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"Post-racial" America? Not yet. The election of the first African American president and support for racial equality policies.

A year after the first African American was elected to the office of the  President of the United States, political scientists and pollsters have examined closely racial and voting attitudes to shed light to the 2008 election, and Americans' state of mind about race in general. If one conlusion was to be drawn, it would be that racism was an important predictor of the 2008 election outcome, and that racial divisions persist in Americans’ assessments of the causes of the problems of American society, and policies to address them. However, racial relations have improved in the U.S., and perceptions of racial equality have increased in the past decades.

About one out of two Americans think that blacks experience racial discrimination in their community according to several polls. However, the election of Barack Obama in 2008 is a clear sample of an attitude shift. An overwhelming majority of white Americans will consider voting for a black candidate, according to data from Gallup and the American Election Survey. "Since the 1990’s less than one out of ten white voters say that they are not willing to vote for a black candidate compared to one out of five saying so in the 1980’s and three out of five in 1958" (Bobo and Dawson, 2009). 

Yet, his election does not signify a post-racial America. Just recently, two new large studies, published in Public Opinion Quartertly (POQ, Volume 73, Number 5, 2009), show evidence that "racial prejudice" impacted vote choice in 2008, and that blacks and whites are divided on racial policy matters. Professor Vincent L. Hutchings (University of Michigan) compared the 1998 and 2008 elections to find that:

  • "Blacks and Whites remain as far apart on racial policy matters in 2008 as in 1998."
  • "Younger cohorts of Whites are no more racially liberal in 2008 than they were in 1998."
  • "The racial divide is only partially mitigated among Obama supporters."
  • "Anti-Black stereotypes and indifference to Black suffering are among the strongest correlates of these opinions."
  • The above factors "contribute substantially to opposition to Obama in the 2008 election."

(Obtain a copy of Hutchings' article here.)

Another study in POQ by Pasek, Tahk et al. also finds that racism had a significant impact on the presidential vote choice. The researchers suggest that Obama's victory would have been considerably larger if anti-African-American racism in the electorate did not exist. The researchers suggest that Obama lost approximately 5 percentage points to McCain due to racism. "The largest share of this change is attributable to people who would switch from voting for McCain to voting for Obama if they had neutral racial attitudes".

Regarding election turnout, the study suggests that racial prejudice itself did not play a role in people's decision to stay-in on election day and, even if slightly, it increased overall turnout among the electorate. Prejudice though does appear to influence one's candidate choice. Frequently, voters who were inclined to vote for Obama but changed their mind due to prejudice, casted their ballot for McCain or a non-major party candidate.

The study was based on data from the Associated Press-Yahoo! News-Stanford University survey measured not only explicit but also implicit (unconscious) racial attitudes using the AMP technique. The researchers examined the impact of many more predictors of vote choice, such as the economy, candidate's intelligence, focus when working on issues and Reverend Write among others. Read more about it here.

—Eleni Delimpaltadaki