Now I'm Not Racist, But...

If you ever hear yourself say the title of this post, or catch yourself writing it, say on facebook, then STOP!!! immediately, and rethink what you're about to say and/or write, and maybe large pieces of your worldview.  Saw a post on facebook, no details because I don't know the guy, but also because I fought and fought and fought against writing this in his feed and then couldn't find the post again anyway.

Essentially though, the guy posted two screenshots from CNN, I think, showing that Romney had won about 60% of the white vote and Obama won about 95% of the black vote and determined from this that Obama won the election because of racism.  I don't even know where to start with this, frankly.  I'm inclined to write this off as the uninformed opinion of an uninformed person; but the sheer level of ignorance involved here is, frankly, appalling.

First of all, historically since 1968 (post Civil Rights Act/Voting Rights Act) and also around the time exit-polling started) only a couple of Democratic presidential candidates have dipped below 85% of the African-american vote.  It's not at all unusual for the Democrat to have over 90% of African-americans support them.  Someone in that feed claimed Clinton received 83% of black votes.  The only chart i could find http://kingpolitics.blogspot.com/2010/06/chart-black-vote-in-1968-1972-1976-1980.html

put Clinton's share of the African-american vote at 91% in in 1992 and 93% in 1996.  But then there's also this:

The United States Census reported that 58 % of African Americans were voting in the presidential election of 1964. African Americans were voting Democratic 82% of the time. This number would swell to 92 % by 1968. With the exception of the 1972, 1984, and the 1992 elections Blacks would continue to give at least 80% of their collective votes to the Democratic presidential candidate says Minion K.C. Morris in African Americans and Political Participation.

http://suite101.com/article/african-american-voting-patterns-a63891

So, who has the right number?  I don't know.  In fact, how sure are we that Obama got 95%?  He definitely got 90% plus, but that isn't really unusual.  Even 95% wouldn't really be out of line with what we've seen since a Democratic president and a Democratic congress (with it's true, Republican support needed to counter-balance the southern votes) finally made sure that all citizens of this country could exercise their right to vote.  No matter where they lived or what color their skin was.  The bottom line is, to say that 95% of blacks voting for Obama purely out of racial feeling, is very, very close to saying that African-americans are too dumb to know what's good for them.

Whereas the truth is that blacks simply have better memories than Republicans would like.  They remember Reagan's stories about black welfare queens driving cadillacs and Jesse Helms' racist campaign ads, not to mention George Bush the Elder's Willie Horton ad.  They saw all the same old southern Democratic racist office holders like Strom Thurmond switch parties and become Republicans without missing a beat.  They know who defends affirmative action and who would eliminate it.  They remember David Duke.  They remember Trent Lott wishing Strom Thurmond had won his campaign for the presidency, saying we wouldn't have had all these problems if he had won.  They haven't forgotten Trayvon Martin.  They saw what happened this year and over the last couple years as Republican governors and legislatures enacted laws designed to keep minorities away from the polls.  Eliminating or reducing early voting, especially on weekends and Sundays, when black churches hire buses to go to the polls.  Requiring state id cards that a lot of minorities or even simply poorer people just don't have.  They heard Pennsylvania House Republican Leader Mike Turzai say that the Voter ID law would let Mitt Romney win in Pennsylvania.  They know who the 47% is.

Republicans don't get the fact that their actions matter more than their words.  You can't spend years working to kick latinos out of the country and expect to get their votes.  You can't use black people as a boogie man to scare white voters and try to disenfranchise the poor and the brown and expect them to turn around and vote for you.  Not even if you trot out every minority that's ever been in your party every 4 years at your conventions.  It's not racism for 95% of blacks to vote for Obama, it just means that 95% of blacks are smart.  As opposed to only about 39% of whites...