The Obama Effect

Pam Beesly says:

It may just be my pessimistic personality, but even when President Obama won the election, I did not become more optimistic about a solution to the race problem in the United States. Sure, the election was a step in the right direction, but I never thought it was this miraculous force of change that so many made it out to be. I believe that making Obama’s election out to be this miraculous force made it inevitable that optimism would fall during his first year in office. It’s as though people forget that President Obama has power that is still limited by other powerful forces such as our government’s checks and balances, lobbyists, the media, prevailing stereotypes and discrimination, economic trends, and the social force of the general public. Individuals of color have been achieving great things at exponential rates, but these individual achievements alone are not enough to produce significant aggregate change. Aggregate change is not caused by one person in one four year term, rather by many people over the course of many years.

Although I was unsurprised by the fact that optimism has decreased over the past year since President Obama’s election, I was shocked that “optimism about race relations is now almost identical to where it was 46 years ago.” In 1963, the US was still one year away from Congress passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, two years away from passing the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and from passing the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, and 5 years away from passing the Fair Housing Act of 1968. In 1963, racial segregation was still legal and prevalent in schools, in public places, and in places of employment. Discrimination in housing based upon race and ethnicity was conducted as per usual. Despite having the legal right to vote, people of color were often denied their right by discriminatory voting practices that imposed qualifications and prerequisites for voting. The vast majority of immigrants being allowed to obtain US citizenship in 1963 continued to be white Europeans and Canadians.

Today we live in much different world. Segregation in public places and in places of employment is completely unacceptable. Segregation in housing and education persists but for reasons that do not include legality, and not to nearly same extent as 46 years ago. No citizen is denied their right to vote without a felony conviction, and fewer than 25% of today’s immigrants are from Western Europe, making our country increasingly racially and ethnically diverse. On top of all of this, we now have a more racially and ethnically diverse government and a greatly diverse president. So how is it possible that our optimism has not increased even a minimal amount since 1963?

I think that there are many factors that a play a role in determining the lack of optimism in Americans, particularly in black Americans. For one thing, housing segregation is still a serious problem that, combined with the dismantlement of desegregation, has led to the resegregation of many public schools. In fact, even the most affluent black Americans still live in neighborhoods that are less diverse and less affluent than white Americans of the same SES. Affluent black Americans are actually less likely to believe in the American Dream after having worked so hard and remaining unequal to their white counterparts. It’s hard to be optimistic, when even in the 21st century, the wealth possessed by the average black family is 1/10th of the wealth possessed by the average white family.

[Reply]

Huey Newton says:

Change isn’t going to come overnight. Granted the election of our first HALF black President was a statement within its own right, to the people of the United States, but that does not give the leeway for Americans of all races to expect great change.
Obama is only one man, and whether he is the leader of the free world or not, he is not a dictator. There is a checks and balance system through the judiciary and legislative branches which watch and the President’s actions. Obama does not have the power to implement a ‘reparations’ law. He cannot force all white people not to be racist or to love all black people. For one, he can only suggest laws to be passed by congress, and secondly, he cannot control people’s free will.
Law’s cannot, and have not in the past been able to control race relations. “Separate but equal” laws were (besides completely illegitimate) unsuccessful. Although whites – the majority were told that they had to provide the same services to blacks as they did their own people, the services and facilities were not as clean, or up to par in comparison to the amenities provided for whites. These paper laws did not improve race relations, and in retrospect, it may have further hurt race relations to the extent that whites felt that the services provided for blacks were not supposed to be at the same level as whites -shaping whites once again into the dominant culture. All that to say, that paper laws will rarely have a positive effect on how people treat each other within America because of the strong emotional ties connected with race relations and cultural background differences.
For those blacks who felt that America would drastically change on January 21st, after Obama’s inauguration, they set themselves up for disappointment. There is no plausible way that a man who identifies with your race can erase all of the discrimination and sometimes even hatred directed towards blacks in America. Granted the effect of young black children seeing a black man holding the highest office in the land will produce positive effects on the community, tensions will not subdue immediately.
The same holds true for whites who feared a socialist turn or coup by blacks within the nation. The checks and balance system will not and has not in the past 233 years allowed a hostile takeover by any group of people in the U.S. Obama is not a secret agent working for the Betterment of Black and Nobody Else Association. He is the President of the UNITED States and his goals are to improve the lives of the majority of the people who call themselves Americans.
Will race relations improve in America? Sure. Is Obama’s election as President going to be the catalyst of the final movement towards equality? It could be. Either way, change will not happen overnight and cannot be instituted through legislation alone.

[Reply]

The Capt'n says:

Even if our president is black, Hispanic, Indian, Asian, or white, there is still going to be racism in the United States and around the world. It’s a fact that some people just won’t change their views no matter what the situation. Some are so set in their ways that only a cataclysmic event will change their minds. The people who are pessimistic about racism either believe in the above statement, or they themselves are likely racist. Some people are going to become racist as well, because their family is racist or their friends are. It’s a domino effect that occurs in society, because like minded people join together for causes. For example, KKK members are racist, so they joined a club to be with other racist white people. Plus racism is a very touchy topic anyways because some people could be mistaken as racist when they are in fact making a joke about another race to sound as though they understand the race. That is how some comedians tackle the whole racism issue; they simply make jokes about every race so they seem not racist toward any particular group. They even back up their remarks with some jokes about white people to make them seem as though there’s no way they could be a racist.
However, I’m surprised that the numbers are as similar to 45 years ago as they are, in part because President Barack Obama is black and so is his family. If our president, who is the face of the United States, is black, then most say that there’s no way that we as a nation are racist. That is somewhat true in my opinion, but I guarantee some white supremacists out there are totally opposed to Barack Obama just because he is black. Our human nature causes us to hate or fear differences that we don’t regularly encounter. If something is different and we find it funny, then most likely, that person will mock the idea. Racism is engrained in people because of different scenarios, experiences, or even family values. That is why racism is still present and still an issue in the world today. There is always going to be exceptions to the rules, and people who feel hatred towards other people of different races will most likely always exist in society.
To change the issue of racism and attempt to eliminate it, people must start with one person at a time and explain that racism is unnecessary in the world today. We are all humans in this world, and 99.9% of us are exactly the same. So in the end are we different at all, or do we need to make colored people lead our nations to show that we aren’t racist. As individuals, we can eliminate racism if we tackle one opinion after another and make it known that racism is unacceptable.

