The Tea Party's racial resentment

[Jefferson23]

By Joan Walsh



Monday, May 3, 2010

Reason's Cathy Young says backers don't hold racially tinged views, and when they do, they're politically justified



I've been getting a lot of attention from the conservative blogosphere in the last few weeks, and it's very flattering. I can't reply to it all, but I do want to take on the argument of my friend Cathy Young, the Reason magazine editor who used to write for Salon. Young took issue with my piece "The Tea Party's racial paranoia" in her last Real Clear Politics column, "Tea Partiers Racist? Not So Fast."

Examining data from a study of Tea Partiers' racial views conducted by University of Washington researchers, Young claims that in fact, the Tea Partiers' negative views of blacks aren't terribly different from the views of other whites. And where they are notably different -- especially around questions about whether black disadvantage is due to the legacy of slavery and discrimination, or blacks just not working as hard as other groups -- she writes that off to their conservatism, not racial bias. (The University of Washington professor who led the study, Christopher Parker, responds to Young here.)

She also mocks me for calling the Tea Partiers better off than other groups, based on a CBS News/New York Times poll finding that 12 percent of Tea Party members they polled made more than $250,000 a year. No big deal, Young claimed, since 11 percent of all Americans earn that much money. I wish I hung with Cathy Young; her friends must be doing very, very well: In fact, less than 2 percent of Americans earn more than $250,000 a year, according to Factcheck.org. The Tea Party movement is in part, as I said, yet another revolt of the haves against the have-nots.

On one point, Young is right. It's true that white Tea Party skeptics are more likely than white Tea Party supporters to say black people are trustworthy (57 percent to 41 percent), Young acknowledges. But then she compares the two groups' opinions of white trustworthiness, and finds that while only 49 percent of Tea Partiers say whites are trustworthy, 72 percent of Tea Party skeptics do. So when you compare white Tea Party skeptics' views of black and white trustworthiness, you find that more (72 percent) think whites are trustworthy than think blacks are (57 percent). Young's right, that is a little weird, and depressing. But it's also noteworthy that Tea Partiers don't seem to have a lot of trust in black or white people.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/joan_walsh/politics/2010/05/03/tea_party_racial_resentment/index.html

[Zoeisright]

1. How about the fact that teabaggers are stupid?

They can't tell you why they're against something; only that they have inarticulate rage. They can't spell worth a damn, and the things they're protesting (government spending) they're using (Social Security).

That's DUMB.

[Jefferson23]

2. LOL, that is not an exaggeration, "only that they have inarticulate rage"

In abundance!