Sorry Democrats, your party has racial bias problems too (Part 1)

By Kent R. Kroeger (May 16, 2018)

[This is Part 1 of a two-part article on how racial/ethnic attitudes permeated the 2016 election. Part 1 details the issues and complexities of efforts to understand racial attitudes and how they impact the political arena. Part 2 details my own research on this topic with respect to the 2016 presidential election.]

‘Racism’ is an ugly word. And to call someone a ‘racist’ is too often a predatory act meant to silence someone’s voice rather than to bring enlightenment to a debate.

The terms ‘racism’ and ‘racist’ remain a significant subject of inquiry in the social science community, in part, because these words invoke strong feelings within people even as their definitions are still contested.

What does it mean to be a ‘racist’?

The Merriam-Webster dictionary’s definitions of ‘racism’ are the following:

Merriam-Webster is smart to cover as many bases as possible with its definitions of ‘racism’ as the sociological utility of the term is not settled science. During my 30 years of measuring public opinion, I…