[Reply]

The Chinese Girl says:

The “Obama Effect” I find to be an interesting topic because he is half White and half Black, however people refer to him as our “Black President” even though he is bi-racial, seeming as if they do not want to acknowledge the other half of him, his other half being his “Whiteness.” From this observation, I came to the conclusion that, if you are even partially mixed with another race people will brand you more as the minority than the majority, why did people acknowledge his blackness, but not his whiteness? As for the chart from the National Polls, that shows that people believe that there will eventually be a solution to the race relations between blacks and whites in the U.S., this is a big move for Americans, it shows that people are hopeful and believe that there can be a change that will eventually one day work the race relations problems out. However, in the next chart with the same question asked but then asked specifically to black and white people White people are more optimistic about believing that there will be a change, but the sad thing is that 50% of Blacks believe that there will NOT be a solution to the race relation problem. After so many years of struggling for equality they still feel inferior to the White man, this might be the idea of White Supremacy. In the career field, Whites do admit and still believe that a White person and a Black person who are both equally qualified for the same position at a job say that the White person would have the better chance of getting the job than the Black person. The poll where they ask about racism being wide spread in the U.S. seems to show some improvement but not enough, the difference is only within at most, a six percent range. However, the biggest change in opinion is within the black sector, but on the other hand, they also believe the most that racism IS widespread against their race. In a way, the poll is something that is good in that there is a change in that they believe that there is less racism, but they rank in the highest percentage in people who think that they are discriminated against. In the poll that asks whether or not people believed racism against whites is widespread, it is ironic how everyone believes that the majority has now turned into the minority because they believe they are being discriminated MORE against than they have been in the past. When you compare the past two previous charts to one another the trend seems to be as one group begins to be less discriminated against the other group begins to be discriminated against even more. If anything, this does not seem as if we are trying to find a solution to the race relations between whites and blacks (other minorities also). It seems as if, we are back at the start where we were many years ago, where one group is trying to struggle for equality and the other group is trying to suppress them.

[Reply]

Laura anne says:

I found the graphs under the post about the “Obama Effect” to be very interesting. In one of the graphs it gave a percentage on the question whether or not people think racism against African Americans is or is not widespread in the United States. I found it interesting that the percent of people that felt that racism against African Americans had decreased around the time President Barack Obama won the presidential election. I think that is a very general idea to make just because of his win. As an African American this really annoys me. I have read and heard of a lot of situations where individuals believe that the complaints from African Americans can be no more because we now have a bi racial president. President Obama’s win was truly a huge victory for the African American community, but I would not agree with the idea that it ended racism and inequality. I feel that in some cases it has increased in these areas. How can someone think that because one man overcame obstacles and prevailed that it will un do years and years of inequality towards African Americans. That is such an ignorant way to feel, and clearly not enough thought has gone into it. I don’t feel what they did was right but I understand their reason for doing it. It is unfortunate that we live in a world that bases everything on race. Naturally I feel that we all judge by the physical appearance of a person first because it’s what we see. Of course it would be ideal if we would get to know a person by their personality first and then base your judgment off of our encounters with that person. Also to not base every encounter you have with a person and generalize it to everyone of that same nationality. It is not fair to others who may be nothing like that particular person. People are people. Regardless of their skin, which at times can be a contributing factor to their behavior according to their upbringing and what they were surrounded by but nonetheless everyone is different. It’s also unfortunate that when it comes to the consumer market people only will buy what they feel pertains to their race. Yet I also feel that it comes down to it, it’s not about “black” or “white” it’s about “green.” Green, as in the mighty dollar that ultimately can bring any race together to accomplish a goal of making the most of it. It also at the same time makes the most sense. If you want to market a black hair care product you wouldn’t have a white person modeling their hair, it just doesn’t make the most sense. I think sometimes people just like to overreact to situations and make something out of nothing. Sometimes in life you have to look at the big picture. In America we are divided in race in our “melting pot,” but what really brings us all together is the common passion we have in our greed to have the American dream; wealth.

[Reply]

Jupiter's Crunch says:

When Barrack Obama began his campaign he attracted followers with his charisma but also the color of his skin. Many people of all colors and races rallied behind him with hopes and wishes for a world that does not discriminate against someone because of the color of their skin. In November of 2008 he made some of those wishes come true. On that day in November it was finally believable that anyone, regardless of his or her race or skin color, can become whatever he or she wants to become. This also spurred hope for a day without discrimination.
As the graphs posted by Sam Richards show, since the poll began in 1964, there has been a steady increase in people that feel that race will always be a problem. Until the mid 1990s this trend continued until it finally began going in a positive direction. During the height of Obama’s campaign, the poll showed that a staggering sixty-seven percent of people believe that there was true hope among race-relations.
And here we are, a year after that historic election. Although most people would believe that this trend would at worst fall a little, the poll shows that the percentage of people believing in this new trend came crashing down for the first time since 1998. According to the American people, fifty-six percent of people believe that there is hope for relations between whites and blacks. This is the same number of people that had hope when the poll began in 1964, during the Civil Rights movement. I found this absolutely shocking. Although I am not surprised that the poll numbers slipped from their historical highs due to the excitement of the election of Barrack Obama, I cannot believe that they fell back to their levels pre-Obama. Not only am I surprised, I am disappointed that electing a black man into office does not give more people hope then if it never happened.
On the poll that states that blacks are more pessimistic than whites on the race relations issue, I can’t say that I am surprised. Blacks are the ones that actually face the racism, while I’m sure a great percentage of whites never see or notice racism towards blacks. It interesting to see the great spread between believes of whites and blacks on the poll about the workforce. Although it is good to see the percentage of blacks that believe they have as good of a chance as whites to get a job in their communities, the thirty-three percent spread between whites and blacks is the true problem. Until this spread become closer, these stats show that whites don’t understand the struggle that blacks are facing and that blacks are truly facing a struggle. It was an interesting article posted by Sam Richards.

