There was a good piece by Nicholas D. Kristof in Sunday’s Week in Review section of The New York Times on the impact that race may be having on this campaign.
Kristof writes that Barack Obama’s race has probably cost the candidate about 6 percentage points in the polls, though not because of outright racists.
Such racists account for perhaps 10 percent of the electorate and, polling suggests, are mostly conservatives who would not vote for any Democratic presidential candidate.
Rather, most of the votes that Mr. Obama actually loses belong to well-meaning whites who believe in racial equality and have no objection to electing a black person as president — yet who discriminate unconsciously.
“When we fixate on the racist individual, we’re focused on the least interesting way that race works,” said Phillip Goff, a social psychologist at U.C.L.A. who focuses his research on “racism without racists.” “Most of the way race functions is without the need for racial animus.”
It’s not hate, necessarily, but a lingering distrust born of a long and terrible history of racism and discrimination. It is racism, but a racism based not on individual prejudice but on cultural attitudes.
I mention this because of a conversation my wife had tonight with a friend who said she distrusts Obama. Annie asked her why, which elicited one of those vague answers — “something about him,” “I just don’t know him,” etc. — that lacks substance, that comes from someplace other than a well-reasoned exploration of the candidates’ backgrounds or stances on the issues.
Our friend is not a racist, but I think that race is playing a part in her reaction to Obama. I fully believe that a white candidate with Obama’s resume, a white candidate named Smith or Johnson or Petty, would be getting quite a different reaction.
Hank Kalet 