Would these right wingers be as crazy if the first black president were named Bobby Ray Jefferson?

[HamdenRice]

Just wondering. It can go both ways, I suppose. It was Obama's "post-racial" background, or the perception of it, that helped get him elected. But his exoticism seems to be driving some of these people around the bend.

(Please don't read anything into this question that I'm not asking.)

[ecstatic]

1. Has a psych experiment been developed that tested for reactions

to foreign sounding names? I know a race one has been done, but I'm not sure if someone tested for the combination of both. :shrug:

[HamdenRice]

2. Yesterday someone posted something like that

Not exactly names, but background. It was some sort of survey in which Americans rated Tony Blair as more American than Connie Chung -- things like that.

[liberal N proud]

3. What is an "American" name?

The great melting pot where cultures settled in different regions. What sounds normal to one set of american would sound foreign to americans from a different region.

Anyone who doesn't realize the diversity is living in a bubble.

[HamdenRice]

5. Sure, but reality is that the average American is more comfortable with Sonny Chan than Chan Songyi

[liberal N proud]

7. The average american is too sheltered then

These sheltered people tend to be the people who born raised, live and die withing 50 miles of where they were born and never interact with the real America.

[Fire1]

12. True. n/t

[NatBurner]

4. bobby ray jefferson is too Black

robert raymond jeffers (III), if u don't mind

[HamdenRice]

6. Rofl! Yeah, that's what I thought. But if he hadn't died young, Harold Washington ...

might have been first, and he was very "Black" and managed to woo a lot of Chicago's white community.

He was an amazing fellow.

[DevonRex]

8. I think his name simply gives them an additional vehicle to pretend

they're not racist. So they use the scary muslin thing and the birther thing.

[Brewman_Jax]

9. Probably

just because they voted for him, or didn't vote for him, doesn't mean that they'd want Bobby Ray Jefferson or Barack Obama to be their neighbor.

[Thrill]

10. Yes. Because his skin still wouldn't be white

[librechik]

11. They pretended Clinton was black so they could hate him more

that's how sick and crazy they are.

[oviedodem]

13. Here is the reality guys:

1. If Obama was darker, he would not have even beaten Hillary regardless of his name.

2. His name IS without a doubt a deal breaker for some. I had someone here tell me that his "name" was not American enough

3. Yes, sadly, if his name was "Bobby Ray Jefferson" the vitriol would be a little less but not by much.

[HamdenRice]

14. Well ...

Go ahead then, tell it like it is.

[TheKentuckian]

15. Like I was saying during the election, his name cost him at least 3 points

So, yeah it would be less vitriol but only by a tad or two.