[Reply]

Mr. Pay Per View says:

The Obama Effect
It is surprising to hear that little has changed as far as race relations are concerned in America from 1963 till now. This data leads me to believe that maybe the society that I believed was growing morally, really isn’t. I mean come on, 1963! One of the highpoints in the Civil Rights Era, where African Americans couldn’t walk down the street or walk into a store without being discriminated against, is what we are being compared too. This same time period is being compared to today’s “modern” world. Racism was so bad at this time in history that the schools were not even segregated yet. Two years after this point that we are being compared to, Malcom X was assassinated and five years after this horrible time Martin Luther King Jr. was killed simply for being black. How sad is our society today that we are being compared to a time that was the second most hate filled era in our history as a nation.
While looking over this information I remembered a story of me talking to my friend’s grandparents when I was younger. The older couple was in their living room watching the nightly news and a story about a bank robbery came up on the TV. They posted a photo of what the robber looked like on the screen and the man happened to be black. The two elderly people started to rant and rave in front of me and their grandson about blacks ruining society and how they are a pleight on this country. My friend’s mom quickly cleared the two of us from the room and sat us in the kitchen. She then went on to say that the two elderly people weren’t bad; they just were from a different time. After that I began to recognize and pick up on more and more people’s racially insensitive comments. Every time I would hear a race driven joke or slur I would just think to myself, “their just from a different time”. As I grew older I started to realize that the hate filled comments weren’t just coming from the elderly population, but from younger and younger people who made me believe maybe the time doesn’t have anything to do with prejudice and discrimination and these numbers prove it.
Unfortunately in our country race is a hot button issue year after year never getting any better. Some may argue that the tension between our nation’s races is due to the fact that our country is such a large melting pot, and others may say that we simply are just a people stuck in our old styled ways and will never change. I feel change needs to happen now and it needs to come from the top, President Obama. He needs to lead the conversation of racial equality and demand more from America’s people. We can’t let this go on any further, those numbers need to change.

[Reply]

the sticky icky says:

In the article “The Obama Effect”, the audience is introduced to some very eye-popping statistics. Although our nation has now elected the first African-American president, blacks are still very negative towards how their race is viewed in society. There are many reasons that can lead to these given presumptions.
Throughout the course of American history, African Americans have experienced the most hatred and cruelty towards them than any other race. They went through centuries of oppression and were never thought as equals to Caucasians until the mid 1960s. With that bitter taste passed on from generation to generation, it is hard to think that African Americans can quickly assimilate into American life without remembering the past. Our nation was divided in half on the basis of African American slave trade. How can African Americans in the south ever believe that they are truly equal? To think that they can see and interact with the same people that’s grandparents had them as slaves on their land is very hard to understand from a black man’s perspective. These feelings raise the tempers of African Americans and show that no matter the current events of equality in our nation today, we will never truly be equal with every race. Although history has shown that we learn and adapt from what has happened before us, we also never forget what has happened before us.
I believe that African Americans have a right to have raised tensions about racial differentiation and equality. Disregarding the past, an election with a black president running can only lead to more controversial events. Racial slurs are bound to be tossed around as well as arguments that one is not qualified for any true reason. These controversies can lead to dividing the nation and having African Americans feels an animosity towards whites and other cultures. When President Obama and Senator McCain were in the thick of their Presidential debates, many slurs were tossed at Obama. He was said to being a terrorist because of his background and even some went as far as to say that he was a friend with men who planned attacks on American soil. A man in a position that Obama is in would never get there if he had any tie whatsoever to these types of people. It is ludicrous for those remarks to be made and ignites a hatred and isolation that African Americans feel they have in this nation. While both races were just as happy when President Obama was elected, there was clearly still a bitter taste in the mouths of African Americans. Change clearly didn’t come as quickly and in as large numbers as we thought.
The Obama effect analyzes the fact that African Americans feel isolated in our nation when it comes to quality still. I agree with this opinion due to several provided statistics and the fact that discrimination has been long dated back to the roots of our country.

[Reply]

Chief DADDY9 says:

I have very strong opinions towards this topic of blacks complaining and feeling insecure about thier status is society. I would like to point out I am indeed caucasian, and I did grow up around many blacks and have had black friends. I have always wondered though, what are they complaining about? What is the big racial problem. Why are they so negative about thier status in society? Slavery is over, and blacks now have every chance to succeed. I have no pity for blacks who live by motto’s such as ” born poor, stay poor” I think Obama’s election did a lot for the black community. I also would like to point out that I think a large portion of Obama’s voters were indeed black and voted for Obama solely on the fact that he too is black. I would be very interested in seeing some statistics on this subject. I think this whole race problem we are talking about goes both ways. I think there are just as many blacks who are racist towards whites as there are whites racist towards blacks. What is the racial problem? I know racism still exists, im not dumb, but why are blacks so much more negative towards it than whites? The underlying thing here for me is that I beleive some of the black population has this notion in thier head that they are owed something. There is such a double standard of racism im my opinion. People are so quick to label white man as racists, yet you almost never hear of a black man being called a racist. I never understand why this is, i guess thats just the way things are. The statistics in this atricle really surprised me though. I thought Obama would lift the spirits of the black community and give them Hope. I thought that was a big part of his campaign, this whole idea of Hope. I though a lot of blacks beleived in him, or at least they did enough to vote for him. If they believe in him, why dont they buy into his idea of hope, and with that will come an end to these ” racial problems” Why are the statisitcs still the same? I just dont get it, if you ask me blacks may never get over it. When i say get over it, i am going back to my thought that some blacks think they are owed something but society. Slavery ended over 300 years ago, no black man walking this earth, or his mother or grandmother ever was a slave. Blacks have just as much of an opportunity to succeed as any other race. So why are they still so negative towards thier status in society? I really dont know. Like i said before, I thoght Obama being elected would put some wind in thier sails but it didnt. They say time heals everything, so i guess we will all just have to wait and hope for better times.

