Polling!

[theweaselking]

75% of Americans approve of interracial dating.

This, of course, means that one in four Americans are still racist assholes, but it's a start. (and no, I don't have a comparative figure for anywhere else.)

Related, 32% of Alabama thinks that Hurricane Katrina was sent by God to kill the filthy sinners in New Orleans. Another 6% are "not sure".

Comments

*squee*

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

25% probably isn't all that much higher than in a lot of other countries. It isn't perfect, but humans have that damn annoying tendency to not be perfect.
Painfully cute pic, which I'm sure you knew.

[harald387.livejournal.com]

No, 32% of Alabamians believe Katrina was sent by God to kill sinners. Read the article again.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Gah. I read it, then I typed the wrong one.

That's why there's the "related". I was making a snide comment about the closeness of the numbers.

[waterspyder.livejournal.com]

I wonder if I read too much into things... why is it then men date women... always in that order.. do women not date men?

[dolston.livejournal.com]

Cadence mostly. Short-short-long is fairly common.

[eididdy.livejournal.com]

I'm still convinced God sent Katrina to punish the south for voting for Bush.

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

...what?

Sorry, I was distracted by all the kitten cuteness.

[anivair.livejournal.com]

coincidence? I think not.

[jirel.livejournal.com]

What they really need to ask is how many people approve of white men "dating" black women and how many approve of black men "dating" white women. I suspect you would then see a huge difference in the percentage. My experience (not personal) has been that people that don't blink at a white man and black woman will glare at a black man dating a white woman. In the (very old) south many men had mixed or black mistresses while the white women had to stay "pure" and not even touch a black man. Not that that was how they referred to them. There's a deep unacknowleged predjudice that I believe still exists. Still, at least you can now see mixed race couples in public without them having to be afraid of being hunted back to their homes and tormented by verbal slurs or more. When I was a kid, we never saw mixed race couples. Things have definitely improved. Someday maybe the question won't even occur.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

What they really need to ask is how many people approve of white men "dating" black women and how many approve of black men "dating" white women.
The poll covers that.

There is no longer even a double standard on the gender involved, with 71% of the entire sample approving a black man dating a white woman and 75% backing a white man dating a black woman.

It doesn't mention the margin of error, but 4% seems noticeable but small.

[jirel.livejournal.com]

Well I'm surprised - but pleased. :)

[kali-kali.livejournal.com]

It doesn't necessarily mean they're racist. They just prefer people to "keep to their own kind" when it comes to dating and starting families. You find that type of thinking in all races and ethnicities - I didn't see anywhere in the survey a breakdown by racial group as to approval rates for interracial dating. Doesn't mean they have anything against other groups, just that they prefer people to stay within their own.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Doesn't mean they have anything against other groups, just that they prefer people to stay within their own.

I'll leave looking up the definition of "racism" as an exercise for the reader.

And I never suggested that all the racists were WASPs.

[kali-kali.livejournal.com]

Racism is absolutely irrelevant in this example. What you may want to look at is racialism, which, while many people think they're the same, they really aren't.

Racism = dislike of people based on race, perceived superiority of one race over another.
Racialism = support and pride of a race, sometimes believing in racial separation, but not necessarily a dislike or superiority.

People can be both racists and racialists (as many active hate groups are), but the two can also be mutually exclusive.

I spent my entire high school career involved in anti-racist work. I've worked with some of Canada's better known anti-racist crusaders. I know my terminology and the differences between ideologies.

[zenten.livejournal.com]

Racial-based-bigotry then.