Right-wing polling firm Rasmussen released a survey a couple of days ago that says that more Americans view black people as being "more racist" than whites or Hispanics.
Coming from one of the least accurate polling companies of the 2012 election cycle, the poll is viewed skeptically by many -- though not conservatives who hail it as proof positive that the white man just can't catch a break in America, yo.
And even among those who largely dismiss Rasmussen's methods and findings -- Rasmussen surveyed 1,000 people and asked nine strangely open-ended questions about "who's more racist" -- there seems to be at least a passing fascination with the suggestion that more than one-third of blacks themselves think black people are "more racist" than whites or Hispanics.
Yes, I do realize that if Rasmussen could be reliably counted on, Mitt Romney would be president, but that doesn't excuse a nationally regarded polling company for doing such a piss-poor job of tackling such a serious topic, and then having the gall to crow about it.
Defining Racism
The most obvious flaw is that the poll doesn't define racism. Rather, the first four questions just assume that everyone polled is operating from pretty much the same definition of racism and "racist." (Long about the fifth question, the survey finally touches on the actual meaning — but only to ask whether it can include racial discrimination by all races or whites only.)
That definition is everything.
Nowhere is the nation's cowardice about confronting both the lethal history and continuing ugly legacy of racism more apparent than in the rhetorical games we choose to play around the term itself.
Surely one of the biggest obstacles to even discussing racism reasonably in this country is the fact that too many folks -- most notably, whites who know jack about the debilitating impact of racism on the lives of people of color -- insist that the phenomenon be defined in such a way as to impute as little collective culpability onto them as possible.
"Racism" no longer is attached to the encoded and entrenched bigotry that continues to send blacks to jail more than whites for similar crimes or that allows whites with high school diplomas to earn more than blacks with college degrees. It's no longer understood as an institutional cancer -- enforced through governmental policy as much as hooded terrorism -- that continues to infect the lives of people of color at a near-cellular level.
History be damned, right along with every shred of contemporary economic, social, political, housing, employment and health data that you can find demonstrating the continued inequity that African-Americans and Hispanics suffer in the U.S.
More Than a Few Bad Words
Easier to just reduce "racism" to a few bad words, some harsh stares and some tasteless jokes uttered three decades back by a diabetic old food matron. Make it about our "feelings," about our base "prejudices" against the unknown or unfamiliar. Take power out of the equation. Remove also centuries of chattel slavery, social terror, legal segregation, illegal (but tolerated) segregation, inferior schools, police brutality, cultural chauvinism and economic deprivation.
And by all means, let's please not act as if any of this has anything at all to do with why a certain group of Americans tends to get ahead more than others.
But the fact of the matter is that, while all men are capable of hatred, racism isn't simply the sensation of detesting another human being. And some forms of hate really are stronger than others.
It's that reality that sucks every iota of validity from not just this poll, but even the more seriously executed efforts to "survey" attitudes about racism, social progress and varying thresholds of prejudice.
Used Against White Liberals
Rasmussen's claims mean nothing, and not just because they come from Rasmussen.
Sure, outfits like the Wall Street Journal will use the poll as a cudgel against white liberals -- chiding them for claiming moral superiority over "other whites" (presumably, ignorant-ass wing nuts).
And yes, agents of mythical white grievance -- the people who look past corporate boardrooms overrun with white men to bitch about affirmative action -- will have a field day treating a poorly sampled sliver of opinion as race gospel.
But as fascinating as some may find these surveys, what does it matter to make unserious queries like this? What does it change? Who does it serve?
Do African-Americans who don't get called back for jobs for no other reason than that the names on their resumes sound "too black" suddenly start getting more offers?
Do Hispanics who are disproportionately shaken down by New York City cops as a result of "stop-and-frisk" policy suddenly get picked on less?
We need to entertain ourselves with distractions like the Rasmussen "who's more racist" poll every so often, I suppose. It helps keep us convinced of the big lie about American racism: that it's nothing more than a few bad ideas that some individuals "think" rather than a long-standing policy prescription that still drives far too much of the evil that a nation does.