[Reply]

Fish says:

In response to the article entitled “The Obama Effect,” to be honest I am not entirely shocked to see that the general American population is still in a similar state of mind as it were forty years ago. In my own opinion I feel that with the election of a (half) black president, that many Americans who do have a partially/wholly racist mindset are actually being “enabled” to use these mindsets with the election of a black president. When our last president, George Bush, failed to accomplish a goal or a promise, there was no “oh he can’t get the job done because he’s white” statements; however, there is definitely a population of white people out there who have negative views of Obama solely because he is black. When looking at the graphs, there was a positive slope (in favor of improvements in race relations) up until 2008, aside from 1995-1996, which showed that there were things being done which put racial relations in the right direction, but like I stated before, I think people are now being more open about their own racist ideas and that makes the numbers begin to fall off and imitate the responses that were posed back in the 1960s. In contrast to the previous data which shows we have made, ultimately, no improvements in racial relations during the last 40 to 50 years, it is good to make note that we as a society have a majority feeling that a minority group can get any type of job that he or she desires regardless of race, and that in itself has to be a sign of progress in terms or race relations. As mentioned in the blog post, if it were the other way around that would be highly messed up; however, there is something being done. The third graph, in my own opinion is somewhat misleading. It represents the amount of widespread racism that seems apparent to various racial groups. Yes, the numbers have decreased within the last year, which contained the election of a minority president, but it still does not match up with the data which decreased the amount of people who feel that racial relations have gotten better within the last few decades. If there were to be a positive assessment across the board, both would have to show the same trend; however, they lead in opposite directions which either means that further criteria have to be met in order to prove that they are improving or, unfortunately, they are not. Overall, the fact that there is still any similarity whatsoever in the data percentages to those of the 1960s is surprising for how different today “seems” to be from that decade.

[Reply]

Bong hits for Jesus says:

This is a subject that was heavily discussed when Barack Obama was campaigning to be the next president. Will having a black president greatly improve race relations and equality in America? My personal opinion was that it would help race relations but not by that much. People will not change their mind about an issue just because of the color of one mans skin. I do think that it will make some people more open but at the same time one has to realize that people have developed their beliefs through various life experiences and it is very difficult to change that with the emergence of one person.
After looking at the survey in which adults nationwide were surveyed about a solution to racial tension I found a few things to be very interesting. The first thing that jumped out at me was the fact that it was about a 50-50 split right around the time of 9/11. This struck me as odd because more people felt that relations would improve after 9/11 and this trend continued until the time Barack Obama took office.
The graph about race and whether or not solutions would be worked out was kind of funny to me because both whites and blacks had roughly the same shift in opinion until the mid 90’s. The only difference is that blacks thought there was a much better chance to work out a solution. This was a shock to me at first but then I thought about it a little more and realized that the civil rights movement gave blacks a lot of hope. What I would really like to know is what happened during the 90’s that caused such a dramatic shift and why white people are more confident about a solution now?
The next graph about equal opportunity in the community showed a trend that was pretty much what I expected. Since Barack Obama entered the white house everyone basically feels that equal opportunity is getting better, as it should. Not surprising though seeing as this was viewed as one of the major improvements that Barack Obama would make while in office.
The next graph was surprising to me. It showed that since Barack Obama has been in the white house racism against blacks has gone down. Hopefully this is true and that would be a huge step for our country. I get the feeling that this may just be wishful thinking because we have a black president and that makes people believe that we are advancing as a society. It may or may not mean that we are advancing but who knows.
The last graph was what struck me as the most peculiar. Do people believe that there is racism against whites? Hispanics, blacks and whites agreed that racism against whites had increased since Obama took office. To me this completely defeats the purpose of what Barack was supposed to do, improve race relations. If we just shift our racism to another group we haven’t solved anything and as a result it makes our country, as a whole, look stupid.

[Reply]

Dirk Diggler says:

For someone like me who didn’t vote during the last election, Obama’s lack of success neither pleases nor displeases me. I do not get anything out of him failing, and on the contrary when he got the presidency I was hopefully that he could turn things around. Just because he didn’t in the same things that I believed in, didn’t mean that he couldn’t fix things. I also kept in the back of my mind that Obama had the fortune and misfortune of being the first black president.
It is a pro because he made history. He was the first African American president, something that 150 years ago seemed like an impossibility. He changed history books for the better, and showed African Americans that anything was possible.
It is a con because I am a firm believer that he received the presidency because of his race. Yes, what once was thought to prevent him from getting the presidency also helped him get the presidency. College students everywhere wanted to help make history, and by nominating the first black history, they did indeed make history,
What the students failed to realize however was that they voted a man in simply based on his race, and not what he stood for. In fact, most college students if they ever read his platform would disagree with what he believed in. This is why the Gallup Polls are so ugly: people are no longer enamored with the making history part. They want to see results in front of their face, and Barack is not bringing those results. Instead, he is flailing in a mediocre economy and borrowing more money than that kid in school who never gave that money back.
To comment on the lack of progress on race relations: this doesn’t surprise me either because people are in love with the idea of change. They hope for change, they wish for change, but when push comes to shove and they are faced with change in their daily lives they shy away from change. It’s why there isn’t a huge change in race relations: people are being faced with change in their neighborhoods and in their pockets, and they are not willing to adjust to the change when it hits something like their finances. It’s interesting to see people rant and rave about a black president but when that black president tries to be proactive the change he desires is being resisted wholeheartedly. Obama should not have won the presidency if people looked at nothing but his platform and his ideologies. But he had the cloth over these issues: the color of his skin. The color of his skin won a historical presidency: I just wish he had the ideologies and platform to truly make this country great and bring us change that we need.

