Trump voters are very complex. They are conservatives who believe big government is getting out of hand. They want lower taxes for the middle class. They believe in comprehensive immigration reform. They want an economic policy that reflects the average ...
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Nah, Iโm just bullshitting. They just donโt like black people.
According to Vox, they could be triggered by a photograph of a black person. Although I donโt like the word โsnowflake,โ when a Trump voter sees a black person, they could change all their political values. Now, Iโm not saying they are racist, but ...
OK, Iโm saying they are racist.
More specifically, a new study (pdf) by political scientists at Colgate and the University of Minnesota proves they have racist tendencies. Thatโs not just a popular opinion; it is a statistical fact.
When researchers simply asked subjects how they felt about a not-so-complex housing-assistance issue, they were split on their support. But there was a subtle twist to the study: When the information about the issue was accompanied by a picture of a white person, Trump voters were much more likely to support it than when they were cued by an image of a black person. It revealed something we knew all along:
Trump voters arenโt conservatives. They arenโt necessarily Republicans. Theyโre just racists.
The study revealed that when Trump voters were exposed to the โblack cue,โ it not only made them less supportive of the issue. It made them angry. Yes, a picture of a black manโnot an actual black man, but a picture of a black manโmade them mad.
Matthew Luttig, Christopher Frederico and Howard Lavine, the authors of the study, entitled โSupporters and Opponents of Donald Trump Respond Differently to Racial Cues: An Experimental Analysis,โ wrote:
We find that white Trump supporters randomly exposed to a black (versus a white) man in the context of soliciting their support for a housing-assistance policy were more opposed to the policy, angrier about the policy, and more likely to blame beneficiaries for their situation.
The study controlled for socioeconomic status and education and found no statistical difference between white and black Hillary Clinton supporters when they were exposed to racial cues. The study did not include data about black Trump supporters because Omarosa and Ben Carson were kinda busy.
Even though there are some who say, โJust because they voted for Trump and hate seeing black people doesnโt mean theyโre racistโ (did I mention that it was a picture? A picture, son!), numerous polls and studies have shown this before. Thereโs the 2016 poll showing that when white people were told that Americaโs white population would soon be eclipsed by nonwhites, they became more likely to support Donald Trump.
Then there was the study that linked whitesโ perception of our need to get โtough on crimeโ to racial resentment. And that other research that linked the governmentโs need to fix structural inequality to racial resentment. Donโt forget the Pew Research Centerโs data showing that most Republicans oppose Black Lives Matter.
So when you see someone driving on the freeway on-ramp with a โMake America Great Againโ bumper sticker on their car, feel free not to let them merge into traffic, because they might be triggered by a picture of you (waitโlet me make sure I included the part about a picture ... OK, I did).
Read more at Vox.
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