Since Barack Obama’s inauguration, his devoted defenders have invoked racism as the basis for the bitter opposition to his leadership.
Recent developments, however, make a better case that much of the remaining support for the administration’s faltering leadership actually stems from racial factors.
Even before the release of devastating unemployment numbers for June, leading polls showed big majorities convinced that America is headed in the wrong direction. A Zogby Interactive Poll (July 1-5) indicated that only 23 percent of likely voters believe we’re going the right way, while Rasmussen (June 26-July 2) pegged that number as a mere 26 percent. The two surveys reported nearly identical numbers (67 percent and 68 percent, respectively) who say America is moving the wrong way.
Only one significant segment of the population expresses optimism about the nation’s current course and feels undiminished confidence in the president’s leadership: Rasmussen reported a startling 58 percent of black voters who think America is moving in the right direction. This compares with 24 precent of Hispanics and just 20 percent of whites who agree that the republic’s on the proper course.
In the language of public opinion surveys, this means that African-Americans represent an “outlier”—far removed from the national mainstream when it comes to their judgment on the state of the nation and the president’s leadership.
Does this rosy view reflect the reality of measurably improved circumstances for the black community since Barack Obama moved into the White House?
Clearly, the African-American conviction that the United States has been progressing down the road toward prosperity and justice owes more to personal admiration for Obama and pride in his achievement as the first non-white president, than to any real-world experience of improved conditions.
Far from faring better than the rest of the country, the black community actually fared much worse.
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