The sky is blue, water is wet, and most white people would rather not engage in conversations about race that would address reality and subsequently make them uncomfortable.
I’m not alerting you to anything close to a new concept here, but the latest Pew Poll about reactions to the George Zimmerman case is nonetheless still intriguing: The majority of Whites found that the verdict was just, though 52% of Whites say race is getting more attention in this case than it deserves.
Of course they do.
More from the report:
African Americans express a clear and strong reaction to the case and its meaning: By an 86% to 5% margin, blacks are dissatisfied with Zimmerman’s acquittal in the death of Trayvon Martin. And nearly eight-in-ten blacks(78%) say the case raises important issues about race that need to be discussed. Among whites, more are satisfied (49%) than dissatisfied (30%) with the outcome of the Zimmerman trial. Just 28% of whites say the case raises important issues about race, while twice as many (60%) say the issue of race is getting more attention than it deserves.
A paltry twenty-eight percent understanding that this case raises lingering issues related to race and systematic racism. That’s why President Obama‘s remarks about Trayvon Martin and the plight of black men who are victims of racial profiling were so important. Even if the timetable and ferocity of statements were not to Tavis Smiley’s liking, they mattered and need to continue. We need real dialogue about race and racism, and hopefully more high profile Blacks with large platforms will continue to speak out.
If you haven’t noticed, in light of the Zimmerman verdict and Obama’s remarks, crotchety old white men like Bill O’Reilly are doing their part to play to the fears of other old, paranoid, and racist white men while ironically bashing “race hustlers” living on the Black hand side of life.
Asked if they agree with the statement, “America is a nation where people are not judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character,” respondents in the latest NBC/WSJ poll offered widely varying responses.
A majority, 54 percent, of all adults said that they agree with this statement, while 45 said they did not. Among whites, 59 percent agreed with that statement to some degree while just 40 percent disagreed. 54 percent of Hispanics also agreed with this statement, while 44 percent did onto Among blacks, however, only 19 percent agreed with that statement. 79 percent of African-Americans disagreed with the statement that America society is colorblind.
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