[Reply]

Anonymous says:

One of the many factors that drew people in to vote for Obama was the color of his race. Of course he did not just attract the black population but it was a big factor for them because they saw this as a stop to discrimination and segregation. He may be only half black; however, it was a huge change and step forward for the United States. A huge change because it was something that has never happened before in the history of the United States and a major step forward for the black culture because it gave them hope for the progression of their race. Obviously it is going to take more than one person to stop the discrimination and segregation but President Obama has done a great deal to slow it down. It is also a nice step in the direction of making all races equal and makes diversity something to be proud of here in the United States. All of this is good and this is something we want and something we are moving towards, but when we look at those graphs and numbers I am surprised that we really have not changed since the 1960s. I find it very interesting that during the entire president campaign the numbers looked promising that the problems with race relations were going to be fixed. Now that the election is over, the numbers fell back to where they were before there could be potentially a black president. I do not understand why people changed their mind so fast or even what made them change their minds. I think this is very unfortunate just because someone may look different then us does not mean we need to treat them differently or wrongly.
These numbers do show us that in 1964 and today the numbers were exactly the same. Also, when you look at the numbers the white people have more hope that things will change then black people and you would believe that it would be the other way around. The graph showing whether blacks have just as good a chance with a job shows that both percentages of white and people of color are increasing. This is nice because honestly why is one race better than the other when they are both qualified equally? Even though blacks think they have as good of a chance, the number is still below what white people think and I find that upsetting. They need to believe in themselves and have confidence because that will bring them far in life because they should have just as good a chance as we do. And then we talk about how the racism against whites is increasing. Do we think it is because a black president was elected? Or are times just changing? I just hope that everyone will learn how to accept the other race because we are all equal.

[Reply]

jkeenzz says:

A year after President Barack Obama was elected into the White House, it is hard to say that there is any substantial change in the race problem that he sought out to get rid of by becoming President of the United States. When Obama announced his campaign for President in the 2008 election, a countless number of people began to feel a sense of hope that this man could rid the country of the racism and prejudice that has plagued our country since its inception. The slogans for Obama’s campaign was “Hope” and “Change” that he was instilling a newfound sense of hope in the American people for a brighter future, a feeling that, as he stated, they had lost over the last eight years. This ideology of change and a nation without race barriers took the country by storm and helped Obama sail into the White House. However, after a yearlong tenure in the office of the Presidency, we have seen little change, and that feeling of hope has long since evaporated. There may have been some good ideas and logical explanations for a new country, with better morals and more willing for uniqueness, but these have turned out to be nothing more than unattainable dreams of a man trying to persuade the public. The only problem is that he was successful at converting the nation’s mindset while not backing up his promises of change. There is not a new sense of hope Americans have acquired due to his spot in office. There has been no change.
Nothing tells the story of this better than the graphs in the article. There has been very little, if any, progress in public opinion concerning racism in he nation. While a spike did occur recently with the data that there would eventually be a solution worked out between races, it has since come back down to earth. It is once again just the same old numbers as before Obama, as though he never brought ‘change’ to the United States of America. The spike occurred during Barack Obama’s candidacy, because this was when his support was at it’s peak and hope of the American people was at its apex. It seems as though the data portrays the assumption that President Obama has failed in many respects concerning the racism that has afflicted our nation. All the hype that came with the first African-American President, even if he is only half black, has since diminished, and it shows how much we can overhype such things involving race. This, to me, only signifies that there is still an issue of race in our nation because we feel the need to make a grand ordeal over the fact a black man could possibly attain the same rank as a white man. If Barack Obama really wanted to downplay racism in our nation, he should have also downplayed the fact that he had the possibility to become the first black President, because in his words, we are all equal. Alas, maybe not.

[Reply]

aquafina says:

Being an American I would love to see race relations between blacks and whites to improve greatly, I feel they have in many ways and blacks have more and more opportunity. But from the polls taken by Gallop it seems as though people from around the countries opinions about race relations or their view on race relations has not changed much at all in the past 50 years. This is the same for Blacks and Whites as they both have consistent views as they have had in the past, with blacks being even more negative about race relations as a whole. Maybe being someone who is not black would be the reason I feel race relations have improved more than they really have, maybe it is just society making us all believe blacks are much better off than they really are. It is hard or maybe even impossible to be able to look at life through the eyes of a black person and see what they may be going through and what kind of discrimination they may face in their everyday lives. To my surprise the fact that Barak Obama was selected as president of the Unites States has not changed these numbers too much in the past year. I would have felt that the fact that a half black president would help raise the spirits of black people to help them believe that they can do whatever they want in life, but it seems as though they are just as negative as before. The last two polls about whether or not racism against whites or blacks was widespread helped shine a little more light into what people believe now a days. In the past year numbers have declined and hopefully they keep declining and more and more people start to believe that racism is not as widespread as it is. In my opinion racism has definitely decreased in the past 50 years maybe people just aren’t taking the time to notice it and hold certain beliefs. Maybe all of these people are in different stages of their race, it is very possible that many of the blacks polled were still in the immersion stage of race relations and are holding negative views toward whites. In the last poll where it asked what people thought about racism towards white we saw people believe there was more racism now than last year, this could be because of the fact that once Barak Obama was elected more black people became more into the immersion stage and started holding more negative views and may have become more racist towards white than they originally were. These polls help show a lot about what people believe about race and give us more understanding of what people think.

