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Search Tracking Purports To Show Effect of Racism On '08 Election
Hugh Pickens writes "Garance Franke-Ruta writes about a new study of racially charged search terms on Google that aims to predict the effects of the Bradley effect, a theory proposed to explain observed discrepancies between voter opinion polls and election outcomes in some U.S. elections where a white candidate and a non-white candidate run against each other. 'How much we are under-representing people who are intolerant and therefore unlikely to vote for Obama is an open question,' says Andrew Kohut, the president of Pew Research Center. 'I suspect not a great deal, but maybe some. And "maybe some" could be crucial in a tight election.' The study found that the percentage of an area's total Google searches from 2004-2007 that included the racially charged search for the word 'n****r' is a is a large and robust negative predictor of Obama's vote share. 'A one standard deviation increase in an area's racially charged search is associated with a 1.5 percentage point decrease in Obama's vote share, controlling for John Kerry's vote share,' writes Stephens-Davidowitz in the study. The results imply that, relative to the most racially tolerant areas in the United States, prejudice cost Obama between 3.1 percentage points and 5.0 percentage points (PDF) of the national popular vote in the 2008 election. This implies racial animus gave Obama's opponent roughly the equivalent of a home-state advantage, country-wide."
congratulations, you have just made the most predictable response of the day! now for extra credit: please expound on the inherent disadvantages and obstacles privileged white people must overcome.
When Obama won, a lot of people were saying it's so interesting and historic to have our first black president.
I responded that it is sort of interesting in the trivia sense, just like it was interesting that Truman was the first haberdasher president.
Look man, he had to wipe out those vampires no matter the cost.
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ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
Please let me say that you have a very appropriate sig.
No sooner do I get over one, then you put a better one right next to me. Bastards.