misinterpreting your response,

I don't think you read my post very carefully.

[lumberjack_jeff]

39. You're right, I did. My apologies.

I think much (most?) of the opposition to Obama, particularly among rural working class people is misattributed to racism because it's an easy diagnosis which we are hyperattuned to see.

[NJmaverick]

32. A better question is this- Do racists tend to be uneducated or poor?

[Bill McBlueState]

34. many of the racists I know

have bachelor's degrees (or higher) and make pretty good money.

[NJmaverick]

36. But do they represent the majority of racists? From what I have see

the racists do tend to have less education, and as a result tend to make less money.

[Leopolds Ghost]

41. Wrong, most every gated community resident and upper class Republican is pretty racist

Else gated communities would not exist.

[EFerrari]

45. How many poor people do you know well?

:)

[Two Americas]

40. an even better question

Is racism a state of being? We ask if a person IS a racist. What does that mean exactly? I think it is nonsensical. Arguing about who "is" and who is not a racist is a way to sabotage the discussion about race and remove all meaning and power from it. Racism is not something you "be" it is something you do.

The right wingers turned racism into something invisible and personal - a person "is" or is not a racist, depending upon... depending upon what? Things they say?

"I don't care whether or not a person likes me, so long as they have no power to harm me."

Many liberals think they "are" not racists, because they "like" minority people or think pleasant thoughts about "them."

I think much of the difference between liberal and conservative attitudes about race come down to this - conservatives think that "they" should not be coddled, but should be disciplined and punished. Liberals think that "they" should be treated with love and affection. But in both cases, there is a "they" and in both cases people are thinking about a group of human beings as though they were pets.

[JimGinPA]

37. Poor Less Educated People Would Have Less Opportunity To Get Away From A Racist Environment...

Racism is a learned behavior IMHO.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

38. Not more likely to be.

But they are less likely to be presented with ideas that challenge their worldview, or leave their hometown and experience a variety of other people like many educated people are able to do.

[stillcool]

42. We learn what we are taught...

and we teach what we learn.

[Freddie Stubbs]

43. Yes, but you can say the same thing about poor or undereducated Hispanics or African Americans

[Marrah_G]

44. No.

[Lilith Velkor]

46. Funny how those who do not benefit from racism are blamed for it by those who do

Isn't it?