[Reply]

datdude says:

So Barack Obama being elected president was a tremendous accolade, and I believe did break down a barrier in race relations more so because of whom he recruited to work around him, and for him. America now has a bi-racial president, with a Caucasian vice president and a Haitian superior court judge who is Female. If this diverse outcome has not had any effect on race relations, then I do not know what effect will ever have an effect on race relations. But I don’t know if I even had any expectations of race relations being affected when Obama entered office. But then again if you step back, and actually take a look at how many Caucasians actually voted for Barack Obama to win, then you can potentially make a conclusion that Obama has made an effect on race relations, but just didn’t notice it. But Obama being president is not going to change the outlook of individuals on race. It’s a person’s choice whether or not they choose to be open-minded on the issue of race. No doubt that Obama is in charge of the world , but what is that really suppose to change? The night Obama was elected president, there was a resounding feeling of hope and change among americans, especially among blacks and people of color. But I believe that people’s hopes and expectations were extremely high for Obama to make an immediate change, but evidently that just was not feasible. I believe after Americans expectations weren’t meant, many of them fell off of the Obama bandwagon. What blacks and people of color have to understand is that Obama came into his presidential term with many obstacles already ahead of him that were left undone by George Bush. Unfortunately the outcome of Bush’s work left undone was a recession in which Barack , nor America, couldn’t avoid. But I truly do not know if America will ever get rid of these statistics and move forward regarding race relations. For some reason, I believe if we just toss all race statistics, slavery talk, and anything that discusses out of the window, then things may get better because I believe by still discussing such issues, people will always believe that numerous problems and issues in the world are race-related. What people have to do is just sit back, and wait and see what happens. Barack has to deal with enormous issues, in and outside of America so he cannot tend to just people of color and he cannot break all racial barriers on his own. But Obama is only one person. He cannot control what each individual corporation and job company does and what racial issues each one of them may possess. It’s a long line of issues related to race relations, and it would take years to rectify them all.

[Reply]

Bip Bop Ya Don't Stop says:

Aside from a few years that appear to be outliers, the attitudes about race relations seems pretty constant with a slight upward trend towards better race relations. Without the data showing the figures from 1965 through 1993, the 1964 numbers have no context. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech the year before. Perhaps the race relations attitudes were still relatively high, still riding the momentum from the speech. The Civil Rights Act passed in 1964. I would make an assumption that that number would have been lower in 1965 after the assassination of Malcolm X and the Watts riots. The numbers would have been low again in 1968 following the assassination of Dr. King. I wish there would have been data from between 1964 and 1993. I would like to see how much the numbers spiked during the years of those two assassinations and how long it took to solidify the upward trend. I would guess that there would’ve been a similar spike in 1992 following the Rodney King trial and the ensuing riots. I believe the 1996 difference was a result of the aftermath from the Olympic park bombing where a black security guard, who first discovered the bomb and moved others to safety before it exploded, was thought to be the suspect by media outlets. He was cleared by the FBI and never charged in connection with the bombing. I would assume that this caused the 1996 spike. If not, I have no idea what caused such a sharp decrease.

What is encouraging is that the spike in 2008 resulting from the election as Barack Obama as president is a spike towards better race relations. I would’ve guessed that the poll results would have been lower this year than those from last year. I wouldn’t have expected the graph to plateau or keep on an upward trend. I would expect a decline. The reality that improved race relations is a slow process. Electing Barack Obama is not a magical cure-all for race relations. I think that the realization by the general public that Barack Obama cannot solve race relations by itself brought the numbers back to the prior pre-Obama numbers. Throwing out the election year numbers, the trend is still increasing towards a belief in better race relations.

Looking at the second graph, whites have barely changed since Obama entered office. There is, however, a sharp decrease back to the pre-election level from blacks. Perhaps many blacks believed that Obama would be the savior for race relations. Instead, his election was just a step in the right direction. I expect that the general slow, upward trend will continue into the future with maybe some more peaks and valleys if some major event occurs.

[Reply]

El Caballo says:

When Obama became a candidate for president, opinions on racism began to change in people. His race was a “deal” in the election. He could become the first black president in the united states. He was also the prime candidate. He had a whole new generation on his side with the support of many others. Obama is smart, young, proper, and is a gifted speaker. He could also make history if he was elected. This could be a big step in the right direction in America and the world, the first black president. It gives new hope to people of all different races, that anyone could become president. It shows equality. A sign that the world is changing for the good. But why are the numbers the same on the charts as they were over forty years ago? But Obama is a great roll model for people of different races. He shows that anything can be achieved as long as you try. When you look at the graph “Do you think think relations between whites and blacks will always be a problem in the U.S.” more people think it will always be a problem and less people think they will find a solution. “But Obama is now president, shouldn’t every thing be better?” But the truth is actually no. Obama is a big deal and shows new hope, but he is only one person. How is that supposed to change things for everyone else. How is one person supposed to change the minds of everyone else? What about all the other racial acts that are committed in the United States? Are those people going to change their minds because of a black president? Obama is just a demonstration of equality. If you look at the other graph “Do you think blacks have as good of a chance as whites getting a job?” you see it has been increasing in the past few years. This could be due to Obama running and being elected as president. So he did have a big effect on race relations then, didn’t he? Obama cant change the feelings of racism but can provide hope. He provided the hope in equality. Black people’s chance on getting a job is improving. But he didn’t not effect the feelings of racism. The graph “Do you think relations between blacks and whites” is increasing. It show obama had no effect on racism. Before he began to run as president racism in the world was increasing. This could be due to another issue that is much larger then who is president. It could be because of the war in the middle east. How the U.S. government’s recent actions could have left a bad taste in the world’s mouth.

[Reply]

BIRACIAL PRIDE WOOOOOOOOOOO!!! says:

These statistics is why it annoys me when white people say that now that we have a biracial president in the office that everything is better now. It doesn’t prove that society has changed that much people can still have problems in the job market or get profiled by the police. All this shows is that either black voters are actually getting off their ass and voting more to try to change America or that the hatred for the republican party over shadowed the fear that people have of black people. No one event will really change the image of people have for one another. It all takes place slowly over time. So the idea that one election will all of a sudden change America is absurd. I believe that until each American can understand the culture of the different cultures in America then racism will always be here. Racism for my point of view comes from people not understanding one another. This misunderstanding causes discomfort and people hate discomfort so this causes the conflicts between the races. Once you understand where someone is coming from people don’t hate and can coexist with them. This is why the idea of a biracial president fixing everything annoys me. How can this one act change the beliefs of people? The reason that people believe that it makes a big difference is because of the news. The news either tells the public that all of America is racist or that its all gone. They never tell the real truth about the state of America. If the news actually told the truth about the state of America and racism it could possible help America. Yet like most things that happen in America people are really caring about other people and solving a problem. The only way that I think that America will actually think that everyone is equal is if there is such a grand threat that people have to actually work together. When there is a great need people will stop looking at their differences and join together as a group. That or if society as a whole falls to complete destruction where people just care about survival and stop caring about so much about color but just who can help them live at the end of the day. In different events in history when someone’s survival is on the line they accept people for whatever they are long as they are helpful. So yeah basically the presidential election didn’t help become more accepting and I knew it wouldn’t and everyone else should of. But it is a step in the right direction. The more diversity in the higher job mark the more of a chance for people to be treated the same.

