JUSIPER
Friday, December 22, 2006
Zogby race poll
Interesting:
More than half (55 percent) of whites classified Obama as biracial after being told that Obama’s mother is white and his Kenyan father is black. Likewise, 61 percent of Hispanics also saw Obama as biracial, the Williams Identity Survey conducted by Zogby International shows. The Zogby Interactive survey polled 2,155 adults from Nov. 1-2, 2006. The poll contained a margin of error of +/- 2.2 percentage points.
For blacks, the Obama candidacy is viewed differently as the Illinois Democrat cannot escape the nation’s past racial history. Sixty-six percent of blacks that responded to the interactive poll classified Obama as black.
Williams warned, “Even though we’ve come a long way, we’ve not completely moved beyond the ‘One Drop Rule,’ the segregation-era notion that even a tiny percentage of non-white ancestry (‘one drop of non-white blood’) classified a person as ‘colored’. ”
Obama, the son of a Kenyan father and white mother, is entering the national stage at a time when the United States is undergoing rapid demographic change. Whites, especially, seem desirous to put the nation’s contorted racial past behind them. Overall, the vast majority (63%) say that racial identity should not be an issue anymore -- that figure grows to 70% among whites.
“Obama’s potential entry into Presidential politics is fortuitous, as it coincides with this changing demography,” explained John Kenneth White, professor of political science at The Catholic University of America, in his analysis of the Williams Identity Survey results. “To be sure, the future face of America is a blurred one whose skin tone is some form of beige. The question of racial self-identification is hardly new, as evidenced by the U.S. Census, and the implications many.”
Williams says Obama’s heritage offers him the rare opportunity for a perfect political “trifecta”: Obama is a reflection of changing American demographics, a non-threatening, accomplished figure with broad appeal like former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and a symbol of black pride and progress, all rolled into one, if he can mange to hold together the delicate balance that will be required of him.
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