Sorry Democrats, your party has racial bias problems too (Part 2)

By Kent R. Kroeger (May 18, 2018)

[This is Part 2 of a two-part article on how racial/ethnic attitudes permeated the 2016 election. Part 1 detailed 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.]

Political pundits are not shy about calling Donald Trump and his supporters racist. From CNN’s Van Jones’ “white lash” scolding of Trump voters on election night to recent news articles on political science research showing ‘racial resentments’ were a strong driver of the 2016 presidential vote, it is likely race will also be a potent issue in the 2018 midterm elections.

A recent dialogue from a public forum hosted by The New Yorker magazine exemplifies this ‘Trump voters are racist” narrative:

“Are you suggesting the entire Trump vote was racist?” The New Yorker editor David Remnick asked poet and author Claudia Rankine during the public forum.

“I think…yes,” she replied. “When you have people that don’t know the Affordable Care Act and Obamacare are the same thing and think we should hold on to the Affordable Care Act but get rid of Obamacare, that’s about the association, the…