In cities around the country, if you want to understand the history of a neighborhood, you might want to do the same thing you'd do to measure human health: Check its temperature.
That's what a group of researchers did, and they found that neighborhoods with higher temperatures were often the same ones subjected to discriminatory, race-based housing practices nearly a century ago.
One possible explanation for the dramatic shift in racial attitudes in the last decade is that white Democrats who disagreed with the party's embrace of diversity have just abandoned the party altogether. But even though the makeup of the parties has fluctuated, that's not the only explanation; Researchers point to a genuine shift among the white liberals who have remained in the party.
In 2016, researchers stumbled on a radical tactic for reducing another person’s bigotry: a frank, brief conversation.
The study, authored by David Broockman at Stanford University and Joshua Kalla at the University of California Berkeley, looked at how simple conversations can help combat anti-transgender attitudes. In the research, people canvassed the homes of more than 500 voters in South Florida. The canvassers, who could be trans or not, asked the voters to simply put themselves in the shoes of trans people — to understand their problems — through a 10-minute, nonconfrontational conversation. The hope was that the brief discussion could lead people to reevaluate their biases.
I am always fascinated by political cartoons and propaganda materials, as they often shape for good and bad how we look at the world and the people around us. Hatred is a terrible thing but it seems so common in politics today that are driven by the widely varying culture across our country. But before you condemn an out group, you should try to look at the world through their perspective and understand their concerns.
And it got me thinking about what’s wrong with the dialogue around White Pride and identity politics today. There is nothing wrong with being a proud of your community and it’s accomplishments, but hatred of other communities is illegitimate and should be strongly discouraged and re-directed.
America is a nation of diversity. There are many different communities with different values. Some you may agree with, others you may not. You might look down at the practices of other communities, but you really shouldn’t. If their actions aren’t impacting your community, then you really shouldn’t have a say in it. But that is a value that doesn’t seem to get much coverage these days, in the era of cable news and social media.
There are many communities I don’t really know much about. I don’t live in a big city, I am not black, I am not an immigrant, nor do I work in manufacturing or construction. But I don’t look down on those people, nor do I have much thought or commentary about how they live in their community. I am concerned about my own community, my future, and my own life. People from all communities should be active and engaged, doing what is right for themselves, and marketing ideas best for their own communities — while keeping in mind that their own actions impact others.
I think extremism could be redirected by most emphasis on cultural diversity, while not saying one’s own culture is bad or oppressive. Celebrations of farmers, construction workers, businessman, belong in the same celebration of Italians, Black and Hispanics. Diversity is a strength, not a weakness, and just because a group is on the top of the heap now doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a legacy of organizing and fighting to the top of the pile. Just because your a Democrat doesn’t mean you can’t respect President Trump as a human being has done the most exceptional thing – won the presidency, the highest office in the nation, a feat only achieved by 45 people in our nation’s history.
Pollsters began to see a rapid, sustained change. White Democrats suddenly started expressing dramatically higher levels of concern about racial inequality and discrimination, while showing greater enthusiasm for racial diversity and immigration. (While political disputes around race are often found under the same umbrella as gender and sexual orientation, where attitudes are also shifting, the relatively recent, relatively sudden change that constitutes the Great Awokening is fundamentally about race and its relationship to national identity.)
There’s also a certain paradox to the Awokening. As white liberals became more vocal about racial inequality, more racially conservative Democrats left the party and helped power Donald Trump’s electoral victory. This backlash gives the impression that there’s a surging tide of white racism in America.
But just as slavery was not new during the pre-Civil War period, there’s absolutely nothing new about white racism as a force in American politics. Desmond-Harris wrote in 2016 that Trump was “refreshing” not just “to people who share his views” but “to people who have always known that views like this exist.”
Trump has made white racial resentment more visible than it was before, but at the same time, white liberals have become much more attuned to racism — seeing more of it not necessarily because the world has changed but because their own attitudes toward longstanding features of it have changed.