[Reply]

No Ceilings says:

No matter what, there will always be tension between Blacks and Whites. I don’t think Obama being president has anything to do with racism. In fact, I don’t think it changes much. However, I feel that his election has given some black people motivation to work hard and is living proof that the “white man” isn’t holding them down. While blacks remain negative about their status in society, I feel that they are just making excuses. In this world, you can’t just “blame the white man” for your misfortunes. Obama has worked hard for his position and hopefully many people would feel inspired and not just blacks.
In response to the question, “Do you think that relations between blacks and whites will always be a problem for the United States, or that a solution will eventually be worked out?” The answer is that there is no solution. I say this, because you can’t just make a quick fix for such a major issue. The main reason that this is a major issue is simply because many people like to make it an issue and cause problems which in my opinion SHOULDN’T occur. No matter what time period you are in, there will always be racist people, along with those in a particular race that don’t want their own to succeed. Many blacks don’t want other blacks to succeed so, its not just the whites against black people, but black people against black people as well.
As far as the statistics are concerned, I think that they don’t indicate a clear picture of racism. All they do is gather opinions of random people and then use this data to represent the population on a larger scale. However, these charts do indicate that racism is just as prevalent now as it was in 1963. It may not be as apparent and publicly strong as it was in the 60s, but its very much there. Many people are racist through many outlets, including the internet because they feel that they can get away with it simply because they are behind a computer and no one can really do anything about it.
What I have learned from this article is that it isn’t so much that we will eventually come to a solution, but how we approach and view racism and our status in society. Obama is successful because he looked beyond racism and didn’t let “the white man” stop him from reaching his goals. As much as myself and many of us in this world want a quick fix and an end to all racism, it isn’t going to happen any time soon. All we can do is encourage others to see beyond race and to learn to accept others.

[Reply]

Buzz Killington says:

In regards to the article, ‘The Obama Effect,’ I am pretty surprised at the different data from the Gallup poll. I cannot believe that in our society, we have the same hopes that we did in 1963 for an eventual solution to our race relation problems. In a way, the situations are very similar. In 1963, the civil rights movement was in full swing, and nowadays we elected a black president to office. I was taken back by the fact that people remain just as pessimistic about the potential for an eventual solution to the race problem today as they did forty six years ago. Although the United States is mostly Caucasian and then everyone else is considered a minority, he is actually a mix of many different kinds of races so if anything he would be the perfect representative for our nation. He is the melting pot of different cultures and I highly doubt that he is biased against any race, seeing as he probably has a little bit of his own blood in him anyways. I feel that Jay-Z’s song called “My President is Black” really speaks to the issue being raised here. Even though he talks about ethnicity it still touches on the issue of racism being shown in the graphs. The first couple lines of the song go as such: “My President is black in fact, he’s half-white. So even in a racist’s mind, he’s half-right. So if you got a racist mind, you be alright. My president is black but his house is all white.”
I thought the reason that his election was so exciting was because people saw that even though you are a minority; you are capable of becoming whatever you want to be and you do not need to feel burdened by your race. I do think that his presidency is an inspiration for all minorities, in that little by little our country is changing. I think it is ignorant to think that just because we have our first black president, that the whole country will change for the better in terms of race issues. I think that a lot more needs to happen before we can really start to see a change in opinions about race. Overall with the election of a black president many people thought that there would be less racism around. As we can tell from these polls though, not much has changed in people’s minds regarding racism. Many people still think it is just as widespread for both whites and blacks as it was last year. People who thought that racism would diminish after he took office are certainly not seeing racism coming to an end any time soon, which disappoints many people including myself.

[Reply]

Chewi says:

I’d say the figure that surprises me the most is the 67% just before the election. I wonder if asked how do you think this change would occur what some of the answers would be. I certainly didn’t think it would have that much of an impact on mending race relations. It seems to me that a significant number of people are juvenilely hopeful in the sense that they think a black president, but an individual nonetheless, could suddenly drastically change the situation we are in today. Sure you could say Martin Luther King did it. But Martin Luther King was fighting for civil rights a very concrete idea. An idea that most the world knows shouldn’t be denied anyone especially on a large scale and especially for the simple difference of color. The battle for bettering race relations is much more unclear and rather murky because it can compromise people’s morals on different levels in which we can’t as readily call unjust or wrong for certain values. This is why I feel we have a rather separate but equal overtone in our society, there are definitely a significant number of people that would say “yeah we should all, without question have the same rights” but for the most part only associate and socialize with people of their own color and rather consciously at that. I think that an explanation for the huge spike and drop off leading into and after Obama’s election is that it seems a lot of people share the sentiment that the problem is with the other group. It’s very easy to envision a conversation in a black household around election time with the overtone of “maybe these white people will recognize that we have the same skill sets as they do”. Or a conversation in a white household with the overtone of “Now these black people can’t complain about the system keeping them down anymore”. The high hopes before the election are a sign to me of people wanting the issue resolved for them. No one wants to take time and maybe even a lot of people don’t have time to evaluate themselves and play their own small part in the matter. They want large scale, quick change, and primarily from someone else. Maybe some people thought drastic changes would be made by Obama himself, but one must realize that he is under the utmost scrutiny. If he does almost anything drastic, there is a good chance that he would be labeled in a lot of people’s minds as the black guy that did this. Take a look at this video that I found of Bill Maher’s real time with Salman Rushdie, Mos Def, and Christopher Hitchens. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqAOnUbvNn0 it’s basically the same idea.

