Poll Shows Shifting Attitudes on Race in America

I thought this was an interesting piece and I appreciated most of it, until a higher regard for education was equated with being more characteristic of white people. To draw that sort of conclusion does a great disservice to your argument. Yes, it is a quality more found in the middle and upper class. But to equate it to being more white than black is short sighted. If there was a comparison on how many white students living in rural poverty go on to college or finish high school, then it would have added more credibility.

Sent by Alyssa Rosso | 1:12 PM | 11-15-2007

Part of the poll seem too broad of an analysis to be really conclusive. For example, the 53 percent who said that blacks could be considered a single race and the 37 percent who said they could not; on what grounds was that question based? Was it on class? Was it on values between the older (civil rights) generation and the younger (post-civil rights) generation?

But I do agree on the part that blacks have lost confidence in leaders within their community and here's my take: NAACP - not having new and impactful ways to reach the younger generation. In other words, not relevant to them. Regarding the leaders - could somebody please tell me there's more diversity to millions of blacks than the Revs. Jackson and Sharpton? On the Clergy - don't get me started! Most of them don't want to voice out real dilemma in the black community in order not to rock the boat with fellow clergy or their political parties.

Sent by Moji | 7:19 PM | 11-15-2007

"What may be the most important finding in the poll: 53 percent of black Americans now agree that 'blacks who can't get ahead are mostly responsible for their own condition.'"

In other words, in front of white folks we talk Dyson but when we are amongst ourselves, we talk Cosby.

Sent by Al From Bay Shore | 6:57 AM | 11-16-2007

The most interesting paragraph to me: "A 53% majority of African Americans say that blacks who don't get ahead are mainly responsible for their situation, while just three-in-ten say discrimination is mainly to blame."

So, my questions are: does this mean that we're starting to let "the man" off the hook? And does this help cement the alreadly pervasive notion of the "lazy Negro" waiting for a handout, giving those voices who have long believed this more ammunition?

Bill Cosby will certainly love this.

TAO

Sent by Tambay A Obenson | 8:30 AM | 11-16-2007

"And does this help cement the alreadly pervasive notion of the "lazy Negro" waiting for a handout, giving those voices who have long believed this more ammunition?"

Now let's be fair. I do remember seeing a political cartoon in the "Final Call" about 15 years ago in which a black man, in a tattered tuxedo, lying at the gates of a mansion of some sort, holding out is top hat for money as some whites passed by.

Funny how Dyson never attacked NOI or Ice Cube (remember the rap song "US" off of the "Death Certificate" album) in the same way that he is attacking Cosby. I don't like Abraham Foxman at all but at least he had the "stones" to criticize Farrakhan. Dyson never qualified his criticism of Cosby in this respect.

Sent by Al From Bay Shore | 12:33 PM | 11-16-2007

Tambay,

Brother I am not even thinking about the man and the hook he may be hanging on. If this poll is any indicator an increasing number of our people are thinking the same way. How much of our engergy are we using to 'keep the man on the hook' when it could be better served repairing damage already done?

Sent by T. Rogers | 2:16 PM | 11-16-2007

This issue has been sliced and diced a thousand ways. I hate sound bites but I want everybody to get the punch line before you get bored. AS LONG AS 70% OF BLACK CHILDREN ARE BEING BORN TO UNATTACHED MOTHERS - what else really matters in the long run. Aren't we just playing for time with ALL of our other PROGRAMS and POLICIES?

I'm sorry, but if anybody reading this doesn't understand the tremendous deficit WE are starting OURSELVES and OUR CHILDREN out with by the continuation of this you should find another subject to blog about.

Sociologists have seen this coming - like actuaries and the coming social security mess - for DECADES! See the MOYNAHAN report. WE just don't want to hear it...For a lot of reasons.

Cosby may not have been elegant, but he was right. And he is beholden to NO ONE; unlike ALL of our so-called leaders who need to keep pimping the poverty issue to feed their little empires.

Please show me an ethnic group ANYWHERE in history that has prospered with that level of FATHERLESNESS.

Sent by Mark J. | 3:15 PM | 11-16-2007

The thing about labels such as "caucasian" and "black" that REALLY get to me is that fact that they will one day become archaic to the point of utter uselessness. Everytime I see an "interracial" couple, my heart leaps with joy because it means we are that much closer to doing away with labels that in many cases no longer apply.

Another thing that bothers me -- which is a point that I seldom hear -- are the racist colloquialisms, however subtle, that still remain in our language. For example, say one of Joe's parents was born in Nigeria and his other parent was born in Denmark. If you were to look at Joe, you would call him "black." Why? Why does he get to be all black? After all, 50% of his genes are "white." Why is it okay to only acknowledge the other half that look "black?"

It all stems from the white-dominated cultural idea that one must be 100% white in order to be called white. Even the slightest bit of "contamination" from another race was enough to strip you of any right to acknowledge your white ancestry.

It just...bothers me. This system of thinking is outdated and needs to go.

Sent by Kristin A. | 3:12 AM | 11-18-2007

Are We only united in anger? It seems obvious that the post-civil rights generation looks askance at fellow Blacks who cry for unity on the terms that We all must act,think,and vote alike. It is only natural that educated Black people who developed a sense of the world and themselves grew tired of the inner city Black Box of 'Black people don't do that' or 'Being smart is acting White'.

Education and economics have always played a major role in social groups,why should Black people be any different?

I ask why should Black people who grew up with two parents with college degrees share the same perspective as those of Us with single-parent high-school educated mothers? Why would they? Really think about that. That one drop didn't go our brain did it? I thought it didn't.

There is no monolith. Think for yourselves y'all. Help each other up but don't drown one another in a sea of contempt. If one man thinks differently isn't that his right? Or are Black people so desperate that we permit no such independence?

I am a Howard grad who has given back in my life and I don't see why we are not bigger than race? I do not see Black movies because they have Black actors. I see movies because they appeal to my personal interests,and because I can talk about them with my friends after the flick. Or do you just applaud a Black film because it is one?

Finally,at a conference at Harvard I attended with a friend on African identity, I witnessed somtething. Africans,who had lived in their native countries and then moved to America, talked about their feelings on the word African. They said that many people did not adopt that term as they felt for nationalism for say Uganda or even their tribe. I asked my friend, who was from Nigeria, If you guys don't agree on African then what the heck is African-American. He just laughed and said he didn't know.

Sent by Leon | 1:03 PM | 11-18-2007

Leon:

Your question to your Nigerian friend reminded me of one a late college friend posed to me several years ago on campus. He asked me why do Africans seem to despise the term African-American when it comes to Blacks. When I had a certain look on my face saying I'm trying to follow him. He clarified by asking if I saw myself as "African-American." Yes, I replied. Then he asked me why. I said I was born in the States to African parents; thus the term "African-American."

He still wasn't pleased and asked what I'll call him. I laughed when I saw where he was going with the conversation. I told him my family will call him "black."

Sent by Moji | 12:23 PM | 11-19-2007