[Reply]

SEALION says:

Wow, these statistics really do shock me. They show the opposite of what I’ve been told by the various types of media since the election of Barack Obama. Everyone has made it seem that things would change after the election. I am truly surprised the racial views have not changed at all. A few of the charts are do show positive results that would make me tend to believe there are some things changing. One graph seems to show that the white man is now disadvantaged when compared to other races. I would be very interested to see the trends in a few more years, even after Obama leaves office. The statistics about racism against blacks, are trending down which is good to see. The trend is moving quickly 2-6 percentage points in 16 months. I think that is admirable and maybe there is some change for better occurring. The graph about blacks having an equal chance as whites for jobs in their community is interesting to me. This shows that blacks still feel they are underappreciated/under qualified, while whites believe the black race is equal is at an all time high. Again, the trend is up, and as long as people act on these beliefs the growth can continue. Racism against whites is a hilarious chart. Positive gains show that there has almost been a role reversal in society as it pertains to race. All three groups polled agreed that racism against whites is widespread. I am wondering if this has anything to do with equal opportunity legislation and the idea of affirmative action. I feel it does. When people see a black person get hired over a white man, they assume it was affirmative action, never that he was more qualified. Companies operate this way, trying to meet internal diversity goals and to appear as an equal opportunity employer. Educational institutions do the exact same thing. Less qualified minorities gain admittance into universities over more qualified whites. Diversity is being embraced by force and the need to be politically correct. I still don’t know why race is brought into many discussions when qualifications should clearly be the determining factor. As a white man, I have felt this reverse discrimination and racism. I will not say I have faced the same or worse racism or discrimination as other races. But as a middle class white male, I definitely see my opportunities continue to dwindle as less qualified people begin to pass me. It draws an interesting line, upper class whites, don’t have this problem as they are embedded into society and capitalize on their connections. Then you have people of color, receiving special treatment due to the color of their skin. And in the middle, getting left out, is the middle class white population. It really does suck to be white right now.

[Reply]

Smoke Trees Everyday says:

I personally think that this data on the ‘Obama Effect’ is not at all good enough to start drawing conclusions from, and people are completely wasting their time trying to. Not that I don’t trust the people at Gallup (I actually think they do a great job), there is just virtually no data to even look at. These polls are taken (at best) once a year, and we are either just barely or less than a year with our new president. This means that any conclusions drawn from these polls are based on ONE data point, in a graph that is fluctuating up and down like every year. I also feel like some of the statistics pointed out may be shaky too. For example, Sam thought it was interesting that the numbers were the same as they were in the 1960’s like it’s defiantly a bad thing. But the question asked was “Do you think that relations between blacks and whites will always be a problem for the United States, or that a solution will eventually be worked out?” I view this question as a question regarding how optimistic the country is, and the 60’s were certainly an optimistic time if you are in favor of racial equality. Maybe today’s numbers are just a reflection of the fact that Obama was elected and only then did the electorate realize that just because you have a half black president, does not mean you have actually changed anything. I just means that you put someone with a new (and better in the context) perspective on the problem in a place to do something. By this I mean that people seemed very blindly optimistic that Obama’s election would change everything for the better, a very high expectation, and one that can not possibly happen. Even so, I also feel that numbers like these aren’t that good of an indicator of overall success in an area. Sociological shifts like this take time, and Obama has barely had enough time to move into the White House. For example, back in the late 30’s, after his New Deal, Franklin D. Roosevelt did not have amazing poll ratings, but the New Deal proved, in the long run, to be a great idea. It is an idea that to this day, is looked at very positively, even though it faced resistance in its day (It was labeled as being everything from fascist to communist, some things never change…). This response should not be read the wrong way, I am optimistic about the future of race relations. I just think that we should all slow down a little, and stop trying to see change at every chance we get, even when it is clearly not there yet.

[Reply]

Skinny Love says:

I think that this data is interesting and at the same time not necessarily shocking to me. Yes, having a black man as president of the United States does have strong implications for the black community. It means that attitudes about race relations have greatly changed for the majority of people in this nation. It means that an African American can rise to the same positions of power as a white person. It means that opportunities are growing people are making progress. So why don’t I wonder why African Americans aren’t more optimistic about race relations? Why am I not even a little bit angry about it? Why am I not shoving President Obama in their faces and screaming “Look! Change has happened! Be happy!”
It is because Obama is a figure far away from my daily life and me. His election was a monumental and historic event, but still singular. The skin color of him and his family in front of the backdrop of the white house which has always housed a white family is symbolic of the great strides forward in race relations but they are not a representation of what I see right in front of my own eyes, and hear with my own ears every single day. The fact that we have a black man in control of our entire nation and ugly, hateful, disgusting racism is STILL occurring every day, every second, in large numbers, has almost made me more pessimistic, and I can see why African Americans may feel the same.
It’s just like, what will it take to open people’s eyes? Race relations are improving as a whole in this country but people’s deep hatred on personal levels are still embedded. And with those kind of deep seeded attitudes, discrimination will just continue. I think a lot of white people turn to black people and think, “You finally have a black person as president. Slavery was over a hundred years ago. We’re obviously all equal. What are you complaining about?” But for America to say that our country has no more race issues because we have a black president is a little like white people denying their racism because “they know plenty of black people,” (or gay people or hispanics or whatever). Listening to a Jay-Z album after shouting racial slurs at the TV and generalizing all African Americans when Kanye West does something really stupid to a white girl, does not give you reconciliation for your actions.
Sam showed us the videos and statistics about blatant racism happening everywhere in our country, from job discrimination, to segregation in schools, to the hateful words popping up all over youtube and twitter. I cannot go a single day at Penn State without hearing someone say something derogatory about someone of a different race.
So Obama or no Obama, have we really made THAT much progress since the days of separate drinking fountains 46 years ago? Maybe not. Laws may have changed, but too many attitudes still haven’t.

[Reply]